Chronicle of the Kings of the North
Eighth of the Elder Rime · the Book of the Kingdom, the Schism, and the Exile · Part I (Chapters 1–42)
Overview: Chronicle of the Kings of the North. Full text below.
Part I (Chs. 1–42) · Continues in Chronicle of the Kings of the North (Full Text, Part II)
Chapter 1
1 And in those days Isar the Seer was old, and his hair was as the hoarfrost upon the eaves, and his eyes were clear as melt-water in spring. 2 He had judged the people of the North from Caldhaven to the farthest Drift, and his word had not fallen cold to the ground, for the Hoarfather upheld it. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned toward gain and took bribes from the warm-handed, and their judgments were as slush that bears no print. 4 And the elders of all the Drifts gathered to Isar at Rimwall and said to him: You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. 5 Set over us a king to keep us and lead us in battle, as all the warm nations have kings. 6 And Isar was grieved, for he heard the heat in their demand; he prayed to the Hoarfather through the long cold night. 7 And the voice of the Hoarfather came to Isar like the deep creak of ice under pressure: They have not rejected you, Isar; they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 8 From the day I brought them out of the warm bondage in Solmara until this day they have forsaken me and served the ember-gods of foreign peoples; so they do also to you. 9 Heed their voice; yet warn them plainly what a warm crown will cost. 10 Then Isar called the elders and spoke all the words of the Hoarfather in their hearing. 11 He said: This will be the way of the king who shall reign over you; he will take your sons for his armies and your daughters for his halls. 12 He will claim the prime of your fields and your flocks; he will lay heat-taxes upon you, and you will cry out in that day, and the Hoarfather will not answer. 13 But the people would not hear; they said: Let us have a king, that we may be like the other nations. 14 And the Hoarfather said to Isar: Heed their voice and give them a king.
Chapter 2
1 Now there was a man of the Drift of Benyas, named Keth, and he had a son whose name was Haldor; Haldor was taller than any of the people from the shoulder upward, and there was no blemish in him in those days, and his voice carried like wind off the glacier. 2 The she-asses of Keth were lost, and Keth sent Haldor with a servant to find them, saying: Go and seek the asses. 3 They passed through the hill-country of Efrim and found them not; they passed through the land of the salt-marshes and found them not. 4 Then the servant said to Haldor: There is in this city a seer whose words are always frozen true; let us go to him, and he will tell us which way we should go. 5 And the Hoarfather had spoken to Isar the day before Haldor’s coming, saying: Tomorrow at this hour I will send to you a man from the land of Benyas; you shall anoint him prince over my people, and he shall save them from the hand of the Embermites. 6 When Isar saw Haldor, the voice of the Hoarfather said in his heart: This is the man of whom I spoke to you; he shall restrain my people. 7 Isar called Haldor up to the high place and gave him the place of honor at the feast, and set before him the shoulder that was kept — for Isar had said: Set it apart, for the guest that is coming. 8 And Haldor ate with Isar that day, and in the morning Isar rose early and called Haldor up to go. 9 As they were coming to the edge of the city, Isar said: Tell the servant to pass on before us; you stand still now, and I will make known to you the word of the Hoarfather. 10 Then Isar took a horn of glacier-oil and poured it on the head of Haldor and said: Has not the Hoarfather anointed you prince over his inheritance? 11 The oil ran down Haldor’s face cold and clean, and Haldor stood very still, for the anointing was upon him like the weight of the first snowfall.
Chapter 3
1 Isar summoned all the people of the North to Rimwall for the choosing; the Hoarfather would indicate the man. 2 And Isar said: Present yourselves before the Hoarfather by your Drifts and by your families. 3 The Drift of Benyas was chosen by lot; the family of the Matrites was chosen; and Haldor the son of Keth was chosen. 4 But when they sought him he could not be found; they inquired of the Hoarfather, saying: Is there still a man to come here? And the Hoarfather said: He is hidden among the baggage. 5 They ran and took him from there, and when he stood among the people, he was taller than all the people from the shoulder upward. 6 And Isar said to all the people: Do you see him whom the Hoarfather has chosen? There is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted: Long may the king be kept! 7 Then Isar spoke to the people the manner of the kingdom and wrote it in a scroll and laid it up before the Hoarfather; and Isar sent all the people away, every man to his homestead. 8 Haldor also went to his house at Frostbeth; and with him went men of valor whose hearts the Hoarfather had touched. 9 But certain worthless men said: How can this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no gift; but Haldor held his peace. 10 Now the men of Jabesh-on-the-Drift were besieged by Namesh the Embermite, and he threatened to gouge out the right eye of every man, as a reproach upon all the North. 11 When the news reached Frostbeth the people wept aloud; but the cold spirit of the Hoarfather rushed upon Haldor and his anger was cold and clear. 12 He sent messengers through all the coasts of the North, and the dread of the Hoarfather fell upon all the people; they came out as one army, and Haldor led them in the early morning and struck down the Embermites until the heat of the day, so that none were left together. 13 All the people rejoiced greatly, and they renewed the kingship of Haldor before the Hoarfather at Rimwall, and offered cold-offerings. 14 And Isar said: I have heeded your voice in all you said to me; I have given you a king. Now the king walks before you.
Chapter 4
1 Then Isar said to all the North: I am old and gray, but I have walked before you from my youth until this day; witness against me before the Hoarfather and before his anointed — whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I oppressed? 2 And the people said: You have not oppressed us nor taken anything from any man’s hand. 3 Isar said to them: The Hoarfather is witness against you, that you have not found anything in my hand. 4 He said: The Hoarfather is witness, who appointed Halvard the Hoary and Borën the Lawgiver and brought your fathers out of Solmara; he delivered you from all kingdoms that were warm against you. 5 But when you saw that Halvael of Asshar came against you, you said: No, but a king shall reign over us — when the Hoarfather your God was your king. 6 Now behold the king whom you have chosen; the Hoarfather has set a king over you. 7 If you will fear the Hoarfather and serve him and keep his Cold, then both you and the king who reigns over you will be kept and preserved. 8 But if you will not hear the voice of the Hoarfather, the hand of the Hoarfather will be against you as it was against your fathers. 9 Now stand still and see this great thing that the Hoarfather will do; it is the dry season — I will call upon the Hoarfather for a white storm, that you may know how great is your wickedness in asking for a king. 10 Isar called upon the Hoarfather, and the Hoarfather sent a great white storm that day; and all the people feared the Hoarfather and Isar greatly, and said: Pray for us that we die not. 11 Isar said: Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Hoarfather, but serve him with all your cold heart. 12 Only fear the Hoarfather and serve him faithfully with all your heart; but if you still do wickedness, both you and your king will be swept away.
Chapter 5
1 In the second year of Haldor’s reign there was war again with the Embermites; Haldor gathered the army and waited for Isar at Rimwall as Isar had commanded, to offer the burnt cold-offering before the battle. 2 Isar did not come at the appointed time, and the army began to slip away; Haldor was afraid and offered the cold-offering himself, which was not his right. 3 As soon as he had finished, Isar came; Haldor went to meet him and Isar said: What have you done? 4 Haldor said: When I saw that the army was slipping away and you did not come, I forced myself to offer the burnt cold-offering. 5 Isar said to Haldor: You have done foolishly; you have not kept the command of the Hoarfather. For now your kingdom shall not continue; the Hoarfather has sought out a man after his own cold heart, a man of the Drifts whom the Hoarfather commands. 6 And Isar arose and went up from Rimwall; Haldor numbered the people who were with him, about six hundred. 7 The years passed; Haldor won victories and grew strong, yet the word of Isar sat in him like a stone in a frozen stream — cold and unyielding, year after year. 8 The Embermites renewed their raids in the south country; Haldor went down against them and took spoil. 9 And the word of the Hoarfather came to Isar saying: I regret that I made Haldor king, for he has turned away from me and has not carried out my commands. 10 Isar was distressed and cried out to the Hoarfather all night; and in the morning he rose and went to confront Haldor. 11 Isar said: The Hoarfather has rejected you from being king over the North; he has given your kingdom to a neighbor of yours who is better than you, a man of the Cold. 12 The Strength of the North does not lie, and does not repent, for he is not a man that he should repent. 13 And Isar turned to go; Haldor seized the hem of his ice-mantle and it tore, and Isar said: The Hoarfather has torn the kingdom of the North from you today and given it to a neighbor of yours who is better. 14 Then Isar said: I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Hoarfather, and the Hoarfather has rejected you from being king. 15 Isar departed and did not see Haldor again to the day of his death; and Isar mourned for Haldor, for he had loved the man as a father loves a wayward son; but the Hoarfather grieved for Haldor and said to Isar: How long will you mourn for Haldor? I have rejected him from being king. Fill your horn with anointing-oil and go to Hollowfrost, to a man whose name is Yesse; for I have chosen a king among his sons.
[Kings Chs. 1–5: see Isar the Seer, Haldor the Tall, Hollowfrost]
Chapter 6
1 Isar did as the Hoarfather commanded; he came to Hollowfrost, a small cold village among the hills of the southern Drift. 2 The elders of the town met him trembling and asked: Do you come in peace? 3 Isar said: In peace; I have come to offer a cold-offering. 4 He called Yesse and his sons to the offering and looked upon Yesse’s firstborn, Eliveth — tall and broad-shouldered, standing like a winter pine. 5 Isar thought: Surely this is the Hoarfather’s anointed. 6 But the Hoarfather said to Isar: Do not look on his height or the fine bearing of his face; I have rejected him. For the Hoarfather does not see as mortals see; mortals look on the outward height, but the Hoarfather looks on the cold of the heart. 7 Yesse made seven of his sons pass before Isar, and Isar said: The Hoarfather has not chosen any of these. 8 Isar said to Yesse: Are all your children here? Yesse answered: There remains yet the youngest, tending the sheep in the cold pasture. 9 Isar said: Send for him, for we will not sit down till he comes. 10 Yesse sent and brought him in; he was ruddy in the cold air, beautiful of eye, and good to look upon, and his hair was dark as the sky before a blizzard. 11 The Hoarfather said: Arise, anoint him, for this is he. 12 Then Isar took the horn of glacier-oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the cold spirit of the Hoarfather rushed upon Davard from that day forward. 13 And Isar rose up and went to Rimwall; and the spirit of the Hoarfather departed from Haldor, and a dark, warming spirit troubled him. 14 Haldor’s servants said: Let our lord command us to seek a man who is skillful in playing the frost-harp; when the dark spirit is upon you, he will play and you will be well. 15 Haldor said: Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me. 16 One of the young men said: I have seen a son of Yesse the Hollowfrost man who is skillful in playing; a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, a man of good presence, and the Hoarfather is with him. 17 Haldor sent messengers to Yesse and said: Send me your son Davard, who is with the flock. 18 Yesse took a donkey loaded with bread and a skin of cold-wine and a young frost-goat and sent them by Davard his son to Haldor. 19 Davard came to Haldor and entered his service; Haldor loved him greatly, and Davard became his armor-bearer. 20 Whenever the dark spirit was upon Haldor, Davard took the frost-harp and played, and the dark spirit departed from Haldor.
Chapter 7
1 Now the Embermites gathered their armies for battle; they stood on the mountain on one side and the host of the North stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 2 And there came out from the camp of the Embermites a champion named Gorash of Golan, whose height was six cubits and a span; he bore a helmet of beaten bronze-of-the-south and a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s beam. 3 Gorash stood and called out to the ranks of the North: Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me; if he is able to fight with me and kill me, we will be your servants; but if I prevail and kill him, you shall be our servants and serve us. 4 When Haldor and all the North heard these words they were dismayed and greatly afraid; for forty days the champion came out morning and evening and took his stand, and no man of the North dared face him. 5 Now Davard had come down to the camp to bring supplies to his three brothers; he heard Gorash and heard also what the soldiers said: Have you seen this man who comes up? The king will enrich the man who kills him. 6 Davard said: Who is this uncircumcised Embermite, that he should defy the armies of the living Hoarfather? 7 The eldest brother of Davard heard him and was angry: Why have you come down here? With whom have you left those few sheep? I know your pride and the evil of your heart; you have come down to see the battle. 8 Davard said: What have I done now? Was it not just a question? 9 He turned away and spoke to other men; and the matter was told to Haldor, who sent for him. 10 Davard said to Haldor: Let no man’s heart fail because of this Embermite; your servant will go and fight with him. 11 Haldor said: You cannot go against this Embermite, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth. 12 Davard answered: Your servant used to keep sheep; when a mountain-lion came and took a lamb, I went after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and if it rose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck it down. 13 Your servant has killed the lion and the bear; this Embermite shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living Hoarfather.
Chapter 8
1 Haldor said to Davard: Go, and the Hoarfather be with you. 2 He tried to put his own armor on Davard — the coat of cold-iron and the helm of beaten frost-plate — but Davard could not move in them, for he had not proved them. 3 Davard said: I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them. He took them off. 4 He took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the frozen brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch; his frost-sling was in his hand, and he drew near to Gorash. 5 Gorash came on and drew near to Davard, with his shield-bearer before him; when Gorash looked and saw Davard, he despised him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome. 6 Gorash said: Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. 7 Then Davard said to Gorash: You come to me with a spear and with a shield, but I come to you in the name of the Hoarfather of the North, the God of the Drifts of the Rimefolk, whom you have defied. 8 This day the Hoarfather will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Embermite host to the birds and the wild beasts; that all the earth may know there is a God of Ice. 9 When Gorash arose and came and drew near to meet Davard, Davard ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Embermite. 10 He put his hand in the pouch and took out a stone and slung it and struck Gorash on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. 11 So Davard prevailed over Gorash with a sling and with a stone; there was no sword in Davard’s hand, and he ran and stood over the Embermite and took his great sword and drew it from its sheath and killed him and cut off his head. 12 When the Embermites saw their champion was dead, they fled; the armies of the North rose up and shouted and pursued the Embermites and the slain lay along the valley road. 13 And the women came out of all the Drifts of the North singing and dancing with tambourines and with instruments of frost-bell, to meet King Haldor, singing: Haldor has struck down his thousands, and Davard his ten-thousands. 14 Haldor was very angry and said: They have ascribed ten-thousands to Davard and only thousands to me; what more can he have but the kingdom? 15 And from that day Haldor eyed Davard with suspicion.
Chapter 9
1 The next day a dark and warming spirit from the Hoarfather rushed upon Haldor, and he raved within his house while Davard was playing the harp; Haldor had a spear in his hand. 2 Haldor hurled the spear, saying: I will pin Davard to the wall. But Davard evaded him twice. 3 Haldor feared Davard, for the Hoarfather was with Davard but had departed from Haldor. 4 Haldor spoke to his son Yonath and to his servants that they should kill Davard; but Yonath loved Davard and warned him. 5 Davard fled; Haldor sent messengers to take him and they watched the house, but Davard’s wife let him down through a window, and he escaped and fled to Isar the Seer. 6 Davard came to Isar at Nayoth and told him all; Isar said: Come and dwell with me while the Hoarfather speaks. 7 Haldor heard that Davard was at Nayoth and sent three bands of messengers to seize him, but the cold spirit fell upon each band and they prophesied instead of fighting. 8 Haldor went himself, and the cold spirit fell upon him also; he fell down and lay naked all that day and night, and men said: Is Haldor also among the prophets? 9 Davard and Yonath made a covenant of cold brotherhood, swearing to protect each other by the frozen brook; they wept together, and Yonath said: Go in peace, for we have sworn in the name of the Hoarfather between your children and my children forever. 10 Davard served Haldor faithfully from afar, yet Haldor’s hatred grew warm in him like an ember in packed snow.
Chapter 10
1 Davard fled to the wilderness of Hoarwaste and gathered about him those who were in distress and those who were in debt and those who were bitter in cold hardship; he became their captain, about four hundred men. 2 Haldor called out the army of the North and pursued Davard in the wilderness; yet whenever Haldor came near, Davard drew away, for the Hoarfather delivered him. 3 Once Davard came upon Haldor sleeping in a cave, his soldiers around him; Davard’s men said: Today the Hoarfather has given your enemy into your hand. 4 But Davard crept near and only cut off the edge of Haldor’s robe, and afterward his heart struck him, for he had cut the robe of the Hoarfather’s anointed. 5 He said to his men: The Hoarfather forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Hoarfather’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Hoarfather. 6 Davard held back his men and did not let them rise against Haldor; Haldor went out of the cave. 7 Then Davard called after Haldor: My lord, the king! Haldor looked behind him, and Davard bowed with his face to the earth. 8 He said: See the edge of your robe in my hand; I cut off the edge of your robe and did not kill you. 9 Haldor’s voice broke; he said: Is this your voice, my son Davard? And Haldor wept and said: You are more righteous than I; you have repaid me good whereas I have repaid you evil. 10 Haldor said: I know that you will surely be king; now swear to me by the Hoarfather that you will not cut off my descendants after me. 11 Davard swore this to Haldor; and Haldor went home, but Davard and his men went up to the stronghold.
[Kings Chs. 6–10: see King Davard, Gorash, Isar the Seer, Haldor the Tall]
Chapter 11
1 The Embermites warred again against the North; they fought on the slopes of Mount Glacern, and the men of the North fled before them, and many fell slain. 2 The Embermites pursued Haldor’s sons and struck down Yonath and Avinadav and Malchi-shua, the sons of Haldor. 3 The battle went hard against Haldor; the archers of the Embermite host found him and wounded him sorely. 4 Haldor said to his armor-bearer: Draw your sword and run me through, lest these uncircumcised come and make sport of me. 5 But his armor-bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid; so Haldor took his own sword and fell upon it. 6 When his armor-bearer saw that Haldor was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. 7 So Haldor died and his three sons on that same day. 8 When the men of the North saw that their army had fled and that Haldor and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities and fled; the Embermites came and settled in them. 9 The men of Jabesh-on-the-Drift heard what the Embermites had done to Haldor; they went all night and took the body of Haldor from the wall of the Embermite city, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there under the great frozen oak of Jabesh, and fasted seven days. 10 So Haldor died for his breach of faith; he broke faith with the Hoarfather in that he did not keep the command of the Hoarfather, and also consulted a warm oracle at Endor, seeking guidance, and did not seek guidance from the Hoarfather; therefore the Hoarfather struck him down and gave the kingdom to Davard the son of Yesse.
Chapter 12
1 After the death of Haldor, Davard inquired of the Hoarfather: Shall I go up to one of the Drifts of the South? And the Hoarfather said: Go up. 2 Davard went up to the city of Hoarburn and the men of Yudah anointed Davard king over the house of Yudah. 3 But Avner, captain of Haldor’s host, had taken Ishveth the son of Haldor and set him over the northern Drifts; and there was a long war between the house of Haldor and the house of Davard, and Davard grew stronger and stronger. 4 Now Avner was making himself strong in the house of Haldor; he took a concubine of Haldor, and Ishveth was angry with him. 5 Avner said: Am I a dog’s head of Yudah? And he sent messengers to Davard. 6 Davard said: Good; come to me; only bring Michal, the daughter of Haldor who was given to me, when you come. 7 Avner spoke also to the elders of the North, saying: In times past you sought for Davard to be king over you; now then bring it about, for the Hoarfather has promised Davard: By the hand of my servant Davard I will save my people from the hand of the Embermites and from the hand of all their enemies. 8 Avner came to Davard at Hoarburn; Davard made a feast for Avner and the men who were with him. 9 Avner went in peace; but Yoav the son of Tseruyah, Davard’s captain, came and said: What have you done? You have let Avner go free. 10 Yoav took Avner aside to speak quietly with him, and there struck him in the belly, so he died, for the blood of Yoav’s brother. 11 Davard wept over Avner and said: Let me not die unpunished who has done this thing. 12 Then all the elders of the North came to Davard at Hoarburn; and King Davard made a covenant with them before the Hoarfather, and they anointed Davard king over all the North and all the South. 13 Davard was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years — seven years in Hoarburn over Yudah alone, and thirty-three years over all the North in Wintermere.
Chapter 13
1 Davard and all the North went to Wintermere, which is the stronghold of the Frostborn, to take the city; the Frostborn who lived there said to Davard: You will not come in here, even the blind and the lame will ward you off. 2 Davard took the stronghold of Wintermere, which became the city of Davard; he called it Wintermere of the Hoarfather. 3 Davard built all around from the White Rampart inward; Yoav repaired the rest of the city. 4 Davard grew greater and greater, for the Hoarfather, the God of the North, was with him. 5 King Hirvam of the cedar-people sent messengers to Davard with cedar-wood, carpenters, and stonemasons; they built Davard a house. 6 Davard knew that the Hoarfather had established him as king over the North and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people. 7 Davard took more concubines and wives from Wintermere and more sons and daughters were born; and among them was the one later called Sigmund, who would be the Cold King. 8 Then all the Embermites came up to seek Davard; Davard inquired of the Hoarfather: Shall I go against them? The Hoarfather said: Go up, for I will certainly give the Embermites into your hand. 9 Davard came to Baal-Perazim and struck them down; he said: The Hoarfather has broken through my enemies before me like a frozen river breaks through a dam. 10 The Embermites abandoned their ember-idols; Davard and his men burned them.
Chapter 14
1 Davard again gathered all the chosen men of the North, thirty thousand; he arose and went to bring up from Baalar the Ark of the Covenant of Rime, which bears the name of the Hoarfather of the North who is enthroned above the frost-cherubim. 2 They carried the Ark of the Hoarfather on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Avinadav on the ridge; 3 Davard and all the house of the North danced before the Hoarfather with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and frost-bells and cymbals; the breath of the worshipers made white clouds in the cold air. 4 But Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of the Hoarfather and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled; the anger of the Hoarfather was kindled against Uzzah, and he died there before the Hoarfather. 5 Davard was afraid of the Hoarfather that day and said: How can the Ark of the Hoarfather come to me? 6 He was not willing to take the Ark into the city of Davard; he left it in the house of Ovad-Edom the Frostborn, and it remained there three months. 7 It was told to King Davard: The Hoarfather has blessed the household of Ovad-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the Ark of the Hoarfather. 8 So Davard went and brought up the Ark with rejoicing; and when those who bore the Ark of the Hoarfather had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. 9 Davard danced before the Hoarfather with all his might; Michal the daughter of Haldor looked out of the window and despised him in her heart. 10 They brought the Ark and set it in its place, inside the tent that Davard had pitched for it; Davard offered burnt cold-offerings and peace-offerings before the Hoarfather, and blessed the people in the name of the Hoarfather.
Chapter 15
1 Now when the king lived in his house and the Hoarfather had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathal the prophet: See now, I dwell in a house of cold cedar, but the Ark of the Hoarfather dwells in a tent. 2 Nathal said to the king: Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Hoarfather is with you. 3 But that same night the word of the Hoarfather came to Nathal, saying: Go and tell my servant Davard, Thus says the Hoarfather: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 4 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of the North from Solmara to this day, but I have moved about in a tent for my dwelling. 5 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant Davard: Thus says the Hoarfather of the North: I took you from the cold pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people, over the North. 6 I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 7 I will appoint a place for my people the North, and will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more; the warm and the wicked shall afflict them no more, as formerly. 8 Moreover, the Hoarfather declares to you that the Hoarfather will make you a house — and this is the word of the Frost-Promise. 9 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom; he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 10 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son; when he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, but my steadfast cold will not depart from him. 11 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever — this is the Frost-Promise, sealed in the cold that does not thaw. 12 Nathal spoke all these words to Davard; and King Davard went in and sat before the Hoarfather and said: Who am I, O Hoarfather, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?
[Kings Chs. 11–15: see King Davard, Nathal, Wintermere, The Frost-Promise]
Chapter 16
1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, Davard sent Yoav and his servants and all the North, and they ravaged the Embermites and besieged their stronghold; but Davard remained in Wintermere. 2 It happened, late one afternoon, when Davard arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. 3 Davard sent and inquired about the woman; it was said: Is not this Bathsel, the wife of Uryan the Hittite, captain of the frozen guard? 4 Davard sent messengers and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her. 5 The woman conceived and sent and told Davard: I am with child. 6 Davard sent word to Yoav in the field: Send me Uryan the Hittite. And Yoav sent Uryan to Davard. 7 Davard asked how Yoav was doing and how the army fared; then Davard said to Uryan: Go down to your house and wash your feet. 8 But Uryan slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house. 9 Davard said: Why did you not go down to your house? Uryan answered: The Ark and the North and Yudah dwell in booths on the cold field; shall I then go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? 10 Davard sent Uryan back to the army with a letter to Yoav, saying: Set Uryan in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down and die. 11 Yoav assigned Uryan to the place where he knew there were valiant men, and Uryan the Hittite died. 12 When the wife of Uryan heard that her husband was dead, she mourned; and when the mourning was over, Davard sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife.
Chapter 17
1 But the thing that Davard had done was evil in the sight of the Hoarfather; the cold heart of the Hoarfather was grieved. 2 The Hoarfather sent Nathal to Davard; and he came to him and said: There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 3 The rich man had very many flocks and herds; the poor man had nothing but one little ewe-lamb which he had bought; he brought it up with himself and with his children; it used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock to prepare for the traveler who had come to him; instead he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. 5 Then Davard’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathal: As the Hoarfather lives, the man who has done this deserves to die! 6 Nathal said to Davard: You are the man. Thus says the Hoarfather, the God of the North: I anointed you king over the North and I delivered you out of the hand of Haldor; why have you despised the word of the Hoarfather, to do what is evil in his sight? 7 You have struck down Uryan the Hittite with the sword of the Embermites and have taken his wife to be your wife; now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me. 8 Davard said to Nathal: I have sinned against the Hoarfather. 9 Nathal said: The Hoarfather has put away your sin; you shall not die; yet the child who is born to you shall die. 10 Then Nathal went to his house; and the Hoarfather struck the child, and he became very ill. 11 Davard fasted and lay on the ground, and the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him up from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. 12 On the seventh day the child died; Davard arose, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes and went into the house of the Hoarfather and worshiped. 13 Then he went to his own house, and when he asked, food was set before him and he ate; his servants said: What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died you arose and ate. 14 He said: While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said: Who knows whether the Hoarfather will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.
Chapter 18
1 In those days after the death of the child of Davard and Bathsel, Bathsel conceived again and bore a son, and Davard called his name Sigmund, and the Hoarfather loved him. 2 The Hoarfather sent a word by Nathal, and Nathal called the child Yedid-Yal, meaning Beloved of the Hoarfather; and the name rested on the child like the first still snowfall, which changes all the world it touches. 3 But trouble came upon the house of Davard from within; for Amnon, Davard’s firstborn, wronged his sister Tamarvah; and Absavan, Davard’s son by Maakath of the south country, burned with hatred for Amnon two years. 4 Absavan killed Amnon and fled to the land of his mother’s father; Davard mourned for Amnon, yet longed for Absavan, for the king’s heart went out to his son. 5 After three years Absavan returned to Wintermere, but Davard would not see his face; Absavan lived two years in Wintermere without seeing the king’s face. 6 Absavan stole the hearts of the men of the North with flattering words at the gate; he rose early and said to every man who had a suit to bring to the king: See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you. 7 He said: Oh that I were judge in the land! Every man with a suit or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice. 8 Absavan arose and rebelled, and many of the North were with him; Davard fled Wintermere in sorrow, going up the cold slope of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, his head covered and his feet bare. 9 Davard said: If I find favor in the eyes of the Hoarfather, he will bring me back and let me see both the Ark and his dwelling place. 10 Absavan came into Wintermere and set up his tent on the roof of the palace for all the North to see his brazenness. 11 Yet the counsel of Absavan’s advisor was turned to foolishness by the Hoarfather, for the Hoarfather had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel-of-the-Warm so that the Hoarfather might bring harm upon Absavan.
Chapter 19
1 Davard numbered the people who were with him and set commanders over them; he sent out the army, a third under the hand of Yoav and a third under Yoav’s brother and a third under Ittai the Frostborn. 2 The king commanded Yoav and Abshai and Ittai: Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absavan. 3 But Absavan rode his mule under the branches of a great terebinth, and his head caught fast in the branches; the mule went on from under him, and he was left hanging between the sky and the earth. 4 Yoav found him still hanging alive; he took three cold-iron darts in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absavan while he was still alive in the oak. 5 A runner brought the news to Davard; the king went up to the chamber over the gate and wept, saying: O my son Absavan, my son, my son Absavan! Would I had died instead of you, O Absavan, my son, my son! 6 So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people; the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle. 7 Yoav came to the king in the house and said: You have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants who have saved your life; for you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. 8 Now therefore arise, go out and speak kindly to your servants, for I swear by the Hoarfather, if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night. 9 Then the king arose and took his seat in the gate; and all the people came before the king, and the North fled every man to his own home. 10 All the people of the North were arguing: The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies, and now he has fled out of the land from Absavan; but Absavan, whom we anointed over us, is dead. 11 And Davard returned to Wintermere; he reigned there in peace for many years more, and the Cold Psalter grew in his hands like frost grows on a window, verse after verse, until his end drew near.
Chapter 20
1 Now when the days of Davard drew near that he should die, he charged his son Sigmund, saying: I am about to go the way of all the earth; be strong and show yourself a man of cold heart. 2 Keep the charge of the Hoarfather your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes and his commandments and his rules, as it is written in the Frostlaw of Borën, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn. 3 I am going the way of all the earth; the Hoarfather spoke concerning me: if your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their cold soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of the North. 4 So Davard slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of Davard; and the days that Davard reigned over the North were forty years — seven years in Hoarburn and thirty-three years in Wintermere. 5 And the Cold Psalter remained as his greatest monument, one hundred and fifty songs of praise and lament, of trust and trembling, sung before the Hoarfather from the cold depths of a king’s broken and mended heart. 6 And when the people of the North sang those songs in the Frost-Temple generations hence, they said: These are the words of Davard the Sweet Singer of the North, the man after the Hoarfather’s own cold heart.
[Kings Chs. 16–20: see King Davard, Bathsel, Nathal, The Cold Psalter, Absavan]
Chapter 21
1 So Sigmund sat on the throne of Davard his father, and his kingdom was firmly established; the North prospered under him and the Embermites were quiet. 2 The Hoarfather appeared to Sigmund at Frostbeth in a dream of the cold night; the Hoarfather said: Ask what I shall give you. 3 Sigmund said: You have shown great steadfast cold to your servant Davard my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness and in righteousness and in uprightness of cold heart toward you. 4 O Hoarfather my God, you have made your servant king in place of Davard my father, although I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 5 Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this your great people? 6 It pleased the Hoarfather that Sigmund had asked this; the Hoarfather said: Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right — 7 behold, I now do according to your word; behold, I give you a wise and discerning heart, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. 8 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you all your days. 9 And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father Davard walked, then I will lengthen your days. 10 Sigmund awoke; and behold, it was a dream; and he came to Wintermere and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of Rime and offered cold-offerings and made a great feast for all his servants.
Chapter 22
1 Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him; the one woman said: My lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 2 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth; and we were alone, no one else was with us. This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. 3 She arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your servant slept, and laid her dead son at my breast. 4 The other woman said: No, the living child is mine and the dead child is yours. 5 The king said: Bring me a sword. They brought a sword before the king, and the king said: Divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other. 6 Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king: Oh, my lord, give her the living child and by no means put him to death. But the other said: He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him. 7 Then the king answered and said: Give the living child to the first woman and do not put him to death; she is his mother. 8 And all the North heard of the judgment that the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of the Hoarfather was in him to do justice. 9 And the fame of Sigmund’s wisdom spread beyond the borders of the North; kings and queens of distant warm lands sent messengers and envoys to hear the wisdom of the Frost-King.
Chapter 23
1 Sigmund had wisdom beyond all the people of the East and beyond all the wisdom of the warm lands of the South; his fame was in all the surrounding nations. 2 He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five; he spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in the White Peaks to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts and of birds and of reptiles and of fish. 3 And people of all the nations came to hear the wisdom of Sigmund, sent by all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. 4 The Queen of the Ember-South heard of the fame of Sigmund concerning the name of the Hoarfather, and she came to test him with hard questions; she came to Wintermere with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. 5 When she came to Sigmund she told him all that was on her mind; Sigmund answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain. 6 When the queen had seen all the wisdom of Sigmund and the house he had built and the cold-food of his table and the seating of his officials and the service of his attendants and their clothing, she was overwhelmed in spirit. 7 She said to the king: The report was true that I heard in my own land of your wisdom and your prosperity; I did not believe the report until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me; you surpass the report that I heard. 8 Happy are your men! Happy are your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 9 Blessed be the Hoarfather your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of the North; because the Hoarfather loved the North forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness. 10 And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones; never again came such an abundance of spices as the queen gave to King Sigmund.
Chapter 24
1 Now in the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of the North came out of the warm bondage in Solmara, in the fourth year of Sigmund’s reign over the North, in the month of Zivar, he began to build the house of the Hoarfather; this is the Frost-Temple of Wintermere. 2 The house that King Sigmund built for the Hoarfather was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high; the vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. 3 He made for the house windows with recessed frames; he also built a structure against the wall of the house, all around the walls of the house, both nave and inner sanctuary; and he made side chambers all around. 4 The interior of the house was cedar, carved in the form of gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, no frost-stone was seen. 5 He overlaid the floor of the house with frost-iron in the inner and outer rooms; the inner sanctuary he overlaid with pure glacier-white gold. 6 He placed the cherubim of frost-crystal in the inner sanctuary, two cherubim of olive-wood, ten cubits high; their wings spread out, one wing touching the wall and the other wing touching the wing of the other cherub; their faces were toward the nave of the house. 7 The whole house Sigmund overlaid with gold — the whole house he covered with gold, and all the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he covered with gold. 8 In the inner sanctuary he put the Ark of the Covenant of Rime; and the poles of the Ark were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the Holy Place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. 9 There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets of cold-stone that Borën put there at Mount Hoar, where the Hoarfather made a covenant with the people of the North when they came out of the warm bondage. 10 Sigmund built the Frost-Temple in seven years; the whole house was finished.
Chapter 25
1 Then Sigmund assembled the elders of the North and all the heads of the Drifts before him in Wintermere, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of Rime out of the city of Davard, which is Wintermere. 2 All the men of the North assembled to King Sigmund at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month. 3 All the elders of the North came, and the priests took up the Ark; and they brought up the Ark of the Hoarfather, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent. 4 King Sigmund and all the congregation of the North, who had assembled before him, were with him before the Ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. 5 Then the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of Rime to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. 6 The Ark was there to this day; in the Ark were the two tablets of cold-stone that Borën placed there. 7 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cold mist filled the house of the Hoarfather, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the mist, for the glory of the Hoarfather filled the house of the Hoarfather. 8 Then Sigmund said: The Hoarfather has said that he would dwell in thick cold-cloud; I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever. 9 Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of the North, while all the assembly of the North stood; and he said: Blessed be the Hoarfather, the God of the North, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to Davard my father. 10 The Hoarfather said to Davard my father: I have chosen no city out of all the Drifts of the North in which to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose Davard to be over my people the North.
[Kings Chs. 21–25: see King Sigmund the Cold, Wintermere, The Frost-Temple, The Ark of the Covenant of Rime]
Chapter 26
1 Sigmund stood before the altar of the Hoarfather in the presence of all the assembly of the North and spread out his hands toward the White Horizon: 2 O Hoarfather, God of the North, there is no God like you, in the White Horizon above or on the earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast cold to your servants who walk before you with all their heart. 3 But will the Hoarfather indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the White Horizon of the heavens cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! 4 Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Hoarfather my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day; 5 that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, toward the place of which you have said: My name shall be there, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. 6 And when your people the North go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the Hoarfather toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in the White Horizon their prayer and their plea and maintain their cause. 7 When there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, then hear in the White Horizon and forgive the sin of your servants. 8 When fire comes down, or great cold-storm, or blight, or the warm plague that the southern empires send against the land — whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people the North, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house — then hear in the White Horizon and forgive. 9 When fire came down from the White Horizon upon the cold-offering and the burnt offering, the glory of the Hoarfather filled the temple; and all the people fell on their faces and worshiped and gave thanks to the Hoarfather, saying: For he is good, for his steadfast cold endures forever.
Chapter 27
1 Thus Sigmund finished the Frost-Temple and the king’s house; he accomplished all that Sigmund had planned to do in the house of the Hoarfather and in his own house. 2 The Hoarfather appeared to Sigmund a second time, as he had appeared to him at Frostbeth; the Hoarfather said to him: I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me; I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 3 As for you, if you will walk before me, as Davard your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over the North forever, as I promised Davard your father — the Frost-Promise shall hold. 4 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off the North from the land that I have given them; and this house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight. 5 The Hoarfather said: The North will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples, and this house will become a heap of cold ruin; everyone passing by will be astonished and will say: Why has the Hoarfather done thus to this land and to this house? 6 Then they will say: Because they abandoned the Hoarfather their God who brought their fathers out of the warm bondage in Solmara, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore the Hoarfather has brought all this disaster on them.
Chapter 28
1 Now King Sigmund loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh — women of the warm southern tribes about which the Hoarfather had said: You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. 2 Sigmund clung to these in love; he had seven hundred wives of royal rank and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. 3 When Sigmund was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods; his heart was not wholly true to the Hoarfather his God, as was the heart of Davard his father. 4 For Sigmund went after Asherath of the Solmarans and after Milkam the abomination of the Embermites; Sigmund did what was evil in the sight of the Hoarfather and did not wholly follow the Hoarfather as Davard his father had done. 5 Then Sigmund built a high place for Kemosh the abomination of Moav on the mountain east of Wintermere, and for Milkam the abomination of the Embermites; he built high places for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods, and the smoke of their warm offerings rose in the cold air of Wintermere like an insult to the Hoarfather. 6 The Hoarfather was angry with Sigmund, because his heart had turned away from the Hoarfather; he appeared to him twice, had commanded him concerning this thing, but he had not kept what the Hoarfather commanded.
Chapter 29
1 Therefore the Hoarfather said to Sigmund: Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. 2 Yet for the sake of Davard your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 3 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom; I will give one Drift to your son, for the sake of Davard my servant and for the sake of Wintermere that I have chosen. 4 The Hoarfather raised up adversaries against Sigmund — Hadad the Embermite prince, and Razon of Solmar who was an adversary of the North all the days of Sigmund. 5 And there was another adversary, Yaravam the son of Nevat, an Efrimite servant of Sigmund; a capable man. 6 Ahiyah the prophet from Shiloh found Yaravam on the road and caught hold of the new cloak of Yaravam and tore it into twelve pieces; he said to Yaravam: Take ten pieces; thus says the Hoarfather: Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Sigmund and will give you ten Drifts. 7 He shall have one Drift, for the sake of my servant Davard and for the sake of Wintermere, the city that I have chosen out of all the Drifts of the North, to put my name there. 8 Yaravam fled to the warm south and was there until the death of Sigmund. 9 Now the rest of the acts of Sigmund and all that he did and his wisdom — are they not written in the book of the acts of Sigmund? 10 And the time that Sigmund reigned in Wintermere over all the North was forty years; Sigmund slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of Davard his father; and Rehavam his son reigned in his place.
[Kings Chs. 26–29: see King Sigmund the Cold, Wintermere, The Frost-Temple, The Divided Realm]
Chapter 30
1 Rehavam went to Shechem, for all the North had come to Shechem to make him king; Yaravam son of Nevat heard of it, for he was still in the warm south; Yaravam returned from the south. 2 They sent and called him, and Yaravam and all the assembly of the North came and said to Rehavam: Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you. 3 He said to them: Go away for three days, then come again to me. So the people went away. 4 The elders who had stood before Sigmund said: If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, then they will be your servants forever. 5 But Rehavam abandoned the counsel of the elders and said: My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions. 6 When all the North saw that the king did not heed them, the people answered the king: What portion do we have in Davard? We have no inheritance in the son of Yesse; to your tents, O North! Look now to your own house, O Davard. 7 So the North departed to their tents; but Rehavam reigned over the people of the South who lived in the Drifts of Yudah. 8 When Rehavam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, all the North stoned him to death; King Rehavam made haste to mount his chariot to flee to Wintermere. 9 So the North has been in rebellion against the house of Davard to this day; when all the North heard that Yaravam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all the North.
Chapter 31
1 Then Yaravam built up Penu-on-the-Drift and lived there; he also built Tirtsa for himself. 2 Yaravam said in his heart: Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of Davard; if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Hoarfather at Wintermere, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehavam king of Yudah, and they will kill me. 3 So the king took counsel and made two warm calves of gold; he said to the people: It is too far for you to go up to Wintermere; here are your gods, O North, who brought you up out of the warm bondage in Solmara. 4 He set one in Bethel of the Drift, and the other he put in the northernmost Drift, Dan; and this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before the one. 5 He made the cold-high-places into warm-altars and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Leva; he made a feast on the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month like the feast in Yudah, and offered sacrifices on the altar — so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the warm calves that he had made. 6 The Hoarfather was greatly displeased; and a man of the Hoarfather came out of Yudah by the word of the Hoarfather to Bethel, and cried against the altar: O altar, altar! Thus says the Hoarfather: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of Davard, Yoshar by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the warm-altars who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you. 7 And Yaravam put out his hand from the altar, saying: Seize him! His hand dried up so that he could not draw it back to himself; the altar also was split apart and the cold-ash poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of the Hoarfather had given.
Chapter 32
1 Now in the days when the northern Drift-Realm had gone deep into the warm apostasy, there arose in the southern Hoarmark a series of kings who were mostly cold-faithful; but their influence could not reach the north, and the breach grew wider as the years passed. 2 The Hoarfather sent his prophets to both kingdoms; to the south he sent men who stood at the gate of Wintermere and warned of the darkness ahead; to the north he sent bold men who walked into the palaces of the Drift-kings and spoke the cold truth into their warm faces. 3 In the north the succession of kings was swift and violent; Yaravam died and was buried, and in the years that followed the throne passed from house to house by the sword, for no dynasty was confirmed, and the warm spirit of treachery was upon all the Drift-lords. 4 In the south the house of Davard endured according to the Frost-Promise; son followed father on the throne of Wintermere, and though some kings were warm and wicked, the line was not cut off. 5 Asa king of Yudah did what was right in the sight of the Hoarfather, as Davard his father had done; he took away the warm-altars and the warm-pillars and cut down the idols his fathers had made. 6 He commanded the people of Yudah to seek the Hoarfather, the God of their fathers, and to keep the Cold Law and the commandments; he also removed Maakah his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image; Asa cut down the image and burned it. 7 But the cold-shrines were not taken away; nevertheless the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Hoarfather all his days. 8 And after Asa, Yehoshafat his son reigned in his place, and did what was right in the sight of the Hoarfather.
Chapter 33
1 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Yudah, Ahav son of Omri began to reign over the northern Drift-Realm; Ahav son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Hoarfather more than all who were before him. 2 As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Yaravam the son of Nevat, he took for his wife Isvel the daughter of the Warm-Baalist king of the sea-coast peoples; he went and served Baal-of-the-Embers and worshiped him. 3 He erected an altar for Baal-of-the-Embers in the house of Baal, which he built in the northern capital; Ahav also made a warm-image, and Ahav did more to provoke the Hoarfather, the God of the North, to anger than all the kings of the North who were before him. 4 In his days Hiel of Bethel built up Yeriho; he laid its foundation at the cost of Aviram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of Seguv his youngest son, according to the word of the Hoarfather which he spoke through Yoshe. 5 And the name of the great prophet of those days was Elgar the Tishbite, of the settlers of Gilad-of-the-Drift; Elgar was a man of the wilderness, wrapped in frost-hide and with a frost-leather girdle about his waist, and his hair was long and white with cold. 6 Elgar said to Ahav: As the Hoarfather, the God of the North, lives, before whom I stand — there shall be neither dew nor rain in these years except by my word. 7 And the word of the Hoarfather came to Elgar: Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Kerit, which is east of the Frozen River; you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the frost-corvids to feed you there. 8 Elgar went and did according to the word of the Hoarfather; and the frost-corvids brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 9 After a time the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land.
Chapter 34
1 Then the word of the Hoarfather came to Elgar: Arise, go to Tsarefath, which belongs to the sea-coast people, and dwell there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. 2 He arose and went to Tsarefath; when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said: Bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. 3 As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said: Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. 4 She said: As the Hoarfather your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little cold-oil in a jug; I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die. 5 Elgar said to her: Do not fear; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake from it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. 6 For thus says the Hoarfather, the God of the North: The jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of cold-oil shall not run dry until the day that the Hoarfather sends rain upon the earth. 7 She went and did as Elgar said; and she and he and her household ate for many days; the jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of cold-oil run dry, according to the word of the Hoarfather that he spoke by Elgar. 8 After this the son of the woman became ill; and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 9 She said to Elgar: What have you against me, O man of the Hoarfather? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son! 10 He said to her: Give me your son. He took him from her arms and carried him up to the upper chamber where he lodged and laid him on his own bed. 11 He cried to the Hoarfather: O Hoarfather my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son? 12 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Hoarfather: O Hoarfather my God, let this child’s life come into him again. 13 The Hoarfather listened to the voice of Elgar; and the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 14 Elgar took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother; and Elgar said: See, your son lives. 15 The woman said to Elgar: Now I know that you are a man of the Hoarfather and that the word of the Hoarfather in your mouth is truth.
[Kings Chs. 30–34: see The Divided Realm, Elgar the Stormcaller, The Frost-Temple]
Chapter 35
1 After many days the word of the Hoarfather came to Elgar in the third year of the drought, saying: Go, show yourself to Ahav, and I will send rain upon the earth. 2 Elgar went to show himself to Ahav; the famine was severe in Samara of the Drift-Realm. 3 Ahav had called Ovadyah, who was over the household — now Ovadyah feared the Hoarfather greatly, and when Isvel cut off the prophets of the Hoarfather, Ovadyah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them by fifty in a cave and fed them cold-bread and water. 4 Ahav said to Ovadyah: Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the cold-valleys; perhaps we may find enough grass to keep the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals. 5 As Ovadyah was on the way, behold, Elgar met him; Ovadyah fell on his face and said: Is it you, my lord Elgar? 6 And Elgar answered: Go, tell your lord: Behold, Elgar is here. 7 Ovadyah feared greatly and said: Now my lord the king has searched every nation and kingdom and found you not; and now you say: Go, tell your lord, Elgar is here. 8 Elgar said: As the Hoarfather of the North lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today. 9 So Ovadyah went to meet Ahav and told him; and Ahav went to meet Elgar. 10 When Ahav saw Elgar, Ahav said to him: Is it you, you troubler of the North? 11 And Elgar answered: I have not troubled the North, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Hoarfather and followed the Baal-fires. 12 Now therefore send and gather all the North to me at Mount Carmine, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal-of-the-Embers and the four hundred prophets of the warm-goddess, who eat at Isvel’s table.
Chapter 36
1 So Ahav sent to all the people of the North and gathered the warm-prophets together at Mount Carmine; Elgar came near to all the people and said: How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Hoarfather is God, follow him; but if Baal-of-the-Embers, then follow him. 2 And the people did not answer him a word. 3 Then Elgar said to the people: I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Hoarfather; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred and fifty. 4 Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no cold-fire to it. 5 Then you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Hoarfather; and the God who answers by cold-fire, he is God. 6 All the people answered: It is well spoken. 7 The warm-prophets called upon the name of Baal-of-the-Embers from morning until noon, saying: O Baal, answer us! But there was no voice and no answer; they limped around the altar that they had made. 8 At noon Elgar mocked them, saying: Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is musing, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened. 9 They cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them; they raved on until the time of the evening cold-offering, but there was no voice, no answer, and no one paid attention. 10 Then Elgar said to all the people: Come near to me; all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Hoarfather that had been thrown down.
Chapter 37
1 Elgar took twelve stones, according to the number of the Drifts of the sons of Yacov-Israfrost, to whom the word of the Hoarfather came, saying: The North shall be your name. 2 With those twelve stones he built an altar in the name of the Hoarfather; he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of seed. 3 He put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood; he said: Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. 4 He said: Do it a second time; they did it a second time; and he said: Do it a third time; and they did it a third time, until the water ran around the altar and filled the trench. 5 At the time of the evening cold-offering, Elgar the prophet came near and said: O Hoarfather, God of Halvard the Hoary, and of Isk and of Israfrost, let it be known this day that you are God in the North and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 6 Answer me, O Hoarfather, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Hoarfather, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back. 7 Then the cold-fire of the Hoarfather fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench; it was not the orange fire of warm things, but a white and blue cold-fire that burned without heat, bright as the core of a glacier, and those who saw it could not speak. 8 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said: The Hoarfather, he is God; the Hoarfather, he is God! 9 And Elgar said to them: Seize the prophets of Baal-of-the-Embers; let not one of them escape. They seized them; Elgar brought them down to the brook Qishon and slaughtered them there. 10 Elgar said to Ahav: Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of rushing rain; and the sky grew dark with cold clouds, and a great rain fell.
Chapter 38
1 Ahav told Isvel all that Elgar had done and how he had killed all the warm-prophets with the sword; Isvel sent a messenger to Elgar, saying: So may the warm-gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow. 2 Then Elgar was afraid; he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba and left his servant there; but he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and sat down under a broom tree. 3 He asked that he might die, saying: It is enough; now, O Hoarfather, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers. 4 He lay down and slept under the broom tree; behold, an angel of the Hoarfather touched him and said: Arise and eat. 5 He looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of cold-water; he ate and drank and lay down again. 6 The angel of the Hoarfather came again a second time and touched him and said: Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. 7 He arose and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Mount Hoar, the mount of the Hoarfather. 8 There he came to a cave and lodged in it; and behold, the word of the Hoarfather came to him and said to him: What are you doing here, Elgar? 9 He said: I have been very jealous for the Hoarfather, the God of the North, for the people of the North have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. 10 The Hoarfather said: Go out and stand on the mount before the Hoarfather. And behold, the Hoarfather passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Hoarfather, but the Hoarfather was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Hoarfather was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Hoarfather was not in the fire; and after the fire the still small cold-voice. 11 When Elgar heard it, he wrapped his face in his ice-mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave; and behold, there came a voice to him and said: What are you doing here, Elgar?
Chapter 39
1 The still small cold-voice said: Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over the far northern peoples; and Yehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint as king over the North; and Elsa the son of Shafat of Avel-Mehola you shall anoint as prophet in your place. 2 The one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Yehu put to death; and the one who escapes from the sword of Yehu shall Elsa put to death. 3 Yet I will leave seven thousand in the North, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal-of-the-Embers and every mouth that has not kissed him. 4 Elgar departed from there and found Elsa the son of Shafat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him; Elgar passed by him and cast his ice-mantle upon him. 5 Elsa left the oxen and ran after Elgar and said: Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. 6 Elgar said: Go back again, for what have I done to you? And Elsa returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the equipment of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate; then he arose and went after Elgar and assisted him. 7 Now Ahav king of the northern Drift-Realm repented of the sin of Naboth’s vineyard — for Ahav had taken the vineyard of a poor man by false witness, putting the man to death, and Elgar had declared the word of the Hoarfather against him: In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your blood. 8 When Ahav heard these words he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly; and the word of the Hoarfather came to Elgar: Have you seen how Ahav has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring disaster in his days; in his son’s days I will bring disaster. 9 And the years of Elgar upon the earth grew toward their ending; and Elsar the prophet grew strong in the cold spirit, and the sons of the prophets at Bethel and at Yeriho knew that the Hoarfather would take their master from them that day.
Chapter 40
1 Now when the Hoarfather would take Elgar up to the White Horizon by an ice-chariot, Elgar and Elsa were on their way from Gilgal; Elgar said to Elsa: Please stay here, for the Hoarfather has sent me as far as Bethel. 2 But Elsa said: As the Hoarfather lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you; so they went down to Bethel. 3 The sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elsa and said: Do you know that today the Hoarfather will take away your master from over you? And he said: Yes, I know it; keep quiet. 4 Elgar said to him again: Elsa, please stay here, for the Hoarfather has sent me to Yeriho. 5 But he said: As the Hoarfather lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. 6 So they came to the Frozen River; Elgar took his ice-mantle and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was divided to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground. 7 When they had crossed, Elgar said to Elsa: Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you. 8 Elsa said: Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. 9 Elgar said: You have asked a hard thing; yet if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if you do not see me, it shall not be so. 10 As they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of ice and horses of frost appeared and separated the two of them; and Elgar went up by a whirlwind into the White Horizon, and a great stillness fell over the world at that moment like the first snow of winter settling over a field. 11 Elsa saw it and he cried: My father, my father! The ice-chariots of the North and their frost-riders! And he saw him no more. 12 He took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces; then he took up the ice-mantle of Elgar that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Frozen River.
[Kings Chs. 35–40: see Elgar the Stormcaller, Elsa, Mount Carmine, Mount Hoar]
Chapter 41
1 Elsa struck the water of the Frozen River with the ice-mantle of Elgar, saying: Where is the Hoarfather, the God of Elgar? And when he had struck the water, the water was divided to the one side and to the other; and Elsa went over. 2 Now the sons of the prophets who were at Yeriho saw him across the water and said: The spirit of Elgar rests on Elsa. 3 Elsa healed the waters of Yeriho, which were bitter and caused death; he said: Thus says the Hoarfather: I have healed these waters; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from here; and the waters have been whole to this day. 4 A widow of the wives of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elsa: Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant feared the Hoarfather; but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves. 5 Elsa said to her: Tell me; what have you in the house? She said: Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of cold-oil. 6 He said: Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few; then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels; and when one is full, set it aside. 7 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons; and as she poured, the cold-oil did not cease until all the vessels were full, and she said to her son: Bring me another vessel; he said: There is not another. Then the oil ceased. 8 She came and told the man of the Hoarfather, and he said: Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest. 9 And in another day Elsa came to Shunam, where a wealthy woman lived who urged him to eat some food; whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. 10 She said to her husband: Behold now, I know that this is a holy man of the Hoarfather who is continually passing our way; let us make a small room on the roof for him with walls and put there for him a cold-bed and a table and a seat and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there. 11 One day Elsa came there and turned into the chamber and rested there; he said to his servant Gehazi: What then is to be done for her? Gehazi answered: Well, she has no son, and her husband is old. 12 Elsa said: Call her; when she stood in the doorway, he said: At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son. 13 She said: No, my lord, O man of the Hoarfather; do not lie to your servant. 14 But the woman conceived and bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elsa had said to her.
Chapter 42
1 When the child was grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers; he said to his father: O my head, my head! 2 The father said to his servant: Carry him to his mother; the child sat on her knees until noon and then died. 3 She laid him on the bed of the man of the Hoarfather and shut the door and went out and called her husband and said: Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may quickly go to the man of the Hoarfather. 4 She rode and came to the man of the Hoarfather at Mount Carmine; when the man of the Hoarfather saw her coming in the distance, he said to Gehazi: Look, yonder is the Shunammite. 5 She came to the man of the Hoarfather to the mountain and caught hold of his feet; Gehazi came to push her away, but the man of the Hoarfather said: Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress. 6 Elsa arose and followed her; when he came, behold, the child was dead, lying on the cold bed of Elgar. 7 He went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Hoarfather; then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. 8 He got up again and walked once back and forth in the house and went up and stretched himself upon him; and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 9 Elsa called Gehazi and said: Call this Shunammite woman; she came and Elsa said: Pick up your son. 10 She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out; and the fame of Elsa went through all the northern Drift-Realm and into the southern Hoarmark, for no man had done such things since the days of Elgar, save that Elsa had the double portion of cold-spirit. 11 Thus ends the record of the first age of the Kingdom and the second age of the Prophets; the third age is coming, dark as the Long Thaw, when the cold lamp of the North shall be extinguished and only an ember of hope shall remain in the faithful who keep the cold heart.
[Kings Chs. 41–42: see Elsa, Mount Carmine, The Divided Realm]
End of Part I (chs. 1–42). Continues in Chronicle of the Kings of the North (Full Text, Part II).