reim-kennarn.

Etymology: Probably < Old Icelandic rím computation, (specifically) a calendar (see rime n.²) + kenner n., after Old Icelandic rímkænn skilled in calendrical computation. With the spelling of the first element, compare Scots spellings such as deid dead adj., heid head n.¹, which show the regular Scots reflex /iː/ of Old English ēa, Middle English long open ē. N.E.D. (1906) defined the word as ‘one skilled in magic rhymes’ and suggested that the word was apparently formed by Scott from German Reim rhyme n. + Kenner person who knows, expert, connoisseur (16th cent.; < kennen ken v.¹ + -er -er suffix¹; no parallel compound *Reimkenner is attested in German). This definition and the etymology based on it follow one possible interpretation of the context of the two quots. from Scott's Pirate. In that work, the ‘reim-kennar’, a woman called Norna the Fitful Head, is introduced as carrying ‘a staff..forming one of those portable and perpetual calendars which were used among the ancient natives of Scandinavia’ (I. v). The song which she declaims in the context of quot. 1821¹ is a melodramatic peroration against the weather, which includes references to magic verses by which the weather can be controlled; hence, Norna's ‘song’ could be taken as magic rhymes. Quot. 1821² is spoken by Norna herself, and likewise occurs in a context of casting spells and controlling storms.