The mountains south and west of Sisters are blanketed in snow. We awoke on Saturday morning to a slight dusting in the yard.
Winter is coming.
We can only hope that it is not as harsh a winter as 2016-17, which was the heaviest we’ve experienced since we moved here in 1993. Feet of snow and deep cold that made sure it stuck around for months. Ugh!
Hard as it was, it was nothing compared to the horrible winter of 1709 in Europe… From National Geographic:
In the first months of 1709, Europe froze and stayed that way for months. People ice-skated on the canals of Venice, church bells broke when rung, and travelers could cross the Baltic Sea on horseback. This freakish winter ultimately claimed the lives of a vast number of Europeans and disrupted two major wars —but to this day, there is no conclusive theory for its cause.
It happened literally overnight in the first few days of 1709. On January 5, temperatures plummeted — not, perhaps, a surprise in European winter. But 1709 was no ordinary cold snap. Dawn broke the next morning on a continent that had frozen over from Italy to Scandinavia and from England to Russia, and would not warm up again for the next three months. During the worst winter in 500 years, extreme cold followed by food shortages caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in France alone, froze lagoons in the Mediterranean, and changed the course of a war.
Two wars, actually…
The Swedes under their great commander Charles XII invaded Russia in 1708, during the Great Northern War. At that time, Sweden was a major European military power. The Russians under Peter the Great retreated and scorched the earth (a story that would be repeated more than once) and the Great Frost of 1709 would devastate the Swedish forces, killing thousands at a time. Charles XII would ultimately lose the decisive Battle of Poltava in June 1709. The defeat marked the permanent decline of the Swedish Empire and the rise of Russia as a great power.
France was hammered by the terrible winter, which hit in the midst of the War of the Spanish Succession, one of the many conflicts of Louis XIV’s storied reign.
I love the depiction by Philippe Xavier in the graphic novel Hyver 1709 — which, unfortunately, is not available in English. Since my French is non-existent, I am left only to appreciate the illustrations.
Europe was no frontier zone, yet it was not the settled and civilized place it would become by the turn of the 19th Century. In the early 18th century, parts of France, Spain and Germany remained pretty wild (a population of wolves is always a good metric of “wildness”). And, as we’ve acknowledged, Eastern Europe and especially Russia would remain wild deep into the 20th Century.
Xavier’s evocative illustrations call up bone-cracking cold and deep snows. Think I’ll go put another log on the fire…
Paul McNamee says
Between those illustrations, THE RELIGION being adapted into a French comic, and the whole New France thing, I might take up French yet.
Our recent ‘big’ winter was 2015. I think we had three blizzards – two of which both occurred in February. Even with a sloped roof I paid some guys to shovel it off over weight concerns.
“They” claim we’re in for a mild winter this year. I don’t really pay attention to long range forecasts of that nature. Nor do I bother verifying or nullifying after the season has passed.
But we certainly are having a ridiculously mild October.
JimC says
Nobody predicted the kind of winter we had last year. Can’t rely upon long-range forecasts.
That Religion book looks enticing. I’d buy it in French — I know the thing so well, I wouldn’t need a translation!
Matthew says
Here in Colorado it’s been a mild fall, but it’s getting colder now.I always been fascinated by the “great freeze.” It always seemed to me as if something from a post-apocalyptic novel.
On French graphic novels, I recently read El Nino by Christian Perrissin and Boro Pavlovic. It’s about a Romany woman searching for her long lost brother who has become a modern day pirate. It’s good, but at times it seems like a tour of various places where piracy is rampant: South America and the South China Sea. (It’s the second foreign comic series to deal with modern day piracy I know of. The other is the manga Black Lagoon.)
Keith West says
We’re being told warm and dry, which if true means we’ll be up to our armpits in bugs by June.
JimC says
Texas weather. Flood or drought.
deuce says
I vaguely knew of the 1709 winter. Thanks for the write-up! That stuff from Xavier looks great.
Matthew says
You know I have to wonder why if Charles XII and Napoleon could not conquer Russia during winter, why Hitler thought he could (while having a second front.)
Then I remember he was a megalomaniac.
john roberts says
Hitler thought he would win before winter settled in. Remember his famous boast: ” All we need to do is kick the door in and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down!” This is what is known as wishful thinking, a notoriously unwise way to plan a war.
JimC says
Massive overconfidence based on unexpectedly swift success elsewhere. The fact that they didn’t even PREPARE for winter campaign is evidence of grotesque hubris. How those Wehrmacht soldiers before Moscow suffered!
Thom Eley says
During the Little Ice Age (~500 years ago), the glacier in Glacier Bay started advancing and the Native had to abandon their villages, which is why there are no Native villages there today. I was talking with one of the Elders (90+) and I asked him how fast the glaciers advanced. He replied, “Oh Thom, they were as fast as a three-legged dog could run.” Holy crap! Not sure I bought that though.
JimC says
Vivid description though!
Brian H says
My first exposure to the “Blueberry” western comic/graphic novel was in Dutch, because they came from relatives in the homeland. The pictures were enough to keep me asking for more
JimC says
Dutch, no less. Love it.
Matthew says
It’s funny how universal the Western is. The German’s love it. Himmler supposedly declared the Sioux “Aryans.” There were a lot of Western pulps in Germany between the wars. (I once read an encylopedia of Pulp heroes.) The Italians of course made tons of Westerns. Recently, I just watched Hannie Caulder a BRITISH western. (It’s an odd film.)
lane batot says
How I LOVE the Winter–I look forward to it! Although it is not so harsh here in North Carolina!(and much milder than it used to be, alas, thanks to global warming). For me it means being out in the woods with no chiggers, no ticks, no mosquitoes, no deer flies, no frikkin’ ginormous horseflies, no spider webs in yer face every two feet, no having to carefully watch every step due to copperheads or timber rattlers, great visibility at night with neither the moon nor the stars blocked out by thick foilage in the forest, no sweating like a waterfall with the least exertion, and for my dogs–no fleas! I could go on and on. So I DO NOT dread the Winter!…..And reading/hearing about the severe Winters of the past in Europe–especially France–makes me think instantly of those several winters in the 1700’s when the Beast(s) of Gevudaun were on the prowl! The BEST, very detailed, historically serious book on the subject, is “Monsters Of The Gevaudan; The Making Of A Beast”–highly recommended, but rarely found very cheap. Although I haven’t looked lately(as I got my own copy some time ago!).And the only film on the subject–though highly inaccurate but very well done and entertaining, is “Les Pactes Des Loups”, or, in Anglais, “Brotherhood Of The Wolf”–as I know many of you are quite familiar with!
JimC says
Watch this space. The Beast is on the prowl.
john roberts says
1709 gives a new meaning to the term ” hivernant”
JimC says
Ace!