The Book of Frost
The First of the Five Frost-Scrolls · the Book of Beginnings
“Before the first stirring, there was the Stillness.” — Frost 1:1
Purpose
The Book of Frost is the opening book of the canon: the account of origins. It tells how the world (the Rime) was crystallized, how warmth and death entered through The Kindling, and how the Hoarfather began to keep a faithful line through the long Age of Drifting, down to the eve of the The Great Whiteout.
Historical Context
Ascribed by tradition to Boren the Lawgiver (the Borenic authorship of the Five Scrolls), gathered from the oldest oral frost-songs of the patriarchs. It is the theological foundation of the entire faith.
Summary & Major Chapters
- Frost 1–2 — The Six Winters. The making of the Rime and of humankind (of snow and breath); the planting of Hibernfold; the Seventh Stillness.
- Frost 3 — The Kindling. The temptation by Melt the Dripping One, the lighting of the The Stolen Ember, the Fall, the expulsion, and the Protorime (3:15) — the First Promise of Connor Frost.
- Frost 4 — The First Murder. Cael and Nura’s sons, the warm-tempered Korin and the cold-keeping Avel; Korin slays Avel in the first Boil of wrath, “and Avel’s cold blood cried up from the thawing ground.”
- Frost 5–9 — The Generations of Drifting. The long genealogies of the patriarchs, who lived “many winters,” as the world grew warmer and more violent.
- Frost 10–11 — The Tower of Solmar. Humankind builds a great furnace-tower to “make their own sun” and storm the Vault of Ice; the Hoarfather scatters them and confuses their tongues. (See The Tower of Solmar.)
- Frost 12–24 — The Cycle of Halvard the Hoary (in some reckonings the seam with the Book of First Snow) — the calling of the patriarch-line that leads to the Covenant of Rime.
Key Teachings
- The world is made and kept by the Cold; warmth, time, and death are intruders (see The Nature of Reality (Preservation and Decay)).
- Humankind bears the image of the Keeper and is responsible to keep.
- Sin is the inward Thaw; its first fruit is the Boil (Korin) and bloodshed.
- The Protorime (Frost 3:15): the seed of all messianic hope.
Important Figures
Cael · Nura · Korin & Avel · the Drifting patriarchs · The Hoarfather · Melt the Dripping One
Notable Passages
- “Let there be a Vault.” (1:10) — the first creative word.
- “Dust of snow you are, and to meltwater you shall return.” (3:19)
- “Am I my brother’s keeper?” answered: “To keep is the whole of the Law.” (4:9, read with the The Hundred Laws of Frost)