[hprotagonist]

kennings, as this game is called in anglo-saxon, aren’t filler per se. Though they are also a memory aide (for the poet and the audience), they are primarily part of the way the skill of a scop (bard/epic poet) was judged was by how cleverly he could choose the right kenning for the mood and meter of where in the poem he was.

A saxon kenning for poet is “story-weaver”, and that’s actually very apt.

[pjc50]

Yes, it reminds me of the "memory palace" trick that's taught for remembering e.g. numbers by associating them with a series of images. And similar tricks with "themes", audible or visual, are still used for particular characters in some modern media.

[hprotagonist]

yes. and for long works like Beowulf that were told episodically, the repetition of events serves the same purpose as the 90-second “last time on dragon ball Z...” recaps of fight hilights.

[hnaa]

That's interesting, where can I read more about this?

[hprotagonist]

There's probably a lot of literature out there. I like the scholarly essays that accompany Chickering's translation of Beowulf -- maybe start there and follow the reference trail if you get sucked in.

ISBN-13: 978-1400096220