A kenning is a circumlocution used instead of an ordinary noun in Old Norse and later Icelandic poetry. For example, Old Norse poets might replace sverð, the regular word for “sword”, with a compound such as ben-grefill “wound-hoe”or a genitive phrase such as randa íss “ice of shields”. The term kenning has been applied by modern scholars to similar figures of speech in other languages too, especially Old English.