The Watcher of the South (The Night Land)
The following narrative was adapted from Chapter II of an early science fiction/science fantasy novel (published 1912), "The Night Land", by William Hope Hodgson. All of the words are Hodgson's with the exception of a few inserted to bridge various passages - to create a coherent narrative of the excerpts extracted from the novel.
In the novel, a 17th Century man dreams of another incarnation of his life, not a past life, but an incarnation in the far future where the world has been long bereft of our dying sun's light, and the darkness has bred forces antithetical (and inimical) to humankind. It is a world where, with the light, also went any semblance of complacent perceptual veneer, where now the full Nature of Great Powers are evident – the darker Ones vastly abundant and mortal to both body and soul.
The novel is written in a faux 17th century style that you may find hard to get into - but it's worth it for the power of the nightmarish imagery evoked through Hodgson's skill in writing primal horror – horror of the nature that yearns to consume you, to possess your very being, to enslave your waking soul for eternity and eternity and eternities more....
The text chosen here is meant to accompany my latest illustration of The Night Land (take a look at it in the large or the original size): The Watcher of the South.
I was at the South-Eastern wall of the Pyramid, and looking out through The Great Embrasure. As I stood there in the quietness of the Sleeping-Time on the One Thousandth Plateau, I heard a far, dreadful sound, down in the lightless East; and, presently, again - a strange, dreadful laughter, deep as a low thunder among the mountains. And because this sound came odd whiles from the Unknown Lands beyond the Valley of The Hounds, we had named that far and never-seen Place “The Country Whence Comes The Great Laughter.” And though I had heard the sound many a time, yet did I never hear it without a strange thrilling, and a sense of my littleness - and of the utter terror which had beset the last millions of the world.
Before me ran the Road Where The Silent Ones Walk. Searching the road with my gaze, I passed beyond this the place where the road, sweeping vastly to the South-East, was lit a space, strangely, by the light from the Silver-fire Holes.
And thus at last to where it swayed to the South of the Dark Palace, and thence Southward still, until it passed round to the Westward, beyond the mountain bulk of the Watching Thing in the South - the hugest monster in all the visible Night Lands.
My spy-glass showed it to me with clearness - a living hill of watchfulness, known to us as The Watcher Of The South. It brooded there, squat and tremendous, hunched over the pale radiance of the Glowing Dome.
Much, I know, had been writ concerning this Odd, Vast Watcher; for it had grown out of the blackness of the South Unknown Lands a million years gone; and the steady growing nearness of it had been noted and set out at length by the men they called Monstruwacans; so that it was possible to search in our libraries, and learn of the very coming of this Beast in the olden-time.
And, while I mind me, there were even then, and always, men named Monstruwacans, whose duty it was to take heed of the great Forces, and to watch the Monsters and the Beasts that beset the great Pyramid, and measure and record, and have so full a knowledge of these same that, did one but sway an head in the darkness, the same matter was set down with particularness in the Records.
And, so to tell more about the South Watcher. A million years gone, as I have told, came it out from the blackness of the South, and grew steadily nearer through twenty thousand years; but so slow that in no one year could a man perceive that it had moved.
Yet it had movement, and had come thus far upon its road to the Redoubt, when the Glowing Dome rose out of the ground before it - growing slowly. And this had stayed the way of the Monster; so that through an eternity it had looked towards the Pyramid across the pale glare of the Dome, and seeming to have no power to advance nearer.
And because of this, much had been writ to prove that there were other forces than evil at work in the Night Lands, about the Last Redoubt. And this I have always thought to be wisely said; and, indeed, there to be no doubt to the matter, for there were many things in the time of which I have knowledge, which seemed to make clear that, even as the Forces of Darkness were loose upon the End of Man; so were there other Forces out to do battle with the Terror; though in ways most strange and unthought of by the human mind....
The Watcher of the South was, as I have made known, a monster differing from the other Watching Things, of which there were in all four. One to the North-West, and one to the South-East,, one to the South-West, and the other to the North-East; and thus the four watchers kept ward through the darkness, upon the Pyramid, and moved not, neither gave they out any sound. Yet did we know them to be mountains of living watchfulness and hideous and steadfast intelligence.
Of the coming of these monstrosities and evil Forces, no man could say much with verity; for the evil of it began before the Histories of the Great Redoubt were shaped; aye, even before the sun had lost all power to light; though, it must not be a thing of certainty, that even at this far time the invisible, black heavens held no warmth for this world
Long ago, when the Great Pyramid was built, the last millions went within its ageless grey-metal walls, and made themselves a great house and city of this Last Redoubt, upon the height of which I observe and relate the particulars of the Night Land, which is ever encroaching, and only ever just at bay.
Through hundreds and thousands of years, there grew up in these Outer Lands, beyond those which lay under the guard of the Redoubt, mighty and lost races of terrible creatures, half men and half beast, and evil and dreadful; and these made war upon the Redoubt; but were beaten off from that grim, metal mountain, with a vast slaughter. Yet, must there have been many such attacks, until the electric circle was put about the Pyramid, and lit from the Earth-Current. And the lowest half-mile of the Pyramid was sealed; and so at last there was a peace, and the beginnings of that Eternity of quiet watching for the day when the Earth-Current shall become exhausted.
Through the forgotten centuries, had the Creatures been glutted time and again upon such odd bands of daring ones as had adventured forth to explore through the mystery of the Night Lands; for of those who went, scarce any did ever return; for there were eyes in all that dark; and Powers and Forces abroad....
As that Eternal Night lengthened itself upon the world, the power of terror grew and strengthened. And fresh and greater monsters developed and bred out of all space and Outward Dimensions, attracted, even as it might be Infernal sharks, by that lonely and mighty hill of humanity, facing its end - so near to the Eternal, and yet so far deferred in the minds and to the senses of those humans.
And thus hath it been ever....
See related images and text in my flickr set dedicated to The Night Land.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATION:
The image was created by setting up a cool-looking stone (which, btw, is by no means sinister - it hasn't a malevolent mineral in its composition - though it did a fine job playing the role for this shoot) and, in front it, a clear plastic undrilled bowling ball I found many years ago. I positioned the stone toward the top of the ball to get the “dome” effect. At the bottom of the bowling ball, I placed a small flashlight between the stone and the ball, facing into the ball to make the top glow. On the other side of the ball at the bottom, I position another flashlight, facing it up through the ball toward the stone. This would lightly illuminate the stone from the ball’s (“dome’s”) direction and at the proper angle. I wrapped this flashlight in cloth to muffle and diffuse the light. After turning off all the other lights in the place, I set up my tripod, taking a series of shots, turning the stone various ways, adjusting the light, etc.
After downloading the images to my laptop, I did the rest in Photoshop Elements 5. Through trial and error, I converting the raw elements of the image into The Watcher of the South that I envision (the dome should be more of a softly-glowing baby blue and more diffuse, but I’ll eventually do another version). The basic stone is what was originally shot, except that I added more to on both sides and on top by copying other views of the stone from other shots. I then changed the color to tones more consistent with the dome’s glow.
The dome itself is a composite of the original bowling ball top and an inverted copy of it added to the underside of the image to create the 3-D look – a three-quarter view. It took many attempts to get it to the point you see it in the above image. (I’d like to see the whole dome more symmetrical, and with cleaner arcs instead of the slightly wavering arcs you might notice on it, but I’ve spent enough time on this particular illustration and will live with its imperfections.) The inside of the dome is the culmination of – again – many reworkings to give it a low-illumination-yet-dynamic glow. Finally, I selected and moved the dome numerous times, horizontally/vertically as well as skewing it, until I was relatively satisfied with its position in relation to the Watcher behind it.
That’s about it, other than trying various crops. I’m happy to have a visual of The Watcher of the South seen in my mind’s eye.
The Watcher of the South (The Night Land)
The following narrative was adapted from Chapter II of an early science fiction/science fantasy novel (published 1912), "The Night Land", by William Hope Hodgson. All of the words are Hodgson's with the exception of a few inserted to bridge various passages - to create a coherent narrative of the excerpts extracted from the novel.
In the novel, a 17th Century man dreams of another incarnation of his life, not a past life, but an incarnation in the far future where the world has been long bereft of our dying sun's light, and the darkness has bred forces antithetical (and inimical) to humankind. It is a world where, with the light, also went any semblance of complacent perceptual veneer, where now the full Nature of Great Powers are evident – the darker Ones vastly abundant and mortal to both body and soul.
The novel is written in a faux 17th century style that you may find hard to get into - but it's worth it for the power of the nightmarish imagery evoked through Hodgson's skill in writing primal horror – horror of the nature that yearns to consume you, to possess your very being, to enslave your waking soul for eternity and eternity and eternities more....
The text chosen here is meant to accompany my latest illustration of The Night Land (take a look at it in the large or the original size): The Watcher of the South.
I was at the South-Eastern wall of the Pyramid, and looking out through The Great Embrasure. As I stood there in the quietness of the Sleeping-Time on the One Thousandth Plateau, I heard a far, dreadful sound, down in the lightless East; and, presently, again - a strange, dreadful laughter, deep as a low thunder among the mountains. And because this sound came odd whiles from the Unknown Lands beyond the Valley of The Hounds, we had named that far and never-seen Place “The Country Whence Comes The Great Laughter.” And though I had heard the sound many a time, yet did I never hear it without a strange thrilling, and a sense of my littleness - and of the utter terror which had beset the last millions of the world.
Before me ran the Road Where The Silent Ones Walk. Searching the road with my gaze, I passed beyond this the place where the road, sweeping vastly to the South-East, was lit a space, strangely, by the light from the Silver-fire Holes.
And thus at last to where it swayed to the South of the Dark Palace, and thence Southward still, until it passed round to the Westward, beyond the mountain bulk of the Watching Thing in the South - the hugest monster in all the visible Night Lands.
My spy-glass showed it to me with clearness - a living hill of watchfulness, known to us as The Watcher Of The South. It brooded there, squat and tremendous, hunched over the pale radiance of the Glowing Dome.
Much, I know, had been writ concerning this Odd, Vast Watcher; for it had grown out of the blackness of the South Unknown Lands a million years gone; and the steady growing nearness of it had been noted and set out at length by the men they called Monstruwacans; so that it was possible to search in our libraries, and learn of the very coming of this Beast in the olden-time.
And, while I mind me, there were even then, and always, men named Monstruwacans, whose duty it was to take heed of the great Forces, and to watch the Monsters and the Beasts that beset the great Pyramid, and measure and record, and have so full a knowledge of these same that, did one but sway an head in the darkness, the same matter was set down with particularness in the Records.
And, so to tell more about the South Watcher. A million years gone, as I have told, came it out from the blackness of the South, and grew steadily nearer through twenty thousand years; but so slow that in no one year could a man perceive that it had moved.
Yet it had movement, and had come thus far upon its road to the Redoubt, when the Glowing Dome rose out of the ground before it - growing slowly. And this had stayed the way of the Monster; so that through an eternity it had looked towards the Pyramid across the pale glare of the Dome, and seeming to have no power to advance nearer.
And because of this, much had been writ to prove that there were other forces than evil at work in the Night Lands, about the Last Redoubt. And this I have always thought to be wisely said; and, indeed, there to be no doubt to the matter, for there were many things in the time of which I have knowledge, which seemed to make clear that, even as the Forces of Darkness were loose upon the End of Man; so were there other Forces out to do battle with the Terror; though in ways most strange and unthought of by the human mind....
The Watcher of the South was, as I have made known, a monster differing from the other Watching Things, of which there were in all four. One to the North-West, and one to the South-East,, one to the South-West, and the other to the North-East; and thus the four watchers kept ward through the darkness, upon the Pyramid, and moved not, neither gave they out any sound. Yet did we know them to be mountains of living watchfulness and hideous and steadfast intelligence.
Of the coming of these monstrosities and evil Forces, no man could say much with verity; for the evil of it began before the Histories of the Great Redoubt were shaped; aye, even before the sun had lost all power to light; though, it must not be a thing of certainty, that even at this far time the invisible, black heavens held no warmth for this world
Long ago, when the Great Pyramid was built, the last millions went within its ageless grey-metal walls, and made themselves a great house and city of this Last Redoubt, upon the height of which I observe and relate the particulars of the Night Land, which is ever encroaching, and only ever just at bay.
Through hundreds and thousands of years, there grew up in these Outer Lands, beyond those which lay under the guard of the Redoubt, mighty and lost races of terrible creatures, half men and half beast, and evil and dreadful; and these made war upon the Redoubt; but were beaten off from that grim, metal mountain, with a vast slaughter. Yet, must there have been many such attacks, until the electric circle was put about the Pyramid, and lit from the Earth-Current. And the lowest half-mile of the Pyramid was sealed; and so at last there was a peace, and the beginnings of that Eternity of quiet watching for the day when the Earth-Current shall become exhausted.
Through the forgotten centuries, had the Creatures been glutted time and again upon such odd bands of daring ones as had adventured forth to explore through the mystery of the Night Lands; for of those who went, scarce any did ever return; for there were eyes in all that dark; and Powers and Forces abroad....
As that Eternal Night lengthened itself upon the world, the power of terror grew and strengthened. And fresh and greater monsters developed and bred out of all space and Outward Dimensions, attracted, even as it might be Infernal sharks, by that lonely and mighty hill of humanity, facing its end - so near to the Eternal, and yet so far deferred in the minds and to the senses of those humans.
And thus hath it been ever....
See related images and text in my flickr set dedicated to The Night Land.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATION:
The image was created by setting up a cool-looking stone (which, btw, is by no means sinister - it hasn't a malevolent mineral in its composition - though it did a fine job playing the role for this shoot) and, in front it, a clear plastic undrilled bowling ball I found many years ago. I positioned the stone toward the top of the ball to get the “dome” effect. At the bottom of the bowling ball, I placed a small flashlight between the stone and the ball, facing into the ball to make the top glow. On the other side of the ball at the bottom, I position another flashlight, facing it up through the ball toward the stone. This would lightly illuminate the stone from the ball’s (“dome’s”) direction and at the proper angle. I wrapped this flashlight in cloth to muffle and diffuse the light. After turning off all the other lights in the place, I set up my tripod, taking a series of shots, turning the stone various ways, adjusting the light, etc.
After downloading the images to my laptop, I did the rest in Photoshop Elements 5. Through trial and error, I converting the raw elements of the image into The Watcher of the South that I envision (the dome should be more of a softly-glowing baby blue and more diffuse, but I’ll eventually do another version). The basic stone is what was originally shot, except that I added more to on both sides and on top by copying other views of the stone from other shots. I then changed the color to tones more consistent with the dome’s glow.
The dome itself is a composite of the original bowling ball top and an inverted copy of it added to the underside of the image to create the 3-D look – a three-quarter view. It took many attempts to get it to the point you see it in the above image. (I’d like to see the whole dome more symmetrical, and with cleaner arcs instead of the slightly wavering arcs you might notice on it, but I’ve spent enough time on this particular illustration and will live with its imperfections.) The inside of the dome is the culmination of – again – many reworkings to give it a low-illumination-yet-dynamic glow. Finally, I selected and moved the dome numerous times, horizontally/vertically as well as skewing it, until I was relatively satisfied with its position in relation to the Watcher behind it.
That’s about it, other than trying various crops. I’m happy to have a visual of The Watcher of the South seen in my mind’s eye.