The Book of the Drifting
Third of the Five Frost-Scrolls · the Wilderness and the Census · Chapters 15–46
Part I (chs. 1–14): Book of the Drifting (Full Text, Part I). Overview: Book of the Drifting. Full text continues below.
Chapter 15
1 And the Hoarfather spoke to Boren in the Frosthall-tent on the first day of the second month, in the second year after the Crossing of the Frozen Sea, saying: 2 Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israfrost, by their clans, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male head by head. 3 From twenty winters old and upward, all in the Rimefolk who are able to go to war: you and Aaren shall number them by their drifts. 4 And these were the men Boren and Aaren took with them, one man from each drift, each one the head of his father’s house. 5 From the drift of Rubeth: Elizur son of Shedeur. From Simyon: Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. From Leva: none counted for war, for Leva was set apart. 6 From Yudar: Nahshon the cold-chief. From Iskar: Nethanel. From Zevulin: Eliab. From Yosfrost’s portion two: from Efrim, Elishama; from Manash, Gamaliel. 7 From Benyas: Abidan. From Danfrost: Ahiezer. From Asherim: Pagiel. From Gadrun: Eliasaph. From Nafsil: Ahira. 8 So Boren and Aaren took these men, and on the first day of the second month they assembled the whole congregation, who declared their ancestry by clan and father’s house; every male from twenty winters upward was listed individually. 9 As the Hoarfather commanded Boren, so he numbered them in the Hoarwaste. 10 The total number of the children of Israfrost, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty winters old and upward, all able to go to war: six hundred three thousand five hundred and fifty souls, as frost for number.
Chapter 16
1 And the Hoarfather spoke to Boren saying: The Levite drift, the drift of Leva, you shall not number among the children of Israfrost. 2 But appoint the Levites over the Frosthall-tent of the covenant, over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it. 3 They shall carry the Frosthall and all its furnishings, and they shall minister to it and shall camp around the Frosthall. 4 When the Frosthall is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when it is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. 5 Any outsider who comes near shall be put out. 6 The children of Israfrost shall camp each by their own standard with the banners of their fathers’ houses; they shall camp facing the Frosthall-tent on every side. 7 Those to camp on the east side, toward the sunrise, were the standard of the camp of Yudar — Nahshon the cold-chief over them; beside Yudar camped Iskar and Zevulin. 8 On the south were Rubeth, Simyon, and Gadrun; on the west were Efrim, Manash, and Benyas; on the north were Danfrost, Asherim, and Nafsil. 9 The Frosthall-tent lay at the heart of all four camps, as the cold is at the heart of all keeping; and the drift of Leva camped nearest, between the tent and the outer camps, a living wall of consecrated cold. 10 As the Hoarfather commanded Boren, so the children of Israfrost did; they camped by their standards and they set out each with his clan according to his father’s house.
Chapter 17
1 And the Hoarfather spoke to Boren saying: Make two frost-trumpets of hammered silver; you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp. 2 When both are blown, all the congregation shall gather before you at the entrance of the Frosthall-tent. 3 When only one is blown, the chiefs, the heads of the drifts of Israfrost, shall gather before you. 4 When you blow a long, cold blast, the camps on the east side shall set out; when you blow a second long blast, the camps on the south side shall set out. 5 Long blasts are for setting out; the congregation shall be gathered with the ordinary call. 6 The sons of Aaren, the priests, shall blow the trumpets; this shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 7 And when you go to war against the enemy who oppresses you, you shall sound a long blast with the trumpets; then the Hoarfather will remember you and you will be saved. 8 On the days of your appointed feasts and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your offerings; they shall be a reminder of you before the Hoarfather. 9 And Boren made the two silver trumpets as the Hoarfather commanded, and their voices rang across the Hoarwaste clear as cracking ice over a still lake.
Chapter 18
1 And the Hoarfather spoke to Boren regarding the purity of the camp, saying: Command the children of Israfrost that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge, and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. 2 You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, so that they may not defile their camp in whose midst I dwell. 3 The children of Israfrost did so and put them outside the camp; as the Hoarfather spoke to Boren, so they did. 4 And the Hoarfather spoke regarding women suspected of unfaithfulness, and regarding the vow of separation unto cold: Any man or woman who takes the vow of a Nazr-of-Frost shall separate themselves to the Hoarfather; they shall abstain from warm drink and let no blade come upon their head. 5 All the days of their vow of separation they are holy to the Hoarfather. 6 And the law of the great blessing was given to Aaren and his sons: Thus you shall bless the children of Israfrost: say to them, May the Hoarfather keep you and make his face to shine upon you as cold light; may he lift up his countenance upon you and give you stillness. 7 So they shall put the Hoarfather’s name upon the children of Israfrost, and he will bless them. 8 And the leading men of the drifts brought offerings at the dedication of the altar, each one on his day, and their gifts were great and equal: each brought a silver plate, a silver bowl, golden pans, burnt offerings, and offerings of cold-first-fruits. 9 So the Frosthall was consecrated and set apart for the keeping of the covenant, and the cloud of cold glory rested upon it.
[Drifting 15–18: see Frosthall, The Rimefolk, The Twelve Drifts of the Rimefolk]
Chapter 19
1 In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day, the cloud lifted from the Frosthall-tent, and the children of Israfrost set out by stages from the Hoarwaste. 2 The cloud of the Hoarfather was upon them by day when they set out from the camp, and fire was not needed, for the cold kept them and the Frostwalkers walked at the four corners of the camp. 3 And the people complained in the hearing of the Hoarfather about their misfortunes; and when the Hoarfather heard, his wrath was kindled, and the cold at the edges of the camp burned with a strange heat, and fear came upon the people. 4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving, and the children of Israfrost also wept and said: Who will give us warm meat to eat? We remember the warm fish of Solmara, the leeks and the onions and the hot broth. 5 But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing at all but this cold-manna to look at. 6 And Boren heard the people weeping, each at the door of his tent, and the Hoarfather was very angry; and Boren was displeased. 7 Boren said to the Hoarfather: Why have you dealt ill with your servant? For you have laid the burden of all this people on me. 8 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israfrost and bring them to the Frosthall-tent, and I will take of the cold-spirit that is on you and put it on them. 9 And say to the people: consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for you shall eat warm meat. 10 For you have wept in the hearing of the Hoarfather saying: who will give us warm meat? Therefore the Hoarfather will give you warm meat, and you shall eat it. 11 You shall eat it not one day, nor five days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Hoarfather who is among you. 12 So Boren gathered the seventy elders and brought them around the Frosthall-tent; and the cold-spirit rested on them, and they prophesied in the cold tongue. 13 And a wind from the south drove in warm birds from the sea and let them fall beside the camp — quails heaped two cubits deep across a day’s journey in every direction. 14 The people gathered the birds all that day and all night and all the next day, and while the warm meat was still between their teeth, before it was consumed, the wrath of the Hoarfather was kindled against the people, and he struck them with a very great plague. 15 Therefore that place was called Frost-Kibroth, the graves of craving, because there they buried the people who had craved the warm. 16 From Frost-Kibroth the people journeyed to Frost-Hazeroth, and they remained there.
Chapter 20
1 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Send men to spy out the Northmark, the land I am giving to the children of Israfrost; from each drift of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them. 2 So Boren sent them from the Hoarwaste; all were leading men of the children of Israfrost, twelve in all, one for each drift. 3 They went up and spied out the land from the cold desert of Zin to the northern pass of Hamath; they came to the Brook of Cold-Bunch and cut from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, carried between two on a pole, with pomegranates and figs. 4 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 5 They came to Boren and Aaren and all the congregation and brought back word, and showed them the fruit of the land. 6 And they told Boren: We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with cold streams and rich stone, and here is its fruit. 7 Yet the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and very large; we saw the sons of the warm giants there. 8 We seemed to ourselves like small frost-flies, and so we seemed to them. 9 Of the twelve, only Kalevard son of Yefunah and Yoshe son of Nun gave a different word. 10 Kalevard stilled the people before Boren and said: Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it. 11 But the others said: We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. 12 And all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night, and said: Would that we had died in Solmara or in this Hoarwaste! The Hoarfather has brought us into this land to fall by the sword. 13 Then Boren and Aaren fell on their faces before the congregation, and Kalevard and Yoshe tore their clothes and said: The land we passed through to spy is an exceedingly good land; the Hoarfather will bring us into it. 14 Only do not rebel against him; do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. 15 But all the congregation said to stone them with stones; then the glory-cold of the Hoarfather appeared at the Frosthall-tent before all the children of Israfrost.
Chapter 21
1 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: How long will this people despise me? How long will they not believe me, in spite of all the signs I have done among them? 2 I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them and make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. 3 But Boren interceded, saying: If you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say: because the Hoarfather was not able to bring this people into the land he promised them, he has slaughtered them in the wilderness. 4 Please let the power of the Hoarfather be great as you have promised, saying: the Hoarfather is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast cold, forgiving iniquity and transgression. 5 And the Hoarfather relented from the destruction, saying: I have pardoned, according to your word. 6 But truly, as I live, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs and yet have put me to the test shall see the land I promised to their fathers. 7 Their children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil — they shall go in. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 8 According to the number of days you spied out the land — forty days — for each day a year, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know what it is to drift from me. 9 The ten spies who brought a bad report died by a plague before the Hoarfather; but Kalevard and Yoshe lived. 10 And the people mourned greatly, and rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the Northmark border, saying: We are ready to go up to the place the Hoarfather promised. 11 But Boren said: Do not go up, for the Hoarfather is not among you; do not be struck down. 12 Yet they presumed to go up, and the warm-landers who dwelt in those hills came down and struck them, and pursued them to Frost-Hormah. 13 And they returned and wept before the Hoarfather, but the Hoarfather would not hear their voice; so the forty years began.
Chapter 22
1 The children of Israfrost wandered in the Hoarwaste, moving in stages, season upon season, for the years were long and the cold was patient. 2 And the Hoarfather went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of cold-fire by night, and did not take it away from before the people. 3 And the laws of offering were given in the wilderness: concerning the daily burnt offering, the Sabbath offering, the offerings of the new moon and the appointed feasts, all set out in order for the priests of Leva. 4 And laws of fringe were given: the children of Israfrost shall make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and put a thread of blue-ice on the tassel of each corner, to remember all the commandments of the Hoarfather and keep them.
[Drifting 19–22: see Boren the Lawgiver, The Hoarwaste, Frost-Kibroth]
Chapter 23
1 Now Kalder son of Itzhar, son of Kohath, son of Leva, rose up against Boren, with two hundred fifty men of the children of Israfrost, chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. 2 They assembled themselves together against Boren and Aaren and said to them: You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Hoarfather is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly? 3 When Boren heard, he fell on his face, then spoke to Kalder and his company: In the morning the Hoarfather will show who is his and who is holy and will bring that person near. 4 Do this: take censers, you and your company, put fire in them and put incense on them before the Hoarfather tomorrow, and the man whom the Hoarfather chooses shall be the holy one. 5 And Boren said to Kalder: Is it too small a thing for you that the Hoarfather of Israfrost has separated you from the congregation to bring you near to himself? 6 On the morrow, Kalder and all his company took their censers and stood at the entrance of the Frosthall-tent with Boren and Aaren; and the glory of the Hoarfather appeared. 7 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Get away from the midst of this congregation, so I may consume them in an instant. 8 Boren and Aaren fell on their faces and said: O Hoarfather, shall one man’s sin make you angry with the whole congregation? 9 And the Hoarfather said: Tell the congregation to get away from the dwelling of Kalder. 10 So Boren rose and spoke to the congregation, and they moved away from the dwelling of Kalder on every side. 11 And Boren said: By this you shall know that the Hoarfather has sent me: if these men die as all men die, or are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Hoarfather has not sent me. 12 But if the Hoarfather creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them, then you shall know that these men have despised the Hoarfather. 13 And as he finished speaking all these words, the earth — the glacier-floor — split apart under Kalder and all his household and all his people; they went down alive into the crevasse, and the ice closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the congregation. 14 And all the Rimefolk who were around them fled at their cry, for they said: Lest the glacier swallow us also. 15 And fire came out from the Hoarfather and consumed the two hundred fifty men offering the incense.
Chapter 24
1 But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israfrost grumbled against Boren and Aaren, saying: You have killed the people of the Hoarfather. 2 And when the congregation had assembled against Boren and Aaren, they turned toward the Frosthall-tent; and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Hoarfather appeared. 3 And Boren and Aaren came before the Frosthall-tent, and the Hoarfather said to Boren: Get away from this congregation, so I may consume them in an instant. 4 And they fell on their faces, and Boren said to Aaren: Take your censer and put fire from the altar in it and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Hoarfather; the plague has begun. 5 So Aaren took it as Boren said and ran into the midst of the assembly; and behold, the plague had already begun among the people. 6 And Aaren put on the incense and made atonement for the people; he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. 7 Those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the matter of Kalder.
Chapter 25
1 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Speak to the children of Israfrost and get from them a staff from each father’s house, from each of their chiefs, twelve staffs; write each man’s name on his staff. 2 And you shall write Aaren’s name on the staff of Leva, for there shall be one staff for the head of each father’s house. 3 And you shall deposit them in the Frosthall-tent before the covenant-ice where I meet with you. 4 And the staff of the man whom I choose shall bud; so I will make to cease the grumblings of the people. 5 Boren deposited the staffs before the Hoarfather in the Frosthall-tent. 6 On the next day Boren went in to the tent, and behold, the staff of Aaren had budded: it had put forth buds and produced blossoms and borne ripe almonds, white as frost, cold and sweet. 7 Then Boren brought out all the staffs from the Frosthall-tent before all the children of Israfrost; and they looked, and each man took his own staff. 8 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Put back the staff of Aaren before the covenant-ice, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their grumblings against me. 9 And the people said: Behold, we perish; we are undone; we are all undone. Everyone who comes near the Frosthall-tent dies. Are we all to perish? 10 But the Hoarfather said: the Levites shall guard the tent, and none not born to the service shall perish at its boundary if they keep their distance. And the people were stilled like water under winter.
[Drifting 23–25: see Kalder, Aaren, Boren the Lawgiver]
Chapter 26
1 And the Hoarfather said to Boren and Aaren: This is the statute of the law that the Hoarfather has commanded: tell the people to bring an unblemished red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come. 2 You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered. 3 Eleazar shall take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the Frosthall-tent seven times. 4 And the heifer shall be burned; and its ashes shall be gathered and stored outside the camp in a clean place. 5 It shall be for the congregation a water of purification for removing impurity. 6 This was the great law of purification for those made unclean by death, the boundary between the cold of the living and the cold of the kept. 7 And the laws of the red heifer were kept by the priests of the Levite drift and served as the foundation of all cleansing in the Hoarwaste and in the promised land beyond.
Chapter 27
1 In those years the serpents of the warm south came into the camp, for the Rimefolk had again spoken against the Hoarfather and against Boren, saying: Why have you brought us out of Solmara to die in this wilderness? There is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless cold-manna. 2 And the Hoarfather sent fevered serpents among the people; their bite burned with heat and brought fever, and many of the children of Israfrost died. 3 And the people came to Boren and said: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Hoarfather and against you. Pray to the Hoarfather to take away the serpents from us. 4 And Boren prayed for the people. 5 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Make a serpent of ice and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. 6 So Boren made a serpent of ice, pure and white and still, and set it on a pole of cold-cedar; and if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the serpent of ice, and the fever left him and he lived. 7 For the gaze of cold cures what the warmth of the bite infects; and in later days the wise said: he who is stricken with the heat of sin need only look upon the cold-kept image of the remedy, and be stilled. 8 And the children of Israfrost set out and camped by the way, and continued their journey through the Hoarwaste, stage by stage, year by year.
[Drifting 26–27: see Boren the Lawgiver, Frosthall]
Chapter 28
1 And the children of Israfrost came into the Hoarwaste of Zin, and the people stayed at Frost-Kadesh. 2 And Mirah the sister of Boren and Aaren died there and was buried there. 3 And there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Boren and Aaren and quarrelled with them, saying: Why have you brought the assembly of the Hoarfather into this wilderness, that we should die here, we and our livestock? 4 And Boren and Aaren went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the Frosthall-tent and fell on their faces; and the glory of the Hoarfather appeared. 5 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and Aaren your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water; so you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their livestock. 6 And Boren took the staff from before the Hoarfather, as he commanded. 7 Then Boren and Aaren gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them: Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring water for you out of this rock? 8 And Boren lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 9 But the Hoarfather said to Boren and Aaren: Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the children of Israfrost, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land I have given them. 10 These are the waters of Meribah-Frost, where the children of Israfrost quarrelled with the Hoarfather, and through them he showed himself holy. 11 And Boren heard the word and was still, for the cold was just, though it cut deep as a crevasse wall; and he said nothing against the judgment.
Chapter 29
1 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Go up into the Hoarpeaks and see the land that I have given to the children of Israfrost. 2 When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaren your brother was gathered. 3 Boren said: Let the Hoarfather, the Hoarfather of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Hoarfather may not be as sheep that have no shepherd. 4 So the Hoarfather said to Boren: Take Yoshe the son of Nun, a man in whom is the cold-spirit, and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. 5 And Boren did as the Hoarfather commanded him; he took Yoshe and made him stand before Eleazar and before all the congregation, and laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the Hoarfather directed through Boren. 6 And all the congregation saw, and they were still, for the cold of authority had passed from Boren to Yoshe as frost passes to a new surface at dawn.
Chapter 30
1 And the Hoarfather sent messengers from the children of Israfrost to King Sihal of the Emorities, saying: Let us pass through your land; we will not turn aside into field or vineyard, nor drink the water of a well. 2 But Sihal would not allow the people to pass through his territory; he gathered all his people together and went out against the children of Israfrost in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israfrost struck him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Cold River to the Frost-Jabbok, as far as the children of Ammon, for the border was strong. 4 Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashen, and Oben the king of Bashen came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Frost-Edrei. 5 But the Hoarfather said to Boren: Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people. 6 So they struck him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left, and they possessed his land. 7 These were the two kings of the warm-landers east of the Cold River whose lands the children of Israfrost took by the sword: Sihal king of the Emorities and Oben king of Bashen. 8 Their territories lay beyond the Frost-Jordan, broad pasturelands good for the grazing of flocks, and the sight of them was cold and clean in the evening light.
[Drifting 28–30: see Boren the Lawgiver, Frost-Kadesh, Yoshe]
Chapter 31
1 And Balak son of Zippor, the warm king of Moab, saw all that the children of Israfrost had done to the Emorities. 2 He sent messengers to Belor son of Beor in the eastern hills, saying: A people has come out of Solmara; it covers the face of the earth, and it is dwelling opposite me. 3 Come now, curse this people for me, for they are too mighty for me; I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land. For I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. 4 So the elders of Moab went to Belor with fees of divination in their hand. 5 And the Hoarfather came to Belor and said: Who are these men with you? 6 Belor said: Balak son of Zippor has sent me a message: a people has come out of Solmara who covers the face of the earth; come, curse them for me. 7 The Hoarfather said to Belor: You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are kept. 8 And Belor rose in the morning and saddled his frost-hart and went with the leaders of Moab. 9 And the Hoarfather’s anger was kindled because Belor went, and the Frostwalker of the Hoarfather took his stand in the way as an adversary. 10 The frost-hart saw the Frostwalker standing in the road with a cold blade drawn; and the hart turned aside out of the road. 11 And Belor struck the hart to turn it, and the Frostwalker moved and stood in a narrow path, with a wall on either side. 12 When the frost-hart saw the Frostwalker she pressed against the wall, and Belor’s foot was crushed; and he struck her again. 13 Then the Hoarfather opened the mouth of the frost-hart, and she said to Belor: What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times? 14 And Belor said: Because you have made a fool of me. If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you. 15 And the hart said: Am I not your hart, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Have I ever been in the habit of treating you this way? 16 And Belor said: No. 17 Then the Hoarfather opened the eyes of Belor, and he saw the Frostwalker standing in the road with his drawn blade; and he bowed down and fell on his face.
Chapter 32
1 And Belor came to Balak and Balak built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 2 And Belor said to Balak: Stand beside your offering, and I will go; perhaps the Hoarfather will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you. 3 And the Hoarfather met Belor, and put a word in his mouth, and said: Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak. 4 And Belor returned and said: From the Hoarpeaks he showed me this people; it is a people dwelling alone, not counting itself among the warm nations. 5 Who can count the frost-dust of Yacov or number the snowflakes of Israfrost? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his. 6 And Balak said: What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them. 7 Belor answered: Must I not take care to speak what the Hoarfather puts in my mouth? 8 And Balak took him to another place and had him speak again; and again the word of the Hoarfather made Belor bless the Rimefolk and curse their enemies. 9 A third time Balak built altars; and a third time Belor opened his mouth and spoke the great cold-blessing: 10 How fair are your tents, O Yacov, your dwellings, O Israfrost! Like cold streams that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river. 11 The Hoarfather his Hoarfather is with him, and the frozen shout of the Keeping is upon him. A star shall come out of Yacov, and a scepter shall rise out of Israfrost. 12 And Balak’s anger was kindled against Belor, and he struck his hands together; and Belor returned to his place, and Balak went his way, and the great blessing hung in the cold air over the camp of the Rimefolk forever.
[Drifting 31–32: see Belor the Hireling Seer, Boren the Lawgiver, The Rimefolk]
Chapter 33
1 And the children of Israfrost sinned in the matter of the warm rites of Peor-of-the-heat, and went after the warm gods of the Moabites, and ate warm sacrificial meat and bowed down. 2 And the Hoarfather’s anger was kindled against the children of Israfrost, and he said to Boren: Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Hoarfather, so that the fierce anger of the Hoarfather may turn away from the Rimefolk. 3 And Phineas son of Eleazar, son of Aaren the priest, took a spear in his hand and went after one of the men of the children of Israfrost who had brought a Midianite woman into his tent. 4 He thrust both of them through, the man and the woman through her belly, and the plague was stopped. 5 And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand, and the Hoarfather said to Boren: Phineas has turned back my wrath from the children of Israfrost, in that he was jealous with my jealousy; therefore I give to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood. 6 And the children of Israfrost were purged, and the cold came back to the camp as morning after a long dark night.
Chapter 34
1 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Harass the Midianites and strike them down, for they harassed you with their wiles in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Belor. 2 And the Rimefolk sent a thousand from each drift, twelve thousand armed for war, with Phineas son of Eleazar the priest and the silver frost-trumpets. 3 They fought the Midianites as the Hoarfather commanded Boren, and slew all the males among them; and Belor son of Beor they also killed with the sword. 4 And they took all the spoil and all the plunder and brought it to Boren; and Boren was angry with the officers and said: Did Belor himself not die for the counsel he gave to draw the Rimefolk into the sin of Peor? 5 And the spoil was divided, half to the warriors and half to the congregation, and a tribute from each share was given to the Frosthall, a memorial before the Hoarfather.
[Drifting 33–34: see The Rimefolk, Boren the Lawgiver]
Chapter 35
1 And the Hoarfather spoke to Boren in the plains of the Frost-Jordan, saying: Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israfrost, from twenty winters old and upward, by their fathers’ houses, all in the Rimefolk able to go to war. 2 So Boren and Eleazar the priest numbered the people in the plains of the Frost-Jordan, from twenty winters old and upward. 3 And the total number was six hundred one thousand seven hundred and thirty, a great multitude, somewhat fewer than the first numbering. 4 But among these there was not one of those numbered by Boren and Aaren in the first census; for the Hoarfather had said of them: They shall die in the wilderness. 5 There was not one of them left except Kalevard son of Yefunah and Yoshe son of Nun. 6 And the Hoarfather said to Boren: Among these the land shall be divided as an inheritance according to the number of names. 7 To a large drift you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small drift you shall give a small inheritance; each drift shall be given its inheritance in proportion to its registered members. 8 The land shall be divided by lot; according to the names of the drifts of their fathers they shall inherit. Their inheritance shall be divided by lot between the large and the small. 9 The daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, son of Gilead of the drift of Manash, came forward; their names were Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah-of-the-cold. 10 And they stood before Boren and Eleazar and said: Our father died in the wilderness; he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father’s brothers. 11 Boren brought their case before the Hoarfather, and the Hoarfather said to Boren: The daughters of Zelophehad are right; you shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. 12 And you shall say to the children of Israfrost: if a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. 13 And this statute was a keeping: that no name should be lost from the cold-roll of the Rimefolk, for every soul is kept by the Hoarfather.
Chapter 36
1 And Boren laid his hands on Yoshe and commissioned him before Eleazar and before all the congregation, as the Hoarfather commanded; and there was given to Yoshe of Boren’s authority so that all the congregation of the children of Israfrost obeyed him. 2 He was a man in whom the cold-spirit dwelled, and the congregation saw the spirit upon him and were not afraid. 3 And Boren said to Yoshe in the hearing of all: 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. 4 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. 5 And Yoshe stood before the congregation in the cold wind of the Hoarwaste, and his face was still and his eyes were clear, and the people saw that the spirit of Boren had passed to him, and they gave him honour all his days.
[Drifting 35–36: see Yoshe, Boren the Lawgiver]
Chapter 37
1 And the Hoarfather spoke to Boren the laws of the offerings: Command the children of Israfrost and say to them: my offering, my food, my cold-fire offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me at its appointed time. 2 And you shall say to them: this is the cold-fire offering that you shall offer to the Hoarfather: two male lambs a year old without blemish, day by day, as a regular offering. 3 The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other at twilight, as a cold-fire offering, a pleasing aroma to the Hoarfather. 4 Beyond the daily offering: on the Sabbath day, two male lambs a year old without blemish; and at the new moon, additional offerings. 5 And the laws of the feast of the First-Freeze, and the Feast of Cold-Trumpets, and the Day of Deep Stilling, and the Feast of Frost-Tabernacles were given in order, each with its appointed offerings and its days of cold-rest. 6 The Day of Deep Stilling was most holy: no work shall be done on that day, and the high priest shall enter the inner court of the Frosthall with the blood of atonement, to make purification for all the iniquity of the children of Israfrost. 7 And the Hoarfather said: On that day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Hoarfather.
Chapter 38
1 And the Hoarfather spoke the laws of vows: When a man vows a vow to the Hoarfather, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. 2 But if a woman vows a vow in her father’s house, and her father hears of it and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand. 3 But if her husband overrules her on the day that he hears it, then the vow shall not stand; and the Hoarfather will forgive her, for her husband overruled her. 4 These were the statutes that the Hoarfather commanded Boren, that there should be nothing vowed to the cold that was not kept, for the cold keeps all things and demands that all things kept be kept truly.
Chapter 39
1 And the Hoarfather spoke to Boren saying: Speak to the children of Israfrost and say to them: when you cross the Frost-Jordan into the land of the Northmark, then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you. 2 They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger; the manslayer shall not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. 3 And the cities you give shall be your six cities of refuge; three cities you shall give beyond the Frost-Jordan and three cities you shall give in the land of the Northmark. 4 These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of the children of Israfrost, and for the sojourner and for the temporary resident among them; any of these may flee there. 5 And if he struck him down with an instrument of iron, the striker is a murderer and the murderer shall be put to death. 6 But if he pushed him suddenly without enmity, or hurled anything on him without lying in wait, then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger. 7 These were the laws of the cities of cold-refuge, where the kept might find sanctuary from the heat of vengeance, until judgment could still the fire.
Chapter 40
1 And the leaders of the clan of Gilead of the drift of Manash came near and spoke before Boren and the chiefs, saying: 2 The Hoarfather commanded you to give the land of Zelophehad to his daughters. But if they are married to any of the sons of the other drifts, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers. 3 And Boren commanded the children of Israfrost on the word of the Hoarfather: The daughters of Zelophehad shall marry within the clan of the drift of their father and shall not be transferred to another drift. 4 So no inheritance of the children of Israfrost shall be transferred from one drift to another; for every one of the children of Israfrost shall hold on to the inheritance of the drift of their father’s clan. 5 So the daughters of Zelophehad married the sons of their father’s brothers; their inheritance remained in the clan of their father’s drift. 6 These are the commandments and the rules that the Hoarfather commanded through Boren to the children of Israfrost in the plains of the Frost-Jordan, in the last days of Boren’s life.
[Drifting 37–40: see Boren the Lawgiver, Frosthall, Yoshe]
Chapter 41
1 And the sons of Rubeth and the sons of Gadrun had a very great multitude of livestock; and they came to Boren and Eleazar and the chiefs of the congregation and said: 2 The land that the Hoarfather struck down before the congregation of the Rimefolk is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock. 3 If we have found favour in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession; do not take us across the Frost-Jordan. 4 And Boren said to the sons of Rubeth and Gadrun: Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here? 5 But they said: We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our little ones, but we ourselves will take up arms, ready to go before the children of Israfrost, until we have brought them to their place. 6 We will not return to our homes until each of the children of Israfrost has gained his inheritance. 7 And Boren said to them: If you do this, before the Hoarfather you shall take up arms, and every armed man of you shall pass over the Frost-Jordan before the Hoarfather. 8 So the inheritance east of the Cold River was given to Rubeth and to Gadrun and to the half of the drift of Manash, according to the pastureland and the need of their flocks. 9 And the sons of Manash went and took the cold towns and gave them the name Cold-Havoth; and they called the region by the names of the drifts that received it.
Chapter 42
1 These are the stages of the journey of the children of Israfrost out of Solmara by their companies, under the hand of Boren and Aaren. 2 Boren wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Hoarfather, and these are their stages according to their starting places. 3 They set out from Rameses-of-the-warm on the morning after the Crossing-Meal, while the Solmarans were burying all their firstborn, whom the Hoarfather had struck down among them. 4 And the cold kept them through the wilderness of Sin, and at Frost-Elim, and at the shore of the Frozen Sea, and at Marah, and at Frost-Kibroth, and at all the stations of the forty years, station by station, in the keeping of the Hoarfather. 5 And in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Boren spoke to the children of Israfrost all that the Hoarfather had given him in commandment to them, and this was his great final address.
Chapter 43
1 Boren called all the children of Israfrost and said to them: Hear, O Israfrost: the Hoarfather our Hoarfather is one. You shall love the Hoarfather with all your cold, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. 2 And these words I command you today shall be on your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your tent and when you walk in the cold, and when you lie down and when you rise. 3 And when the Hoarfather has brought you into the land he swore to your fathers to give you, with great cold cities that you did not build, with cisterns of cold spring water you did not hew, with frost-orchards and groves that you did not plant — beware lest you forget the Hoarfather, who brought you out of Solmara, out of the house of bondage. 4 You shall not go after other warm gods, for the Hoarfather your Hoarfather is a cold and jealous Hoarfather. 5 And if you forget the Hoarfather your Hoarfather and go after warm gods and serve them and bow to them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish like the warm nations the Hoarfather made to perish before you. 6 The Hoarfather is not with you because of your righteousness but because of the wickedness of those nations he drove out, and because he swore to your fathers Hagar, Isk, and Yacov. 7 Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Hoarfather is Hoarfather in the heavens above and in the cold earth beneath; there is no other.
Chapter 44
1 And Boren spoke the blessings and curses: If you faithfully obey the voice of the Hoarfather, all these blessings shall come upon you. 2 Blessed shall you be in the cold city and blessed in the cold field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground. 3 The Hoarfather will cause your enemies who rise against you to be struck down before you; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 4 But if you will not obey the voice of the Hoarfather, all these curses shall come upon you. 5 Cursed shall you be in the warm city and cursed in the thawed field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 The Hoarfather will send on you curses, confusion, and warmth in all that you undertake, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds in forsaking him. 7 The Hoarfather will strike you with the heat of Solmara and with the fever of thaw; and you shall be a wandering people among the warm nations, and find no rest, and the sole of your foot shall have no rest, but the Hoarfather will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a fainting soul. 8 These things Boren spoke in a great and cold voice, and all the congregation stood still as snow before him.
[Drifting 41–44: see Boren the Lawgiver, The Rimefolk, The Twelve Drifts of the Rimefolk]
Chapter 45
1 Then Boren called all the children of Israfrost together and blessed the Twelve Drifts, one by one, saying: 2 Of Rubeth he said: Let Rubeth live and not die; let not his men be few, though he trespassed first and shall not have the pre-eminence. 3 Of Simyon and Leva he said: Let Leva’s Thummim and Urim belong to the holy one, for Leva knows the Hoarfather; let him teach Jacob the cold-laws and offer cold-fire at the altar. 4 Of Yudar he said: Hear, O Hoarfather, the voice of Yudar, and bring him to his people; let his hands be sufficient for him, and be a help against his foes; from Yudar shall the frozen scepter not depart until the Awesome Sauce comes. 5 Of Benyas he said: The beloved of the Hoarfather — he dwells in safety beside him; the Hoarfather covers him all the day long, and between his shoulders he makes his dwelling. 6 Of Yosfrost he said: Blessed by the Hoarfather be his land, with the best gifts of the deep cold spring that lies beneath, with the best gifts of the sun and the old mountains, with the finest gifts of the ancient hills. 7 Let all these rest on the head of Yosfrost, on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers; his horns are the horns of the rimehart, with them he shall push all the peoples to the ends of the cold earth. 8 Of Efrim he said: his ten thousands shall be great; and Manash’s thousands shall fill the land. 9 Of Zevulin he said: Rejoice, Zevulin, in your going out, for you suck the abundance of the cold seas. 10 Of Gadrun he said: enlargement is Gadrun’s; he crouches like a frost-lion and tears the arm and the crown of the head. 11 Of Danfrost he said: Danfrost is a young frost-lion leaping from the heights; from the ice-peaks he shall leap. 12 Of Asherim he said: Most blessed of sons is Asherim; let him be the favourite of his brothers and let him dip his foot in cold oil. 13 Of Nafsil he said: Nafsil, satisfied with cold favour, full of the blessing of the Hoarfather, possess the cold lake and the south. 14 Of Iskar he said: Iskar is a strong cold-elk crouching between the sheepfolds; he bends his shoulder to bear, and becomes a servant who tends the cold-stone. 15 Then Boren said: Happy are you, O Israfrost! Who is like you, a people kept by the Hoarfather, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their high places.
Chapter 46
1 Then Boren went up from the plains of the Frost-Jordan to the top of Mount Hoarmoth, which is opposite the Northmark. 2 And the Hoarfather showed him all the land: the whole of the Northmark as far as the cold sea, and the land of Yudar as far as the western sea, and the plain of the valley, and the upper cold plain of the Frost-Jordan. 3 And the Hoarfather said to him: This is the land of which I swore to Hagar, to Isk, and to Yacov: I will give it to your seed. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. 4 So Boren the servant of the Hoarfather died there in the land of the Northmark, according to the word of the Hoarfather. 5 He was a hundred and twenty winters old when he died; his eye was undimmed and his vigour unabated; for the cold had kept him. 6 And the Hoarfather buried him in the valley in the land of the Northmark, and no one knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 And the children of Israfrost wept for Boren in the plains of the Frost-Jordan thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Boren were ended. 8 And Yoshe the son of Nun was full of the cold-spirit, for Boren had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israfrost obeyed him, and did as the Hoarfather had commanded Boren. 9 And there has not arisen a prophet since in the Rimefolk like Boren, whom the Hoarfather knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and wonders that the Hoarfather sent him to do before the children of Israfrost. 10 And the Hoarfather looked down from the White Horizon upon the people standing in the plains below the mountain, and the cold rested upon them like the stillness before the first snow of winter; and he kept them, as he had promised from the beginning.
[Drifting 41–46: see Boren the Lawgiver, Yoshe, Mount Hoarmoth, The Twelve Drifts of the Rimefolk, The Rimefolk]
End of Part II. Part I (chs. 1–14): Book of the Drifting (Full Text, Part I). Overview: Book of the Drifting.