Snow day! Do any two words cause such excitement? The joy of waking in the middle of the night and seeing the white flakes pelting down, or in the early light to find a blanket of the stuff twinkling up from every garden, street and rooftop. Snowball fights, snowmen and hot chocolate indoors.

Yet snow can also halt trains and block roads. Drivers are 15% more likely to have an accident in winter than in summer.¹

That is the duality of snow. For centuries it has held this same grip on our collective imagination, at once bewitching and deadly.

Snow features very prominently in European mythology and literature, especially relative to the amount we actually experience.

This is partly because much European culture was created by peoples like the GothsA nomadic Germanic people who fought against the Roman Empire in the AD 300s and 400s. , SaxonsA Germanic people who spread through Gaul and Britain. , and SlavsPeople from eastern and central Europe who speak Slavic languages, for example Polish and Russian. , who originated in central Europe, where the snow fell deep every year.

In the 5th Century, as the Western Roman EmpireThe western provinces of the roman empire. collapsed, these peoples spread out across the whole of Europe, bringing with them icy myths about Fimbulwinter, the three-year winter that foretells the end of the world.²

The other reason is that in the past it was much colder in Europe. Some scholars think the Fimbulwinter myth might be related to the volcanic winterA reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash blocking the Sun. of 536, in which temperatures dropped by as much as 2.5C across Europe.³ And from the 1400s to the 1800s Europe experienced the "Little Ice Age".

Snow has an odd place in our collective psychology. It is both beautiful and deadly: little wonder it is so often associated with enchantment.

In CS Lewis's Narnia series, snow and ice are the elements of the White Witch: elegant, seductiveAttractive and tempting. , but utterly evil.

American poet Robert FrostA 20th Century American poet known for his depictions of rural life. captured much of the same feeling in his 1922 poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, about a traveller who stops miles from rest just to watch the snow falling in a deep, dark forest.

Is wintry weather a blessing?

Yes: Snow is one of nature's miracles: radiant, sublime, enchanting. The hint of danger only adds to its charm.

No: Snowfall may look nice for the first few hours but the modern reality is brown sludge, cancelled trains and dangerous driving. Frankly, we can do without it.

Or... What makes snow so beguilingEnchanting and pleasing, often in a deceptive way. is precisely its dual nature: at once extraordinary, stunning, miraculous, and terrifying, cruel, bringing hardship and suffering. We will miss it when it is gone.