Jack Frost

For other uses, see Jack Frost (disambiguation).

19th-century cartoon of Jack Frost as a United States major-general during the American Civil War

In English folklore, Jack Frost appears as an elfish creature who personifies crisp, cold, winter weather; a variant of Father Winter (also known as "Old Man Winter"). Some believe this representation originated in Viking folklore.

Tradition holds Jack Frost responsible for leaving frosty crystal patterns on windows on cold mornings (window frost or fern frost).

Possible sources and parallels

Proponents of Jack Frost's Viking folklore roots state that the English language derives the name "Jack Frost" from the Norse character names, Jokul ("icicle") and Frosti ("frost"). Others see "Jack Frost" as a much more recent import into Anglo-Saxon culture from a Russian fairy tale (see Morozko). In the Finnish epos Kalevala (canto number 30, as translated from Finnish into English by Keith Bosley) Jack Frost appears as the son of Blast, "Pakkanen Puhurin Poika". Other tales in Russia represent frost as Father Frost, a smith who binds water and earth together with heavy chains. Compare the German folklore figure, the old woman Frau Holle, who causes snow by shaking white feathers out of her bed.

Jack Frost may represent an ancestral memory of the Anglo-Saxon and Norse God, Ullr, one of the twelve Aesir. Ullr, the god of the winter and snow, can have epithets such as "ski-god", "bow-god", "hunting-god" and "shield-god". In Germanic paganism, Ullr appears as a major god in prehistoric times, or even an epitheton (*wulþuz, Old English wuldor, meaning "glory") of the head of the pantheon of Germanic mythology. The 3rd-century Thorsberg chape and late Icelandic sources mention Ullr, but little other information regarding the god has survived.

In fiction

Printed works

• Cecily Pike wrote a children's nursery-song describing Jack Frost as a "gay little sprite" and beginning with the words "Look out! Look out! Jack Frost is about! He's after your fingers and toes!"
• Laurell K. Hamilton's Meredith Gentry series has a character who within the context of the book emerges as the original Jack Frost.
• Neil Gaiman's 'The Graveyard Book' features Jack Frost as a secondary character.
• Jack Frost appears as a superhero in works published by Timely Comics (now Marvel Comics) in the 1940s. A man covered in ice, he could project ice and cold.
• Jack Frost forms the alter-ego of Dane McGowan in the comic book series The Invisibles, written by Grant Morrison.
• Jack Frost appears as a minor character in the books Reaper Man and Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.
• Jack Frost appears as a major character in Ed McCray's novel Jill Chill and the Baron of Glacier Mountain
• Jack Frost appears as a major character in The Veil trilogy of novels by Christopher Golden.
• Jack Frost appears as a mischievous character in a few panels of National Comics' Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #33 (December, 1958).
• In Jack of Fables the titular character became Jack Frost for a period of time.

Films

• Jack Frost, a Russo-Finnish film from 1964, has the Russian title Morozko — the Russian equivalent of Jack Frost. Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode #813, riffed it mercilessly.
• The character of Jack Frost appears in three United States films, two of them named simply Jack Frost:
  • In one Jack Frost, a serial killer turns into a snowman and continues his rampage. This movie spawned a sequel: Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, also starring this version of Jack Frost.
  • In the other Jack Frost film, Michael Keaton plays a human by the name of Jack Frost, who gets killed in a car-crash on Christmas Eve. A year later he returns as a snowman to spend time with his son and make up for all the times his band forced him to miss out on events in his son's life.
• Jack Frost appears as the title character in a 1934 release of Ub Iwerks's ComiColor Cartoons.
• Martin Short plays "Jack Frost" in The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause.

Televised material

• In Frosty's Winter Wonderland, Jack Frost, jealous of Frosty the Snowman because of all the attention he gets from children, tries to render him lifeless by stealing his magic hat, but eventually has a change of heart when chosen as the best man at Frosty and Crystal's wedding. He reappears in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July.
• In Jack Frost, a Rankin-Bass Christmas TV special (1979), Jack Frost falls in love with a human girl and seeks to become human. Father Winter grants his wish, but tells him that if he does not have a house, a horse, a bag of gold, and a wife by "the first sign of spring" he will become a sprite again.

In pop culture

• Jack Frost appears as an evil ice general in the computer role-playing game AdventureQuest.
• Doom metal band Saint Vitus have a song called "Jack Frost"
• The progressive rock band Jethro Tull have a Christmas song called Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow
• Jack Frost functions as a trademark character for the Japanese game-developer Atlus and as a mascot of the Megami Tensei video-game series. His other variations include Black Frost, King Frost, Raiho (Devil Summoner version of Jack Frost), and Pyro Jack. Depicted as a stereotypical snowman, he frequently uses his trademark "Hee-ho!" in his speech.
• Jack Frost appears in The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause played by Martin Short. This character, jealous of the attention Santa Claus (Tim Allen) receives, wants to assume the position of Santa Claus.
• Jack Frost appears as a snowman in the MMORPG Granado Espada.
• Jack Frost features in a number of video games (including City of Villains and Guild Wars) as a player-summonable creature.
• The radio station WRHS-FM 89.7 in Norridge, Illinois brands its holiday music format as "Jack Frost".
• Jack Frost is featured as the main villain in this year's Christmas event in Runescap.

As a pseudonym

• Bob Dylan used the name "Jack Frost" as a pseudonym when he produced his 2001 album Love and Theft, as well as his 2006 record, Modern Times.
• Jack Rosenberg (later known as "Werner Erhard") used the nickname "Jack Frost", while selling cars in Philadelphia in the 1950s
• Jack Dempsey, the guitarist of the Seven Witches, goes by the pseudonym of "Jack Frost". Apart from his work in Seven Witches he has also released two solo albums, many famous (heavy) metal artists joining him.

See also

• Father Frost, a Russian skazka