— Snorri Sturluson[5] nausta blakks hlé-mána gífrs drífu gim-slöngvir "fire-brandisher of blizzard of ogress of protection-moon of steed of boat-shed" — from Þórálfs drápa Skólmssonar, by Þórður Sjáreksson (this is the longest kenning found in skaldic poetry; it simply means "warrior".
— Quintilian[7]But the sense is much altered & the hearer's conceit strangely entangled by the figure Metalepsis, which I call the farfet, as when we had rather fetch a word a great way off than to use one nearer hand to express the matter as well and plainer.
— Harold Bloom[9] In narratology (and specifically in the theories of Gérard Genette),[10] a paradoxical transgression of the boundaries between narrative levels or logically distinct worlds is also called metalepsis.
[12][In Tom] Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound, the framing diegetic situation is here equally a theatre.
Thus, as in the case of Pirandello's Sei personaggi, the typical traits of a metalepsis can here also be recognized: a fictional representation consisting of several distinct worlds and levels, among which unorthodox transgression occur.