How does the old norse kenning 'nausta blakks hlé-mána gífrs drífu gim-slöngvir' break down into 'warrior' The 11th century icelandic skald Þórðr Sjáreksson wrote this kenning, quoted from wikipedia: > nausta blakks hlé-mána gífrs drífu gim-slöngvir "fire-brandisher of blizzard of ogress of protection-moon of steed of boat-shed" — from the Hafgerðingadrápa, by Þórður Sjáreksson (this is the longest kenning found in skaldic poetry; it simply means "warrior"[citation needed]) I've read around and can see how shorter kenning work (i.e. the ones on this list seem immediately obvious, such as 'bane of wood' kenning 'fire'). But I'm struggling to parse one quoted above, particularly the order in which the words apply because it has so many layers. As in, is it the 'fire-brandisher of blizzard' that is 'of ogress' or is the 'fire-brandisher' of the 'blizzard of ogress'? How do I break this down to help understand the wordplay?

> It unpacks as follows:
>
> _nausta blakks_ ‘steed of boathouses’ = ship
> _hlémána_ ‘protecting moon’ of the ship = shield
> _gífr_ ‘terror’ of the shield = sword
> _drífa_ ‘storm’ of the sword = battle
> _gim_ ‘fire’ of battle = sword
> _slöngvir_ ‘slinger’ of the sword = warrior
>
> Thomas Andrew DuBois (2008). _Sanctity in the North: Saints, Lives, and Cults in Medieval Scandinavia_ , p. 127. University of Toronto Press.

_gífr_ seems to mean literally “witch, hag” ( _A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic_ , p. 165), hence “ogress” in Wikipedia, whereas DuBois takes it in the more abstract sense of “terror”, but clearly the kenning works much the same either way.