Inhospitable north

Much of the north is unexplored. The winters are long on the few trading settlements. Further then that there is no one to trade with so few venture beyond. Stories of fabled and horrible beasts living in and past the thinning forests. The ground permanently frozen makes farming pointless. The long and incredibly cold winters make living difficult. Exploring east to west and south was historically easier, weather wise, more items of value and original inhabitants abundant.
The XYZ company is one of the only groups that bothered exploring the north. Even their northermost trading forts are abandoned most of the year.
Fact from fiction is hard to discern. Witikos, giant short nosed bears, giant beavers, wooly rhinos, ground sloths, little people, sashquatch and mammoths have all been reported but unconfirmed. Counties past the ice sheets and mountains are the imagination of writers and storytellers. The rambling incoherent tales from fools who have been north hold very little weight being thought to be bound in a mind that has been isolated, alone for months or years. North madness is the general term. Who would believe little people riding bears, and wooly rhinos into battle?
The north is a dence unexplored forest, with great rivers, hordes of black flies, blood flies and mosquitoes have driven people mad. The forests gradually thin until the tree line where only grasses and small shrubs can grow. Further past that only moses, lichens and tiny wild flowers manage to survive in the poor rocky soil. Past that is a mountain range where no one has returned from. The winter makes up 80% of the season. Exploring time is limited. The poor furs, lack of any valuable minerals make exploration expensive and pointless.
Even knights desperate for a worth quest rather venture elsewhere.