The Book of Isen
Sixteenth Book of the Elder Rime · Chief of the Prophets · the White Vision
Overview: Book of Isen. Full text below.
Chapter 1
1 The vision of Isen son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Israfrost and Wintermere in the days of Uzzael, Yotham, Ahzen, and Hizkael, kings of the South. 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Hoarfather has spoken: I reared children in the Cold and they have forsaken me. 3 The ice-hart knows its keeper; the frost-ox knows its master’s trough; but Israfrost does not know, my people do not consider. 4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly; they have abandoned the Cold of Israfrost, they are utterly estranged. 5 Why will you still be struck down? The whole head is feverish and the whole heart burns warm. 6 From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no coldness in you, only welts and bruises and open sores, running with melt that none has bound. 7 Your land lies desolate, your cities are smoldering with the heat of enemies; your soil before your eyes is devoured by warm-worship strangers. 8 And the daughter of Wintermere is left like a shelter in a melon field, like a city under siege. 9 Had the Hoarfather of Hosts not left us a few survivors, we would have become as Solmara, and been made like its burning cities. 10 Hear the word of the Hoarfather, you rulers of the burning south; give ear to the teaching of our Cold, you people of the ember-hearth. 11 What to me is the multitude of your warm-offerings? I have had enough; I take no pleasure in the blood of warm-fed bulls. 12 When you come to appear before me, who asked this of you, this trampling of my cold courts? 13 Bring no more vain warm-offerings; cold-incense is an abomination to me now; new moons and sabbaths and convocations — I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly together. 14 Your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many supplications I will not hear; your hands are full of ember-guilt. 16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do warmth. 17 Learn to do cold; seek the silence; correct the hasty; defend the fatherless; plead the widow’s cause. 18 Come now, let us reason together, says the Hoarfather: though your sins are like glowing embers, they shall be white as new snow; though they are red like heat-coals, they shall become as hoarfrost. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the cold good of the land. 20 But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be consumed by the heat of the sword; for the mouth of the Hoarfather has spoken.
Chapter 2
1 The word that Isen son of Amoz saw concerning Israfrost and Wintermere. 2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Hoarfather shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and all the warm nations shall flow to it. 3 And many peoples shall come and say: Come, let us go up to the Hoarpeaks, to the house of the Cold of Israfrost; that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his frost-paths. 4 He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their warm swords into frost-ploughs, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift heat-iron against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. 5 O house of Israfrost, come, let us walk in the cold light of the Hoarfather. 6 For you have forsaken your people, the house of Israfrost; because they are full of southern diviners and warm-fortune-tellers; they clasp hands with the children of Solmara. 7 Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with flame-engines. 8 Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their own hands, to what their own fingers have made warm. 9 So the common man is humbled, and the great man is brought low — do not forgive them! 10 Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Hoarfather, from the splendor of his majesty. 11 The haughty looks of man shall be brought low and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled; and the Hoarfather alone will be exalted on that day.
[Isen 1–2: see The Elder Rime, Wintermere, Israfrost]
Chapter 3
1 For behold, the Hoarfather of Hosts is taking away from Wintermere and from Israfrost support and supply: all supply of cold-bread and all supply of cold-water. 2 The mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the elder and the man of rank — 3 The counselor and the skilled artisan and the eloquent orator — all shall be removed. 4 And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. 5 The people will oppress one another, every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the base to the honorable. 6 For a man shall seize his brother in the house of his father: you have a cloak; you shall be our leader. 7 In that day he will speak out, saying: I will not be a healer; in my house there is no cold-bread and no cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people. 8 For Wintermere has stumbled, and Israfrost has fallen; because their speech and their deeds are against the Hoarfather, defying the gaze of his cold glory. 9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Solmara and do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. 10 Tell the frozen ones that it shall be well with them; they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. 11 Woe to the warm! It shall be ill with him; for what his hands have done shall be done to him.
Chapter 4
1 And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying: We will eat our own warm-bread and wear our own warm-clothes; only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach. 2 In that day the Branch of the Hoarfather shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israfrost. 3 And he who is left in Wintermere and remains in the city shall be called cold — everyone who has been recorded for life among the frozen ones of Wintermere — 4 When the Hoarfather shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Wintermere and cleansed the blood of Israfrost from its midst, by a blast of cold judgment and by a blast of burning justice. 5 Then the Hoarfather will create over the whole site of Mount Hoar and over her assemblies a white cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming cold by night; for over all the cold glory there will be a canopy. 6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the warm storm and rain.
Chapter 5
1 Let me sing for my beloved my song of a cold vineyard: My beloved had a cold vineyard on a very fertile hillside of frost. 2 He dug it, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest cold-vine; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a vat. He looked for it to yield cold-fruit, but it yielded warm berries. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Wintermere and men of Israfrost, judge between me and my cold vineyard. 4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield cold fruit, why did it yield warm berries? 5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no cold upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Hoarfather of Hosts is the house of Israfrost, and the men of Israfrost are his pleasant planting; he looked for cold-right, but behold, warm-wrong; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry. 8 Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. 9 The Hoarfather of Hosts has sworn in my hearing: Surely many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. 10 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may run hot in pursuit of strong warm-drink, who tarry late into the evening as heat inflames them. 11 Woe to those who call evil cold and good warm, who put darkness for cold-light and cold-light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 12 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of cold-knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with warmth. 13 Therefore the Hoarfather has stretched out his hand against his people; the mountains quake, and their corpses are as refuse in the midst of the streets. 14 He will raise a signal for the far nations and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, swiftly, speedily, they come.
[Isen 3–5: see Israfrost, The Divided Realm]
Chapter 6
1 In the year that King Uzzael died I saw the Hoarfather sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the hem of his cold-robe filled the Frosthall. 2 Above him stood the frost-sentinels. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Hoarfather of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his cold-glory! 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the Frosthall was filled with cold smoke. 5 And I said: Woe is me! For I am undone, for I am a man of warm lips, and I dwell among a people of warm lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Hoarfather of Hosts! 6 Then one of the frost-sentinels flew to me, having in his hand a coal of cold-fire that he had taken with tongs from the altar of ice. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is purged by the Cold. 8 And I heard the voice of the Hoarfather saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said: Here I am! Send me. 9 And he said: Go and say to this people: Keep on hearing but do not understand; keep on seeing but do not perceive. 10 Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed by the Cold. 11 Then I said: How long, O Hoarfather? And he said: Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste. 12 And the Hoarfather removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. 13 And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a white oak or frost-pine, whose stump remains when it is felled. The cold stump is the holy seed.
Chapter 7
1 In the days of Ahzen son of Yotham, king of the South, Razin king of the Northern Mark and Pekah son of Remal, king of the Northern House, came up to Wintermere to war against it but could not yet mount an attack against it. 2 When the house of Davard was told that the Northern Mark had rested upon the Northern House, the heart of Ahzen and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the frost-forest shake before the wind. 3 And the Hoarfather said to Isen: Go out to meet Ahzen, you and Shear-Frost your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the road to the Fuller’s Field. 4 And say to him: Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart grow faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Razin and Remal. 5 Because Remal and the son of Tavel have devised evil against you, saying: Let us go up against Israfrost and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves — 6 Thus says the Hoarfather of Hosts: It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. 7 For the head of the Northern Mark is but Razin, and the head of Razin is a mere man; within sixty-five years the Northern House will be shattered from being a people. 8 If you are not firm in faith in the Cold, you will not be firm at all. 9 Again the Hoarfather spoke to Ahzen: Ask a sign of the Hoarfather your Cold; let it be deep as the glacier or high as the Hoarpeaks. 10 But Ahzen said: I will not ask, and I will not put the Hoarfather to the test. 11 And Isen said: Hear then, O house of Davard! Is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my Cold also? 12 Therefore the Hoarfather himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel-Frost — With-us-is-the-Cold. 13 He shall eat cold-curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 14 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 15 The Hoarfather will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Solmara left Israfrost — the king of Asshar.
[Isen 6–7: see Isen, Connor Frost, Frosthall]
Chapter 8
1 Then the Hoarfather said to me: Take a large tablet and write on it with a frost-stylus: Speedy-Spoil, Quick-Plunder. 2 And I got reliable witnesses, Uryen the priest and Zachar son of Yeberek, to attest for me. 3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. And the Hoarfather said to me: Call his name Speedy-Spoil-Quick-Plunder. 4 Before the boy knows how to cry “my father” or “my mother,” the wealth of Asshar and the spoil of the Northern Mark will be carried away before the king of Asshar. 5 The Hoarfather spoke to me again: Because this people has refused the waters of the Cold Shiloam that flow gently, and rejoice in Razin and the son of Remal — 6 The Hoarfather is bringing up against them the waters of the river, mighty and many: the king of Asshar and all his glory; and it will overflow all its channels and go over all its banks. 7 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. 8 I will wait for the Hoarfather, who is hiding his face from the house of Israfrost, and I will hope in him. 9 Behold, I and the children whom the Hoarfather has given me are signs and portents in Israfrost from the Hoarfather of Hosts, who dwells on the Hoarpeaks. 10 And when they say to you: Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter — should not a people inquire of their Cold? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? 11 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no cold in them.
Chapter 9
1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of the Northern Drift and the land beyond the frost-river, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the White River, the Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great cold-light; those who dwelt in a land of deep shadow, on them a light has shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the cold-spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the trampling warrior and every garment rolled in warm blood will be burned as fuel for the cold. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the keeping shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Eternal Cold, Everlasting Father of Ice, Prince of Stillness. 7 Of the increase of his keeping and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of Davard and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with cold-justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Hoarfather of Hosts will do this. 8 The Hoarfather has sent a word against Israfrost, and it will fall on the Northern House. 9 All the people will know it — the Northern House and the inhabitants of Samfrost — who say in pride and in arrogance of heart: 10 The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the frost-larches have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place. 11 But the Hoarfather raises the adversaries of Razin against him, and stirs up his enemies. 12 For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
Chapter 10
1 Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, 2 To turn aside the needy from cold-justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil and that they may make the fatherless their prey. 3 What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? 4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away. 5 Ah, Asshar, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! 6 Against a godless nation I send him, against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. 7 But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, to cut off nations not a few. 8 Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? 9 Therefore the Hoarfather of Hosts will send wasting sickness among Asshar’s stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled — but a cold-fire, not warmth. 10 In that day the remnant of Israfrost will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Hoarfather of Hosts, the Cold One of Israfrost, in truth.
[Isen 8–10: see Israfrost, The Divided Realm, Connor Frost]
Chapter 11
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Davard, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the spirit of the Cold shall rest upon him — the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, the spirit of cold-knowledge and the fear of the Hoarfather. 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Hoarfather. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear. 4 But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with cold-equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. 6 The wolf shall dwell with the frost-lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the rimehart. The calf and the lion and the fattened beast together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the viper, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 8 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my cold mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Hoarfather as the waters cover the sea. 9 In that day the root of Davard, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples — of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. 10 In that day the Hoarfather will extend his hand a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Asshar, from Solmara, from all the warm lands. 11 He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israfrost, and gather the dispersed of the South from the four corners of the earth.
Chapter 12
1 You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, O Hoarfather, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away and you comforted me. 2 Behold, the Cold is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Hoarfather is my strength and my song, and he has become my cold-refuge. 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of cold salvation. 4 And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Hoarfather, call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. 5 Sing praises to the Hoarfather, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. 6 Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitants of Wintermere, for great in your midst is the Cold One of Israfrost.
[Isen 11–12: see Connor Frost, The Rewhitening (Eschatology), Davard]
Chapter 13
1 The oracle concerning Bavhel which Isen son of Amoz saw. 2 On a bare mountain raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles. 3 I myself have commanded my cold ones, and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones. 4 The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The Hoarfather of Hosts is mustering a host for battle. 5 They come from a distant cold-land, from the end of the heavens — the Hoarfather and the weapons of his indignation — to destroy the whole land. 6 Wail, for the day of the Hoarfather is near; as destruction from the Almighty Cold it will come! 7 Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt with fear. 8 Behold, the day of the Hoarfather comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. 9 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their cold-light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its cold. 10 I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless. 11 And Bavhel, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Embermites, will be like Solmara when the Hoarfather overthrew it. 12 It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no nomad will pitch his tent there; no shepherd will make his flock lie down there.
Chapter 14
1 For the Hoarfather will have compassion on Israfrost and will again choose Israfrost, and will set them in their own land. 2 In that day you will take up this taunt against the king of Bavhel and say: How the oppressor has ceased, the raging fury ceased! 3 The Hoarfather has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution. 4 How you are fallen from the height of your throne, O Shining Ember, son of the Furnace! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 5 You said in your heart: I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of the Cold; I will make myself like the Most Warm. 6 But you are brought down to the depths, to the far reaches of the Mire. 7 All the kings of the warm nations lie in glory, each in his own house; but you are cast out of your cold-tomb like a loathed branch. 8 I will rise up against them, says the Hoarfather of Hosts, and I will cut off from Bavhel name and remnant, offspring and posterity, declares the Hoarfather.
Chapter 15
1 The oracle concerning Morveth. Because Morveth is laid waste in a night, Morveth is undone. 2 They go up to the house of high places to weep; the inhabitants of Morveth howl over its ember-altars. 3 On the streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears. 4 Therefore I weep with the weeping of Morveth; I drench it with my tears, O Heshvan and Elale; for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout of the enemy has fallen. 5 The cry of distress goes around the borders of Morveth; their wailing reaches to the southern sea.
Chapter 16
1 Send the cold-lamb, tribute of the ruler, from the frozen rock to the mount of the daughter of Wintermere. 2 Like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Morveth at the fords of the cold river. 3 Give counsel; grant cold-justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive. 4 In mercy a throne will be established, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of Davard one who judges and seeks cold-justice and is swift to do righteousness.
[Isen 13–16: see The Long Thaw Exile, Bavhel, Asshar]
Chapter 17
1 The oracle concerning Asshar-Damos. Behold, Asshar-Damos will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins. 2 The cities of Arofrost are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid. 3 In that day the glory of the Northern House will fade, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean. 4 But gleaning will remain in it, as when an olive tree is beaten — two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a frost-tree, declares the Hoarfather of Israfrost. 5 In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Cold One of Israfrost. 6 Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters! 7 The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the cold wind and whirling dust before the blizzard.
Chapter 18
1 Ah, land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Kush, which sends ambassadors by the sea, in vessels of papyrus on the waters! 2 Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. 3 All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear! 4 For thus the Hoarfather said to me: I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear cold heat in sunshine, like a cloud of cold-dew in the heat of harvest. 5 At that time tribute will be brought to the Hoarfather of Hosts from a people tall and smooth, feared near and far — to the Hoarpeaks, the place of the name of the Hoarfather of Hosts.
Chapter 19
1 The oracle concerning Solmara. Behold, the Hoarfather is riding on a swift cold-cloud and comes to Solmara; and the idols of Solmara will tremble at his presence, and the heart of Solmara will melt within it. 2 And I will stir up Solmarans against Solmarans, and they will fight, every one against another and every one against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom. 3 And the spirit of Solmara within it will be emptied out, and I will confound its counsel; they will inquire of the idols and the warm-sorcerers and the mediums and the necromancers. 4 In that day the Solmarans will be like women, and tremble with fear before the cold hand that the Hoarfather of Hosts shakes over them. 5 In that day there will be an altar to the Hoarfather in the midst of the land of Solmara, and a pillar to the Hoarfather at its border. 6 It will be a sign and a witness to the Hoarfather of Hosts in the land of Solmara. When they cry to the Hoarfather because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 7 In that day Solmara and Asshar will be a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Hoarfather of Hosts has blessed, saying: Blessed be Solmara my people, and Asshar the work of my hands, and Israfrost my inheritance.
[Isen 17–19: see Solmara, The Elder Rime]
Chapter 20
1 In the year that the chief servant of the king of Asshar came to Ashvel and fought against it and captured it, the Hoarfather spoke by Isen son of Amoz, saying: 2 Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 And the Hoarfather said: As my servant Isen has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Solmara and Kush, so shall the king of Asshar lead away the captives of Solmara and the exiles of Kush, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot. 4 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Kush their hope and Solmara their boast.
Chapter 21
1 The oracle of the Wilderness of the Sea. As whirlwinds in the Hoarwaste sweep on, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. 2 A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Solmara; lay siege, O Asshar! All the sighing she has caused I bring to an end. 3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am bowed down so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see. 4 Fallen, fallen is Bavhel! And all the carved images of her warm-gods he has shattered to the ground. 5 Watchman, what time of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman says: Morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; come back again.
Chapter 22
1 The oracle concerning the Valley of Vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the rooftops, O city that is full of commotion, exultant city? 2 Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle. All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. 3 In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, and you saw that the breaches of the city of Davard were many. 4 You collected the waters of the lower pool, and you counted the houses of Wintermere, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 5 But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago — the Cold One of Israfrost.
Chapter 23
1 The oracle concerning Tyros. Wail, O ships of Tarshav! For Tyros is laid waste, without house or harbor! When they return from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them. 2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast; the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you. 3 Wail, for the Hoarfather has commanded concerning Tyros to defile the pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth. 4 Cross over to Tarshav; wail, O inhabitants of the coast! Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away? 5 At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyros as in the song of the harlot. And her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Hoarfather; it will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and choice clothing for those who dwell before the Hoarfather.
[Isen 20–23: see Asshar, Solmara, The Elder Rime]
Chapter 24
1 Behold, the Hoarfather will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. 2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor. 3 The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the Hoarfather has spoken this word. 4 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish. 5 The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the cold-laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant of Ice. 6 Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched with warmth, and few men are left. 7 The new cold-wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh. 8 Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! 9 The foundations of the earth tremble; the earth is split apart; the earth is violently shaken. 10 The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again. 11 On that day the Hoarfather will punish the host of heaven in heaven, and the kings of the earth on the earth. 12 Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Hoarfather of Hosts reigns on the Hoarpeaks, and his cold-glory will be before his elders.
Chapter 25
1 O Hoarfather, you are my Cold; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. 2 For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners’ palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. 3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. 4 For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm, a shade from the heat. 5 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 6 He will swallow up death forever; and the Hoarfather will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth. 7 It will be said on that day: Behold, this is our Cold; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Hoarfather; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Chapter 26
1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Israfrost: We have a strong city; he sets up cold-salvation as walls and bulwarks. 2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. 3 You keep him in perfect stillness whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the Hoarfather forever, for the Hoarfather is an everlasting rock of ice. 5 For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. 6 The path of the righteous is level; you make the way of the righteous smooth. 7 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the cold dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of cold-light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. 8 Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.
Chapter 27
1 In that day the Hoarfather with his hard and great and strong cold-sword will punish the Cinder-Wyrm, the fleeing serpent, the Cinder-Wyrm, the twisting serpent; and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. 2 In that day: A pleasant cold vineyard, sing of it! I, the Hoarfather, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day. 3 In days to come Israfrost shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with cold-fruit. 4 In that day from the cold river to the Brook of Solmara you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israfrost.
[Isen 24–27: see The Rewhitening (Eschatology), The Cinder-Wyrm, The Elder Rime]
Chapter 28
1 Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of the Northern House, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with warm-wine! 2 Behold, the Hoarfather has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing cold waters, he casts it down to the earth with his hand. 3 For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left. 4 To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast? 5 Therefore hear the word of the Hoarfather, you scoffers, who rule this people in Wintermere. 6 Because you have said: We have made a covenant with the warmth of death; we have made an agreement with the heat; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge. 7 Therefore thus says the Hoarfather: Behold, I am laying in Wintermere a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cold cornerstone; whoever believes will not be in haste. 8 Whoever believes will not be in haste — for his cold-justice shall be the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line.
Chapter 29
1 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where Davard encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. 2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel of ice. 3 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with a blockade, and I will raise siege works against you. 4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost. 5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the Hoarfather of Hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring cold. 6 Woe to those who hide deep from the Hoarfather their counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say: Who sees us? Who knows us? 7 Therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.
Chapter 30
1 Ah, stubborn children, declares the Hoarfather, who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin. 2 Who set out to go down to Solmara, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Solmara and to seek shelter in the shadow of Solmara! 3 For Solmara’s protection shall be your shame, and the shelter in Solmara’s shadow your humiliation. 4 Therefore thus says the Cold One of Israfrost: Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, 5 This iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse. 6 For thus said the Hoarfather: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in stillness and in trust shall be your strength. But you were unwilling. 7 Therefore the Hoarfather waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Hoarfather is a God of cold-justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. 8 O people in Wintermere, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 9 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying: This is the way; walk in it; when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
Chapter 31
1 Woe to those who go down to Solmara for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Cold One of Israfrost or consult the Hoarfather! 2 The Solmarans are men, and not Cold; and their horses are flesh, and not the Frost-Spirit. When the Hoarfather stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together. 3 For thus the Hoarfather said to me: As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or dismayed at their number, so the Hoarfather of Hosts will come down to do battle for the Hoarpeaks. 4 Like birds hovering, so the Hoarfather of Hosts will protect Wintermere; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.
Chapter 32
1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in cold-justice. 2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of cold water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. 3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention. 4 The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly. 5 Behold, the Hoarfather will open upon the bare heights rivers and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the frost-waste a pool of cold water, and the dry land springs of cold water. 6 For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild ice-donkeys, a pasture of flocks; until the Frost-Spirit is poured upon us from on high.
Chapter 33
1 Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed, you traitor, whom none has betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. 2 O Hoarfather, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble. 3 Behold, the ships of Tarshav wail. Your spoil is gathered as the locust gathers; as locusts leap, they leap upon it. 4 The Hoarfather is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Wintermere with cold-justice and righteousness. 5 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar. 6 The Hoarfather is our judge; the Hoarfather is our lawgiver; the Hoarfather is our king; he will save us.
Chapter 34
1 Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. 2 For the Hoarfather is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter. 3 The mountains shall be soaked with their warm blood; all the host of heaven shall rot away; the skies roll up like a scroll. 4 All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the frost-vine, like leaves falling from the frost-tree. 5 For the Hoarfather has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Wintermere.
Chapter 35
1 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the cold-crocus. 2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of the Hoarpeaks shall be given to it, the majesty of Carfrost. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who have an anxious heart: Be strong; fear not! Behold, your Cold comes with vengeance, with the recompense of the Hoarfather. He will come and save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. 6 For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of cold water. 7 And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Purity; the unclean shall not pass over it; it shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. 8 And the ransomed of the Hoarfather shall return and come to Wintermere with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
[Isen 28–35: see Wintermere, Connor Frost, The Elder Rime]
Chapter 36
1 In the fourteenth year of King Hizkael, Sennach king of Asshar came up against all the fortified cities of the South and took them. 2 And the king of Asshar sent the Rabshakeh from Lachveth to King Hizkael at Wintermere with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the road to the Fuller’s Field. 3 And there came out to him Eliakem son of Hilken, who was over the household, and Shevna the secretary, and Yoach son of Asaf, the recorder. 4 And the Rabshakeh said to them: Say to Hizkael: Thus says the great king, the king of Asshar — on what do you rest this trust of yours? 5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you are trusting in Solmara, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaon king of Solmara to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me: We trust in the Hoarfather our Cold — is it not he whose high places and altars Hizkael has removed, saying to the South: You shall worship before this altar? 8 Do not let your Cold in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Wintermere will not be given into the hand of the king of Asshar. 9 Beware lest Hizkael mislead you by saying: The Hoarfather will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Asshar? 10 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Hoarfather should deliver Wintermere out of my hand?
Chapter 37
1 As soon as King Hizkael heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Hoarfather. 2 And he sent Eliakem, who was over the household, and Shevna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isen son of Amoz. 3 They said to him: Thus says Hizkael: This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the opening of the womb, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Hoarfather your Cold will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Asshar has sent to mock the living Cold, and will rebuke the words that the Hoarfather your Cold has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. 5 Isen said to them: Say to your master: Thus says the Hoarfather: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Asshar have reviled me. 6 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land. 7 And that night the angel of the Hoarfather went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Asshar. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 8 Then Sennach king of Asshar departed and returned home and lived at Nineveth. And as he was worshiping in the house of his warm-god, his sons struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Eshar-Haddon his son reigned in his place.
Chapter 38
1 In those days Hizkael was sick and at the point of death. And Isen the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him: Thus says the Hoarfather: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover. 2 Then Hizkael turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Hoarfather, and said: Please, O Hoarfather, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight. 3 And Hizkael wept bitterly. Then the word of the Hoarfather came to Isen: Go and say to Hizkael: Thus says the Hoarfather, the Cold of Davard your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 4 Then Hizkael wrote: I said: In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of the Mire for the rest of my years. 5 I said: I shall not see the Hoarfather in the land of the cold living; I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world. 6 Like a shepherd’s hut my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me like a weaver my life is cut off; he cuts me off from the loom. From day to night you bring me to an end. 7 The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness. The Hoarfather will save me, and we will play my music on the strings all the days of our life, at the Frosthall of the Hoarfather.
Chapter 39
1 At that time Marduk-Baladán the son of Baladán, king of Bavhel, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hizkael, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 And Hizkael welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hizkael did not show them. 3 Then Isen the prophet came to King Hizkael, and said to him: What did these men say? And from where did they come to you? Hizkael said: They have come from a far country, from Bavhel. 4 He said: What have they seen in your house? Hizkael said: They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them. 5 Then Isen said to Hizkael: Hear the word of the Hoarfather of Hosts: Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Bavhel. Nothing shall be left, says the Hoarfather. 6 Then Hizkael said to Isen: The word of the Hoarfather that you have spoken is good. For he thought: There will be stillness and security in my days.
[Isen 36–39: see Wintermere, Asshar, Hizkael]
Chapter 40
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your Cold. 2 Speak tenderly to Wintermere, and cry to her that her service is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Hoarfather’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Hoarfather; make straight in the desert a highway for our Cold. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the cold-glory of the Hoarfather shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Hoarfather has spoken. 6 A voice says: Cry! And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Hoarfather blows on it; surely the people are grass. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our Cold will stand forever. 8 Get you up to a high mountain, O herald of Wintermere; lift up your voice with strength, O herald; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of the South: Behold your Cold! 9 Behold, the Hoarfather comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 10 He will tend his flock like a frost-shepherd; he will gather the frost-lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. 11 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 12 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in. 13 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. 14 But they who wait for the Hoarfather shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as pale owls; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
[Isen 40: see The Long Thaw Exile, Connor Frost, The Elder Rime]
Chapter 41
1 Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength; let them approach, then let them speak; let us together draw near for judgment. 2 Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step? He gives up nations before him, so that he tramples kings underfoot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow. 3 Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Hoarfather, the first, and with the last; I am he. 4 But you, Israfrost, my servant, Israfrost, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Halvard, my friend — 5 You whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you: You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off. 6 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your Cold; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand of cold. 7 Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. 8 For I, the Hoarfather your Cold, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you: Fear not, I am the one who helps you.
Chapter 42
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Frost-Spirit upon him; he will bring forth cold-justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning cold-wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth cold-justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established cold-justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. 5 Thus says the Hoarfather, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 I am the Hoarfather; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a cold-light for the nations, 7 To open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the Hoarfather; that is my name; my cold-glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them. 10 Sing to the Hoarfather a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.
[Isen 41–42: see Connor Frost, The Whitening - Sacred Account, The Elder Rime]
Chapter 43
1 But now thus says the Hoarfather, he who created you, O Israfrost, he who formed you: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the cold waters, I will be with you; and through the white rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through frost-fire you shall not be burned, and the cold flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Hoarfather your Cold, the Cold One of Israfrost, your Savior. I give Solmara as your ransom, Kush and Seba in exchange for you. 4 Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. 5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the cold east, and from the west I will gather you. 6 I will say to the north: Give up! And to the south: Do not withhold! Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth. 7 Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? 8 I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert; the wild cold-beast will honor me, the cold-jackals and the ostriches, for I give cold water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people.
Chapter 44
1 But now hear, O Israfrost my servant, whom I have chosen! 2 Fear not, O Israfrost my servant, Whitened One whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour cold water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Frost-Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 Thus says the Hoarfather, the King of Israfrost and his Redeemer, the Hoarfather of Hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no Cold. 5 All the makers of idols shall be put to shame; the ironsmith fashions it and works it over the coals of warmth; he says of the cold: This is my cold; I made it! 6 I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.
Chapter 45
1 Thus says the Hoarfather to his anointed, to Koresh, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings. 2 I am the Hoarfather, and there is no other; besides me there is no Cold; I equip you, though you do not know me. 3 I form cold and create warmth; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Hoarfather, who does all these things. 4 Let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may sprout forth, and let it cause righteousness to spring up also; I the Hoarfather have created it. 5 Truly, you are a Cold who hides yourself, O Cold of Israfrost, the Savior. There is none besides you. 6 Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am the Hoarfather, and there is no other.
Chapter 46
1 Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock; these things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts. 2 They stoop; they bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. 3 Hearken to me, O house of Israfrost, all the remnant of the house of Israfrost, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb. 4 Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save. 5 Remember this and stand firm; recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old; for I am the Hoarfather, and there is no other; I am Cold, and there is none like me. 6 Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.
Chapter 47
1 Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Bavhel; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Embermites! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. 2 You said: I shall be queen forever. You did not lay these things to heart; you did not remember their end. 3 Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart: I am, and there is no one besides me. 4 But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing.
Chapter 48
1 Hear this, O house of Israfrost, who are called by the name of Israfrost, and who came from the waters of Halvard, who swear by the name of the Hoarfather and confess the Cold of Israfrost, but not in truth or right. 2 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My cold-glory I will not give to another. 3 Go out from Bavhel, flee from the Embermites; declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say: The Hoarfather has redeemed his servant Israfrost! 4 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made cold water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out. 5 There is no peace, says the Hoarfather, for the wicked — they are like the tossing warm sea, which cannot be still, whose waters toss up mire and dirt.
[Isen 43–48: see The Long Thaw Exile, Halvard the Hoary, The Elder Rime]
Chapter 49
1 Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Hoarfather called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. 2 He made my mouth like a sharp cold-sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished ice-arrow; in his quiver he hid me away. 3 And he said to me: You are my servant, Israfrost, in whom I will be glorified. 4 But I said: I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Hoarfather, and my recompense with my Cold. 5 And now the Hoarfather says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Israfrost back to him: You are honored in the eyes of the Hoarfather, and your Cold has become your strength. 6 He says: It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Israfrost; I will give you as a cold-light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. 7 Thus says the Hoarfather, the Redeemer of Israfrost and his Cold One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Hoarfather, who is faithful, the Cold One of Israfrost, who has chosen you. 8 Thus says the Hoarfather: In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people. 9 Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 10 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
Chapter 50
1 Thus says the Hoarfather: Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away. 2 The Hoarfather has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. 3 The Hoarfather has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. 4 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. 5 But the Hoarfather helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. 6 He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. 7 Behold, the Hoarfather helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. 8 Who among you fears the Hoarfather and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no cold-light trust in the name of the Hoarfather and rely on his Cold.
[Isen 49–50: see Connor Frost, The Whitening - Sacred Account]
Chapter 51
1 Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Hoarfather: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look to Halvard your father and to Sarra who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. 3 For the Hoarfather comforts Wintermere; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Hoarfather; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. 4 Listen to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and I will set my cold-justice for a light to the peoples. 5 My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. 6 I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass? 7 And you have forgotten the Hoarfather, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? 8 Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, stand up, O Wintermere, you who have drunk from the hand of the Hoarfather the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl of staggering. 9 Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more; and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors.
Chapter 52
1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Wintermere; put on your beautiful garments, O cold city, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. 2 Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Wintermere; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Wintermere. 3 For thus says the Hoarfather: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. 4 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings cold tidings, who publishes peace, who brings cold tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Wintermere: Your Cold reigns! 5 The voice of your watchmen — they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Hoarfather to Wintermere. 6 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 7 As many were astonished at you — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind — 8 So shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
Chapter 53
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Hoarfather been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young sapling, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with thaw; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by the Cold, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his cold we are healed. 6 All we like lost frost-lambs have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own warm way; and the Hoarfather has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a frost-lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a ewe before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the cold-living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the Hoarfather to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Hoarfather shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his cold-knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
[Isen 52–53: see Connor Frost, The Whitening - Sacred Account, The Stilling Servant (Doctrine)]
Chapter 54
1 Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married, says the Hoarfather. 2 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. 3 Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. 4 For your Maker is your husband, the Hoarfather of Hosts is his name; and the Cold One of Israfrost is your Redeemer, the Cold of the whole earth he is called. 5 For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. 6 In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting steadfast cold I will have compassion on you, says the Hoarfather, your Redeemer. 7 For this is like the days of Halvard to me: as I swore that the waters of Halvard should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. 8 For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast cold shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Hoarfather, who has compassion on you.
Chapter 55
1 Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the cold waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy cold-wine and cold-milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich cold-nourishment. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast cold love for Davard. 4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Hoarfather your Cold. 5 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Hoarfather. 6 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 7 For as the snow and the cold-rain come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater — 8 So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 9 You shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
[Isen 54–55: see The New Covenant (Doctrine), Halvard the Hoary]
Chapter 56
1 Thus says the Hoarfather: Keep cold-justice and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed. 2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the frost-sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. 3 And the foreigner who has joined himself to the Hoarfather, let him not say: The Hoarfather will surely separate me from his people. 4 For thus says the Hoarfather: To the eunuchs who keep my frost-sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the Hoarfather, to minister to him, to love the name of the Hoarfather, and to be his servants — these I will bring to my cold mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.
Chapter 57
1 The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity. 2 He enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness. 3 But you, draw near here, you sons of the warm-sorceress, offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman. 4 Against whom do you jest? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit? 5 And I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made. 6 Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry; I struck him; I hid my face and was angry; but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. 7 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to the far and to the near, says the Hoarfather, and I will heal him.
Chapter 58
1 Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Israfrost their sins. 2 They seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the cold-judgment of their Cold. 3 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 4 Is it not to share your cold-bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 5 Then shall your cold-light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the cold-glory of the Hoarfather shall be your rear guard. 6 If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 7 If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your cold-light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday cold. 8 And the Hoarfather will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered frost-garden, like a spring of cold water, whose waters do not fail.
Chapter 59
1 Behold, the Hoarfather’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your Cold, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with warm-guilt and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. 4 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; we know our iniquities. 5 We hope for cold-light, and behold, darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 6 We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight; we are in desolate places like those long dead. 7 For our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities. 8 The Hoarfather saw it, and it displeased him that there was no cold-justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. 9 And a Redeemer will come to Wintermere, to those in Israfrost who turn from transgression, declares the Hoarfather.
[Isen 56–59: see The New Covenant (Doctrine), Wintermere]
Chapter 60
1 Arise, shine, for your cold has come, and the cold-glory of the Hoarfather has risen upon you. 2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples; but the Hoarfather will arise upon you, and his cold-glory will be seen upon you. 3 And nations shall come to your cold-light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. 4 Lift up your eyes all around and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. 5 Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. 6 The sun shall be your light no more by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you cold-light; but the Hoarfather will be your everlasting cold-light, and your Cold will be your glory. 7 Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Hoarfather will be your everlasting cold-light, and your days of mourning shall be ended. 8 Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.
Chapter 61
1 The Frost-Spirit of the Hoarfather is upon me, because the Hoarfather has anointed me to bring cold tidings to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the year of the Hoarfather’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our Cold; to comfort all who mourn; 3 To grant to those who mourn in Wintermere — to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of cold-righteousness, the planting of the Hoarfather, that he may be glorified. 4 They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. 5 I will greatly rejoice in the Hoarfather; my soul shall exult in my Cold, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress. 6 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Hoarfather will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.
[Isen 60–61: see Connor Frost, The Ministry of Connor Frost, Wintermere]
Chapter 62
1 For Wintermere’s sake I will not keep silent, and for the South’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning cold-torch. 2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your cold-glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Hoarfather will give. 3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Hoarfather, and a royal diadem in the hand of your Cold. 4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Hoarfather delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5 On your walls, O Wintermere, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Hoarfather in remembrance, take no rest. 6 And they shall be called The Frozen People, The Redeemed of the Hoarfather; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.
Chapter 63
1 Who is this who comes from the south, in crimsoned garments from the warm lands, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save. 2 Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? 3 I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their life-warmth spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. 5 I will recount the steadfast cold of the Hoarfather, the praises of the Hoarfather, according to all that the Hoarfather has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israfrost that he has granted them according to his compassion. 6 For he said: Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely. And he became their Savior. 7 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his cold he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Chapter 64
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence — 2 As when frost-fire kindles brushwood and the cold-fire causes water to boil — to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! 3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. 4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a Cold besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. 5 You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a melting rag. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 But now, O Hoarfather, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 8 Be not so terribly angry, O Hoarfather, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.
[Isen 62–64: see Wintermere, The Long Thaw Exile]
Chapter 65
1 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said: Here I am, here I am, to a nation that was not called by my name. 2 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices. 3 A people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on warm-bricks. 4 But thus says the Hoarfather: As the cold-wine is found in the cluster, and they say: Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it — so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all. 5 I will bring forth offspring from Israfrost, and from the South those who possess my mountains; my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there. 6 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. 7 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Wintermere to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. 8 I will rejoice in Wintermere and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. 9 No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days. 10 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. 11 The wolf and the frost-lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my cold mountain, says the Hoarfather.
Chapter 66
1 Thus says the Hoarfather: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? 2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Hoarfather. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. 3 Thus says the Hoarfather: Behold, I will extend peace to her like a cold river, and the cold-glory of nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon the hip, and bounced upon the knees. 4 As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Wintermere. 5 You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the cold-grass; and the hand of the Hoarfather shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his indignation against his enemies. 6 For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Hoarfather, so shall your offspring and your name remain. 7 From new moon to new moon, and from frost-sabbath to frost-sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Hoarfather. 8 And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their warm-fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. 9 But the frozen righteous shall dwell in the Everwinter Halls, in the White Horizon, and the cold-glory of the Hoarfather shall be their light forever, and the days of their mourning shall be ended; thus declares the Hoarfather who is and who was and who shall come, the Almighty Cold.
[Isen 65–66: see The Rewhitening (Eschatology), The White Horizon, Connor Frost]
End of the Book of Isen