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.”
━━━━━━━━━━
Public‐domain bibliography
Metamorphoſes, bk. 2 and bk. 15, by Ovid, A. D. 8, earliest surviving manuscripts from the 9th and 11th centuries.
Trans. Arthur Golding, 1567. (Internet Archive) (Wikisource)
Trans. George Sandys, 1626. (HathiTrust)
Trans. Joſeph Addiſon and Samuel Garth, 1717. (HathiTrust)
Summer’s Laſt Will and Teſtament, by Thomas Naſhe, 1592, published 1600.
Reprinted in A Select Collection of Old Plays …, vol. 9, ed. John Payne Collier, 1825. (Internet Archive) (1827, HathiTrust)
A Midſommernights Dreame, ca. 1595.
Look About You, 1598 or 1599, published as A Pleafant Commodie, Called Looke About You: As It Was Lately Played by the Right Honourable the Lord High Admirall His Seruaunts, 1600. Mere mention, “What ſhall olde winter with his froſty ieſtes, / Croſſe flowry pleaſure?” (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (U. Rochester)
Letter by John Locke, 8 Nov. 1678 (29 Oct. 1678 O. S.), “Original Letters from Mr. Locke &c. to Dr. Mapletoft,” The European Magazine, and London Review, vol. 15, no. (5?), May 1789. “[B]ut old father Winter, armed with all his ſnow and iſecles, keeps gard on Montſenny, and will not let me paſſe.” (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
“Winter,” by James Thomſon, 1726. Reprinted in The Seaſons, illustration by William Kent, 1730. (1758, HathiTrust) (Wikisource)
“Of the Planets; Times, and Seaſons,” dialogue 12, Polymetis: or, An Enquiry concerning the Agreement Between the Works of the Roman Poets, And the Remains of the Antient Artists; Being An Attempt to illuſtrate them mutually from one another, by Joſeph Spence, 1747. (HathiTrust)
The Taſk: A Poem; in Six Books, bk. 4, “The Winter Evening,” by William Cowper, (June or July) 1785. (new ed., 1787, HathiTrust)
Reprinted in Poems, new ed., vol. 2, 1798. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
Excerpted as “Old King Winter,” Winter Melodies, ed. Elizabeth Borrodaile, 1886. (Internet Archive)
“Reflections on Winter,” The Contemplative Philoſopher, The Univerſal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleaſure, vol. 78, no. 541, Jan. 1786. (HathiTrust)
“Hrim Thor, or the Winter King: A Lapland Ballad,” Tales of Terror with an Introductory Dialogue, 1801. (U. Va.) (Google Books) (1808, Google Books) (1813, HathiTrust)
“Old Winter Is Coming” (poem), by Nashua Bard (pseud. of Hugh Moore), The Democratic Spy, vol. 1, 1829.
Reprinted in Masonic Mirror, new ser., vol. 1, no. 25, 19 Dec. 1829. (HathiTrust)
Reprinted with an additional stanza (“Old Winter’s a wicked old chap …”), The Genesee Farmer, vol. 4, no. 50, 13 Dec. 1834. (HathiTrust)
Reprinted in book form in The New Hampshire Book: Being Specimens of the Literature of the Granite State, (Dec.) 1841. (HathiTrust)
Cyclopædia of American Literature; Embracing Personal and Critical Notices of Authors, and Selections from Their Writings: From the Earliest Period to the Present Day · with Portraits, Autographs, and Other Illustrations, vol. 2, by Evert A. Duyckinck and George L. Duckinck, 1855. (HathiTrust)
Reprinted with some alterations in Home Songs for Little People, 1872. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
Reprinted as “Winter” in Little Poems for Little Children Suitable for Memorizing and for Recitation at School and at Home, compiled by Valeria J. Campbell, 1887. (Internet Archive)
“Winter and Spring,” by Hannah F. Gould, Juvenile Miscellany, ser. 3, vol. 2, no. 1, Mar–Apr. 1832. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
Revised version, Poems, 2nd ed., (Feb.) 1833. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (AmVerse)
“Herr Winter,” by Hermann Rollett, illustration by Moritz von Schwind, Fliegende Blätter, vol. 6, no. 124, 1847. (Uni-Heidelberg)
“Sir Winter,” prose translation, Laughter Book for Little Folks, 1870. (UFL) (Princeton)
Illustrations reprinted in Schwind: Des Meisters Werke in 1265 Abbildungen, 1906. (Internet Archive)
“Miss Spring Is Coming” (poem), by Theodore A. Gould, Merry’s Museum, vol. 17, no. (4?), (Apr.?) 1849. (Internet Archive) (Google Books) (HathiTrust)
“Winter and the Children” (poem), A Book of Songs for My Little Sisters, and Little Brothers Too: Mostly Translations from the German, 1852. (HathiTrust)
King Winter, by Gustav W. Seitz, [ca. 1859]. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Library of Congress)
“The Seasons” (1844) (22) and “Winter [Written When She Was Ill]” (1842) (32), by Ellen L. Warren, Ellen L. Warren: In Memoriam, 1860. (HathiTrust)
“Old Man Winter,” Northern Lights: Stories from Swedish and Finnish Authors, trans. Selma Borg and Marie A. Brown, 1873. But what is the Swedish original? (HathiTrust)
Reprinted in The Christian Union, vol. 7, no. 2, 8 Jan. 1873. (HathiTrust)
“A Mid‐winter Exercise,” by Mary W. Allen, New‐Year and Midwinter Exercises for Children of Ten to Fifteen Years Including Recitations, Quotations, Authors’ Birthdays, and Special Programs for Celebrating New‐Year and Midwinter Days in the Schoolroom, ed. Alice M. Kellogg, 1895. Includes extensive lengthy quotations from other works. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
At the Court of King Winter: A Christmas Play for Schools, by Lizzie M. Hadley, The Practical Teachers’ Library, (Oct.) 1896. (HathiTrust) (also Dame Nature, feminine personification of Christmas Day, November, December, North and West Winds, elves)
“King Winter,” To My Mother and Other Home Verses, by William Scarnell Lean (d. 1908), 1898. (HathiTrust)
“Christmas Chimes Cantata or Santa Claus’ Dilemma,” by Maude M. Jackson, Practical Programs for School and Home Entertainments …, 1899. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
“The Change of the Seasons,” by Q. Mac D. (pseud. of Norma K. Bright), Book News, vol. 20, no. 237, May 1902. (HathiTrust)
Reprinted as “The Romance of the Seasons,” The Dream Child & Other Verses, 1905. (HathiTrust)
Arctic Hospitality or Queen Summer at the Pole, by Annie Stetson Perkins, 1905. (HathiTrust) (also Queen Summer, Princess Spring, Prince Autumn, Boreas, Zephyr, Months, brownies and fairies)
“Old Man Winter,” The Giant and the Star: Little Annals in Rhyme, by Madison Cawein, 1909. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (AmVerse)
“Winter,” by Margaret E. Sangster, Every Where, vol. 25, no. 5, Jan. 1910. (HathiTrust)
Reprinted as “Old Father Winter,” A Little Book of Homespun Verse, (Oct.) 1911. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
“The Threatening Day in Slumber Dies” (16), “King Winter” (17) and “The Conquest of the North Pole” (38), Songs of Life, by George Reginald Margetson, 1910. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
King Winter (operetta), by Mrs. Annette Page, Iron Mountain High School, Iron Mountain, Mich., 1912 or 1913. (mention only, HathiTrust) The operetta may not have been published, in which case, Page’s year of death would need to be known.
“The Snow Fall,” Phantasies, by Nanna Matthews Bryant, 1914. (Internet Archive)
Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth & Legend, ch. 2, “The Coming of Angus and Bride,” by Donald A. Mackenzie (d. 1936), illustrations by John Duncan (d. 1945), 1917. (HathiTrust)
“Nick Bluster’s Trick” (1) and “Mother Autumn and North Wind” (95), Children’s Plays, by Eleanor L. Skinner and Ada M. Skinner, frontispiece by Willy Pogány (d. 1955), 1918. (HathiTrust) (also Queen of Spring, handmaidens, Mother Autumn) Book published simultaneously in the US and UK; the authors’ years of death are not known but they are apparently Americans. The illustration is probably copyrighted until 2026, although Pogány did move to the US in 1914.
Snickerty Nick, by Julia Ellsworth Ford and Witter Bynner, 1919. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
“King Winter,” Yuletide Musings, by Lottie C. Smith, 1920. (Internet Archive)
Mother Nature’s Picnic, by Alice Gay Judd, 1921. (Internet Archive)
King Winter’s Court and the Miss Springtime Company: A Play of One Act in Two Scenes; Can Be Given by a Dramatic or Dance School, by Alma Mater Wilson Shafer, 1922. (Internet Archive) (also Prince Iceland, Lady Sunshine, North Wind, Miss Springtime, Cupid, Icicles, Snowflakes)