Northern (genre)

The North-West Mounted Police, and later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, were often the heroes of Northern fiction

The Yukon was a common setting for Northern fiction.

The Northern or Northwestern^[1] is an American and Canadian genre in literature and film made popular by the writings of Rex Beach, Jack London, Robert W. Service, James Oliver Curwood, Laurie York Erskine, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Stephen Slesinger, Fran Striker, and Gaylord Du Bois. It is similar to the Western genre but the action occurs in the Canadian North and typically features Mounties instead of, for example, cowboys or sheriffs. The genre was extremely popular in the inter-war years of the 20th century.

In addition to being set in Canada the stories often contrast the American Old West with the Canadian one in several ways. In films such as Pony Soldier and Saskatchewan the North-West Mounted Police display reason, compassion and a sense of fairplay in their dealings with native peoples as opposed to hotheaded American visitors (often criminals), lawmen or the U.S. Army who distrust and want to relocate the native peoples.

The Western idea of lawlessness set in American towns was not a part of the Canadian Northern, though individual lawbreakers or uprisings by Canadians (Quebec), First Nations tribes or Métis featured in some depictions, such as Riel and North West Mounted Police.

The genre is parodied in the 1939 film The Frozen Limits and the 1933 W.C. Fields short The Fatal Glass Of Beer.

Examples of Northerns

Folklore of Canada (Canadian oral stories)

• Louis Riel, the sometime rebel and political and spiritual leader of the Canadian Métis.
• Big Joe Mufferaw the woodsman Paul Bunyan of Canada.
• Chasse-galerie the enchanted canoe that flies over the water of the river like a bird. Rowing by some men of fur traders, woodsmen, and lumberjacks.

Poetry

• The Spell of the Yukon by Robert W. Service, including "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee"

Short stories

• Scarlet Riders, a collection of pulp stories edited by Don Hutchison

Comics

• King of the Royal Mounted

Books

• Call of the Wild
• White Fang
• Renfrew of the Royal Mounted (10 books, 17 short stories)
• Susannah of the Mounties
• Scarlet Riders, a collection of stories previously printed in Pulp magazines
• Kazan (novel)
• Baree, Son of Kazan

Songs

• "Big Joe Mufferaw", song sung by Stompin' Tom Connors

Radio

• Renfrew of the Royal Mounted (presented by the author Laurie York Erskine)
• Challenge of the Yukon (1939–1955) featuring Sergeant Preston

Serials

Television

Movies

References