We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow...
That was released five days after I was born - maybe I subliminally learned it as a child.
There's also this feeling in Tolkien's world that the North is never very far away, particularly in The Hobbit (which is where I think much of the darkness of that story stems form) and in The Shire. The wolves, brought by the Fell Winter (the Fimbulwinter?), the Thain, wandering Dwarves and Odinic wizards...
