¿Por qué "Heofones gim"?



El subtítulo de este blog es un conocido kenning anglosajón, con cuyo significado se intenta aquí resaltar esa dimensión inefable, transcendental... sublime, para utilizar un término de la estética kantiana de la literatura. Esa es la connotación con que se utiliza en esta metáfora el término del antiguo inglés “heofona” (cielo). La literatura, por ese poder que atesora de despertar y potenciar las más altas emociones, es una joya preciada, una ‘gema del cielo’. Algunas de las definiciones de kenning son:

‘[a] poetic compound, a traditional form of concentrated metaphor.’ (E.B. Irving Jr.)

‘… a condensed metaphor or simile, for example, “hron-rad” (whale road) for the sea, “sund-wudu” (sea wood) for a ship, “isern-scur” (iron shower) for a flight of arrows, “hildegicelum” (battle icicle) for a sword, and “hædstapa” (heath stepper) for a deer. Other noun epithets verge on the kenning, but many are literal descriptions. All of them share the characteristics of being compounds, and they most frequently occupy an entire half line of verse. They form by far the greater part of the “building-block”  material of Old English poetry.’ (J.D.A. Ogilvy y D.C. Baker)

‘… a two-member (or two-term) circumlocution for an ordinary noun: such a circumlocution might take the form of a compound, like hronrãd “sea” (literally “riding-place of the whale”), or of a phrase, like fugles wynn “feather” (literally “bird’s joy”).’ (Kemp Malone)

Obras Citadas:

Irving Jr., Edward B. Introduction to Beowulf. Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey): Prentice-Hall Inc., 1969. (ISBN: none -- LC number is 77-79447.)

Ogilvy, J.D.A., and Donald C. Baker. Reading Beowulf: An Introduction to the Poem, Its Background, and Its Style. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983. (ISBN: 0-8061-2019-3.)