John Bauer’s illustrations for the series of Christmas publications entitled Tomtar och troll [Goblins and trolls] have become independent of the stories they originally illustrated. They have come to symbolise Sweden’s ancient forests, populated by trolls and wood nymphs. Even though we perceive these works as typically Swedish, Bauer took his inspiration from contemporary British book illustrations, in particular from Arthur Rackham’s (1867–1939) elegant and magnificent colour illustrations in colour.