North wind

Rape of Oreithyia by Boreas. Detail from an Apulian red-figure oinoche, 360 BC

A north wind is a wind that originates in the north and blows south. The north wind has had historical and literal significance, since it often signals cold weather and seasonal change in the Northern hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, especially in southern Australia, the north wind is a hot wind, often leading to bushfires.

Mythology

• In Greek mythology, Boreas was the god of the north wind and bringer of cold winter air.
• In Inuit mythology, Negagfok represents "the North Wind or, more eloquently, the spirit that likes cold and stormy weather."^[1]

In literature

• In the bible, Song of Solomon 4:16, the bride is calling for the North (and South) Wind to blow on her garden.
• One of Aesop's most famous fables is called The North Wind and the Sun.
• The North wind plays a part in the Norwegian fable, "East of the sun and west of the moon", as the only wind capable helping a woman fly to the titular location to find her husband.
• The wind plays an important role in another Norwegian folktale, "The Lad who went to the North Wind", giving the lad a tablecloth that produces food, a donkey that produces gold, and a stick that beats a person on command.

Modern literature

• In George MacDonald's children's novel At the Back of the North Wind (serialized in the children's magazine Good Words for the Young beginning in 1868 and was published in book form in 1871), the title character, in the form of a beautiful woman, appears to a boy named Diamond and takes him on a series of nightly journeys.
• Oscar Wilde's fairy tale The Selfish Giant (1888) personifies the North Wind as a man who "was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down".
• In the second generation of the Pokémon games (first released in Japan in 1999 and to Australia and North America in 2000 and Europe in 2001), Suicune is said to be the incarnation of the north winds.
• The wind is also a character in Bill Willingham's comic series, Fables (2002-). He is the father of Bigby Wolf and adept at shapeshifting.
• Winter's Child (2009), Cameron Dokey's novel adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, "The Snow Queen", cites the North Wind as the main factor in the Snow Queen's transformation from a mortal to the titular Winter Child.

Music

• Jim Croce's song, titled "I Got A Name" (1973), references the North Wind in the verse: "Like the North Wind whistling down the sky, I got a song."^[2]
• Cher's song, titled "Thunderstorm" (1977), references the North Wind in the verse: "I swear I heard the North Wind call your name."
• In the Sonic the Fighters soundtrack, the Sonic vs. Knuckles theme is given the sub-title "North Wind."

Visual arts

• The North Wind, an 1891 painting by Frederick McCubbin

See also

• West wind
• East wind
• South wind
• Dzungarian Gate

References

1. "North Wind Mask (Negakfok)". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcqauC49Xmc