A figure of speech combining two phrases?

Question

I have read somewhere that it is typical of poems such as Nibelungenlied to use a figure of speech which in fact merges two phrases into one by the mean of a common word. An example could be the following: *And then I ate the apple was red as blood* A proper example of this can be found in Nibelungenlied (Adventure 20, 1184, 1-2), where we have >man sach >Ortwin von Mezze | ce Rvedgeren sprach which means >one saw >Ortwin von Metz | to Rüdiger said So, is there a name for this figure of speech? Is it a typical figure of other *archaic* poems such as Beowulf or am I confusing?

Answer 1

Nibelungenlied is a poem from around 1200 written in Middle High German, so I believe "kenning" is the term for the archaic combinations of phrases in literature like this and Beowulf. Here's some reference text:

"kennings – compound expressions in Old English and Old Norse poetry with metaphorical meanings... Kennings are a traditional Norse poetic form where a group of words takes the place of the noun. They are normally used for repetition, imagery, and oral poetic diction. [In "The Prose Edda"] Snorri [an early norse scholar of poetry and prose] extracts the traditional kennings from their verses and weaves them into his own structured poetry, while prescriptively categorizing kennings by three usages. Snorri explains, “There are simple kennings, second double, third extended. It is a kenning to call battle ‘spear-clash’, it is a double kenning to call a sword ‘fire of the spear-clash’” (168). His verse makes use of kennings such as, “The splendid hater of the fire of the sea”, meaning: ‘a generous king’, or one who hates gold, so gives it away. In effect, the verse makes use of multiple simple and double kennings to create a single extended kenning that means: a good king keeps and defends his land (Brown 113). 

Example Text Reference:

The splendid hater of the fire of the sea himself of gold, defends the beloved of the enemy of the wolf: ship’s prows are set before the steep brows of Mim’s friend’s wife. The noble mighty-ruler knows how to hold the serpent’s attacker’s mother. You who torments necklaces, enjoy the troll-wife’s enemy’s mother until old age. (168)

Source: https://kebuokc.org/2014/11/20/prescription-and-description-in-snorri-sturlusons-prose-edda/

Hope this helps!