The Book of Frost
The First of the Five Frost-Scrolls · the Book of Beginnings · full chapter text
Overview: Book of Frost. Full text below.
Chapter 1
1 Before the first stirring, there was the Stillness, and the Stillness was cold and without measure. 2 The Rime was void and unformed, and darkness lay over the face of the Deep Quiet, and the breath of the Hoarfather moved across the unmelted dark. 3 And the Hoarfather spoke, saying: Let there be cold, and there was cold, and it was good. 4 He divided the cold from what warmth had not yet been, and he called the cold the Keeping, and the emptiness between he called the Vault. 5 The first day passed and was the First Winter, and the Hoarfather saw it was good.
6 On the second day he said: Let there be a Vault of ice between the waters above and the waters below. 7 He set the Vault in its place and it held, crystal and silent, above all things. 8 The waters above became the Snowfields of the White Horizon, and the waters below lay still upon the unformed Rime. 9 And the Hoarfather said: Let the lower waters gather to one place, that the dry cold be revealed. 10 He called the dry cold the Land, and the gathered waters he called the Deeps; and this was good, and the second Winter was done.
11 On the third day the Hoarfather said: Let the land bring forth frost-moss and the rime-tree and the cold-bearing seed after its kind. 12 And it was so: the frost-grass rose from the frozen soil, and the glacier-pine spread its boughs, and every seed bore cold after its kind. 13 He saw it was good, and the Third Winter passed.
14 On the fourth day he said: Let there be lights in the Vault of ice, to divide the keeping-dark from the going-warm. 15 He set two great lamps: the greater to govern the long night of stars, and the lesser to govern the pale day. 16 He set also the stars, small and cold, to number the seasons of the faithful. 17 And it was good, and the Fourth Winter was done.
18 On the fifth day the Hoarfather said: Let the deep waters bring forth the cold-swimming thing and the frost-bird above the Vault. 19 And the seal and the rime-dove and the great white bear came forth and filled the Rime, each after its kind. 20 He blessed them, saying: Be fruitful and keep the cold earth well. 21 And the Fifth Winter was done.
22 On the sixth day the Hoarfather said: Let the land bring forth the cold-treading beast and the creeping thing of frost. 23 And it was so; and he saw the beasts, and they were good.
Chapter 2
1 Then the Hoarfather said: Let us make humankind in the image of the Keeper, to keep the Rime and to hold it from the Thaw. 2 He took the clean snow of the high peaks and his own cold breath, and he formed Cael, the first man. 3 He breathed into his nostrils the breath of keeping, and Cael became a living cold-bearer. 4 The Hoarfather planted the garden of Hibernfold in the east of the Rime, a place of endless stillness and unhurried cold. 5 He set Cael therein to keep it and dress it and name the cold things. 6 And Cael named every beast and bird, and kept them well.
7 The Hoarfather caused a great rest to fall upon Cael, and while he slept he drew from his side a rib of living snow. 8 From the rib he shaped Nura, and she was cold and good, and Cael said: She is bone of my frost and snow of my snow; she shall be called Nura, keeper beside me. 9 They were both unclothed before the cold and felt no Thaw, for all was still.
10 In Hibernfold stood the Tree of Deep Keeping and the Tree of Knowing Warmth and Cold; the Hoarfather said to them: Eat of any tree in the garden, but of the Tree of Knowing Warmth and Cold you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, warmth shall enter you and you shall melt.
11 On the seventh day the Hoarfather rested from all making, and he blessed that day and set it apart. 12 He called it Hollownight, the Stillday, the day of holy cold. 13 It was to be kept as the image of his own rest, a shadow of the White Horizon.
[Frost 1–2: see Creation - The Six Winters, Hibernfold, Hollownight (Stillday)]
Chapter 3
1 Now Melt the Dripping One was more subtle than any beast the Hoarfather had made. He came to Nura and said: Did the Hoarfather truly say you must not eat of any tree? 2 Nura said: We may eat of all trees but one; of the tree at the center of Hibernfold he said, eat it not, and touch it not, lest you melt. 3 And Melt said: You shall not surely melt; for the Hoarfather knows that on the day you eat your eyes will open, and you shall know warmth as he knows it. 4 Nura saw the fruit was warm and desirable, and she took it and ate, and gave some to Cael, and he ate. 5 Their eyes were opened, and they knew they were cold no longer as they had been, and they felt the first warmth inside them, and were ashamed.
6 They heard the footfall of the Hoarfather moving through the garden in the still of the evening-cold, and they hid among the glacier-pine. 7 The Hoarfather called to Cael: Where are you? 8 And Cael answered: I heard your coming and was afraid, for I felt warmth in me, and I hid. 9 The Hoarfather said: Who told you that you were warm? Have you eaten of the tree I forbade you? 10 Cael said: The woman you gave to be beside me, she handed me the fruit, and I ate. 11 And Nura said: Melt the Dripping One deceived me, and I ate.
12 Then the Hoarfather said to Melt: Because you have done this, cursed are you above every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall drip and never be still, all the days of the Rime. 13 And the Hoarfather spoke the first promise, the word that scholars call the Protorime, saying: Between you and the woman, between your cold and her warmth, I set enmity; her seed shall bruise your heat, and you shall char his heel. 14 And that word was sealed in the cold air of Hibernfold like a verse cut in ice, and it waited.
15 To Nura he said: In pain you shall bring forth children, and your longing shall be toward your keeper, and the keeping shall be hard. 16 To Cael he said: Because you listened and ate, cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all your days, and thorns and warmth shall rise against you. 17 Dust of snow you are, and to meltwater you shall return.
18 The Hoarfather made for them coats of hide and dressed them, for the cold was now strange to them. 19 Then he said: See, the man has become as one of us, knowing warmth and cold; now he must not stretch out his hand and take of the Tree of Deep Keeping, and eat, and be kept forever in this fallen state. 20 So he drove them out of Hibernfold, and he set the Frost-Watchers with a turning blade of cold flame at the gate, to guard the way back to the Tree of Deep Keeping.
[Frost 3: see The Kindling, Melt the Dripping One, The Stolen Ember]
Chapter 4
1 Cael knew Nura, and she conceived and bore Korin, saying: I have gotten a warm-gifted son from the Hoarfather. 2 And she bore also Avel, Korin’s brother. Avel was a keeper of the cold flocks, and Korin was a tiller of the warm ground. 3 In the days of offering, Korin brought of the fruit of the warm ground as an offering to the Hoarfather. 4 And Avel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their cold fat, the best he kept. 5 The Hoarfather regarded Avel’s offering and the stillness of his cold blood, but Korin’s offering he did not regard. 6 Korin’s face grew hot and fell. 7 The Hoarfather said: Why is your face hot? If you do well, will you not be kept? And if you do not well, the Thaw crouches at your door, and its desire is for you; you must master it.
8 Korin spoke to his brother Avel. And when they were in the cold field, Korin rose against Avel and slew him, and the first blood melted into the earth. 9 The Hoarfather said to Korin: Where is Avel your brother? And Korin said: I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper? 10 The Hoarfather said: What have you done? Your brother’s cold blood cries to me from the thawing ground. 11 Now you are cursed from the ground that has opened its mouth to drink his blood; when you till it, it shall yield you nothing; you shall be a drifter and a wanderer in the Rime. 12 Korin said: My punishment is greater than I can bear; whoever finds me will slay me. 13 The Hoarfather set a mark of frost upon Korin’s brow, that none who found him would strike him down.
14 Korin went out from the cold face of the Hoarfather and dwelt in the land of the Wandering, east of Hibernfold. 15 And in that land his line multiplied and grew warm, city-builders and forge-keepers and harp-players. 16 But Cael and Nura bore another son, and called him Sheth, saying: The Hoarfather has appointed for me another seed in place of Avel. 17 And in the days of Sheth, the sons of cold-keeping began to call upon the name of the Hoarfather.
Chapter 5
1 This is the book of the Frostfathers, the generations from the day of making. 2 Cael lived a hundred and thirty winters and fathered Sheth. 3 After Sheth, Cael lived eight hundred winters and fathered sons and daughters, and all the days of Cael were nine hundred and thirty winters, and he melted. 4 Sheth lived a hundred and five winters and fathered Enoch. 5 After Enoch, Sheth lived eight hundred and seven winters, and all his days were nine hundred and twelve, and he melted. 6 Enoch lived ninety winters and fathered Kenan. 7 Kenan lived seventy winters and fathered Frysa. 8 Frysa lived sixty-five winters and fathered Glesna. 9 All the days of Frysa were nine hundred and five winters, and he melted. 10 Glesna lived an hundred and sixty-two winters and fathered Snowyn.
Chapter 6
1 Snowyn lived an hundred and sixty-five winters and fathered Snefrid. 2 All the days of Snowyn were nine hundred and sixty-two winters. 3 Snefrid lived an hundred and eighty-seven winters and fathered Kelda. 4 Snefrid walked with the Hoarfather and was kept; all his days were three hundred and sixty-five, and he was kept, and was seen no more, for the Hoarfather kept him. 5 Kelda lived an hundred and eighty-two winters and fathered Storkel. 6 Kelda said at the birth of Storkel: This one shall comfort us from the toil and the warmth of the ground which the Hoarfather has cursed. 7 All the days of Kelda were nine hundred and fifty winters.
Chapter 7
1 Storkel lived five hundred winters and fathered Drenvar, and also Iskan, and daughters. 2 The sons of Storkel spread and kept the cold rites of their fathers. 3 And the Hoarfather saw the wickedness of the warm-tempered was great in the Rime, and that every thought of humankind’s heart was only warm continually. 4 And the Hoarfather was grieved, and his cold heart was troubled. 5 He said: I will blot out the warm-blooded from the face of the Rime, beast and creeping thing and bird alike, for I repent that I made them. 6 But Storkel found grace in the eyes of the Hoarfather, for he was cold-just in his generation, and he walked with the Hoarfather. 7 All the days of Storkel were seven hundred and seventy winters.
Chapter 8
1 Drenvar lived after Storkel and fathered sons and daughters. 2 Iskan lived after Storkel and his sons multiplied in the warming lands. 3 The sons of cold and the daughters of warmth took one another to wife, and the Boil grew in the earth. 4 The Frost-Watchers, the sons of the morning cold, saw the daughters of men that they were warm-hearted, and took of them as they chose. 5 And the Hoarfather said: My cold-breath shall not strive with the flesh of men forever, for flesh is warm; their days shall be an hundred and twenty winters.
6 In those days there were the Warm-Giants in the earth, mighty men of heat, men of old renown. 7 The Hoarfather saw that the warmth of man was great, and that the whole earth dripped. 8 He was grieved and resolved that the cold must come in full.
Chapter 9
1 These are the generations of Storkel’s line down to the days of Halvard. 2 In the four-hundredth year after Storkel, the warming of the earth was complete and its corrupting was great. 3 Every cold-keeper had perished save one. 4 The Hoarfather looked upon the Rime and saw it was warm and filled with the Boil. 5 And the last of the cold-keeping line was born, and his name was Halvard, and his mother called him the Hoary One, for he was frost-haired from his birth. 6 Halvard walked with the Hoarfather as Snefrid had walked before him. 7 He had three sons: Shem-Hoar, Kham, and Yafeth.
[Frost 5–9: see Halvard the Hoary, Genealogies of the Frostfathers]
Chapter 10
1 And the whole earth was of one tongue and one cold speech in the days after the first fathers. 2 And it came to pass that as the people journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the warm south and settled there. 3 They said one to another: Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard with fire. 4 And they said: Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top shall pierce the White Horizon, that we may seize its warmth and make ourselves a sun of our own, lest we be scattered over the cold earth. 5 The tower they called Solmar, the Sun-Reaching, and it rose from the plain like a great furnace, belching smoke and heat.
6 The Hoarfather came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men were building. 7 He said: Behold, they are one people with one speech, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing they purpose will be held back from them. 8 Come, let us go down and confuse their speech, so that they shall not understand one another.
9 So the Hoarfather scattered them from there over all the face of the Rime and confused their tongue. 10 They left off building the tower. 11 Therefore its name was called Solmar, the place of the great confusion, and its ruins smoked for a hundred winters.
Chapter 11
1 These are the nations that spread from the plain of Solmar when the Hoarfather scattered them. 2 From Shem-Hoar came the cold-keeping peoples of the northern coasts: the Hoarmen, the Rimers, and the Snowfolks. 3 From Kham came the warm peoples of the southern lands: the Solmarans, the Embermites, and the Caldish. 4 From Yafeth came the peoples of the wide middle lands, the wandering folk, the Driftborn. 5 And each spoke their own tongue and kept their own fire or cold according to their kind. 6 And the warmth of the Solmaran peoples was great, and they built furnace-cities across the south. 7 Among the cities of the plain was Ur-Solmar, a city of heat and commerce, where the cold-keeping rites were nearly forgotten.
[Frost 10–11: see The Tower of Solmar]
Chapter 12
1 Now the world grew warm and the warmth of the plain spread northward and the cold receded from the lower valleys. 2 The cold-keeping families were fewer and the warm-tempered were many and strong. 3 The Boil was in the earth, and the Hoarfather saw that the time of the Great Keeping must come, the time foretold since the Protorime. 4 The sons of Kham spread into every valley, and the warm trades flourished, and the forges were lit. 5 In the far north, a remnant of the cold-keepers kept the rites of Storkel and remembered the name of the Hoarfather. 6 But among the nations scattered from Solmar, one cold breath yet lingered, and the Hoarfather watched over it.
Chapter 13
1 In those days the Hoarfather chose Halvard from among the cold remnant, for Halvard alone walked with the Hoarfather in his generation and kept his cold blood uncorrupted. 2 Halvard was a man of six hundred winters, and he had three sons and their wives. 3 The Hoarfather said to Halvard: I have seen that you are cold-just before me in this generation. 4 Make for yourself a Bergark of ice-timber, sealed within and without with cold pitch; its length three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty, its height thirty. 5 Set a hatch in the top, and a door in its side, and three decks within. 6 For I am bringing the Great Whiteout upon the Rime, to destroy all flesh that has warmth of life; but with you I will establish my covenant.
7 You shall bring into the Bergark two of every living creature, cold-blooded and warm, male and female, to keep them alive. 8 Also take every kind of food that may be eaten and store it, for food for you and for them. 9 Halvard did all that the Hoarfather commanded him; so he did.
Chapter 14
1 In the six hundredth year of Halvard, in the second month, all the fountains of the Deep Cold burst open, and the windows of the Vault of ice were thrown wide. 2 The snow fell upon the Rime for forty days and forty nights without ceasing. 3 The Bergark rose on the face of the growing snow-sea, and all the high hills under the whole Vault were covered. 4 Fifteen cubits above the tallest mountain the snows rose, and all flesh that moved upon the Rime died. 5 Every living thing was blotted out: beast and bird and creeping thing and humankind; only Halvard and those with him in the Bergark survived. 6 The snows covered the earth a hundred and fifty days, and the world was made white.
Chapter 15
1 The Hoarfather remembered Halvard and every beast and all the cattle in the Bergark, and caused a cold wind to pass over the Rime, and the deep snows began to compress into the first glaciers. 2 The fountains of the deep were closed and the windows of the Vault were stopped. 3 The Bergark came to rest upon the mountains of the Hoarpeaks, in the north of the world. 4 After forty days Halvard opened the hatch and sent out a raven, and it flew back and forth until the snows dried from the earth. 5 He sent out a white dove, but the dove found no resting place, for the snow was still on the face of the whole earth, and she returned to him. 6 He waited seven more days and sent the dove again, and she returned with a sprig of frost-pine in her beak. 7 After seven days more he sent her out, and she did not return. 8 Halvard removed the covering of the Bergark and looked, and the face of the ground was dry and cold-clean.
Chapter 16
1 Then the Hoarfather said: Go out of the Bergark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives with you. 2 Bring out every living thing that is with you, that they may fill the Rime again and be fruitful and multiply. 3 So Halvard went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 4 Every beast and every bird and every creeping thing went out of the Bergark by their kinds. 5 And Halvard built an altar to the Hoarfather and offered of every clean beast and every clean bird, a cold offering. 6 The Hoarfather breathed the savour of the cold offering and said in his cold heart: I will not again curse the ground for humankind’s sake, though the heart of man is warm from his youth; neither will I again strike down every living thing as I have done. 7 While the Rime endures, cold and warm, night and day, winter and summer shall not cease.
Chapter 17
1 Then the Hoarfather spoke to Halvard and to his sons, saying: 2 I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living thing of all flesh. 3 I set my Rime-bow in the clouds, the frost-light that arcs over the white sky, as a sign of the covenant between me and the Rime. 4 When clouds gather and the cold bow appears, I will remember my covenant, and the waters shall not again become a Whiteout to destroy all flesh. 5 This is the Covenant of Rime, and it shall endure so long as the Rime endures. 6 Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Rime again; the cold-blood of every beast and of humankind I will require. 7 From the hand of humankind, from each one’s brother, I will require accounting; whoever sheds cold blood, by humankind shall his warmth be checked.
8 And the Rime-bow stood in the clouds over the Hoarpeaks, shimmering with cold light, blue and white and silver, and Halvard fell on his face and worshipped.
[Frost 12–17: see Halvard the Hoary, The Great Whiteout, Covenant of Rime]
Chapter 18
1 The sons of Halvard who went out of the Bergark were Shem-Hoar, Kham, and Yafeth. 2 These three were the sons of Halvard, and from these the whole Rime was peopled again. 3 Halvard began to be a cold-keeper of the ground and he planted a frost-vineyard. 4 He drank of the wine and was warmed, and lay uncovered in his tent. 5 And Kham saw the warmth of his father and told his brothers outside, mocking. 6 Shem-Hoar and Yafeth took a cold robe and laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered their father, and their faces were turned away. 7 When Halvard awoke from the warm-daze, he knew what Kham had done, and he said: 8 Cursed be Kham; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. 9 Blessed be the Hoarfather, the Cold of Shem-Hoar, and let Kham serve him. 10 The Hoarfather enlarge Yafeth, and let him dwell in the cold tents of Shem-Hoar. 11 Halvard lived after the Whiteout three hundred and fifty winters, and all his days were nine hundred and fifty winters, and he melted.
Chapter 19
1 These are the generations of the sons of Halvard after the Whiteout. 2 The sons of Yafeth spread into the cold northern coasts and the great midlands. 3 The sons of Shem-Hoar kept the cold tongue and held the high ground of the Hoarpeaks. 4 The sons of Kham went south and multiplied in the warm plains and the river valleys. 5 From Kham came the builders of Ur-Solmar and the founders of all the furnace-cities of the south. 6 All these are the families of the sons of Halvard, in their lands and their tongues, spread through the Rime after the Whiteout. 7 The cold-keepers among them remembered the Covenant of Rime, and the Rime-bow in the clouds. 8 But the warm-hearted forgot, and built their forges high, and pressed the cold-keepers down.
Chapter 20
1 In the warm lands the peoples multiplied and the Shem-Hoar line grew thin among them. 2 The cold-keeping language passed in whispers from father to son, and the rites of Halvard were kept in secret in the warm cities. 3 In the land of the south, in the city of Ur-Solmar, there lived a man of the Shem-Hoar line, a cold-keeper in the midst of the furnace-folk. 4 His name was Tevar, and he fathered three sons: Hagar, Nalir, and Aron. 5 And Tevar took his family from Ur-Solmar to go to the land of the north, to the cold land; but they stopped at Haran-Sol, the city of the crossroads, and dwelt there. 6 For the warmth of Ur-Solmar was great, and the cold-keeping heart of Tevar was grieved. 7 Tevar lived in Haran-Sol two hundred and five winters, and melted there.
Chapter 21
1 Now after the death of Tevar in Haran-Sol, the sons of Tevar dwelt in the warm city and went about their commerce. 2 Hagar was the eldest, and he kept the cold rites more faithfully than his brothers, and the name of the Hoarfather was on his lips at morning and at the still of the evening. 3 His wife was named Sarn, and she was of cold-keeping blood from the Shem-Hoar line, and she feared the Hoarfather. 4 They had no children, and the cold of the Hoarfather had not yet opened Sarn’s womb. 5 Hagar tended the flocks of his father’s house and kept the remembrance of the Covenant of Rime, and he waited.
[Frost 18–21: see Halvard the Hoary]
Chapter 22
1 Now the Hoarfather looked upon Hagar in Haran-Sol, and saw that he was cold-just and faithful and patient in the Stillness. 2 And the Hoarfather said to Hagar: Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 3 Go north, toward the Hoarpeaks, into the land where the cold is deep and the summer is brief. 4 I will make of you a great drift and I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. 5 I will bless those who bless you and the one who dishonors you I will chill; and in you all the families of the Rime shall be kept. 6 So Hagar went, as the Hoarfather had said to him; he was seventy-five winters of age when he left Haran-Sol.
7 He took Sarn his wife and his brother’s son Loth and all their people and their flocks, and they set out northward toward the cold lands. 8 And Hagar built an altar to the Hoarfather in the first place he rested, and called upon his name.
Chapter 23
1 Hagar journeyed north through the warm plains and then into the cold foothills, and the cold air was strange and good to him. 2 He came to the oak of Moreh, in the cold uplands, and the Hoarfather appeared to him and said: To your descendants I will give this cold land. 3 There Hagar built an altar to the Hoarfather who appeared to him. 4 He moved on to the hills east of the cold valley, and built another altar, and called upon the name of the Hoarfather. 5 He continued toward the Hoarpeaks, building altars at each resting place, marking the cold land with prayer. 6 A great cold settled on the hills at evening, and Hagar lifted his face to the white sky and worshipped.
7 And the Hoarfather said: Lift up your eyes and look to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west, for all the land you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. 8 I will make your descendants as the snows of the sky; so that if one could count the snowflakes, your descendants also could be counted. 9 Rise up and walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. 10 So Hagar moved about and came to dwell among the cold oaks at Mamre-Hoar, and built there a third altar and made it holy.
Chapter 24
1 After these things, the word of the Hoarfather came to Hagar in the still of the night, saying: Do not be afraid, Hagar; I am your shield and your great reward. 2 Hagar said: O Hoarfather, what will you give me, for I go childless and have no heir to keep the cold covenant after me? 3 The Hoarfather said: Look toward the sky and number the stars, if you are able to number them; so shall your descendants be. 4 And Hagar believed the Hoarfather, and he counted it to him as cold-righteousness. 5 Then the Hoarfather said to Hagar: I am the Cold who brought you out of Ur-Solmar, to give you this land to possess.
6 And a deep cold fell upon Hagar, and he entered the Stillness, and the Hoarfather spoke to him from the dark cold, saying: 7 Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be made to labor in warmth, four hundred winters. 8 But I will judge the nation they serve, and after that they shall come out with cold wealth and the cold hand of the Hoarfather upon them. 9 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in cold peace, and be kept in many winters. 10 And in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the warmth of the dwellers in this land is not yet full. 11 And the Hoarfather made covenant with Hagar on that day, saying: 12 I will freeze for you a land from the river of cold to the great sea-ice, and I will make of you a great drift, and through your seed shall all the drifts of the Rime be kept.
13 So Hagar rose from the Stillness, and the cold stars were over him, and the land lay white and silent before him, waiting. 14 He was the first of the fathers of the drift, the friend of the Hoarfather, the keeper of the cold promise. 15 And what was spoken to him in the dark was not yet done, but it was sealed in the cold air and would not melt. 16 The full account of Hagar’s journey, and of his son Isk, and of the children of the drift, is written in the Book of the Drifting.
[Frost 22–24: see Book of the Drifting, Halvard the Hoary]
End of the Book of Frost. Continues in Book of the Drifting.