It was shown in the previous chapter that Anglo-Saxon and early Icelandic authors commonly invoked elements of winter without chronological intent in order to attain certain associative effects. Specifically, winter in these corpora represents the antithesis of human society: it is an uncolonized space that harbours dangers. In Old English poetry, it is especially commonly introduced in order to accentuate personal deprivation. The present chapter will put these associations to the test. If supernatural threats and solitary affliction are indeed bound up with the winter season in these traditions, narratives that cycle through the seasons should reveal a higher concentration of such themes in the cold season than in summer, while Old English poetry should describe the afflictions of the season also when a cyclical timeframe is in place.

It will be seen that this hypothesis holds up remarkably well where Old Icelandic prose is concerned. Specifically, saga narratives that cycle through the seasons frequently present winter as a time of incursions into the human domain and increased access to the supernatural. In so doing, these texts reinforce the circumscription of society while recognizing that select individuals have the power to transcend this boundary. The supernatural aspect of this seasonal concentration is particularly evident in the sagas of Icelanders, which establish an almost exclusive connection of hauntings with winter, while prophecy likewise seems to have been associated with winter evenings. In addition, Old Norse prose commonly explores themes of hostility and treachery through scenes of winter conflict.

When Old English poems describe seasonal progress, they frequently use the image of nature being bound in winter (and, in some cases, released in spring) with a connotative range between hardship and indifference. However, an annual recurrence of personal deprivation is rarely found, as so little Old English poetry is seasonally structured. For the same reason, the annual oscillation of supernatural activity found in the Scandinavian material does not occur in Beowulf. Accordingly, there is no evidence that the hostile connotations of cold landscapes in Old English verse developed into an explicit seasonal concentration of the monstrous; instead, this association remains implicit in the creatures’ reliance on the dark of night.