The Night Land
Encyclopedia
The Night Land is a classic horror
novel by William Hope Hodgson
, first published in 1912. As a work of fantasy
it belongs to the Dying Earth subgenre. Hodgson also published a much shorter version of the novel, entitled The Dream of X
.
The importance of The Night Land was recognized by its later revival in paperback by Ballantine Books
, which republished the work in two parts as the forty-ninth and fiftieth volumes of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series
in July, 1972.
H. P. Lovecraft
's essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature
" describes the novel as "one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written". Clark Ashton Smith
wrote of it that "In all literature, there are few works so sheerly remarkable, so purely creative, as The Night Land. Whatever faults this book may possess, however inordinate its length may seem, it impresses the reader as being the ultimate saga of a perishing cosmos, the last epic of a world beleaguered by eternal night and by the unvisageable spawn of darkness. Only a great poet could have conceived and written this story; and it is perhaps not illegitimate to wonder how much of actual prophecy may have been mingled with the poesy."
When the book was written, the nature of the energy source that powers stars was not known: Lord Kelvin
had published calculations based on the hypothesis that the energy came from the gravitational collapse of the gas cloud that had formed the sun, and found that this mechanism gave the Sun a lifetime of only a few tens of million of years. Starting from this premise, Hodgson wrote a novel describing a time, millions of years in the future, when the Sun has gone dark.
Once into the book, the 17th century framing is mostly inconsequential. Instead, the story focuses on the future. The Sun has gone out and the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human
race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, the Last Redoubt, under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a Circle of energy, known as the "air clog," powered from a subterranean energy source called the "Earth Current". For millennia, vast living shapes—the Watchers—have waited in the darkness near the pyramid. It is thought they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle's power finally weakens and dies. Other living things have been seen in the darkness beyond, some of unknown origins, and others that may once have been human.
To leave the protection of the Circle means almost certain death, or worse an ultimate destruction of the soul. As the story commences, the narrator establishes mind contact
with an inhabitant of another, forgotten Lesser Redoubt. First one expedition sets off to succour the inhabitants of the Lesser Redoubt, whose own Earth Current has been exhausted, only to meet with disaster. After that the narrator sets off alone into the darkness to find the girl he has made contact with, knowing now that she is the reincarnation of his past love.
At the conclusion of the adventure, the narrative does not return to the framework story, instead ending with the happy homecoming of the couple and his inauguration into the ranks of their most honored heroes.
form as Poems and a Dream of X (New York: R. H. Paget, 1912), in an extremely limited print run. In this edition, the 200,000 word novel was condensed to a 20,000 word novelette, originally for the purpose of establishing copyright; also included was a novelette entitled Mutiny, an abridged version of the story "'Prentices' Mutiny," and thirteen of Hodgson's poems, which were later included in his other posthumously published books of poetry. The abridgement by itself was republished in a limited edition in 1977, with an introduction by Sam Moskowitz
and color illustrations by Stephen Fabian
, under the title The Dream of X
(West Kingston, RI: Donald M. Grant, 1977).
; humans can apparently generate a correct response, while the non-human monsters who attempt to lead them astray by intercepting and forging telepathic communications can't do so.
The Great Redoubt is a mountain-sized building described to contain millions of people and feature vast farmlands underground, powered by the mysterious "earth-current." The upper levels of the redoubt are at so high an altitude that they must be pressurized, and the residents have developed enlarged lung capacity. Each level of the Pyramid contains a great city so that there are, in total, "one thousand, three hundred and twenty cities of the Pyramid."
Hodgson's hero describes the Redoubt in Chapter 2:
"And when the humans had built the great Pyramid, it had one thousand three hundred and twenty floors; and the thickness of each floor was according to the strength of its need. And the whole height of this pyramid exceeded seven miles, by near a mile, and above it was a tower from which the Watchmen looked (these being called the Monstruwacans). But where the Redoubt was built, I know not; save that I believe in a mighty valley, of which I may tell more in due time."
Additionally Hodgson's narrator describes the base of the Redoubt stretching "five and one-quarter miles every way."
Directly beneath the Redoubt, "an hundred miles deep in the earth below the Redoubt" lay the Underground Fields:
"And of the Underground Fields (though in that age we called them no more than “The Fields”) I should set down a little; for they were the mightiest work of this world; so that even the Last Redoubt was but a small thing beside them. An hundred miles deep lay the lowest of the Underground Fields, and was an hundred miles from side to side, every way; and above it there were three hundred and six fields, each one less in area than that beneath; and in this wise they tapered, until the topmost field which lay direct beneath the lowermost floor of the Great Redoubt, was but four miles every way."
The fields are “sheathed-in at the sides with the grey metal of which the Redoubt was builded”, the grey metal may also lay beneath the soil of each field, acting as a subfloor through which “the monsters could not dig into that mighty garden from without.” Each field is upheld by pillars and lit by the Earth-Current. The Earth-Current also runs through the soil of the fields supplying the plants and trees with the nutrition necessary to support life far beneath the Pyramid.
The dirt and rock excavated during the making of the Fields was dumped into the bottomless “Crack” from which the Pyramid draws the Earth-Current. The narrator supposes that the Fields have their own air system that is not connected with the “monster air-shafts of the Pyramid”, but cannot verify this due to the immensity of the Redoubt and the knowledge lost during the years since its construction. The narrator recounts fields of corn, grain and poppies growing in the vast chambers beneath the Redoubt.
The Lesser Redoubt is a three-sided Pyramid, smaller than the original standing at little more than a mile in height and only three quarters of a mile along the bases. The architect of the Lesser Redoubt was a man who had once lived in the Great Redoubt, but who had been punished for disturbing the order of the Redoubt with his "spirit of irresponsibility" by those in the lowest city of the great Pyramid.
The Lesser Redoubt was built in a "great valley" leading from the shore where signs of the Earth-Current were detected. After a time, however, the Earth-Current began to wane and no greater source for the 'Current could be discovered despite thousands of years of searching. Eventually communications between the two Redoubts ceased as the Lesser no longer had the power to trasmit messages, during this time humans still struggled to live within the Lesser Redoubt, despite their failing powers and resources.
"And thereafter came a million years, maybe, of silence; with ever the birthing and marrying and dying of those lonesome humans. And they grew less; and some put this to the lack of the Earth-Current, which dwindled slowly through the centuries of that Eternity."
's short story, The Way of All Ghosts, dedicated to William Hope Hodgson, is set in the Way, the artificial space-time structure featured in several of Bear's novels, beginning with Eon
(1985). A recurring character from these novels, Ser Olmy, is given a mission to investigate an experiment which had gone horribly wrong. The experimenters had attempted to open a gate into a universe of pure order, and the survivors find themselves trapped in a region of the Way that has transformed to a chaotic state resembling the Night Land.
Greg Bear's City at the End of Time
(2008) shares a number of plot elements with The Night Land, and contains a specific reference to the Last Redoubt, giving William Hope Hodgson himself a cameo role in the story line.
The short-fiction collections William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Eternal Love (2003) and William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Nightmares of the Fall (2007) contain short stories set in a universe combining The Night Land with The House on the Borderland
. A third collection (to be titled The Days of Darkening) is still in progress . The first collection was nominated for a British Fantasy Award
for Best Anthology by the British Fantasy Society
in 2004.
James Stoddard
's novel, The Night Land, A Story Retold is a retelling of The Night Land, intended for modern readers who may be unwilling to read the archaic language of the original. While retaining the story of The Night Land, it departs from the original by naming the main character, adding brief scenes, and by using dialogue (the original version had none.) An early draft of the second chapter of Stoddard's rewrite appears in William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Eternal Love.
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
novel by William Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction and science fiction. Early in his writing career he dedicated effort to poetry, although few of his...
, first published in 1912. As a work of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
it belongs to the Dying Earth subgenre. Hodgson also published a much shorter version of the novel, entitled The Dream of X
The Dream of X
The Dream of X is an abridged version of the 1912 science fiction novel by William Hope Hodgson, The Night Land. The abridgment was originally published as part of the chapbook collection Poems and the Dream of X in 1912 by R. Harold Paget. It was first published as a stand-alone book in 1977 by...
.
The importance of The Night Land was recognized by its later revival in paperback by Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
, which republished the work in two parts as the forty-ninth and fiftieth volumes of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series
Ballantine Adult Fantasy series
The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was an imprint of Ballantine Books. Launched in 1969 , the series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature, which were out of print or dispersed in back issues of pulp magazines , in cheap paperback form—including works...
in July, 1972.
H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
's essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature
Supernatural Horror in Literature
"Supernatural Horror in Literature" is a long essay by the celebrated horror writer H. P. Lovecraft surveying the field of horror fiction. It was written between November 1925 and May 1927 and revised in 1933-1934. It was first published in 1927 in the one-shot magazine The Recluse...
" describes the novel as "one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written". Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...
wrote of it that "In all literature, there are few works so sheerly remarkable, so purely creative, as The Night Land. Whatever faults this book may possess, however inordinate its length may seem, it impresses the reader as being the ultimate saga of a perishing cosmos, the last epic of a world beleaguered by eternal night and by the unvisageable spawn of darkness. Only a great poet could have conceived and written this story; and it is perhaps not illegitimate to wonder how much of actual prophecy may have been mingled with the poesy."
When the book was written, the nature of the energy source that powers stars was not known: Lord Kelvin
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE, was a mathematical physicist and engineer. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging...
had published calculations based on the hypothesis that the energy came from the gravitational collapse of the gas cloud that had formed the sun, and found that this mechanism gave the Sun a lifetime of only a few tens of million of years. Starting from this premise, Hodgson wrote a novel describing a time, millions of years in the future, when the Sun has gone dark.
Plot summary
The beginning of the book establishes the framework in which a 17th century gentleman, mourning the death of his beloved, Lady Mirdath, is given a vision of a far-distant future where their souls will be re-united, and sees the world of that time through the eyes of a future incarnation. The language and style used are intended to resemble that of the 17th century, though the prose has features characteristic of no period whatsoever: the almost-complete lack of dialogue and proper names, for example.Once into the book, the 17th century framing is mostly inconsequential. Instead, the story focuses on the future. The Sun has gone out and the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, the Last Redoubt, under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a Circle of energy, known as the "air clog," powered from a subterranean energy source called the "Earth Current". For millennia, vast living shapes—the Watchers—have waited in the darkness near the pyramid. It is thought they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle's power finally weakens and dies. Other living things have been seen in the darkness beyond, some of unknown origins, and others that may once have been human.
To leave the protection of the Circle means almost certain death, or worse an ultimate destruction of the soul. As the story commences, the narrator establishes mind contact
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
with an inhabitant of another, forgotten Lesser Redoubt. First one expedition sets off to succour the inhabitants of the Lesser Redoubt, whose own Earth Current has been exhausted, only to meet with disaster. After that the narrator sets off alone into the darkness to find the girl he has made contact with, knowing now that she is the reincarnation of his past love.
At the conclusion of the adventure, the narrative does not return to the framework story, instead ending with the happy homecoming of the couple and his inauguration into the ranks of their most honored heroes.
Abhumans
The term "Abhuman" was used by Hodgson in The Night Land to name (apparently) several different species of intelligent beings evolved from humans who interbred with alien species or adapted to changed environmental conditions and were seen as decayed or malign by those living inside the Last Redoubt, who preserved artificially (to an unspecified extent) their human characteristics, though they were not fit for the new environmental conditions.The Dream of X
The abridged version of the novel was first published in the United States in 1912 in chapbookChapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
form as Poems and a Dream of X (New York: R. H. Paget, 1912), in an extremely limited print run. In this edition, the 200,000 word novel was condensed to a 20,000 word novelette, originally for the purpose of establishing copyright; also included was a novelette entitled Mutiny, an abridged version of the story "'Prentices' Mutiny," and thirteen of Hodgson's poems, which were later included in his other posthumously published books of poetry. The abridgement by itself was republished in a limited edition in 1977, with an introduction by Sam Moskowitz
Sam Moskowitz
Sam Moskowitz was an early fan and organizer of interest in science fiction and, later, a writer, critic, and historian of the field.-Biography:...
and color illustrations by Stephen Fabian
Stephen Fabian
-Career:Fabian specializes in science fiction and fantasy illustration and cover art for books and magazines. Fabian also produced artwork for TSR's Dungeons & Dragons game from 1986 to 1995, particularly on the Ravenloft line. He was self-taught, two of his primary influences being Virgil Finlay...
, under the title The Dream of X
The Dream of X
The Dream of X is an abridged version of the 1912 science fiction novel by William Hope Hodgson, The Night Land. The abridgment was originally published as part of the chapbook collection Poems and the Dream of X in 1912 by R. Harold Paget. It was first published as a stand-alone book in 1977 by...
(West Kingston, RI: Donald M. Grant, 1977).
Telepathy
While the entire human population seems to have some capacity for telepathic communication (in the book called "The Night Hearing"), the main character has unusually strong abilities and is capable of communicating with his lost love using his "brain-elements." This seems to indicate a specialized organ in the brain, perhaps evolved or genetically engineered, or perhaps some kind of implant. Hodgson also introduces a kind of authentication known as the "master word." This is reminiscent of a modern public-key cryptographyCryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
; humans can apparently generate a correct response, while the non-human monsters who attempt to lead them astray by intercepting and forging telepathic communications can't do so.
Powdered Water and Food Tablets
Hodgson's hero sets out into the Night Land carrying lightweight food tablets and a sealed tube full of "water-powder." When a small quantity of this powder is exposed to air, it rapidly condenses moisture and produces drinkable water. While lightweight dehydrated foods exist, water-powder is scientifically implausible (though see deliquescence), but together these serve to explain how the hero can carry enough food and drink to survive his journey in the inhospitable Night Land.The Diskos
The diskos is a weapon featuring a razor-sharp spinning disk on a retractable handle. When activated the disk glows and shoots out sparks. This invention may have been inspired by a hand-held children's toy that shoots sparks when a button is pressed to start a small spinning disk. It is also indicated that the diskos develops a special affinity for its owner during training and should not be handled by anyone else. Each diskos is powered from an initial charge taken from the Earth Current. When its owner dies, the Diskos and its charge are returned to the Earth Current.The Redoubt
"I stood in one of the embrasures of the Last Redoubt—that great Pyramid of grey metal which held the last millions of this world from the Powers of the Slayers."The Great Redoubt is a mountain-sized building described to contain millions of people and feature vast farmlands underground, powered by the mysterious "earth-current." The upper levels of the redoubt are at so high an altitude that they must be pressurized, and the residents have developed enlarged lung capacity. Each level of the Pyramid contains a great city so that there are, in total, "one thousand, three hundred and twenty cities of the Pyramid."
Hodgson's hero describes the Redoubt in Chapter 2:
"And when the humans had built the great Pyramid, it had one thousand three hundred and twenty floors; and the thickness of each floor was according to the strength of its need. And the whole height of this pyramid exceeded seven miles, by near a mile, and above it was a tower from which the Watchmen looked (these being called the Monstruwacans). But where the Redoubt was built, I know not; save that I believe in a mighty valley, of which I may tell more in due time."
Additionally Hodgson's narrator describes the base of the Redoubt stretching "five and one-quarter miles every way."
Directly beneath the Redoubt, "an hundred miles deep in the earth below the Redoubt" lay the Underground Fields:
"And of the Underground Fields (though in that age we called them no more than “The Fields”) I should set down a little; for they were the mightiest work of this world; so that even the Last Redoubt was but a small thing beside them. An hundred miles deep lay the lowest of the Underground Fields, and was an hundred miles from side to side, every way; and above it there were three hundred and six fields, each one less in area than that beneath; and in this wise they tapered, until the topmost field which lay direct beneath the lowermost floor of the Great Redoubt, was but four miles every way."
The fields are “sheathed-in at the sides with the grey metal of which the Redoubt was builded”, the grey metal may also lay beneath the soil of each field, acting as a subfloor through which “the monsters could not dig into that mighty garden from without.” Each field is upheld by pillars and lit by the Earth-Current. The Earth-Current also runs through the soil of the fields supplying the plants and trees with the nutrition necessary to support life far beneath the Pyramid.
The dirt and rock excavated during the making of the Fields was dumped into the bottomless “Crack” from which the Pyramid draws the Earth-Current. The narrator supposes that the Fields have their own air system that is not connected with the “monster air-shafts of the Pyramid”, but cannot verify this due to the immensity of the Redoubt and the knowledge lost during the years since its construction. The narrator recounts fields of corn, grain and poppies growing in the vast chambers beneath the Redoubt.
The Lesser Redoubt
The majority of The Night Land is devoted to the hero's quest to find a Lesser Redoubt in which he believes his reincarnated long-lost love awaits him. This second Redoubt was built sometime after the completion of the original by a large group of humans who wandered the land "who had grown weary of wandering, and weary of the danger of night attacks by the tribes of half-human monsters which began to inhabit the earth even so early as the days when the half-gloom was upon the world." This second Redoubt was originally built on the far shore of a sea that has disappeared by the narrator's lifetime.The Lesser Redoubt is a three-sided Pyramid, smaller than the original standing at little more than a mile in height and only three quarters of a mile along the bases. The architect of the Lesser Redoubt was a man who had once lived in the Great Redoubt, but who had been punished for disturbing the order of the Redoubt with his "spirit of irresponsibility" by those in the lowest city of the great Pyramid.
The Lesser Redoubt was built in a "great valley" leading from the shore where signs of the Earth-Current were detected. After a time, however, the Earth-Current began to wane and no greater source for the 'Current could be discovered despite thousands of years of searching. Eventually communications between the two Redoubts ceased as the Lesser no longer had the power to trasmit messages, during this time humans still struggled to live within the Lesser Redoubt, despite their failing powers and resources.
"And thereafter came a million years, maybe, of silence; with ever the birthing and marrying and dying of those lonesome humans. And they grew less; and some put this to the lack of the Earth-Current, which dwindled slowly through the centuries of that Eternity."
Pastiche, homages and sequels
Greg BearGreg Bear
Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
's short story, The Way of All Ghosts, dedicated to William Hope Hodgson, is set in the Way, the artificial space-time structure featured in several of Bear's novels, beginning with Eon
Eon (novel)
Eon is a 1985 science fiction novel by Greg Bear. It is the first story written in The Way fictional universe.Events in Eon take place in 2005, when the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. are on the verge of nuclear war. In that tense political climate, a 290 km asteroid appears within the solar system...
(1985). A recurring character from these novels, Ser Olmy, is given a mission to investigate an experiment which had gone horribly wrong. The experimenters had attempted to open a gate into a universe of pure order, and the survivors find themselves trapped in a region of the Way that has transformed to a chaotic state resembling the Night Land.
Greg Bear's City at the End of Time
City at the End of Time
City at the End of Time is a 2008 science fiction novel by American Hugo and Nebula Award-winning writer Greg Bear. It was published in August 2008 by Del Rey in the United States, and Gollancz in the United Kingdom. The story follows three drifters in present-day Seattle who are tormented by...
(2008) shares a number of plot elements with The Night Land, and contains a specific reference to the Last Redoubt, giving William Hope Hodgson himself a cameo role in the story line.
The short-fiction collections William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Eternal Love (2003) and William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Nightmares of the Fall (2007) contain short stories set in a universe combining The Night Land with The House on the Borderland
The House on the Borderland
The House on the Borderland is a supernatural horror novel by British fantasist William Hope Hodgson.-Plot introduction:In 1877, two gentlemen, Messrs Tonnison and Berreggnog, head into Ireland to spend a week fishing in the village of Kraighten. Whilst there, they discover in the ruins of a very...
. A third collection (to be titled The Days of Darkening) is still in progress . The first collection was nominated for a British Fantasy Award
British Fantasy Award
The British Fantasy Awards are administered annually by the British Fantasy Society and were first awarded in 1971. The membership of the BFS vote to determine recommendations, short-lists and winners of the awards...
for Best Anthology by the British Fantasy Society
British Fantasy Society
The British Fantasy Society began in 1971 as the British Weird Fantasy Society, an offshoot of the British Science Fiction Association. The society is dedicated to promoting the best in the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres....
in 2004.
James Stoddard
James Stoddard
James Stoddard is an American fantasy author. He lives in West Texas, USA where he is also a Music Recording and Engineering Instructor. Stoddard's first published short story, The Perfect Day, was penned under the name James Turpin and appeared in Amazing Stories in 1985.-Novels:#The High House ...
's novel, The Night Land, A Story Retold is a retelling of The Night Land, intended for modern readers who may be unwilling to read the archaic language of the original. While retaining the story of The Night Land, it departs from the original by naming the main character, adding brief scenes, and by using dialogue (the original version had none.) An early draft of the second chapter of Stoddard's rewrite appears in William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Eternal Love.
External links
- E-text of The Night Land
- Night Lands: by the editor of Eternal Love with artwork, and the text of the stories from that collection.