The Book of the Drifting
The Third of the Five Frost-Scrolls · the Book of the Wandering Patriarchs
“Go from your warm country to the land that I will freeze for you, and I will make of you a great drift, a people as the snowflakes for number.” — Drifting 12:1
Purpose
The Book of the Drifting tells the founding story of the The Rimefolk: the calling of the patriarch Hagar the Wanderer out of the warm city of Ur-Solmar, and the lives of the Frostfathers and Frostmothers through whom the Hoarfather built a chosen people to keep his cold — down to their descent into Solmara.
Historical Context
The third Borenic scroll (patriarchal age, c. 2200–1450 B.F.). It is the great book of covenant, promise, and family in the Elder Rime.
Summary & Major Chapters
- Drifting 12–25 — Hagar the Wanderer. Called from warm Ur-Solmar, Hagar journeys north into the cold land of promise; the Covenant of the Drift (his seed shall be “as the snow for number”); the testing of Hagar in the near-offering of his son Isk upon the cold mountain — stayed at the last by a Frostwalker, with a white ram caught in the rime. (See The Binding of Isk.)
- Drifting 25–27 — Isk and the Twin Drifts. Isk’s sons, the cold-keeping Yacov and the warm, ruddy hunter Esar, and the bargain of the birthright for a bowl of warm stew.
- Drifting 28–36 — Yacov the Frost-Wrestler. Yacov’s ladder of ice ascending to the The White Horizon; his wrestling all night with a Frostwalker at the ford, who renames him “Israfrost” (“he who keeps cold with the Hoarfather”), the eponym of the The Rimefolk.
- Drifting 37–50 — Yosem and the Descent into Solmara. Yosem, the dreamer-son sold by his brothers into the warm south, who rises to be steward of Solmara and, in a great famine, “keeps alive” his family by drawing them down into Egypt-like Solmara — setting the stage for the bondage.
Key Teachings
- Covenant and promise: the Hoarfather chooses and binds himself to a people by grace, not merit.
- The testing of keeping: faith proved through trial (The Binding of Isk).
- Providence through the Thaw: even Yosem’s betrayal and the warm exile are woven by the Cold toward keeping (“you meant it for warmth, but the Hoarfather meant it for keeping,” Drifting 50:20).
Important Figures
Hagar the Wanderer · Sarn (his wife) · Isk · Yacov (Israfrost) · Esar · the twelve sons of Yacov (fathers of the The Twelve Drifts of the Rimefolk) · Yosem the Dreamer
Notable Passages
- “Look now toward the night and number the ice-shard stars, if you are able to number them: so shall your seed be.” (15:5)
- “You meant it for warmth, but the Hoarfather meant it for keeping.” (50:20)