Madre Mia-"Oh mother!"

"People may say thou art no longer young
And yet, to me, thy youth was yesterday,
A yesterday that seems
Still mingled with my dreams.
Ah! how the years have o'er thee flung
Their soft mantilla, grey.
And e'en to them thou art not over old;
How could'st thou be! Thy hair
Hast scarcely lost its deep old glorious dark:
Thy face is scarcely lined. No mark
Destroys its calm serenity. Like gold
Of evening light, when winds scarce stir,
The soul-light of thy face is pure as prayer."

Preface from the The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"

Two Faces

"Now, suddenly, and in the distance, I caught the far wailing that came before the night, and abruptly, as it seemed to me, the tree wailed at us. At that I was vastly astonished and frightened; yet, though I retreated, I could not withdraw my gaze from the tree; but scanned it the more intently; and, suddenly, I saw a brown, human face peering at us from between the wrapped branches. At this, I stood very still, being seized with that fear which renders one shortly incapable of movement. Then, before I had possession of myself, I saw that it was of a part with the trunk of the tree; for I could not tell where it ended and the tree began.

Then I caught the bo'sun by the arm, and pointed; for whether it was a part of the tree or not, it was a work of the devil; but the bo'sun, on seeing it, ran straightway so close to the tree that he might have touched it with his hand, and I found myself beside him. Now, George, who was on the bo'sun's other side, whispered that there was another face, not unlike to a woman's, and, indeed, so soon as I perceived it, I saw that the tree had a second excrescence, most strangely after the face of a woman. Then the bo'sun cried out with an oath, at the strangeness of the thing, and I felt the arm, which I held, shake somewhat, as it might be with a deep emotion. Then, far away, I heard again the sound of the wailing and, immediately, from among the trees about us, there came answering wails and a great sighing. And before I had time to be more than aware of these things, the tree wailed again at us. And at that, the bo'sun cried out suddenly that he knew; though of what it was that he knew I had at that time no knowledge. And, immediately, he began with his cutlass to strike at the tree before us, and to cry upon God to blast it; and lo! at his smiting a very fearsome thing happened, for the tree did bleed like any live creature. Thereafter, a great yowling came from it, and it began to writhe. And, suddenly, I became aware that all about us the trees were a-quiver."

The Two Faces, The Boats of the "Glen Carrig", William Hope Hodgson

The Monsters mentioned in The Boats of the Glen-Carrig

I believe that the Boats of the Glen-Carrig would make a great plot for some type of game. There times of high adventure and horror. The monsters and aberrations mentioned there were encountered during three unique phases of the crew’s travels.

Land of Lonesomeness

In the Land of Lonesomeness there are the wailing trees and an unidentified monster that is said to shuffle along and be red like the color of beef. The trees seem to have the ability to reach out and grab and entangle their victims. The red creature seems to be about the height of a tall human, in that it was able to suck at an open port in the ship. The wailing trees seemed to contain the souls of men.

Silent Seas

One of the distinguishing features of these seas was the abundance of reeds that were big enough to entrap ships by their running aground on them. “Three separate times we saw hulks of rotting vessels, some of them having the appearance of a previous age, so ancient they seem.” The author refers to this region as the reed continent. The reed continent was home to a number or creatures including giant crabs, the Kraken, and the devil fish. All three of these creatures gave the crew of boat a start at one time or another.

The Island in the Weed

Having passed through the silent seas with their horrors and privations and having spied another island up at head the crew rowed to it. It was on this island that the crew of the boat encountered what was first described as reed men. Not that they looked like a reed, but they had come out of the reed by the hundreds. These creatures moved like monstrous slugs. They were in deed squid men and had many tentacles. They were described as such for they had “great eyes, so big as crown pieces, the bill like to an inverted parrot’s, and moved like a slug-like with undulating white and slimy body”.

The crew fought frantically through the night and it wasn’t until the morning that they realized that one of their number was missing. The story goes on, and the crew of Glen-Carrig were able to help the crew of an English ship grounded on the reeds to free itself and sail for home.

The Ghost Pirates

"Olden memories that shine against death's night.
Quite stars of sweet enchantments,
That are seen In Life's lost distances…"

The World of Dreams

"All along the port rails there was a queer, undulating grayness that moved downward inboard, and spread over the desks. As I looked, I found that I saw more clearly, in a most extraordinary way. And, suddenly, all the moving grayness resolved into hundreds of strange men. In the half-light, they looked unreal and impossible, as though there had come upon us the inhabitants of some fantastic dream-world. They swarmed in upon us in great wave of murderous, living shadows."

Chapter 16: The Ghost Pirates; The Ghost Pirates, William Hope Hodgson

This quote was found in the last of a trilogy by William Hope Hodgson’s, The Ghost Pirates. All three of Hodgson’s set were fabulous, but I did prefer the first and the last in the series best; their being sea yarns.

Are they Pigs or Demons?

“Although it resembled a pig at first glance it had a most grotesquely human mouth and jaw, but with no chin to speak of. Its nose was prolonged into a snout and it had little eyes and queer ears which gave the creature an extra ordinary swine-like appearance. It had a very little forehead and its whole face was an unwholesome white colour. It eyes seem to glow at times with a horribly human intelligence. And its mouth jabbered inanely, and once emitted a half-swine like grunt.”

Chapter 5, The House on the Borderland, William Hope Hodgson.

After reading Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland I got to wondering whether there were any pig-demon miniatures available for purchase. So far I have come up with two pages of posts from a TMP discussion board that made a slight mention of the creatures mentioned in the House on the Borderland. Some have suggested using Orcs for these creatures. Anyone out there know of any miniatures similar to those mentioned in this novel?

The Works of William Hope Hodgson

I am off on another tangent and so much for my original winters reading list. Most of what I had selected to read during this period was not to my liking. I recently downloaded several of H.P. Lovercraft’s short stories and novelettes on to my Android device and have already read through the list. Not being finished with this genre (horror) I started to look for works from other authors and recently came across the work of William H. Hodgson.

I have downloaded the following titles:

1. The Boats of the Glen-Carrig
2. The House on the Borderland
3. The Ghost Pirates
4. The Night Land

The first three are part of trilogy in which I am just starting the first part of this series, The Boats of the Glen-Carrig.

Hodgson’s body of work is quite impressive. He has written across multiple genres, including horror, science fiction, and stories of the sea and adventure.

So far the first of Hodgson’s trilogy has been good reading and have confronted some type of monstrous creature that visits during the night and an island where the soles of men are encompassed into trees. More to following on this nautical adventured horror story.