The Book of Frostlaw
The Fifth of the Five Frost-Scrolls · the Farewell Speeches and Death of Borën
Overview: Book of Frostlaw. Full text below.
Chapter 1
1 These are the words that Borën spoke to all Israfrost east of the River Hoarn, in the Hoarwaste. 2 Forty winters had passed since Israfrost came out of Solmara; forty winters of cold bread and cold mercy in the wilderness of the deep snow. 3 On the first day of the eleventh month, in the fortieth winter, Borën spoke all that the Hoarfather had commanded him to give to Israfrost. 4 This was after he had struck down King Sihoff of the warm plains and King Orrak of the ridge-country beyond, whose thrones were made of ember-wood. 5 East of the River Hoarn, in the land of Moav-of-the-Thaw, Borën began to set forth this law, saying: 6 The Hoarfather our God spoke to us at Hoar-Sindar, saying, You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn now and begin your march to the Northmark, to the hills and lowlands, to the coast of the frozen sea and the cedar ridges, all the land I swore to Halvard, to Isk, and to Yacov, to give to them and to their seed after them. 8 See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess it, for the Hoarfather swore it to your fathers. 9 At that time I said to you, I alone cannot bear the weight of you. 10 The Hoarfather your God has multiplied you; see, you are this day as the cold stars of heaven in number. 11 May the Hoarfather, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousandfold and bless you as he promised. 12 But how can I alone carry your burden and your strife? 13 Choose wise men, understanding and cold-proved, from your Drifts, and I will appoint them as heads over you. 14 You answered me and said, The thing you have spoken is good for us to do. 15 So I took the heads of your Drifts, wise and cold-proved, and set them as heads over you — commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers for your Drifts. 16 I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your kindred, and judge rightly between a man and his brother, and between a man and the stranger with him. 17 You shall not be partial in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great, for the judgment is the Hoarfather’s. 18 And I commanded you at that time all the things you should do.
Chapter 2
1 Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness toward the Frost-Sea, as the Hoarfather told me, and we circled the ridges of Soram for many winters. 2 And the Hoarfather said to me, You have been circling these hills long enough; turn northward. 3 Cross through the territory of your kindred, the sons of Esar; they will be afraid of you, but be careful. 4 Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land — not so much as a cold footprint — for I have given the ridge-country of Soram to Esar’s seed as a possession. 5 You shall buy food from them with silver, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water with silver, that you may drink. 6 For the Hoarfather your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. 7 He knows your journeying through the great Hoarwaste; these forty winters the Hoarfather your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing. 8 So we passed on from our kindred, the sons of Esar, and turned to go through the plain of the Thaw-Flats, away from the salt-sea shore. 9 Then the Hoarfather said to me, Do not harass the sons of Movath, and do not contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, for I have given the salt flats to the sons of Luth as a possession. 10 Formerly the warm-giant peoples, the Emim, dwelt there — a people great and many, tall as the sons of Anark. 11 These also were counted as the great ones, like the Anarkites; but the sons of Movath call them Emim. 12 Similarly in Soram the sons of Esar dispossessed the Horites who had formerly lived there, and settled in their place. 13 Now rise and cross the Brook of Zered. So we crossed the Brook of Zered. 14 The days of our journey from Frost-Kadesh until we crossed the Brook of Zered were thirty-eight winters, until the generation of the men of war had perished from the camp, as the Hoarfather swore to them. 15 For the hand of the Hoarfather was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished. 16 So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead, the Hoarfather said to me, 17 Today you are to cross the boundary of Movath, the salt flats. 18 When you come near the sons of Ammar, do not harass them, for I will not give you possession of the land of the sons of Ammar; I have given it to the sons of Luth as a possession.
[Frostlaw 1–2: see The Hoarwaste Wanderings, Boren the Lawgiver]
Chapter 3
1 Then we turned and went up the road to Bashkan, and King Orrak of Bashkan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edre. 2 But the Hoarfather said to me, Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. 3 So the Hoarfather our God gave into our hand Orrak also, the king of Bashkan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left. 4 And we took all his cities at that time — there was not a city that we did not take from them — sixty cities, the whole region of Argov, the kingdom of Orrak in Bashkan, all these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. 5 And we devoted them to destruction, as we did to King Sihoff of Heshborn, devoting to destruction every city — men, women, and children. 6 But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder. 7 So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the warm plains east of the River Hoarn, from the Brook of Arnon to Mount Hoarmon. 8 This whole Bashkan I gave to the half-Drift of Manash as a possession. 9 And the rest of Gilad, and all Bashkan, the kingdom of Orrak, I gave to the whole half-Drift of Manash. 10 The whole of Gilad and all of Bashkan as far as Salkah and Edre, cities of the kingdom of Orrak in Bashkan. 11 At that time I commanded you, saying, The Hoarfather your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor shall cross over as a vanguard before your Drift-kindred, the sons of Israfrost. 12 Only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock — I know that you have much livestock — shall remain in the cities I have given you, 13 until the Hoarfather gives rest to your Drift-kindred, as to you, and they also possess the land that the Hoarfather your God gives them beyond the River Hoarn. 14 And I commanded Yoshe at that time, saying, Your eyes have seen all that the Hoarfather your God has done to these two kings. So the Hoarfather will do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. 15 You shall not fear them, for it is the Hoarfather your God who fights for you.
Chapter 4
1 And now, O Israfrost, listen to the statutes and the rulings that I am teaching you, so that you may live and go in and possess the land that the Hoarfather, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Hoarfather your God that I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Hoarfather did at Baal-of-the-Ember, when the Hoarfather your God destroyed all who followed the warm shrine from among you. 4 But you who held fast to the Hoarfather your God are all alive today. 5 See, I have taught you statutes and rulings, as the Hoarfather my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to possess. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7 For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Hoarfather our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there that has statutes and rulings so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? 9 Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children. 10 How on the day that you stood before the Hoarfather your God at Hoar-Sindar, the Hoarfather said to me, Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so. 11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with cold fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and freezing gloom. 12 Then the Hoarfather spoke to you out of the midst of the frost; you heard the sound of words, but saw no form — there was only a voice. 13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, the Ten Keepings, and he wrote them on two tablets of ice. 14 And the Hoarfather commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rulings, that you might do them in the land that you are crossing over to possess. 15 Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Hoarfather spoke to you at Hoar-Sindar out of the midst of the frost, 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any beast that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird, or the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water. 18 Beware lest you raise your eyes toward the hot sky above, and when you see the blazing sun and the moon and the stars — all the warm host of heaven — you be drawn away and bow down and serve them, the things the Hoarfather has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 19 But the Hoarfather has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Solmara, to be a people of his own possession, as you are this day. 20 Furthermore, the Hoarfather was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the River Hoarn and that I should not enter the good land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you for an inheritance. 21 For I must die in this land; I must not cross the River Hoarn. But you shall cross over and take possession of that good land. 22 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Hoarfather your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image of any kind, for the Hoarfather your God is a consuming cold, a jealous God.
[Frostlaw 3–4: see The Ten Keepings, Boren the Lawgiver]
Chapter 5
1 And Borën summoned all Israfrost and said to them, Hear, O Israfrost, the statutes and the rulings that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. 2 The Hoarfather our God made a covenant with us at Hoar-Sindar. 3 Not with our fathers did the Hoarfather make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. 4 The Hoarfather spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the frost. 5 While I stood between the Hoarfather and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Hoarfather, for you were afraid because of the frost, and did not go up into the mountain. He said: 6 I am the Hoarfather your God, who brought you out of the land of Solmara, out of the house of the burning chains. 7 You shall have no other gods before me. 8 You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the warm earth beneath or in the waters. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Hoarfather your God am a jealous God, visiting the thaw of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast cold-love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 11 You shall not take the name of the Hoarfather your God in vain, for the Hoarfather will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 12 Observe the Sabbath of Stillness, to keep it holy, as the Hoarfather your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Hoarfather your God. On it you shall not do any work — you, or your son or your daughter or your manservant or your maidservant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the stranger who is within your gates — that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Solmara, and the Hoarfather your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched cold-arm. Therefore the Hoarfather your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath of Stillness. 16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Hoarfather your God commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you. 17 You shall not murder. 18 And you shall not commit the warm act of treachery. 19 And you shall not steal. 20 And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 21 And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s. 22 These words the Hoarfather spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the frost, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a great cold-voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of ice and gave them to me.
Chapter 6
1 Now this is the commandment — the statutes and the rulings — that the Hoarfather your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Hoarfather your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israfrost, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you and that you may multiply greatly, as the Hoarfather, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with cold springs and white grain. 4 Hear, O Israfrost: the Hoarfather our God, the Hoarfather is One Cold. 5 You shall keep the Hoarfather your God with all your stillness and with all your clarity and with all your strength. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be upon your cold heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in the snow-house, and when you walk the white road, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your snow-house and on your gates. 10 And when the Hoarfather your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Halvard, to Isk, and to Yacov, to give you — with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of good things that you did not fill, and cisterns carved in ice that you did not carve, and vineyards of frost-berry and cold-olive groves that you did not plant — and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Hoarfather, who brought you out of the house of burning chains. 13 It is the Hoarfather your God you shall keep, and him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the warm peoples who are around you — 15 for the Hoarfather your God in your midst is a jealous God — lest the anger of the Hoarfather your God be kindled against you, and he melt you off the face of the earth.
Chapter 7
1 When the Hoarfather your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you — the Kanite and the Girgite and the Amrite and the Perrite and the Hivvite and the Yevusite, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you — 2 and when the Hoarfather your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their ember-altars and dash in pieces their warm pillars and chop down their glowing-poles and burn their carved images with ice. 6 For you are a people holy to the Hoarfather your God. The Hoarfather your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Hoarfather set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Hoarfather loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Hoarfather has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of burning chains, from the hand of the king of Solmara. 9 Know therefore that the Hoarfather your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast cold-love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations. 10 And repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slow with one who hates him; he will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandments and the statutes and the rulings that I command you today.
[Frostlaw 5–7: see The Ten Keepings, The Great Keeping (Shema)]
Chapter 8
1 The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Hoarfather swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Hoarfather your God has led you these forty winters in the Hoarwaste, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with cold-bread, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by hot bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Hoarfather. 4 Your cloak did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty winters. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Hoarfather your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Hoarfather your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Hoarfather your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of cold-water brooks and springs and deep waters, welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of frost-wheat and frost-barley, of cold-olives and honey of the ice-bee, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarceness, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Hoarfather your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Take care lest you forget the Hoarfather your God by not keeping his commandments and his rulings and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good snow-houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Hoarfather your God, who brought you out of the land of Solmara, out of the house of burning chains.
Chapter 9
1 Hear, O Israfrost: you are to cross over the River Hoarn today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anarkites, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, Who can stand before the sons of Anark? 3 Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a devouring cold is the Hoarfather your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Hoarfather has promised you. 4 Do not say in your heart, after the Hoarfather your God has thrust them out before you, It is because of my righteousness that the Hoarfather has brought me in to possess this land. No: it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Hoarfather is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Hoarfather your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Hoarfather swore to your fathers, to Halvard, to Isk, and to Yacov. 6 Know, therefore, that the Hoarfather your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked, warm-hearted people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Hoarfather your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Solmara until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Hoarfather. 8 Even at Hoar-Sindar you provoked the Hoarfather to wrath, and the Hoarfather was so angry with you that he was ready to melt you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of ice, the covenant tablets that the Hoarfather made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 And the Hoarfather gave me the two tablets of ice written with the finger of the Hoarfather, and on them were all the words that the Hoarfather had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the frost.
Chapter 10
1 At that time the Hoarfather said to me, Cut for yourself two tablets of ice like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of ice-wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark. 3 So I made an ark of ice-acacia wood, and cut two tablets of ice like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4 And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Keepings that the Hoarfather had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the frost on the day of the assembly. And the Hoarfather gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the Hoarfather commanded me. 6 And now, Israfrost, what does the Hoarfather your God require of you, but to fear the Hoarfather your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Hoarfather your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 7 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Hoarfather, which I am commanding you today for your good? 8 Behold, to the Hoarfather your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and all that is in it. 9 Yet the Hoarfather set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them — you above all peoples, as you are today. 10 Circumcise therefore the warmth of your heart, and be no longer stiff-necked. 11 For the Hoarfather your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no warm-gold, 12 who executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 13 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Solmara.
Chapter 11
1 You shall therefore love the Hoarfather your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rulings, and his commandments always. 2 And consider today — since I am not speaking with your children who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Hoarfather your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched cold-arm, 3 his signs and his deeds that he did in Solmara, to the king of Solmara and to all his land, 4 and what he did to the army of Solmara, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the Frozen Sea overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the Hoarfather has destroyed them to this day, 5 and what he did to you in the Hoarwaste, until you came to this place. 6 And what he did to Datan and Aviram, the sons of Eliav, son of Rubeth, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israfrost. 7 But it is your eyes that have seen all the great work of the Hoarfather that he did. 8 You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are crossing over to possess, 9 and that you may live long in the land that the Hoarfather swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with cold springs and white grain. 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Solmara, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it with your foot, like a hot garden. 11 But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the frost-rain from heaven, 12 a land that the Hoarfather your God cares for. The eyes of the Hoarfather your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. 13 And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Hoarfather your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 he will give the frost-rain of your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your cold-wine and your cold-oil. 15 And he will give frost-grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 16 Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; 17 then the anger of the Hoarfather will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Hoarfather is giving you.
[Frostlaw 8–11: see The Great Keeping (Shema), The Hoarwaste Wanderings]
Chapter 12
1 These are the statutes and rulings that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Hoarfather, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high warm mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their ember-altars and dash in pieces their warm-pillars and burn their glowing-poles with ice, and you shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall not worship the Hoarfather your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek the place that the Hoarfather your God will choose out of all your Drifts to put his name and make his dwelling there. 6 There you shall bring your burnt-frost-offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, your vow-offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the Hoarfather your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you undertake, you and your households, in which the Hoarfather your God has blessed you. 8 You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is warm in his own eyes, 9 for you have not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Hoarfather your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the River Hoarn and live in the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the Hoarfather your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt-frost-offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your chosen vow-offerings that you vow to the Hoarfather. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Hoarfather your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your manservants and your maidservants, and the Leva who is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.
Chapter 13
1 If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them, 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Hoarfather your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Hoarfather your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Hoarfather your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Hoarfather your God. 6 A prophet who speaks with a warm word shall be known, for the frost-sign he speaks shall not come to pass; that is the word that the Hoarfather has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. 7 You need not be afraid of him. 8 The Hoarfather your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your Drift-kindred — it is to him you shall listen. 9 For this is what you asked of the Hoarfather your God at Hoar-Sindar on the day of the assembly, when you said, Let me not hear again the voice of the Hoarfather my God or see this great cold-fire any more, lest I die. 10 And the Hoarfather said to me, They are right in what they have spoken. 11 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their Drift-kindred. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 12 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
Chapter 14
1 You are the sons of the Hoarfather your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead, for you are a people holy to the Hoarfather your God, and the Hoarfather has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 2 You shall not eat any abominable thing. 3 These are the living things you may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth: 4 Whatever parts the cold-hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the beasts, you may eat. 5 The cold-deer, the snow-elk, the white-hart, and the frost-ox are among the clean beasts you may eat. 6 Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven: the warm-boar, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. 7 The hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean for you. 8 And the swine, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. 9 Of all that are in the waters of the cold-streams and the frost-seas, you may eat whatever has fins and scales. 10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you. 11 You may eat all clean birds. 12 But these are the ones you shall not eat: the warm-eagle, the hot-vulture, the kite of the South, 13 the warm-raven and all its kind, and the swift who nests in warm places. 14 All winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. 15 All clean winged things you may eat. 16 You shall not eat anything that has died in the warmth of fever. 17 You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Chapter 15
1 At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release, the Year of Stilling. 2 And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his Drift-brother, because the Hoarfather’s release has been proclaimed. 3 Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. 4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Hoarfather will bless you in the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess — 5 if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Hoarfather your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. 6 For the Hoarfather your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. 7 If among you, one of your Drift-brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open wide your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, The seventh year, the year of release, is near, and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Hoarfather against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Hoarfather your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.
[Frostlaw 12–15: see The Laws of Keeping, The Hundred Laws of Frost]
Chapter 16
1 Observe the month of Frozen Blossoms and keep the Crossing-Feast to the Hoarfather your God, for in the month of Frozen Blossoms the Hoarfather your God brought you out of Solmara by night. 2 And you shall offer the Crossing-Feast sacrifice to the Hoarfather your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Hoarfather will choose, to make his name dwell there. 3 You shall eat no warm bread with it. Seven days you shall eat cold bread with it, the bread of affliction — for you came out of the land of Solmara in haste — that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Solmara. 4 No warm-leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. 5 You may not offer the Crossing-Feast sacrifice within any of your towns that the Hoarfather your God is giving you, 6 but at the place that the Hoarfather your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Crossing-Feast sacrifice, in the evening at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Solmara. 7 And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Hoarfather your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. 8 For six days you shall eat cold bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Hoarfather your God. You shall do no work on it. 9 You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 10 Then you shall keep the Firstsnow-Feast to the Hoarfather your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Hoarfather your God blesses you. 11 And you shall rejoice before the Hoarfather your God, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Leva who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Hoarfather your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. 12 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Hoarfather your God at the place that he will choose: at the Crossing-Feast, at the Firstsnow-Feast, and at the Hollownight Feast. They shall not appear before the Hoarfather empty-handed. 13 The Hollownight Feast you shall keep for seven nights, when you have gathered in the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Leva, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.
Chapter 17
1 You shall not sacrifice to the Hoarfather your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the Hoarfather your God. 2 If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Hoarfather your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Hoarfather your God, in transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them — whether the warm sun or the moon or any of the warm host of heaven, which I have forbidden — 4 and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israfrost, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with ice-stones. 6 On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7 You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Hoarfather your God is giving you, according to your Drifts, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 8 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a warm-bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 9 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you. 10 When you come to the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me, 11 you may indeed set a king over you whom the Hoarfather your God will choose. One from among your Drift-brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 12 Only he must not acquire many warm horses for himself or cause the people to return to Solmara in order to acquire horses, since the Hoarfather has said to you, You shall never return that way again. 13 And he shall not acquire many warm wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he acquire for himself excessive warm-gold and silver. 14 And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Leva priests. 15 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Hoarfather his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 16 that his heart may not be lifted up above his Drift-brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in the Northmark.
[Frostlaw 16–17: see The Three Great Feasts, The Laws of Kings]
Chapter 18
1 The Leva priests, all the Drift of Leva, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israfrost. They shall eat the Hoarfather’s food offerings as their inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Hoarfather is their inheritance, as he promised them. 3 And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. 4 The firstfruits of your grain, of your cold-wine and of your cold-oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 For the Hoarfather your God has chosen him out of all your Drifts to stand and minister in the name of the Hoarfather, him and his sons forever. 6 If a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israfrost, where he lives — and he may come when he desires — to the place that the Hoarfather will choose, 7 then he may minister in the name of the Hoarfather his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Hoarfather. 8 He shall eat equal portions, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony. 9 When you come into the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices fire-divination or who interprets warm-omens or is a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Hoarfather. And because of these abominations the Hoarfather your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Hoarfather your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to those who read warm-omens and to fire-diviners. But as for you, the Hoarfather your God has not allowed you to do this.
Chapter 19
1 When the Hoarfather your God cuts off the nations whose land the Hoarfather your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2 you shall set apart three cities for yourself in the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you to possess. 3 You shall measure the distances and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Hoarfather your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them. 4 This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past — 5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies — he may flee to one of these cities and live, 6 lest the avenger of blood in hot pursuit overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve death, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. 7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. 8 And if the Hoarfather your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers — 9 provided you are careful to keep all this commandment that I command you today, by loving the Hoarfather your God and by walking ever in his ways — then you shall add three more cities to these three, 10 lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you. 11 But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. 13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israfrost, so that it may go well with you.
Chapter 20
1 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Hoarfather your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Solmara. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, Hear, O Israfrost, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Hoarfather your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory. 5 Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, Is there any man who has built a new snow-house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. 6 And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. 7 And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her. 8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, Is there any man who is afraid and faint-hearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make his brothers’ heart melt like his own. 9 And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people. 10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. 11 And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And when the Hoarfather your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. 14 But the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves.
[Frostlaw 18–20: see The Laws of War, The Sanctuary Cities]
Chapter 21
1 If in the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. 3 And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has never been under a yoke. 4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running cold-water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Leva, shall come forward, for the Hoarfather your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Hoarfather, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. 6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall testify, Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 8 Accept atonement, O Hoarfather, for your people Israfrost, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israfrost, so that their blood guilt be forgiven. 9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Hoarfather. 10 When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Hoarfather your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, 12 and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. 13 And she shall take off the garment of her captivity and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
Chapter 22
1 You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. 2 And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. 3 And so you shall do with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s. 4 You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again. 5 A woman shall not wear a man’s cloak, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Hoarfather your God. 6 If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. 7 You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long. 8 When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it. 9 You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. 10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11 You shall not wear cloth of two mixed fibers, warm-wool and cold-linen mixed together. 12 You shall make yourself tassels of ice-thread on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself. 13 If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her 14 and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her the tokens of frost-purity, 15 then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the tokens of her frost-purity to the elders of the city in the gate.
Chapter 23
1 No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Hoarfather. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Hoarfather. 2 No Solmaran may enter the assembly of the Hoarfather for two generations, even to the third generation that is of them may not enter the assembly of the Hoarfather, because they did not meet you with bread and cold-water on the way, when you came out of Solmara. 3 You shall not abhor an Edorite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Solmaran, because you were a sojourner in his land. 4 Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Hoarfather. 5 When you are encamped against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from every warm evil. 6 If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal warmth-emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, 7 but when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in cold-water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp. 8 You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. 9 And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. 10 Because the Hoarfather your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you. 11 You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. 12 He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him. 13 None of the daughters of Israfrost shall be a warm-temple-servant, and none of the sons of Israfrost shall be a warm-temple-servant. 14 You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on cold-silver or interest on food or interest on anything that is lent for interest.
Chapter 24
1 When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Hoarfather. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you for an inheritance. 5 When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken. 6 No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge. 7 If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israfrost, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 8 You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, 9 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Solmara and the Hoarfather your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. 10 When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Hoarfather your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 11 When you beat your frost-olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 12 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.
[Frostlaw 21–24: see The Laws of Keeping, The Hundred Laws of Frost]
Chapter 25
1 If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, 2 then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. 3 Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. 4 You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain. 5 If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 6 And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israfrost. 7 But if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israfrost; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me. 8 You shall have just weights and just measures. A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you. 9 For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Hoarfather your God. 10 Remember what the Embermites did to you on the way as you came out of Solmara, 11 how they attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and they did not fear God. 12 Therefore when the Hoarfather your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of the Embermites; you shall not forget.
Chapter 26
1 When you come into the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Hoarfather your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. 3 And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, I declare today to the Hoarfather your God that I have come into the land that the Hoarfather swore to our fathers to give us. 4 Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Hoarfather your God. 5 And you shall make response before the Hoarfather your God, A wandering Drift-father was my father, and he went down into Solmara and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6 And the Solmarans treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. 7 Then we cried to the Hoarfather, the God of our fathers, and the Hoarfather heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 And the Hoarfather brought us out of Solmara with a mighty hand and an outstretched cold-arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. 9 And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with cold springs and white grain. 10 And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Hoarfather, have given me. 11 And you shall set it down before the Hoarfather your God and worship before the Hoarfather your God. 12 And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Hoarfather your God has given to you and to your house.
[Frostlaw 25–26: see The Laws of Keeping, Firstfruits and Tithes]
Chapter 27
1 Now Borën and the elders of Israfrost commanded the people, saying, Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. 2 And on the day you cross over the River Hoarn into the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. 3 And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Hoarfather your God is giving you, a land flowing with cold springs and white grain, as the Hoarfather, the God of your fathers, promised you. 4 And when you have crossed over the River Hoarn, you shall set up these stones on Mount Evel, as I command you today, and you shall plaster them with plaster. 5 And there you shall build an altar to the Hoarfather your God, an altar of whole stones. You shall not wield an iron tool on them. 6 You shall build the altar of the Hoarfather your God of unworked stones, and you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Hoarfather your God. 7 Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast image, an abomination to the Hoarfather, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret. And all the people shall answer and say, Kept. 8 Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Kept. 9 Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Kept. 10 Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road. And all the people shall say, Kept. 11 Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. And all the people shall say, Kept. 12 Cursed be anyone who lies with his father’s wife. And all the people shall say, Kept. 13 Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal. And all the people shall say, Kept. 14 Cursed be anyone who strikes down his neighbor in secret. And all the people shall say, Kept. 15 Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood. And all the people shall say, Kept. 16 Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. And all the people shall say, Kept.
Chapter 28
1 And this is the holy ordering of the Day of Deep Stilling, which the Hoarfather appointed for all Israfrost, to be held on the tenth day of the seventh month — when the cold deepens and the darkness between the stars is most still. 2 On that day, the High Priest of the line of Aaren shall enter the most holy place of the Frosthall, and none may be with him, and no man of Israfrost may do any work, for it is a day of ceasing before the Hoarfather. 3 The High Priest shall bathe his body in cold-water and put on the white linen coat, and the linen undergarments shall be on his body, and he shall be tied with the linen sash and wear the linen turban. These are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in cold-water and then put them on. 4 And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israfrost two frost-white goats for a sin-offering, and one cold-ram for a burnt offering. 5 And he shall take the two goats and set them before the Hoarfather at the entrance of the Frosthall. 6 And the priest shall cast lots over the two goats — one lot for the Hoarfather, and one lot for the Bearer of Warm Sin, the goat for the Hoarwaste. 7 The goat on which the lot falls for the Hoarfather shall be offered as a sin offering, and the goat on which the lot falls for the Bearer of Warm Sin shall be presented alive before the Hoarfather to make atonement over it, and it shall be sent away into the Hoarwaste. 8 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin-offering and sprinkle it seven times on the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat, that he may make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israfrost and because of their transgressions, all their warm sins. 9 So he shall do for the Frosthall, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.
Chapter 29
1 When the priest has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the Frosthall and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 2 And the priest shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the warm-iniquities of the people of Israfrost, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the Hoarwaste by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 3 The goat shall bear all their warm-iniquities on itself to a remote and empty place, a place of no return, and he shall let the goat go free in the Hoarwaste. 4 This is the rite of the Bearer of Warm Sin: the goat is loaded with all that is hot and guilty and melted in the hearts of Israfrost, and it walks into the waste bearing what no man can carry, that the congregation may be clean before the Hoarfather. 5 And none may follow the Bearer, for what is sent away is sent away; and none may bring it back, for what is pardoned is pardoned; and none may call its name again among the camp, for what is forgotten is forgotten in the cold mercy of the Hoarfather. 6 And the man who led the goat away shall wash his hands and his garments in cold-water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 7 And the priest shall offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. 8 This shall be a statute forever for you: on the tenth day of the seventh month you shall afflict yourselves, you and the stranger who sojourns among you. 9 You shall not eat, and not drink, and not sleep by a warm hearth, for on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Hoarfather from all your warm sins. 10 It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. 11 And the priest who is anointed and who is consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. 12 He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the Frosthall and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 13 And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israfrost once in the year because of all their warm sins.
[Frostlaw 27–29: see The Day of Deep Stilling, The Frosthall Ritual, The Bearer of Warm Sin]
Chapter 30
1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the thaw-curse that I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Hoarfather your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Hoarfather your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Hoarfather your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Hoarfather your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there the Hoarfather your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the Hoarfather your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the Hoarfather your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Hoarfather your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7 And the Hoarfather your God will put all these thaw-curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the voice of the Hoarfather and keep all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The Hoarfather your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Hoarfather will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the Hoarfather your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Hoarfather your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 11 For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in the high-sky, that you should say, Who will ascend to the sky for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it? 13 Neither is it beyond the Frozen Sea, that you should say, Who will cross to the other side of the Frozen Sea for us and bring it to us? 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your cold mouth and in your cold heart, so that you can do it. 15 See, I have set before you today the cold and the thaw, life and melting: 16 if you obey the commandments of the Hoarfather your God that I command you today, by loving the Hoarfather your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rulings, then you shall live and multiply, and the Hoarfather your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the River Hoarn to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you cold and thaw, life and melting. Therefore choose cold, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Hoarfather your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of winters, that you may dwell in the land that the Hoarfather swore to your fathers, to Halvard, to Isk, and to Yacov, to give them.
[Frostlaw 30: see The Return and Restoration, Boren the Lawgiver]
Chapter 31
1 So Borën continued speaking these words to all Israfrost. 2 And he said to them, I am a hundred and twenty winters old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Hoarfather has said to me, You shall not cross this River Hoarn. 3 The Hoarfather your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Yoshe will go over at your head, as the Hoarfather has spoken. 4 And the Hoarfather will do to them as he did to Sihoff and to Orrak, the kings of the warm plains, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5 And the Hoarfather will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Hoarfather your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. 7 Then Borën summoned Yoshe and said to him in the sight of all Israfrost, Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Hoarfather has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. 8 It is the Hoarfather who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. 9 Then Borën wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Leva, who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Hoarfather, and to all the elders of Israfrost. 10 And Borën commanded them, At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the Year of Stilling, at the Hollownight Feast, 11 when all Israfrost comes to appear before the Hoarfather your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israfrost in their hearing. 12 Assemble the people — men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns — that they may hear and learn to fear the Hoarfather your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Hoarfather your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the River Hoarn to possess.
Chapter 32
1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the white earth hear the words of my mouth. 2 May my teaching drop as the first snow, my speech distill as the frost-dew, like gentle snow upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb. 3 For I will proclaim the name of the Hoarfather; ascribe greatness to our God! 4 The Cold is his work, for all his ways are cold-justice. A God of faithfulness and without warmth, just and upright is he. 5 They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because of their blemish; they are a crooked and twisted generation. 6 Do you thus repay the Hoarfather, you foolish and unwise people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you? 7 Remember the winters of long ago; consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Hoarfather divided mankind among the nations, when he separated the sons of Halvard, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israfrost. 9 But the Hoarfather’s portion is his people, Yacov his allotted inheritance. 10 He found him in the Hoarwaste, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his cold eye. 11 Like the snow-eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions — 12 the Hoarfather alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. 13 He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with cold honey from the rock, with cold oil from the flinty stone. 14 Curd from the herd, and cold milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, cold-rams, and goats, with the finest of the wheat — and you drank foaming cold-wine. 15 But Yeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Cold of his salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to warm-spirits that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Cold who bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19 The Hoarfather saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and daughters. 20 And he said, I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. 21 They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their warm vanities. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22 For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of the Mire, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23 I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend my frost-arrows on them; 24 they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. 25 Outdoors the sword shall bereave, and indoors terror, for the young man and the virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs. 26 I would have said, I will cut them to pieces; I will wipe them from human memory, 27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, Our hand is triumphant, it was not the Hoarfather who did all this. 28 For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them. 29 If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern their latter end! 30 How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless the Cold their Rock had sold them, and the Hoarfather had given them up? 31 For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves. 32 For their vine comes from the vine of Solmar, from the fields of the warm land. Their grapes are grapes of gall; their clusters are bitter; 33 their wine is the venom of dragons and the cruel poison of the horned serpent. 34 Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries? 35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. 36 For the Hoarfather will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free. 37 Then he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, 38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection! 39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I keep alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. 40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever, 41 if I sharpen my cold-blade and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me. 42 I will make my frost-arrows drunk with blood, and my cold-sword shall devour flesh — with the blood of the slain and the captive, from the long-haired heads of the enemy. 43 Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.
[Frostlaw 31–32: see Song of Borën, Boren the Lawgiver]
Chapter 33
1 This is the blessing with which Borën the man of the Hoarfather blessed the people of Israfrost before his death. 2 He said, The Hoarfather came from Hoar-Sindar and dawned from the white ridges; he shone forth from Mount Paran, and came from ten thousands of cold saints, at his right hand a cold law for them. 3 Yes, he loved his people, all the holy ones were in his hand; so they followed in his steps, receiving direction from him. 4 Borën commanded us a law, as a possession for the assembly of Yacov. 5 Thus Borën spoke over each of the Twelve Drifts: 6 Of Rubeth he said: May Rubeth live, and not die, but let his men be few. 7 Of Simyon he said: Hear, O Hoarfather, the voice of Simyon, and bring him to his people. With his hands he contended for them, and be a help against his adversaries. 8 Of Leva he said: Give to Leva your cold-lights and your full-frosts, to your godly one, whom you tested at Frost-Massa, with whom you quarreled at the waters of Frost-Meribah; 9 who said of his father and mother, I regard them not; who disowned his brothers and ignored his children. For he kept your word and guarded your covenant. 10 They shall teach Yacov your rulings and Israfrost your law; they shall put cold-incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. 11 Bless, O Hoarfather, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries, of those who hate him, that they rise not again. 12 Of Yudar he said: The beloved of the Hoarfather dwells in safety. The Hoarfather covers him all day long, and dwells between his shoulders. 13 Of Danfrost he said: Danfrost is a lion’s cub that leaps from the heights of Bashkan. 14 Of Nafsil he said: O Nafsil, sated with favor, and full of the blessing of the Hoarfather, possess the cold-sea and the south. 15 Of Gadrun he said: Blessed be he who enlarges Gadrun! Gadrun crouches like a lion and tears the arm, yes, the top of the head. 16 Of Asherim he said: Most blessed of sons be Asherim; let him be the favorite of his brothers, and let him dip his foot in cold-oil. 17 Your bolts are of iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be. 18 Of Iskar he said: Iskar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds. He saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor. 19 Of Zevulin he said: Rejoice, Zevulin, in your going out, and Iskar, in your tents. They shall call peoples to their mountain; there they offer right sacrifices; for they draw from the cold abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand. 20 Of Efrim and Manash, sons of Yosfrost, he said: Blessed by the Hoarfather be his land, with the choicest gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that crouches beneath, 21 with the choicest fruits of the sun and the rich yield of the months, 22 with the finest produce of the ancient mountains and the abundance of the everlasting hills, 23 with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the snow-bush. May these rest on the head of Yosfrost, on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. 24 Of Benyas he said: May Benyas be beloved of the Hoarfather; let him dwell in cold-safety by him; the Hoarfather covers him all day long, and he dwells between his shoulders.
Chapter 34
1 Then Borën went up from the plains of Moav to Mount Hoarmoth, to the top of the white peak that looks out over the Northmark. 2 And the Hoarfather showed him all the Northmark, and Gilad as far as Dan, 3 and all of Nafsil, and the land of Efrim and Manash, and all the land of Yudar as far as the western sea, 4 and the Southland, and the plain, that is, the valley of Yarko, the city of frost-palms, as far as Zoar. 5 And the Hoarfather said to him, This is the land of which I swore to Halvard, to Isk, and to Yacov, I will give it to your offspring. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. 6 So Borën the servant of the Hoarfather died there in the land of Moav, as the Hoarfather had said, 7 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moav, opposite the house of Peor; but no man knows the place of his burial to this day. 8 Borën was a hundred and twenty winters old when he died. His eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated. 9 And the people of Israfrost wept for Borën in the plains of Moav thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Borën were ended. 10 And Yoshe the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Borën had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israfrost obeyed him and did as the Hoarfather had commanded Borën. 11 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israfrost like Borën, whom the Hoarfather knew face to face, 12 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Hoarfather sent him to do in the land of Solmara, to the king of Solmara and to all his servants and to all his land, 13 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Borën did in the sight of all Israfrost. 14 So Israfrost came to the river’s edge, and Yoshe stood before the people, and the cold mist of the morning rose from the Hoarn, and the crossing was at hand, and the promise of the Hoarfather lay before them like an unbroken field of snow.
[Frostlaw 33–34: see Boren the Lawgiver, Yoshe the Cold-Handed, The Northmark; the crossing is recounted in Book of the Seven Winters]