• 61 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Kenning Writing Prompts

Things to rename in two words, each with a model beside it to copy the shape of.

Kenning Writing Prompts

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  1. Make a kenning for a glue stick.Model: bond of frost, an Old English kenning for ice. Glue is a bond as well. A bond of what?
  2. Write a kenning for a ruler.Model: whale-road, an Old English kenning for the sea. A ruler is a short straight road. Whose?
  3. Write a kenning for a horse that says what it carries and where.Model: wave's horse, an Old Norse kenning for a ship. Turn it around: what kind of ship is a horse?

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All 61 prompts

Animals 12

  • Make a kenning for a duck on a pond. Model: wave-swine, a Norse kenning for a ship. Borrow the shape: a pond-something, a reed-something.
  • Make a kenning for a snake without using the words long or slither. Model: valley-trout, a Norse kenning for a serpent. A fish that is no fish, in a place with no water.
  • Make a kenning for a spider out of what it builds. Model: skyscraper has a kenning's two parts: sky, what it touches, and scraper, what it does.
  • Make a kenning for a whale. Model: whale-road, an Old English kenning for the sea. If the sea is its road, the whale is the road's what?
  • Make a kenning for a woodpecker. Model: breaker of trees, a Norse kenning for the wind. A woodpecker breaks something smaller.
  • Rename a cat as a kenning, then write three more kennings for the same cat at different hours of the day. Model: chamber-tiger, a German kenning for a cat. What does yours hunt, and in which room?
  • Rename a dog with the kenning a cat would use for it. Model: chamber-tiger makes a house cat a wild one in German. Which wild animal lives in your dog?
  • Rename a snail as a kenning. Model: body-raiment, an Old Saxon kenning for the body: the thing a person wears. What does a snail wear?
  • Write a kenning for a bird that names the place it travels through. Model: swan-road, an Old English kenning for the sea. What is the road of an owl, a gull, a pigeon?
  • Write a kenning for a goldfish in a bowl. Model: bath-way, an Old English kenning for the sea. Shrink it: what is the sea of one small fish?
  • Write a kenning for a horse that says what it carries and where. Model: wave's horse, an Old Norse kenning for a ship. Turn it around: what kind of ship is a horse?
  • Write two kennings for a bee: one for its work and one for its sound. Model: voice-bearer, an Old English kenning for a person. What does a bee bear?

Weather and sky 12

  • Make a kenning for lightning. Model: sun of the houses, an Old Norse kenning for fire. Whose fire is lightning, and whose house is lit?
  • Make a kenning for rain. Model: squall-vat makes the sky a tub in Old Norse. Name what is poured out of it.
  • Make a kenning for snow lying on a roof. Model: winter-raiment, an Old English kenning for snow: what the winter wears. What is the roof wearing?
  • Make a kenning for the moon. Model: heaven's gem, an Old English kenning for the sun. If the sun is a gem, what is the moon?
  • Make two kennings for the sea: one for a calm day and one for a rough one. Model: sail-road and whale-way, Old English kennings for the sea. Whose road is it today?
  • Rename a campfire as a kenning. Model: bane of wood, an Old Norse kenning for fire: the thing that ends the logs.
  • Rename the sun as a kenning of your own. Model: sky-candle, an Old English kenning for the sun. What else gives light in a house?
  • Rename the wind as a kenning for something gentle that it does. Model: breaker of trees, a Norse kenning for the wind. Yours might only move a curtain.
  • Write a kenning for fog on the street in the morning. Model: winter-raiment dresses a season in snow in Old English. What does a foggy morning pull on?
  • Write a kenning for the ice on a puddle. Model: bond of frost, an Old English kenning for ice: the thing the cold ties shut.
  • Write a kenning for the sky on the day of a storm. Model: squall-vat, an Old Norse kenning for the sky: a tub that holds the weather.
  • Write a kenning for the stars. Model: sky-candle is one light, the sun, in Old English. What are a thousand small ones?

People and their work 12

  • Make a kenning for a baker. Model: sun of the houses, an Old Norse kenning for fire. A baker works beside one. Oven-what? Dawn-what?
  • Make a kenning for a goalkeeper. Model: hawk-mountain, an Old Norse kenning for an arm, where a falconer's bird perches. What lands in a keeper's arms?
  • Make a kenning for a mail carrier. Model: whale-road names the sea by its traveler in Old English. Name this traveler by the road: porch-what?
  • Make a kenning for the captain of a ferry. Model: wave's horse, an Old Norse kenning for a ship. Then the captain is the wave-horse's what?
  • Make three kennings for yourself out of the things you do most. Model: voice-bearer is any person in Old English. Narrow it to one: what do you bear, break, chase or keep?
  • Rename a cyclist as a kenning. Model: wire-donkey, a German kenning for a bicycle. Then the rider is the donkey's what?
  • Rename a firefighter as a kenning. Model: bane of wood, an Old Norse kenning for fire. A firefighter is the bane of that bane, in two words.
  • Rename a teacher as a kenning. Model: voice-bearer, an Old English kenning for a person. What does a teacher bear, carry or hand out?
  • Write a kenning for a bus driver. Model: sea-steed, an Old Norse kenning for a ship. What kind of steed is a bus, and who steers it?
  • Write a kenning for a gardener. Model: winter-raiment, an Old English kenning for snow. What does a gardener dress the ground in?
  • Write a kenning for a librarian. Model: enemy of gold, Old Norse praise for a leader who gave gold away. What does a librarian give away?
  • Write a kenning for a lighthouse keeper. Model: sky-candle, an Old English kenning for the sun. Whose candle does a lighthouse keeper mind?

Things in a schoolbag 12

  • Make a kenning for a glue stick. Model: bond of frost, an Old English kenning for ice. Glue is a bond as well. A bond of what?
  • Make a kenning for a pair of scissors. Model: breaker of trees, a Norse kenning for the wind. Scissors break something much thinner.
  • Make a kenning for a water bottle. Model: squall-vat, an Old Norse kenning for the sky: a vat of weather. A bottle is a vat of what?
  • Make a kenning for an eraser. Model: bane of wood, an Old Norse kenning for fire. An eraser is the bane of what?
  • Rename a highlighter as a kenning. Model: sky-candle, an Old English kenning for the sun. A highlighter is a candle for what?
  • Rename a library book as a kenning. Model: voice-bearer, an Old English kenning for a person. A book bears voices too. Whose?
  • Rename a lunchbox as a kenning. Model: body-raiment, an Old Saxon kenning for the body. What does a sandwich wear to school?
  • Rename a pencil as a kenning. Model: skyscraper is built like a kenning: sky is what it touches, scraper is what it does. Paper-what?
  • Write a kenning for a calculator. Model: chamber-tiger, a German kenning for a cat: a big thing made small. What has a calculator shrunk?
  • Write a kenning for a ruler. Model: whale-road, an Old English kenning for the sea. A ruler is a short straight road. Whose?
  • Write a kenning for the house key at the bottom of the bag. Model: heaven's gem, an Old English kenning for the sun. What is the gem of the bottom of a bag?
  • Write a kenning for your backpack. Model: wave's horse, an Old Norse kenning for a ship. What does your bag carry, and what beast is it?

A riddle in kennings 13

  • Write a riddle in kennings for an animal: one kenning for where it lives, one for what it eats, one for its sound, two more of your choice. Model: valley-trout, a Norse kenning for a serpent, says where it lives and what it looks like.
  • Write a riddle in kennings for someone in your family: five kennings, each for one thing they do before breakfast. Model: voice-bearer, an Old English kenning for a person, names us by one thing we all do.
  • Write a riddle in kennings for your school: five kennings and no room numbers. Model: skyscraper names a building by what it does to the sky. What does a school do, and to what?
  • Write a riddle of five kennings for a boat, using none of the old ones. Model: wave's horse, sea-steed and wave-swine are all Norse kennings for a ship.
  • Write a riddle of five kennings for a sport, without naming the ball, the net or the field. Model: hawk-mountain, an Old Norse kenning for an arm. Name a part of the body by what lands on it.
  • Write a riddle of five kennings for one room of your home. Model: sun of the houses, an Old Norse kenning for fire, puts the fire at the middle of a home.
  • Write a riddle of five kennings for one season. Put the hardest kenning first and the easiest last. Model: Old English verse calls the sea whale-road, swan-road, sail-road, bath-way and whale-way.
  • Write a riddle of five kennings for something in the kitchen, and never say its name. Model: Old Norse calls fire bane of wood and also sun of the houses. Two kennings, one answer.
  • Write a riddle of five kennings for something in the sky, and try it on someone at home. Model: sky-candle and heaven's gem are both the sun in Old English.
  • Write a riddle of five kennings for something with wheels. Model: wire-donkey and fire-chair, German kennings for a bicycle and a motorcycle.
  • Write a riddle of five kennings for the thing in your pocket, then swap with a partner and guess. Model: bond of frost, an Old English kenning for ice, gives away the cold but not the puddle.
  • Write a riddle of five kennings for yourself, to be read aloud so the class can guess who wrote it. Model: enemy of gold was Old Norse praise for a generous leader. A kenning can be kind.
  • Write a riddle of five kennings that all end in the same word, such as road, candle or house. Model: whale-road, swan-road, sail-road. Old English kept the road and changed the traveler.

How it works

Each writing prompt here asks for kennings: compound names that stand in for a plain noun, as whale-road stands in for the sea. Under each is a model to copy, most from Old English or Old Norse.

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How a kenning is built

A kenning has two parts, a base-word and a determinant. In whale's road, an Old English name for the sea, road is the base-word and whale's is the determinant. Skyscraper is put together the same way. Old English kennings all have just two elements, which makes them the easiest kind to imitate.

A riddle in kennings

Thirteen prompts ask for five kennings for one thing, with its name left out: something in the kitchen, something with wheels, a room, yourself. Old English poems had at least five for the sea: whale-road, swan-road, sail-road, bath-way and whale-way.

  • Ask two questions of the thing: what does it do, and what is it a little like? Join the answers.
  • Leave the plain word out. A kenning works when a reader can guess it.

Questions and answers

What is a kenning?

A figure of speech: a compound term used in place of a simple one-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and Old English verse, where the sea is the whale-road and the sun is the sky-candle.

What are some examples of kennings?

From Old English: heaven's gem for the sun, bond of frost for ice, winter-raiment for snow. From Old Norse: wave's horse and sea-steed for a ship, bane of wood for fire. German calls a bicycle a wire-donkey.

Where does the word kenning come from?

From Old Norse. The related verb, to ken, survives in Scots, where it means to know, and in the English expression beyond one's ken.

What is a good writing prompt for kennings?

A plain, familiar thing and one model. Rename a pencil with skyscraper as the pattern: what it touches, then what it does. Or make a kenning for a snake beside the Norse valley-trout.

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