The Root Trolls (1917 CE)

In this image, the forest does not merely surround the root trolls—it seems to generate them. Their forms rise so naturally from roots, earth, and shadow that they appear less like creatures entering the landscape than like presences already embedded within it. That closeness between body and environment gives the work its particular power, turning the scene into something both enchanted and slightly unsettling.

A Late Work Rooted in Bauer’s Fairy-Tale World

This painting was made in 1917, near the end of John Bauer’s life, and belongs to the broader imaginative world he developed through his work for Among Gnomes and Trolls. By this stage, Bauer had refined a visual language in which Scandinavian folklore and the northern landscape were inseparable. Trolls were never simply inserted into nature as decorative fantasy; they emerged from it, sharing its textures, rhythms, and age. That idea is especially strong here, where the figures seem almost fused with the forest itself.

A Personal Presence in the Scene

The child in the image was based on Bauer’s son Bengt, known within the family as Putte. That detail gives the painting an added emotional layer. Bauer was not only illustrating a world of myth, but also placing someone deeply loved within it. The result is not purely folkloric and not purely personal, but a merging of both. His son becomes part of the same mysterious realm as the trolls, and the image begins to feel less like a distant fairy tale than like a private vision shaped by affection, imagination, and unease.

Trolls as Part of the Living Landscape

One of the most distinctive features of Bauer’s art is his treatment of mythical beings as extensions of the natural world. In works like this, the forest is alive in more than a poetic sense. It seems inhabited by forms that belong to it as fully as moss, roots, or stones. That approach draws on older Scandinavian ideas in which nature was never entirely neutral or empty, but charged with hidden life and presence. The trolls in this painting reflect that way of seeing. They are not intruders in the woods; they are among its oldest inhabitants.

At the same time, Bauer avoids making the scene overtly dramatic. The power of the image lies in its quiet ambiguity. It is magical, but not comforting in a simple way. The closeness between child and troll world feels wondrous and slightly dangerous at once.

Watercolor, Gouache, and Controlled Atmosphere

The painting measures 32 × 32 cm and is executed in mixed media. Bauer used a restrained palette dominated by greys, browns, and dark greens, with touches of white to bring out selected forms. Watercolor gives the image its soft, translucent atmosphere, while gouache provides opacity and stronger accents. Pen and ink are used for the finer lines and details, helping Bauer hold together the softness of the setting with the precision of his fantastical forms. The combination of materials is central to the work’s dreamlike but highly controlled effect.

A Lasting Image in Swedish Folklore Art

Since its creation, Root Trolls has been widely reproduced and remains one of the works through which Bauer’s vision of Swedish folklore continues to be recognized. Like many of his late images, it captures something essential to his art: the sense that the forest is not only a setting for legend, but a living presence from which legend itself grows.