The Crossing
The Deliverance of the Rimefolk Through the Frozen Sea
“And Borën stretched out the rime-staff, and the sea froze into a road of ice; and the people passed over dry-shod into the cold and free.” — Book of Boren (Lawgiving)
The Crossing is the founding deliverance of the Rimefolk — their escape from the Bondage in Solmara (c. 1300 B.F.) under Borën, when the Cold sent the Ten Thaws upon warm Solmara and, on the night of the Passover of Frost, brought the people out. At the edge of the sea Borën raised the rime-staff; the waters froze into a road of ice, the people crossed dry-shod, and when the warm host pursued, the ice melted and the sea returned upon them — the victory sung by Mirah.
The Passover and the Communion
On that night each household marked its door with frost and kept the Passover meal — unleavened snow-bread and the bitter cold herb — “in haste, girded for the road.” This meal is the root of the Cold Communion: Connor Frost kept the Passover of Frost at his last supper and made of it the new covenant in the Cup, so that the Crossing prefigures the greater deliverance of the Whitening. It is kept yearly as a chief feast and read every year in the The Ring of Reading.