The Winternight trilogy is a historical fantasy trilogy of novels written by Katherine Arden.
The three novels are:
- The Bear and the Nightingale (2017)
- The Girl in the Tower (2018)
- The Winter of the Witch (2019)
Set against the backdrop of 14th-century Medieval Russia, the trilogy follows the adventures of Vasilisa "Vasya" Petrovna, who has the rare ability to communicate with the household spirits and other mythological creatures that live in and around her village.
This trilogy provides examples of:
- Anachronism Stew: Invoked. Many of the female characters wear sarafans despite the trilogy taking place centuries before such outfits became popular. The author explains their appearance in the glossary of the first book, saying many Western audiences associate this dress with medeival Russia and she deliberately played to these perceptions.
- Bears Are Bad News: Medved, the Big Bad of the first book, often takes of massive one-eyed bear; his name is even slavic for "bear." Apparently an Invoked Trope: he's essentially the Anthropomorphic Personification of fear, specifically fear of death, and to the ancient Slavic peoples, bears were the scariest things around, and their beliefs shaped him accordingly.
- Big Brother Instinct: Both Sasha and Alyosha are protective of their younger sister Vasya.
- Death of the Old Gods: The figures of old Russian mythology are increasingly pushed aside by the Orthodox Church. Vasilisa has the power to see both household and wild spirits, and grows up in the deep country, where those spirits are still given at least some belief. Later, as she travels elsewhere in Russia, she sees that the Church has almost wiped out belief in these figures, and as such they are rapidly fading from the world entirely.
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: During a moment of frustration, Olga tells Sasha Vasya killed their mother. Sasha calls this out as cruel.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Vasya disguises herself as a boy during most of The Girl in the Tower.
- Taking the Veil:
- Anna Ivanova hopes to become a nun in the beginning of the novel. Her father refuses and makes her marry Vasja's father instead.
- Anna tries to make Vasja join a convent.
- Wicked Stepmother: Anna Ivanovna is often very mean to her stepdaughter Vasya and tries to make her join a convent even though she knows Vasya would hate that. In some ways this is explored more deeply than is usually the case; Anna Ivanovna is herself a victim of mistreatment, abuse, and manipulation, is intensely faithful to the Orthodox Church but has the power to see spirits, leading her to believe that she is haunted by demons everywhere she goes (while everyone else, who can't see the spirits, merely believe she is insane and treat her as such), is only a little older than the girl she's a stepmother to, and was put in an unwanted Arranged Marriage when all she wanted to do was become a nun. She's an antagonist to Vasya, certainly, but she's also quite pitiable.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: The frost king's house in the forest, in which infinite time can pass but the surrounding human world only experiences a few hours.
