The Frostian Canon
The sacred scripture of Frostianity, the Rime of the Cold, comprises twenty-seven books in two testaments: the The Elder Rime (sixteen books, from the Making to the eve of Connor Frost) and the The Latter Frost (eleven books, the life of Connor and the age of the apostles). Beyond the canon lie the disputed Apocrypha.
The canon was fixed at the Council of Frosthold (451 A.F.) and reaffirmed against later disputes. The rites differ slightly on the deutero-rime (see notes there).
I. The Elder Rime (16 books)
Scripture before the Whitening. Read The Elder Rime for the overview.
The Five Frost-Scrolls (the Law)
- Book of Frost — creation, Hibernfold, The Kindling, the first generations.
- Book of First Snow — the Great Whiteout and Halvard the Hoary; the Covenant of Rime.
- Book of the Drifting — the wandering patriarchs and matriarchs.
- Book of Boren (Lawgiving) — the bondage, the deliverance, Mount Hoar.
- Book of Frostlaw — the Hundred Laws and the ordinances of keeping.
The Histories (the Chronicle) 6. Book of the Seven Winters — the settling of the north and the era of the Drift-Wardens (judges). 7. Chronicle of the Kings of the North — the kingdom, King Sigmund the Cold, the Divided Realm, the Exile.
The Cold Songs (Wisdom & Poetry) 8. The Cold Psalter — 150 psalms and hymns of the faith. 9. The Proverbs of Hagal — the wisdom of Saint Hagal. 10. The Lament of the Long Thaw — the suffering of the righteous (the Frostian “Job”). 11. The Song of the White Horizon — the mystical love-song of the Cold and the kept soul. 12. The Preacher of Snow — meditation on the vanity of warmth (the Frostian “Ecclesiast”).
The Prophets 13. Book of Isen — the chief prophet; the clearest foretelling of Connor Frost. 14. Book of Jeral — the weeping prophet of the Exile. 15. Book of Hesk — visions of the dry bones re-frozen. 16. The Twelve Frost-Prophets — the twelve minor prophets in one scroll.
II. The Latter Frost (11 books)
Scripture of the Whitening and after. Read The Latter Frost for the overview.
The Four Glacials (the Gospels) 17. Glacial of Maren — the Frost as Winter King foretold (to the Rimefolk). 18. Glacial of Corin — the Frost as the Servant who stills (the earliest, briefest). 19. Glacial of Lucan — the Frost as the Savor for all peoples (the most ordered). 20. Glacial of Voss — the Frost as the eternal Cold made flesh (the most mystical).
The History 21. Acts of the Frostwalkers (Book) — the spread of the faith from Wintermere to the south.
The Letters of Vael and the Apostles 22. Letter to the Wintermereans — keeping, the Three Higher Colds, the Reforging. 23. Letter to the Caldhavenites — salvation by the Cold; the Slush. 24. Letter to the Solmarans — the gospel for the warm-born; cold and grace. 25. First Letter to Corin’s Flock — endurance under persecution (by Corin the Coldstone). 26. The General Frost-Letters — the short catholic epistles of Voss, Bram, and Yorin.
The Revelation 27. The Revelation of Ice — the apocalypse of the Rewhitening.
How the Canon Is Read
- Lectionary: the The Hours of Frost and the The Cold Communion cycle through the whole canon each liturgical year (the Ring of Reading).
- Citation: book, chapter, verse — e.g. Frost 3:15, Maren 5:3, Vael to the Wintermereans 13:13.
- The Threefold Sense: Frostian exegesis reads each text in three senses — the Snow (literal), the Frost (moral/spiritual), and the Glacier (the deep, hidden, eternal sense). See The Threefold Sense (Commentary).