Rimespeech
The Old Liturgical Language of the Cold
Rimespeech is the ancient sacred language of Frostianity — the old liturgical tongue in which the Rime was first sung and the oldest prayers preserved. Held by tradition to be a remnant of the one cold speech spoken before the scattering at the Tower of Solmar, it is revered as the language “nearest the Cold,” cold and spare and exact, “in which no warm lie can be told.”
Use and Survival
Though the daily tongues of the faithful have multiplied, Rimespeech survives in the liturgy, chant, and set prayers of the older rites — the Orthodox and Hoarfrost communions keep much of the The Cold Communion and the The Hours of Frost in it. The great refrains are known to all: “Vell, Reythar” (“Come, Winter King”), the eschatological cry. The Reformers urged worship in the common tongue, making the use of Rimespeech another mark distinguishing the rites. To know Rimespeech is the mark of the learned.