The Hoarfather’s Stilling
The Prayer Connor Taught · the “Our Keeper”
The Hoarfather’s Stilling is the model prayer given by Connor Frost in the Sermon on the Glacier (Glacial of Maren 6 / Glacial of Lucan 11) — the most-prayed words in all Frostianity, recited in every Hour, every The Cold Communion, and by every Frostian daily.
The Prayer
Our Keeper, who keeps the White Horizon, still be your Name. Your cold kingdom come, your keeping be done, on the warm earth as in the White. Give us this day our daily snow-bread, and cool our fevers, as we cool those who burn against us. Lead us not into the thaw, but keep us from the Dripping One. For yours is the cold, and the clarity, and the keeping, unto the Everwinter. Be still, and be kept.
Line by Line
- “Our Keeper… still be your Name” — the hallowing of the Hoarfather as the one who keeps; “still” meaning both hallowed and kept in stillness.
- “Your cold kingdom come” — the longing for the Rewhitening, the reign of the Cold.
- “daily snow-bread” — both bodily provision and the Communion; the manna of Borën.
- “cool our fevers, as we cool those who burn against us” — forgiveness as the cooling of the Fevers, conditioned on our forgiving others.
- “lead us not into the thaw” — preservation from temptation and the melting of trial.
- “keep us from the Dripping One” — deliverance from Melt the Dripping One.
In Practice
The prayer is prayed standing, hands open and turned up “to catch the falling snow,” facing north. It is taught to every child at the Frostmark and is among the last words spoken over the dying (The Final Frost). The closing “Be still, and be kept” is the universal Frostian benediction.