| They composed and recited poems in a fairly simple verse form which relied heavily on alliteration and also the use of kennings. |
| Obviously, in poetry where this was one of the most important mechanisms, the kennings for very common nouns are various and inventive. |
| Your heart sang with his gleecraft, words wondrously wrought, kennings keen with knowing. |
| Many kennings are allusions that become unintelligible to later generations. |
| These kennings add much imaginative suggestiveness to the otherwise over-terse style, and often contribute to the grim irony which is another outstanding trait. |
| Yet, to explain kennings, reducing them to single words, is to explain them away. |
