As a matter of fact, snow makes it much lighter as well. The woods are dark in winter; snow does much to actually lighten them up. (My mother, who HATES winter, always long for the first great snowfall so that she will have more light when she goes to work early in the morning.) Another way of fighting foreign Darkness with Darkness you are slightly related to!
Then, Swedes (as well as other Northerners in general) have one MAJOR reason to dislike snowless winters: I think every winter there is at least one MAJOR sports event cancelled or moved because of the lack of snow, or at least made much more expensive. I doubt this is the case in Glorantha, though - especially in Dragon Pass.
I think that in DP Valind is seen as a "last resort" those winters when it do get really cold; winter with snow is better than winter without snow. Also, the Wind Children worship him extensively.
I have some legends and stuff of Valind, mostly in my head, since some guys in my campaign actually worship the bastard. I'm doing some revisions at the moment, as well as trying to spin the tale of how Barntar, Voriof and Odayla went to rescue their little sister from the Winter Giant while their Daddy was away on his quest in the Underworld. I'll tell it to you when I'm finished.
Erik Sieurin
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #146
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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