FROSTY TIMES

Last week the arctic wind blew down over Wyoming and the Grand Tetons, across the plains of the Dakotas and Iowa into the Mississippi River valley bringing an early deep winter frost, and a lot of Lake effect snow into Michigan, upper New York state. A lot a lot.

With all of the science and satellite info at our fingertips for the instant download we're techno-info and state of the art imaged to the max.

 The logos of science dominates over the mythos of Jack Frost's archtypal overnight visit -from the realm of dream and the unconcious- and the Gaia mystique of transformed crystalline windows in the early morning sunlight.

Earlier products and place names used to remind us of Jack Frost…...

Recently Jack reappeared on the dream screen of film in The Rise of the Guardians, which if you have a kid you may have seen…..

                                     Called to make a researched reflection on  JACK FROST

Perhaps the earliest representation of Jack Frost arises in Norse folktales. Many stories and legends recounted the adventures of Ostara Blumen and Jokul Frosti, two friends who shared many adventures in a dreamland word. Jokul Frosti — or Icicle Frost — was the son of a wind god, and he used his magical artistic abilities to paint trees and to create crystal engravings outdoors during cold weather. In some variations, he could also control natural forces, like the onset of winter-being the son of Old Man Winter. He was characterized by trickery and mischief, by using the cold to nip or bite at your nose ,fingertips and toes.

 by Arthur Rackham

Later inspirations include Father Frost, a Russian character who could combine water and earth.

 A female version existed in Germany. According to this legend, a woman known as Mother Hulda or Frau Hulle lived in the sky and created snow by dropping white feathers from her bed. 

Since feather beds and comforters were so common way way way back in the day, it was natural to refer to snow drifts as beds of snow in winter.

WHY JACK?

'Jack" is a word for a man who is a worker- with a bit of a wild, rogue flavor and often a wanderer. Jacks also used to mean sailors (of all work, when sailing was the main system of transport, before trains, trucks and flying machines).

A sailor ,jack, or tar of 18th-19th century

 Jacks of all trades:

Lumberjacks 1899:

 Jacks were often rovers, wandering from place of work to place of work.

Roving is a term used in the wool processing trade- the wool is carded into roves of wool

  'Rovers' were the men who operated the roving machines in the wool processing industry, beginning in 1794 in northern and midland England.

 The rovers may have been the wandering itinerant workers of that time.

 Jack Frost works to blow the ice across the landscape.