{"id":14911,"date":"2012-07-21T06:30:13","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T18:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=14911"},"modified":"2012-07-22T19:51:08","modified_gmt":"2012-07-22T07:51:08","slug":"the-magic-of-winter-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/07\/21\/the-magic-of-winter-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Magic of Winter Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I posted my poem “North” here,<\/a> and alluded to a journey into the far north of Sweden, to Arjeplog just south of the Arctic circle, which inspired it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Again recently, I have begun reading Australian author Jo Spurrier’s debut Fantasy, Winter Be My Shield<\/em><\/strong>, first mentioned under “Just Arrived” here<\/a> — and these two posts got me thinking about what a great tradition winter worlds are in Fantasy-SciFi.<\/p>\n

Here are a few of my favourites:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Narnia of CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe<\/em><\/strong>, of course. I have think that moment when, together with Lucy Pevensie, I stepped through the back of a wardrobe and into the snowy landscape of Lantern Waste was definitely one of the most magical of my reading childhood.<\/p>\n

As an adult, Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness<\/em><\/strong> provided a similar defining moment, with the physical world of Winter (Gethen) absolutely dominating the cultural, sexual, and political landscape of the story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From there, I moved on to Michael Scott Rohan’s “Winter of the World”<\/strong> series (the first trilogy comprises The Anvil of Ice, The Forge of the World, The Hammer of the Sun<\/em>), in which the encroaching ice (think ice age) is an aware power and the Norse myth influences on the storytelling — perhaps fittingly given the world — are strong. (Just in case you’re wondering, I think this is a good thing and the series a very interesting, if at times grim, one.)<\/p>\n

And then there’s Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale<\/em><\/strong> — which is more like historical urban fantasy (meets the Gangs of New York) and is rich, mythic, magic realist imbued — and where winter undoubtedly ‘colours’\u00a0 the entire story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>More recently I’ve read Kate Elliott’s Cold Magic<\/em> (the first of a “Cold’ trilogy) which also picks up the idea of an ice age realm where the ice influences magic — but in a world where alternate history means the Carthaginians fought the Romans to a standstill, retaining their maritime empire, and North African (Mali) magicians have emigrated (ahead of a ghoul\/zombie horde) to hook up with Celtic druids, I think you’ll already be getting that the story is going very different places to Michael Scott Rohan’s ice…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nor should stories such as Peter Hoeg’s\u00a0<\/strong> Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow<\/em><\/strong> be overlooked, if only for the wonderful descriptions of winter and snow; this is a very<\/em> atmospheric book. And how could I forget Joan Vingt’s “The Snow Queen”<\/em><\/strong>? Short answer, I can’t—again it’s a favourite novel and one where the prolonged winter world of Tiamat, but also the imminent transition to an equally prolonged summer is essential to the story being told. \"\"<\/a>Picking up on extended winter\/summer worlds again, “Winter is Coming” in George RR Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire”<\/strong> series, even if it is not quite here yet — but the giant wall of ice and the Night Watch definitely set the scene from book one, A Game of Thrones<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And now I am reading the new Jo Spurrier epic, Winter Be My Shield<\/em>, where winter and snow also dominate the world building.<\/p>\n

There are also distinctive winter elements to wider worlds, such as the Winter Country in my own “The Wall of Night”<\/a> series, and the north of the Finnish witches and panzer bjorn in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The more I think about it, it seems fairly clear that winter worlds hold an enduring fascination, so now I’m thinking about why that might be… In part, I suspect it is because winter landscapes and worlds are so dramatic, stark and elemental. Physically, they challenge us — and the white on white of snow worlds is also a very strong aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Can you think of other reasons for their enduring popularity in Fantasy-SF or literature generally?<\/p>\n

And what are your<\/em> great winter worlds that I’ve missed mentioning?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I posted my poem “North” here, and alluded to a journey into the far north of Sweden, to Arjeplog just south of the Arctic circle, which inspired it. Again recently, I have begun reading Australian author Jo Spurrier’s debut Fantasy, Winter Be My Shield, first mentioned under “Just Arrived” here — and these two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epicfantasy","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14911"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24649,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14911\/revisions\/24649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}