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The
Neverending Story Wiki
The Neverending Story (German: Die unendliche Geschichte) is a German fantasy novel by Michael Ende, first published in 1979. The standard English translation, by Ralph Manheim, was first published in 1983. The novel was later adapted into several films.
The majority of the story takes place in the parallel world of Fantastica (Phantásien in the original German version; referred to as Fantasia
in the films), a world being destroyed by the Nothing, which represents
and constitutes people's lack of imagination in the real world. The
first protagonist is a young warrior, who is asked by the Steward of The
Empress of Fantastica, to set off and find a way to stop The Nothing.
The other protagonist is a boy from the real world, a reader of the
novel with the same title, for whom the story gradually becomes more and more realistic. Plot summary
The book centers on a boy, Bastian Balthazar Bux, who is neglected by
his father (who has sunken into despair after having lost his wife) and
is bullied by his schoolmates. While running from some of them, Bastian
bursts into the antique book store of Carl Conrad Coreander. Bastian
steals a book from the store called The Neverending Story which
Coreander has been reading; he hides in his school's attic, where he
proceeds to read the story through the rest of the day and the night,
not realizing that he has effectively become a part of it.
The book begins in Fantastica, when a "will-o'-the-wisp"
goes to ask the Childlike Empress for help against the Nothing, which
is spreading over the land. The Empress is ill, which is believed to be
the cause of the Nothing (or vice versa); she sends the only person that
can stop the Nothing, a boy warrior named Atreyu, to find a cure for
her. Atreyu is a brave person, being considered a man even though he is a
young boy of Bastian's age.
While on his quest, Atreyu meets characters such as Morla the Aged
One, the incorporeal oracle Uyulala, and the gnomes Urgl and Engywook.
Atreyu also meets Falkor, the luckdragon, who helps him along the way.
After Atreyu and Falkor get in the way of a fight of the Wind Giants,
Atreyu gets thrown off Falkor's back and ends up in Spook City, Atreyu
meets Gmork the werewolf, who has been following Atreyu since the early
days of his quest, intending to kill him. In the course of his quest,
Atreyu learns about the true nature of Fantastica and the Nothing:
Fantastica is a representation of the dreams and fantasies of the real
world; the Nothing and the sickness of the Childlike Empress are the
effects of the lies humans use in their greed for power; it is the
denial of dreams and fantasy which is destroying Fantastica. The only
thing that can save Fantastica is a human child, who must give her a new
name to start again the cycle of life in Fantastica.
Falkor and Atreyu return to the Ivory Tower, where the Childlike
Empress lives. But since Bastian, in his lack of confidence, hesitates
to take the step into Fantastica, the Childlike Empress confronts him
with the fact that whatever he may think, he has already become part of
the Neverending Story, and he must carry out his part in it. And Bastian
does so by crying out the name he has chosen for the Empress: 'Moon
Child'.
Bastian comes to Fantastica and meets the Empress; she asks him to
help re-build Fantastica with his imagination, and he subsequently has
many adventures of his own in his new world. With the help of AURYN, a
medallion that links him to the Empress, that gives him power over all
the inhabitants of Fantastica and grants all of the boy's wishes,
Bastian explores the Desert of Colors, battles the evil witch Xayide,
and meets the three Deep Thinkers. Bastian becomes friends with Atreyu,
but as Bastian continues to use the AURYN, every wish he makes takes
away one of his memories and he begins to lose his own true self, and
thus Atreyu becomes the more worried about him. The growing tension
between the two is exploited by Xayide, who drives Bastian to a lust for
power. Bastian is defeated in his attempt to have himself crowned as a
Childlike Emperor by Atreyu, who leads a rebellion against him. Only
when Bastian stumbles into a colony of humans who were trapped in
Fantastica after having lost all their memories does he realize what he
has almost lost.
Bastian sets out to find his own true wish - the only thing he can
wish for without losing himself. After losing his remaining memories,
Atreyu helps him, and Bastian then has his one true wish fulfilled and
manages to cure his father as well. After he returns home, he decides to
return the book to its owner, Carl Conrad Coreander, but the book
disappears after Bastian returns from Fantastica. He explains this to
Carl Conrad Coreander, who is interested in Bastian's adventures - he
has been to Fantastica himself once, as it turns out - and asks him to
keep in touch to talk about their respective experiences. As Bastian
leaves to meet his father, Coreander muses that Bastian will indeed help
others to get to Fantastica and help carry over more hopes into the
human world.
[edit] Characters
- Atreyu (German Atréju)
- Bastian Balthazar Bux (German Bastian Balthasar Bux)
- The Childlike Empress/ (German Die Kindliche Kaiserin/Mondenkind)
- Falkor, the luckdragon (German Fuchur, der Glücksdrache)
- Carl Conrad Coreander (German Karl Konrad Koreander)
AURYN is a mystical talisman in The Neverending Story.
In the novel, AURYN is always spelled in capital letters and is revered
by all Fantasticans, referred to as "The Gem" and "The Glory." It is a
symbol of its mistress, the Childlike Empress, who is also called "The
Golden-Eyed Commander of Wishes" in reference to her relationship with
AURYN. While the book makes noteworthy the point that the image of AURYN
is on its "cover(s)", it does not actually refer to it as AURYN.
A common misconception is that AURYN is a simple magical object that
grants wishes. The truth is that AURYN's power flows from the Childlike
Empress and that it can only be used with her permission. The powerful
amulet cannot be used against her and if she does not grant the use of
it to someone they are unable to influence AURYN.
The name of the amulet is not the same as that of a simple inanimate
object. The word 'the' never precedes that amulet's name, AURYN, instead
it is used similar to the name of a person.
Two mythological serpents, symmetrical, bite at the other's tails. In
the book, they form an oval, not intertwined. One serpent is white and
one is black. Each has an eye to correspond to the color of the book's
print, red and green. It may be noted that the film version has the two
snakes in an "Infinity Knot", a kind of grief knot which looks like a more intricate variation of the figure "8" infinity symbol and another sign of ouroboros.
The two snakes represent the dual nature of the two worlds, Fantastica
(German: Phantásien) and Reality, but also the twin nature of their
mutual creation and destruction. On the back of AURYN are these words:
"Do what you Wish" (German: "Tu, was du willst").
AURYN helps guide Atreyu
through Fantastica in his quest to find a cure for the ailing Childlike
Empress, and in turn defeat the Nothing. It serves him clandestinely,
but does return him to the Ivory Tower.
Although Atreyu believes himself to have failed in finding the human
child past the borders of Fantastica, the Childlike Empress informs him
to the contrary and that indeed the boy had been with him all along.
In the hands of the Childlike Empress, AURYN displays greater powers
even in the face of the Nothing. She releases seven spirits to serve her
as she ventures across her tattered realm to find the Old Man of
Wandering Mountain. They carry her chariot and provide a haven for
Atreyu and Falkor within.
Bastian christens the Childlike Empress with her new name. She
presents him with AURYN; her only request being that he follows the
instructions written on the back. While it grants him the power to make
wishes and imagine more of Fantastica, it drains him of his memories
which are his only way back to his world. Bastian searches for the same
obscure boundaries of Fantastica, only to realize it is within AURYN
itself.
In the mystical interior of AURYN, two gargantuan serpent statues
stand sentry, one shining brighter than white, the other darker than
black. They guard the Waters of Life, a waterfall and pool that serve as
the exit from Fantastica. The statues refuse Bastian's passage, for he
had left many stories unfinished in Fantastica. Atreyu, however, agrees
to undertake the quest, which allows Bastian to return to his world.
When Bastian touches the waters, their truthful properties dissolve the
illusion of his glamour wishes, and he returns to being a fat little
boy, instead of a Fantastican prince, but this time he has learned to
love himself as he truly is. At this point the snakes of AURYN allow him
to return to his world.
[edit] Reception
Susan L. Nickerson of Library Journal
writes in a review that "Imaginative readers know the story doesn't end
when the covers close; the magic to be found in books is eternal, and
Ende's message comes through vividly."[1]
"The two parts of the novel repeat each other", as Maria Nikolajeva states in her book The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature,
in that Bastian becomes a hero but then in the second half he "acts not
even as an antihero but as a false hero of the fairy tale." The
characters of Bastian and Atreyu can also be seen as mirror halves.[2]
[edit] Related novels
In September 2003, AVAinternational GmbH began publishing "Legends of
Fantastica". Originally planned as a 12 part series of novels, only 6
have been published as of 2004. They are:
- Tanja Kinkel: "Der König der Narren" (The King of Fools) -published September 1, 2003
- Ulrike Schweikert: "Die Seele der Nacht" (The Soul of the Night) - published September 1, 2003
- Ralf Isau:
"Die geheime Bibliothek des Thaddäus Tillmann Trutz" (The Secret
Library of Thaddaeus Tillman Trutz) -published September 1, 2003
- Wolfram Fleischhauer: "Die Verschwörung der Engel" (The Angels' Plot) -published March 18, 2004
- Peter Freund: "Die Stadt der vergessenen Träume" (The City of Forgotten Dreams) -published March 18, 2004
- Peter Dempf: "Die Herrin der Wörter" (Empress of the Words) -published September 23, 2004
[edit] Adaptations
The NeverEnding Story was the first film adaptation of the novel. It was released in 1984, directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Barret Oliver as Bastian, Noah Hathaway as Atreyu, and Tami Stronach as the Childlike Empress. The music was composed by Klaus Doldinger.
It covered only the first half of the book, ending at the point where
Bastian enters Fantastica. Ende requested they halt production or change
the movie's name, as it had drastically deviated from his novel; when
they did neither, he sued them and subsequently lost the case.[3]
The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, directed by George T. Miller and starring Jonathan Brandis and Kenny Morrison,
was released in 1990. It used a number of plot elements from the second
half of Ende's novel, but told an essentially new tale.
The NeverEnding Story III, starring Jason James Richter, Melody Kay and Jack Black, was released in 1994. This film was based only upon the characters from Ende's book, having a completely new story.
The 1995 animated series was produced by Nelvana, under the title of The Neverending Story: The Animated Adventures of Bastian Balthazar Bux.
The animated series ran for two years, and had a total of twenty
episodes. Director duties were split between Marc Boreal and Mike
Fallows. Each episode focused on Bastian's further adventures in
Fantastica, largely different from his further adventures in the book,
but occasionally containing elements of them.
Tales from the Neverending Story
was a live-action series that aired on the Hallmark Channel that
re-told the story as an ongoing series lasting 13 episodes. The series
was also re-edited to form a four part miniseries.
The Neverending Story has also been adapted to the dramatic
play, ballet, and operatic media in Germany. The scores to both the
opera and the ballet versions were composed by Siegfried Matthus.
In 2001, the video game adaptation AURYN Quest was developed by the German studio Attaction.[4]
[edit] Improvised Stage Adaptation
In April of 2010 a live and improvised stage adaptation of The Neverending Story was performed by the comedy group BOOK CLUB at the I.O. West theater in Hollywood, CA.
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