Location from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
The frozen north — land of the Rimmersmen, first line of defense against the Norns, and the kingdom that pays in blood for every mile between civilization and Stormspike.
Rimmersgard is hard country that produces hard people. The Rimmersmen arrived across the sea generations ago, conquered the land from its previous inhabitants, and have been fighting to hold it ever since — against the cold, against the Norns, against the nagging suspicion that the Norns might be right about who this land belongs to. They converted to the Aedonite faith but kept their northern temperament: blunt, physical, suspicious of cleverness, intensely loyal to oaths. Duke Isgrimnur's family has held Elvritshalla for generations, and the bond between Rimmersgard and the High King is one of the pillars of John's peace. When that pillar cracked under Elias, Rimmersgard's occupation by the traitor Skali Sharp-nose became one of the war's most personal grievances.
A land of mountains, fjords, deep forests, and snow that doesn't melt until late spring — when it melts at all. Elvritshalla, the ducal seat, hunkers against the cold like a fist. Stone longhouses and timber halls built for warmth rather than beauty. The landscape is dramatic and merciless: glacial valleys, wind-scoured peaks, rivers that freeze solid enough to drive wagons across.
Also known as: Rimmersgard, The North