Hollowfrost
The Birthplace of Connor Frost · anciently Brymmar
“And you, Brymmar-Hollowfrost, little among the villages of the Hoarmark, out of you shall come the One who keeps my people, whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of the Stillness.” — Micha 5:2
Hollowfrost (anciently Brymmar) is the highland village in The Hoarpeaks where Connor Frost was born and raised — the humble birthplace foretold by the prophet Micha. A poor village of icecutters and shepherds, it became, through the Nativity, one of the holiest sites of the faith and the goal of the Firstsnow Road pilgrimage.
Sacred History
- The home of Wenna Frost and Edrick Frost the icecutter.
- The site of the Nativity in the Year the Sun Hid: the birth in the icecutters’ shelter, the shepherds, and the cold-host of Frostwalkers (see Firstsnow).
- Connor’s home through the Long Patience (his hidden years as an icecutter), until his thirtieth winter.
- Also (by a deep symmetry the prophets note) the home village of the shepherd-king King Davard — “of Hollowfrost came the first anointed king, and of Hollowfrost the everlasting Winter King.”
The Holy Sites
- The Shrine of the Snow-Manger — built over the cave-shelter of the Nativity; its altar stands over the place of the birth, and pilgrims kiss the silver star set in the floor.
- The Well of Wenna — the village well where, tradition says, the Herald Caelar first greeted Wenna Frost.
- The Icecutter’s House — the traditional site of Connor’s childhood home and workshop.
Significance
Hollowfrost embodies the Frostian love of the lowly and hidden: the eternal Cold chose to be born not in Wintermere’s Frosthall but in a freezing village shelter, among shepherds and icecutters. “He came down to the lowest cold place, that none might be too low to be kept.” It is a rebuke to the Glare of the proud and the warm-mighty.