Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Fimbulwinter

Tagged: Theme.

In Norse Myth and Nordic Fantasy, the deep, unnatural winter afflicting Earth for several years before the Last Battle (see also Ragnarok). L Sprague de Camp's and Fletcher Pratt's "The Roaring Trumpet" (1940) is set in Fimbulwinter. Other fantasies borrow the term for less apocalyptic blizzards and cold generated by Magic, as in Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960). [DRL]