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KingsOfEvilArt β€” Hodgson - Carnivorous Tree

#carnivorous #creature #dark #evil #fungus #hodgson #hope #monster #plant #tree #william #boatsofglencarrig
Published: 2018-06-01 17:08:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 2548; Favourites: 136; Downloads: 16
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Description Those weird trees, apparently weren't plants at all. In shapes they looked like weird trees; in touch they resembled fungusΒ , they could however uproot and move around. They are predatory organisms capable of absorbing various lifeforms into their own body - in this case a bird which foolishly perched on one of the branches and two human victims.Β 

"Now, having taken the boat something over a mile up the great creek, we came upon the first of that vegetation which I had chanced to notice from the sea, and here, being within some score yards of it, we were the better able to study it. Thus I found that it was indeed composed largely of a sort of tree, very low and stunted, and having what might be described as an unwholesome look about it. The branches of this tree, I perceived to be the cause of my inability to recognize it from a bush, until I had come close upon it; for they grew thin and smooth through all their length, and hung towards the earth; being weighted thereto by a single, large cabbage-like plant which seemed to sprout from the extreme tip of each.
(...)
I perceived to be a part of the tree, and no bird; but it had a very wondrous likeness to a bird; so much so that I went up to it, to see if my eyes had deceived me. Yet it seemed no more than a freak of nature, though most wondrous in its fidelity; being but an excrescence upon the trunk. With a sudden thought that it would make me a curio, I reached up to see whether I could break it away from the tree; but it was above my reach, so that I had to leave it. Yet, one thing I discovered; for, in stretching towards the protuberance, I had placed a hand upon the tree, and its trunk was soft as pulp under my fingers, much after the fashion of a mushroom.
(...)
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.
(...)
Now from the brig I heard them hallooing, and the trees had become like live things, and there was a vast growling in the air, and hideous trumpetings. Then I caught the bo'sun again by the arm, and shouted to him that we must run for our lives; and this we did, smiting with our swords as we ran; for there came things at us, out from the growing dusk."

W.H. Hodgson, The Boats of Glen Carrig
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Comments: 36

EmmetEarwax [2019-05-26 18:43:31 +0000 UTC]

The novel gives the impression that the first 1 or more chapters were lost, as it starts abruptly. "Now we were 5 days on the waters..." or words to that effect.

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to EmmetEarwax [2019-05-31 10:04:16 +0000 UTC]

They might have had different things on their mind for the first few days

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Nyktomorphia [2018-10-03 04:55:24 +0000 UTC]

Are you planning to do any more Hodgson fanart?

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to Nyktomorphia [2018-10-03 18:07:07 +0000 UTC]

Certainly!

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EmmetEarwax [2018-06-14 21:24:32 +0000 UTC]

The novel starts abruptly, as if the opening chapter was missing, and on the Island of Loneliness the crew finds these "trees" and FACES on them. They also find something like a flopping liver (the Thing that made search) .


The next island is infested by the Weed Men, andthey also find another ship of people.

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to EmmetEarwax [2018-06-14 21:45:24 +0000 UTC]

The part with the land of lonliness is my favorite in the book.Β 

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Chamjari [2018-06-02 17:42:49 +0000 UTC]

Awesome! I'm glad you started reading WH Hodgson. These things were some kind of life-absorbing fungus tree. Really nice depiction.

His writings are a great source of weird monsters. I'm currently thinking about sculpting a version of the "red men."

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to Chamjari [2018-06-02 19:07:38 +0000 UTC]

Thank you, the story was great!

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grasshumper [2018-06-02 01:58:48 +0000 UTC]

In love

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to grasshumper [2018-06-02 12:36:46 +0000 UTC]

Thanks.

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whipscorpion [2018-06-01 23:29:22 +0000 UTC]

While I thoroughly enjoyed the entire book I always found the beginning part of the story to be the creepiest.Β  The trees were by far the most unsettling creatures the crew came across.Β Β 

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to whipscorpion [2018-06-02 12:36:40 +0000 UTC]

Also my favorite part.

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grassa48 [2018-06-01 22:14:52 +0000 UTC]

Let's put a BIG pile of candy under the tree and watch the fun.

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to grassa48 [2018-06-02 12:36:33 +0000 UTC]

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DiplodocusDinosaur [2018-06-01 20:35:53 +0000 UTC]

interesting. I am quite a fan of these critters.

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to DiplodocusDinosaur [2018-06-01 21:51:13 +0000 UTC]

Thanks

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JoeRB In reply to DiplodocusDinosaur [2018-06-01 21:17:00 +0000 UTC]

You should read Hodgson's stories. He created lots of bizarre creatures long before Lovecraft did. Especially in his novels, like The House on the Borderland or his epic fantasy adventure The Night Land. He seemed to have an interest in unworldly fungi, because they pop up quite a bit in his works.

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DiplodocusDinosaur In reply to JoeRB [2018-06-02 12:23:55 +0000 UTC]

I think I will, thank you for the recommendation.

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to JoeRB [2018-06-01 21:56:35 +0000 UTC]

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JoeRB In reply to KingsOfEvilArt [2018-06-02 01:23:36 +0000 UTC]

When you read The Night Land, you'll be SWAMPED with lots of weird creatures. Including pterosauresque creatures.

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Nyktomorphia In reply to JoeRB [2018-07-21 18:05:31 +0000 UTC]

There is not NEARLY enough Night Land fanart in the world.

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Chamjari In reply to JoeRB [2018-06-04 14:24:56 +0000 UTC]

And giant snake-eating slugs!!!

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JoeRB In reply to Chamjari [2018-06-04 14:55:09 +0000 UTC]

And wandering mist-like entities. O.O

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Chamjari In reply to JoeRB [2018-06-05 13:38:43 +0000 UTC]

And a mysterious haunted house that can hypnotize people over vast distances compelling them to check in and NEVER check out.

Seriously, "The House of Silence" is the creepiest thing out there just by virtue of the concealment and unknowable nature of what lies within.

I imagined a mix of something like the Deadlights and the Leviathan Hellraiser contraptions.

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EmmetEarwax In reply to Chamjari [2018-06-14 21:27:55 +0000 UTC]

Didn't it send out an alarm when the hero & heroine were getting back to the Redoubt to call monsters to STOP them ?


Monsters that had moved so slowly that they had been mapped ! (just like the dead Leopard atop mount Kilimanjaro. Disappeared since., and the skeleton wearing scuba equipment in a water cave in Puerto Rico.)

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Chamjari In reply to JoeRB [2018-06-02 17:47:52 +0000 UTC]

Yeah! I've wondered where his particular interest in fungi came from. It's likely some early childhood experience that we can never know, but his interest in semi-sentient molds is in many of his stories. I like "The Derelict" where the whole boat has become a kind of floating fungus that even stains and infects the water around it.

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EmmetEarwax In reply to Chamjari [2018-07-01 16:41:17 +0000 UTC]

I've read THE BOATS OF THE GLEN CARRIG, THE NIGHT LAND and HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND. I know not of his short tales...


I do know that Hodgson was killed in WWI, blown to bits by a bomb that hit his post. Nothing was ever found.

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Chamjari In reply to EmmetEarwax [2018-07-01 17:22:22 +0000 UTC]

Great stories.

True, as far as I know Hodgson history.Β 

But, he was killed by an explosive and really "Nothing was ever found?"

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EmmetEarwax In reply to Chamjari [2018-07-02 22:34:26 +0000 UTC]

There are vaults in France, where pulverized human bones reside, so reduced to gravel that there is NO way to ever identify them. They were retrieved from areas saturated by bombing. All that can be done is to inscribe plaques with the names of all who had never been found.


Hodgson's bone frags doubtless reside with those of thousands of other lost victims... Truly WWI was a war to end all wars BUT we laid the seeds for ANOTHER World war.


Europe and her children have learned its lesson, BUT not Asia or Africa, or South America...

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Chamjari In reply to EmmetEarwax [2018-07-08 07:12:24 +0000 UTC]

Fascinating. Our beloved author is now just dust in an unmarked piece of earth. I'd like to try to contactΒ  him with some Karnaki equipment but I think he has ventured beyond the outer monstrosities and into far away places.

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JoeRB In reply to Chamjari [2018-06-02 18:25:09 +0000 UTC]

That's one of my favorite stories ever from him! That concept alone needs to be the basis of a great classic horror film, much like how Hodgson's other great fungus story, The Voice in the Night, was the basis of Ishiro Honda's Matango.

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Chamjari In reply to JoeRB [2018-06-04 14:56:12 +0000 UTC]

I have seen a really well done Spanish comic book version of that story but I don't think there's a translation. But it's easy enough to follow having already read it.

williamhopehodgson.wordpress.c…

He also wrote a kinda different version of the same story where the threat was giant man-eating rats.

In cinema, Event Horizon and (1997) and Virus (1999) seemed to follow the same death trap derelict theme. I don't know if WHH inspired the stories but there are similarities in the basic plots. Virus was a flop but I enjoyed it a lot.

They even produced a line of pretty well made toys expecting larger success.

Here's a weird but straightforward review of those toys.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=avC_0q…

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to JoeRB [2018-06-02 12:35:53 +0000 UTC]

YAY!

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MEGAPOTAMIA325 [2018-06-01 17:25:02 +0000 UTC]

This reminds me of the Blood Oak

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KingsOfEvilArt In reply to MEGAPOTAMIA325 [2018-06-01 18:18:29 +0000 UTC]

I don't know this one.Β 

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MEGAPOTAMIA325 In reply to KingsOfEvilArt [2018-06-01 19:24:14 +0000 UTC]

They are a species of carnivorous trees from the edge chronicle book series

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