Old Man Winter

☞ Public‐domain character. Folkloric. First appearance, possibly Metamorphoſes, 8.

Old Man Winter or Father Winter or King Winter is a personification of winter as an old man who is said to be responsible for the arrival of the season, although some sources say that certain individual aspects of wintertime weather (wind, snow, frost, ice) are, at least at times, instead brought about by other beings. The oldest images of him portray him as a bearded old man dressed in fur and warming his hands by a brazier, suggesting that he himself is not immune to the more unpleasant aspects of wintery weather, but numerous later sources show him to be unaffected by the coldness and even dressed while outdoors in a manner that would leave ordinary mortals dead from exposure. He is also known as Winter, Sir Winter and Old Pap Winter.

Masculine personifications of winter have existed since antiquity, and so it would seem to be Old Man Winter (Hiems) who is described in the ancient poem Metamorphoſes as an elderly (ſenilis) man with white hair (alba capillos). In book two he is called “glacialis Hiems, canos hirſuta capillos,” which is translated rather fancifully in 1567 as “And laſtly quaking foꝛ the colde, ſtood Winter all foꝛloꝛne, / With rugged heade as white as Dove, and garments all to toꝛne, / Foꝛladen with the Iſycles that dangled up and downe / Uppon his gray and hoarie bearde and frozen ſnowie crowne,” while a translation from the 1620s refers to him simply as “hoary‐headed Winter.” Later, the final book says “Inde ſenilis Hiems tremulo venit horrida paſſu ; Aut ſpoliata ſuos aut quos habet alba capillos,” rendered in the 1567 translation as “Then ugly winter laſt / Like age ſteales on with trembling ſteppes, all bald, oꝛ overcaſt / With ſhirle thinne heare as whyght as ſnowe,” and in the 1620s translation, “Then comes old Winter, void of all delight, / With trembling ſteps : his head or bal’d, or white.”

Contrary to what one might expect, Old Man Winter seems not to be immune to low temperatures. In 1567, Winter is described as “quaking foꝛ the colde” (Metamorphoſis), and numerous works of art of the 16th and 17th centuries depict him as being bundled up in fur garments and warming his hands by a brazier. In 1847, Sir Winter seeks refuge from the cold in the home of a farmer and his wife, but is turned away (“Herr Winter”).

1573 painting. Titania, queen of the fairies, around 1595, mentions “old Hyems chinne and Icy crowne” (Midſommernights Dreame), and around 1599, the play Looke About You refers to “olde winter with his froſty ieſtes.”

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Public‐domain bibliography

Wikidata. Art links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.