The Worm Ouroboros (1922) is a heroic high fantasy novel by Eric Rücker Eddison – So predates Tolkien’s work. This cover is from the Ballatine Books Reprint in the 1960s – I’m not sure on the Artist Here, Keith Henderson? if you know please post a comment *Note* I originally tagged this as Bob Pepper, sorry Bob!.
The book describes the protracted war between the domineering King Gorice of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland in an imaginary world that appears mainly medieval and partly reminiscent of Norse sagas. A half-finished framing story describes this world as Mercury, though it is clearly a fantasy version of Earth, a “secondary-world” (no effort was made to conform to the scientific knowledge of Mercury, as it existed at the time of writing)… Read more at Wiki
This cover has come from a library of Ballatine Book covers here: http://www.skwishmi.com/interests/baf.html lots of other Art Nouveau / Psychadelic influenced Book Covers from the likes Bob Pepper, David Johnston, Ian Miller and more…
This novel aside, the Ouroboros itself is a very interesting concept that’s spanned across cultures and through generations – Ouroboros, the Worm, Serpent, or Dragon depicted devouring it’s own tail to form a Circle – often used to represent cyclicality or infinity… Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros
always thought that was pauline baynes !
Comment by billy mavreas — October 16, 2008 @ 10:49 pm
Is it billy? as limited knowledge admin I’m not sure… I will look into this!!
Comment by admin — October 16, 2008 @ 10:58 pm
Yea i wouldnt have thought this was bob pepper,great cover though. Also, just to give an ego boost, excellent blog youve got here, ton of great artists and images
Comment by Josh — January 26, 2009 @ 10:09 pm
Cheers Josh
that’s nice to hear…. Glad you enjoyed having a good look through!
Comment by Kie — January 27, 2009 @ 11:58 am
Thank you for including my work on your site, the last piece “The Worm Ouroboros” is not mine, although it is similar to a cover I did for Paul Anderson’s “Saga of Kraki” in 1973.
Bob Pepper
Comment by Bob Pepper — October 26, 2009 @ 3:54 am
Hey Bob,
honored to have you comment on your site! apologies I’d tagged this incorrectly….
I believe this is the “Saga of Kraki” cover your referring to:
http://www.sci-fi-o-rama.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bob_pepper_saga_of_kraki.jpg
If I come across it I’ll be sure to add a new post !
cheers!!
Comment by Kie — October 28, 2009 @ 9:00 pm
I’m 99.999% sure this is Pauline Baynes. Ballantine brought out this edition after their huge success with the Tolkien books and their iconic Baynes covers. The style here is, to me, unmistakeably that of Baynes. I found this page while doing an image search for Bob Pepper, and it’s great to see him respond here!
Comment by Joe Harley — May 20, 2010 @ 6:18 pm