Robert E. Howard and J. R. R. Tolkien shared one thing for sure: a love of “the Northern thing”. The two giants of heroic fantasy were not similar in their country of origin, the market for their work, their occupation or even their cultural ancestry. Despite this, both had a love of the story of heroes and dragons descended from Germanic and Scandinavian myth, what people used to simply call “the Northern thing”.
The philosophy of this culture was grim, violent and colorful. The literature based on the idea that fate was cruel and a man needed to fight for his reputation before dying and going to Valhalla gives Howard’s work in particular a darkness that does not appeal to vanilla fantasy types. The sub-genre of “grimdark” embraces to its core while Tolkien, who certainly had much darkness in his work (think of all those terrible things that lurked in places like Cirith Ungol), rejects it with a Christian ideal of redemption.
Both Two-Gun Bob and Rollers lived during or slightly after the golden age of Fantasy illustration. Artists like Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, Maxfield Parrish and many others, lavishly adorned books of fairy tales and myth with water colors and pen and ink. And, of course, the Northern thing appeared alongside tale of the Arabian Nights, King Arthur, the Oz books, Andrew Lang’s Fairy books and so many others.
Howard Pyle (1853-1911) was a wonderful American artist and writer. His King Arthur is the standard by which all others are judged. He was also very important as a teacher. In 1900 he created the Brandywine School that produced N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Jessie Wilcox Smith and many others. He pioneered the use of costumes to improve accuracy in Fantasy and historical artwork. He illustrated James Baldwin’s The Story of Siegfried (1910).
English artist, Henry Justice Ford (1860-1941) is instantly recognizable because he illustrated all those Fairy Books by Andrew Lang. The Crimson Fairy Book (1903) features “The Horse and the Sword” from the Sigurd story. Lang used material from all over the world including the North.
Another Englishman, Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is world famous for his browns and yellows in water color. He illustrated Undine (1909), The Rhinegold and The Valkyrie (1910), Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods (1911), having caught the Wagner bug. rackham would be a major influence on later artists like Michael Hague.
John Bauer (1882-1918), a Swedish artist, is perhaps most famous these days for inspiring troll dolls, but his artwork has influenced new artists like Brian Froud. His trolls are fun, not that scary, though his witches are evil and conniving. Bauer died tragically young in a ferry accident.
Edmund Dulac (1882-1953) despite his name was English, though descended from the Norman French. He is another classic fairy tale book illustrator. He most often focused on exotic Asian locations but he did do one book of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales (1911) that include “The Snow Queen”. His work certainly influenced Disney’s Frozen.
Will Pogany (1882-1955) was a Hungarian artist who illustrated the works of Padraic Colum, most about Celtic subjects but he also did The Children of Odin (1920). He also did T. W. Rolleston’s The Tale of Lohengrin (1914).
Kay Nielsen (1886-1957) may be remembered for working for Walt Disney in the 1940s but he is without doubt the premiere illustrator of Denmark. His work for Asbjornsen’s East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1922) are classic.
With artwork and stories of this sort available to the young writers (C. S. Lewis as well) it isn’t hard to see why “the Northern thing” was a thing. All this wonderful artwork has inspired many writers after Tolkien, Lewis and Howard.
“The Northern Thing” was a term coined by W. H. Auden
The phrase “the [whole] Northern thing” originated in W. H. Auden’s talk “Tolkien as a Man” at a meeting of the Tolkien Society of America in New York. Gerald Jonas reported on that meeting in his article “The Elvish Mode” in the January 15, 1966, issue of The New Yorker:
“Tolkien is fascinated with the whole Northern thing,” Auden said. “People seem to divide—they’re attracted by either the Northern thing or the Southern thing, by Scandinavia or the Mediterranean—and for Tolkien north is a sacred direction.”