Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Another Really Old Old-School Artist: Johannes Gehrts

If you couldn't tell from his name, Johannes Gehrts was German, as was the subject of many of his works... Germanic and Norse mythology, that is. In fact, you could pretty much do a standalone version of the Norse section of Deities and Demigods with Gehrts's illustration (no offense to Herr Dee and the other wonderful folks who brought you the TSR version.)

Pictured at left: Siegfrieds Tod.

Pictured below are the various deities of Norse mythology, presented in the same order as the "Norse Mythology" section of Deities and Demigods. 1st row (L to R): Odin "All Father" (supreme ruler of the gods) with Freke and Gere (Odin's wolves) and Hugin and Munin (Odin's ravens) "Thought & Memory"; Baldur. 2nd row (L to R): Frey (god of sunshine & the elves) with Gullin-Bursti (golden bristles - Frey's golden boar); Freya (goddess of love & fertility). 3rd row (L to R): Hel (goddess of death); Loki (god of mischief, strife and fire) with Sigyn (does not appear in book). 4th row (L to R): the Norns (the fates); Thor (god of thunder) with Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr (Thor's goats).




2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this feature, I wasn't aware of this artist. And I actually recognize the one of Odin from Gods, Demigods, and Heroes, the OD&D supplement that was the predecessor of D&DG. It's on the page 69 (full-page illustration), subtitled "Odin", and now I see Gehrts signature at the bottom. It's missing the surrounding columns, but the interior artwork is the same.

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  2. I'm glad you like! These posts are some of my favorites to do.

    I pulled out my PDF of GD&H after I saw your comment (hadn't looked at it in a while) and realized I recognized a couple if the smaller inset pieces as well (different artists, though.) when I get a chance I'll have to confirm those and maybe do a followup post.

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