Norwin
The Notorious WeatherGen of Wind
Ask people who was the scariest WeatherGen and usually the clear winner is Norwin - the fearsome chap representing storms and strong winds. Indeed, Norwin was considered a little *too* scary for some young viewers - which apparently led to some concerned parents starting a petition to stop him being shown before the News at Ten!
Filming of Norwin required the model to stand in front of several large fans in order to achieve the strong winds effect. As suspected by most fans of the 'Gens, the bowler hats seen whizzing through the air, were not real but computer generated.
The name "Norwin" pretty self-explanatory - it is derived from "north wind" - very appropriate, as north winds are always cold, and tend to be strong!
In Greek Mythology, Boreas was the god of the north wind, bringer of winter and one of four wind gods known as Anemoi. His Roman equivalent was Aquilo.
Like Norwin, Boreas was a fearsome and bad tempered character!
Norwin had two idents - a normal version and the storm version, the latter being even more dramatic than the first.
Frustratingly, I still have no idea of the name of the guy who played Norwin, despite making lots of enquiries. All that is known is that he was a then (in 1996) twenty-something Swedish model. If anyone does know his identity, or if Norwin yourself are reading this - please PLEASE get in touch!!! We would dearly love to find out more about the mysterious WeatherGen of Wind!
One fact I did find out from Carolyn was that the model was not wearing a wig or hair extensions for the role of Norwin - yes those long wavy locks were his own!
In my books, Norwin's powers are strongest during March, when he brings the fearsome March winds. He and Frice have been fierce rivals for centuries. Norwin is loud, proud, egotistical and a total show-off. He has a terrible temper and creates hurricanes when angered. He prides himself on his good looks and thinks he is irresistable to women - both human and WeatherGen, and can't understand why he gets the brush-off so often! Being a wind, Norwin loves the freedom to zoom around the world constantly. He is the fastest of the WeatherGens. He hates standing still and his biggest fear is being trapped in a confined space - in his own words "nobody likes trapped wind."
In the second book, Norwin gets into all kinds of trouble when he catches a cold and his sneezing causes chaos!
In the second book, Norwin gets into all kinds of trouble when he catches a cold and his sneezing causes chaos!