The Weird Fiction of William Hope Hodgson

The House of Silence.

It took me some time because I wanted to do right: I really like the Night Land concept.

I made two pictures in the end. The House of Silence with the Redoubt in the background. Two human are drawn inside by the siren song of the House. I put a giant human hybrid in the entrance as a kind of guardian. The Night Land teems with quasi-humans as far as I can see.

Inside the Last Redoubt.

The second shows the Redoubt at the height of its glory. I wanted to show the diversity of cultures. The best way to do that I found is taking figures from a lot of my paintings and putting them all together with a different society at each level. The Redoubt itself I showed as a mixture of high-tech and Gormenghast.

The Cities Moving West.

One of the windows of the House of Silence looks out on former times. When the sun cooled the rotation of the Earth slowed down until a day lasted a whole year.

The cities of the Road Makers had to keep moving, always going west on mile-high wheels to follow the sunlight.

Huge solar flares light a city while two Silent Ones guard the girl who would one day rule the House of Silence.

I am still making Night Land illustrations, in fact just because I like roaming around there.

Here is one of the crashed starship where Lurella found the pomegranate of immortality growing.

Building the Lesser Redoubt.

Illustration for "Embrace the Night."

A group of dissidents, led by Rabath, leaves the Redoubt and constructs a new pyramid on a dry sea bed.

A giant mobile generator is starting to tap the earth current to erect the Air Clog, the energy barrier surrounding the Lesser Redoubt.

The Underground Fields.

Another Night Land picture manifested itself, with endless fields of nourishing fungi. I don't know who the girl is yet or what her story is, but she'll no doubt tell me.

Giant Head.

Here is a giant, with the Redoubt in the background. As far as I can see the sun was still burning then, though starting to run down. I tried to make something truly abhuman, with a massive skull.

Here is an illustration for "And the Sky is Filled with Eyes." It shows the Redoubt besieged by pneumavores, with the army of the Silent ones in the foreground. Zoom in enough and you can see the giants among the abhuman troops.

Another picture for "And the Sky is Filled with Eyes." Grand Captain Schea and the returning starship. I think the ship looks properly massive.

Redoubt a-building.

In Andy Robertson's story "Gold," the Redoubt was composed of returned starships. This picture set during the early Darkening shows it near completion.