Oh My Gosh: You Killed Kenning!

Because Steph asked, here is a rough description and example of kenning as used in Old English poetry that I gave in a poetry forum last year:

"A kenning is basically a two-word riddle:

"And then the word-wights ___ riding in ring-necks
Took the swan's road ___ a stormy sea
Said "Riddling songs ___ shall be our meat"
Said "Metre, rhyme, ___ and rhythm: word-toys
Of weak-willed workers ___ wrist-limp songsters,
Slaughtered they ___ on our sharp-sword tongues.
We'll toss their entrails ___ their word-lines, winding,
Rich food for red-beaks ___ ravens' banquet
Bloody bones ___ from fragile verse

"Or:

"And then the poets ('word-wight' = word-being = poet), riding in ships with curving prows, went to sea ('Swan's road' and 'ringnecks' are classics). They said, "We prefer songs with riddles in them. Poets who use rhyme and fussy rhythms are limp-wristed Nancy-boys and we'll kill them and throw the guts and bones of their inferior poetry to the birds (er, 'red-beaked' because they've been eating fresh, bloody meat).

"I'm sorry, I can never write in the Anglo-Saxon style without getting both incredibly gory and very boastful. It's just what the form likes, okay? The kennings I made up weren't exactly the best of the type. For a really great example of it in modern dialect, see if you can track down 'Grendel's Dog'."

(It's wonderful having a wicked twin to goad me into things, it truly is.)