FUNCTIONS OF SCALDIC KENNING IN “YOUNGER EDDA”

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the functions of skaldic kenning in the “Younger Edda”. “Younger Edda” is a textbook of the 13th century skaldic art, compiled by the Icelandic skald Snorri Sturluson and translated into Russian by the Soviet linguist Olga Smirnitskaya in 1963. The author of the textbook describes in detail and illustrates the poetic language of skalds. Kenning is considered to be the main stylistic means of poetic language. The nature of kenning is heterogeneous and ethnically colored, combining two or more concepts. The etymology of kenning remains open. There is a logical connection with the title of the above textbook, the name of the village of Oddi, where the author was brought up, and a semantic connection with “poetics”, “poetry” or “grandmother”, “great-grandmother”. A metaphor is also added here. Skaldic kenning is derived from eddic kenning and means “poetic notation”, “name substitution”, “two- or multi-syllable noun substitute”, “trope”, “descriptive poetic inversion”, “a kind of metaphor”, “poetic technique”, “an integral part of Icelandic poetry of the thirteenth century”. There are three main types of models of skaldic kennings: 1) one-, 2) two- and 3) multicomponent, their semantics are defined, covering collectivity, sanctity, number, occupation (one-component models), generalization and plurality/ singularity, intimate relations blood relationship (two-component models), intensity of independent movement in the air, taboo of one of the participants of nonverbal communication (multicomponent models), different options are distinguished, namely: otkennings, sankennings and kennings for obscuring the meaning. It is proved that the choice of a certain skaldic kenning depends on the creative imagination of the poet and the pragmatics of poetry. The functions of the analyzed kennings are diverse: from semiotic, nominative, constructional, communicative, aesthetic, informative, voluptuous (influence) to characterological, text-forming, ideological, pictorial, transformational, axiological, functions of categorization, increment of meaning, overlapping and obscuring the interpretation of the image.