Ever since I published a post on Old English kennings three and a half years ago, I planned to write a follow-up post on kennings in Tolkien’s writings. J.R.R. Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University and his fiction exhibits his interest in and great knowledge of Anglo-Saxon history and literature.

To make this topic manageable I’m going to highlight one aspect of Anglo-Saxon literature that is found in The Hobbit. Kennings, as I explained in my earlier post, are metaphoric terms used in place of nouns. They are common in Old Norse, Icelandic, and Old English (Anglo-Saxon) poetry, and usually use either a hyphen (e.g. “ring-giver” as a term for king) or a possessive (e.g. “swan’s road” as a term for sea).

A host of kennings appear in this entertaining conversation between the dragon Smaug and the hobbit Bilbo:

“Who are you and where do you come from, may I ask?” [said Smaug]

“You may indeed! I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my path led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen.”

“So I can well believe,” said Smaug, “but that is hardly your usual name.”

“I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number.”

“Lovely titles!” sneered the dragon. “But lucky numbers don’t always come off.”

“I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them again from the water. I came from the end of bag, but no bag went over me.”

“Those don’t sound so creditable,” scoffed Smaug.

“I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ring-winner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider,” went on Bilbo, beginning to be pleased with his riddling.

“That’s better!” said Smaug. “But don’t let your imagination run away with you!”

Did you catch the kennings? I counted eight: clue-finder, web-cutter, stinging fly, friend of bears, guest of eagles, Ring-winner, Luckwearer, and Barrel-rider. You’ll have noticed that these titles are mixed up with riddles, which are also found in Old English texts, particularly Exeter Book from the tenth century.

All these kennings and riddles that Bilbo uses refer back to incidents over the course of his journey from the Shire, making this conversation particularly fun to read if you have just read the book (as I did to my children last month). 

Of course, the influence of Anglo-Saxon culture in The Hobbit is much more pervasive than that single conversation. Thijs Porck, a cultural historian of early medieval England who teaches at Leiden University in the Netherlands, concludes his article “The Bones in the Soup: the Anglo-Saxon Flavor of Tolkien’s The Hobbit“ with these words:

“Reading The Hobbit from an Anglo-Saxonist perspective reveals how Tolkien was inspired by the cartographic conventions, runic inscriptions, techniques, words and literature created by the Anglo-Saxons… Hopefully the popularity of the fantasy genre, fundamentally inspired as it is by Tolkien, will ensure that the Old English language and literature remains and never loses its appeal among students.”

If you are interested in reading more on this topic, Porck’s article is a great place to start. You should also check out his blog, where he shares all sorts of images and insights about early medieval England. (You could also go back to my post “Why Study Old English?”, the second blog post I ever published!)