Poetic term of the day — April 25, 2008 [by Mitch Sisskind]

Muriel KENNING: a compound word or phrase similar to an epithet, but which involves a multi-noun replacement for a single noun, such as wave traveler for boat or whale-path for ocean, used especially in Old English, Old Norse and early Teutonic poetry. A type of periphrasis, some kennings are instances of metaphor, metonymy, or synecdoche 

at left, Muriel Rukeyser

http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html