whale's way

English

Etymology

Calque of Old English hranrād, from hran (“whale”) + rād (“road, way”).

Noun

the whale's way

  1. (kenning, literary) The ocean.
    Synonyms: whale-road, whale's road
    • 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 28:
      Beowulf answered the queen, “I wished that when I had let float my sea-wood on the whale's way, when I set sail with my war-band, to answer with my life the challenge of Grendel.”
    • 2002, Juliet Marillier, Wolfskin, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 9:
      A long season we spent on the whale's way, with the wind biting through our tunics[.]
    • 2013, M.J. Burr, End of Honour‎[1], eBook Partnership, page 28:
      While their great canoes, carrying many cannon, span the whale's way, their warriors bestride our land and their settlers plant behind them.
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