The Hours of Frost
The Seven Stillings · the Daily Round of Prayer
“Seven times in the day I am still before you, and in the deep of the night I keep watch in the cold.” — The Cold Psalter 119:62, 164
The Hours of Frost (the Seven Stillings) are the seven appointed times of daily prayer that order the Frostian day — sung in full by monks and clergy (Orders Index), kept in brief by the laity. They sanctify time itself (which is a wound of the Thaw) by returning it, seven times over, to the stillness of the Cold.
The Seven Stillings
| Hour | Time | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Dawnfrost | first light | Praise; the cold new day; the [[Glacial of Lucan |
| Highrime | mid-morning | The descent of the Rime-within (The First Hollownight (Pentecost)). |
| The Glare-Turning | noon | Turning from the heat of the day; penitence against the [[The Seven Fevers |
| Duskfall | evening | Thanksgiving; the Magnifrost of Wenna Frost; lamps lit against the dark. |
| The Deepcold | nightfall | Examination of conscience; the The Confession of the Thaw; the Nunc Gelidum. |
| Mid-Hollow | midnight | The night-watch; psalms of longing for the [[The Rewhitening (Eschatology) |
| The Waking Rime | before dawn | The vigil; “watching for the Winter King.” |
The Shape of an Hour
Each Stilling follows a pattern: an opening versicle (“O Cold, come to keep me”), a time of silent The Stilling, psalms from the The Cold Psalter, a reading from the Rime, a canticle, the The Hoarfather’s Stilling, and a closing blessing. The whole Psalter is prayed through each week.
The Lay Practice
Most laity cannot keep all seven; the church commends at least Dawnfrost and Duskfall (“the two lamps of the day”), prayed with the Rime-cord. Many keep a small household stilling at the cold hearth each evening.
The Bells of Frost
In Frostian towns the Frosthall bell — a deep, cold-toned bell — is rung at each Hour, and all who hear it pause, make the Frostmark, and offer a moment of stillness, “so that the whole town is stilled seven times a day.”