The Neverending Story

The reason I love The Neverending Story so much is that it chronicles the process of how one can be saved by fantasy or completely destroyed by it. At first glance that is not what the story is about, especially if someone has only seen the three movie adaptations or the animated TV series. Most people would describe it as being about a boy named Bastian who is magically able to enter a fantasy land of stories called Fantastica (Fantasia in the movies) after reading a book and wishing he could be there with the characters he cares so deeply for. However, that is only the first third to half of the book.

The films are somewhat iconic, or at least recognizable, due to the wonderfully adapted aesthetic of the unique story, characters, and world originally created by Michael Ende in 1979. And in some ways, the first film follows the book very closely, at least as an outline following the tale of Atreyu and of Bastian reading about him. Unfortunately, the deeper meaning of the story is somewhat lost. A few details are omitted that I think enhance the characters (e.g. Bastian being fat and slow), and the second and third movies mostly abandon the plot of Bastian going to Fantasia and staying there a long time. Instead, circumstances merely allow him to return to Fantasia to help them during a crisis, which leads to him finding some answers to questions asked in the subplots about his life back home in the human world. The second movie uses existing characters, although the plot points are mixed around, and the third creates a new cast of characters to surround the protagonist with, such as a talking tree named Barktroll.

The animated show is little known, but still captures the feel of the story in a Dragon Tales meets Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kind of way. Like the second and third live action movies, it is about Bastian revisiting Fantasia and fighting bad guys. Like the children in Dragon Tales, he has a magical object that allows him to visit when he pleases. Like in shows along the same lines as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there are consistent villains he must face and defeat, namely the evil witch Xayide featured in the second live action film. There are also colorful friends for Bastian to visit, including Atreyu from the book and Barktroll from the movies. What the show does well is incorporate pieces of the book missed by the movies, even choosing somewhat disturbing subjects, such as the strange tale of the Acharis. Nevertheless, like the kid shows it meant to entertain above all else and fails to teach much of anything.

Michael Ende's story begins with a boy named Bastian Bathlazar Bux running into the used book shop of a Mr. Carl Conrad Coreander after escaping some bullies. He is fat and pale and slow, but he loves books and is drawn to the one bound in copper-colored silk the old man is reading. He steals it against his better judgement, only to decide moments later that he must hide away now that he has committed a terrible crime. This leads him to the attic of the schoolhouse where he makes a sort of nest out of old gym mats and sits down to read the book with a special symbol on the cover: a white snake and a black snake circling each other, biting each other's tails. (All parts of Bastian's experience are chronicled in italic text throughout the story, differentiating between the book in his hands and the real world.)

The Neverending Story, the title of the book Bastian has stolen, starts off with a whole host of creatures traveling from their countries in the endless kingdom of Fantastica to the center: the Ivory Tower. Each messenger means to inform Fantastica's ruler called the Childlike Empress about strange, terrible occurrences as an utter nothingness swallows up their homes. "When you look at the place, it's as if you were blind." They all discover upon arrival at the Tower that hundreds of other messengers have brought the same message about the Nothing and that the Childlike Empress is deathly ill. After being seen by 499 doctors, she sends the 500th on a mission to carry her emblem to her chosen champion.

The Childlike Empress's symbol and source of power is the AURYN, also called the Gem or the Glory. It is an amulet shaped like two snakes biting each other's tails, one white and one black. In truth the Empress is the heart of Fantastica rather than its ruler, for she does not govern and does not discern between good and evil, strong and weak, etc. Therefore all creatures, even the very wicked ones, recognize the AURYN and do not harm the one carrying it. As such, when it is given to Atreyu, a young orphan of the Greenskins people of the Grassy Ocean, he sets forth on his quest for a cure for the Empress without fear. It protects him where others would burn, freeze, or die of sadness. This is the part of the story most people are familiar with since the first of the live action films covers it.

Atreyu travels until he seeks out a giant turtle called Morla the Aged One who tells him the Childlike Empress needs a new name in order to be cured. His beloved horse is lost in the process. He then finds the terrible monster Ygramul the Many, who knows that Uyulala the Southern Oracle may know who can name the Empress, and its magical bite transports Atreyu a distance across Fantastica that would normally take a person their whole life to travel. He is followed by Falkor, a white luckdragon caught in Ygramul's web who overheard the conversation. They are nursed back to health from the magic poison by Urgl and Engywook, two gnomics who live just beyond the gates to the Southern Oracle. It is guarded by two sphinxes whose faces speak of terrifying wisdom and infinite knowledge that disturb all onlookers.

Atreyu has to pass through three gates to reach the oracle: the Great Riddle Gate where the sphinxes choose whether or not to let visitors through, the Magic Mirror Gate where one must face the reflection of their soul, and the No-Key Gate that only opens for one who does not care whether or not he steps through. Atreyu is let through by the sphinxes, then sees in the magic mirror not his own reflection but a vision of a fat boy sitting with a copper-colored book. After that, he loses all desires and memories, and only wanders through the No-Key Gate by accident. Uyulala the formless voice explains that only a human from another world can give the Childlike Empress a new name. Atreyu and Falkor the luckdragon fly in search of the borders of Fantastica, but even the four wind giants do not know of any borders. After being separated from the luckdragon in a violent storm and losing AURYN, Atreyu finds himself washed up on the shores outside Spook City, the kingdom of ghostly things. It is abandoned, for the Nothing has called all inhabitants away, and he discovers only one creature: Gmork, a starving werewolf chained magically to one spot. The werewolf has been hunting Atreyu for as long as his journey has lasted, but neither realize who they are talking to. So, as the Nothing creeps closer, Gmork explains to Atreyu that when Fantasticans go into the Nothing they end up in the human world and become lies that hurt and spread fear. As a creature without its own world, Gmork agreed to come to Fantastica to hunt the one who might bring a human there. When Atreyu reveals his identity, the werewolf laughs and dies, and Atreyu is nearly swallowed by the Nothing before Falkor can reach him. They make it back to the Ivory Tower faded and gray.

The Childlike Empress is alone in her Magnolia Pavilion at the top of the Tower and invites Atreyu in, where they wait for her savior. Back in the attic, Bastian has a frighteningly clear vision of her face, as though she was really there. She tells Atreyu that he has succeeded where he thought he had failed, for his adventure brought her savior to them, yet he refuses to go to her. Announcing that she has no other choice, eyes flashing with the same terrifying knowledge as the sphinxes, the Childlike Empress sets out on a journey to search for the Old Man of Wandering Mountain. Just as she is the beginning of all stories and therefore forever young, he is the end of all stories and therefore forever old. They are never meant to meet, and yet she finds his mountain and enters the egg-shaped place where the Neverending Story writes itself in a book bound in copper-colored silk. She forces him to start the story again, and he hesitantly obeys, for now they are trapped in a cycle starting with Bastian stealing the book from Mr. Coreander's shop and ending with the Childlike Empress going to the Old Man of Wandering Mountain, over and over and over again. Finally, forgetting his uncertainties in the hopes of making it stop, Bastian calls out the name he thought for the Childlike Empress long ago: Moon Child.

He finds himself in a dark place with Moon Child speaking to him, handing him the final grain of sand left in all of Fantastica. With his imagination, he turns it into a seed, from which sprouts Perilin the Night Forest, an ever-growing florescent jungle. He discovers three things: (1) he is no longer fat, but very handsome and dressed in beautiful clothes and a turban, (2) he is alone in the forest, and (3) he has AURYN around his neck. He is also suddenly alone. On the back of the amulet reads "DO WHAT YOU WISH." Bastian takes this as a sign that he is free to do as he chooses, and he sets forth making wishes.

First he wants to become stronger, and strength flows into him. Then he wishes to explore a desert, which is far more challenging than a jungle. At daybreak Perilin grumbles into sand and Bastian trudges through the hot rainbow dunes of what he has named Goab the Desert of Colors. During this journey he wishes that he had great courage along with fearlessness, and soon appears the desert lion Grograman, also known as the Many-Colored Death, who dies with the night as Goab's seeds sprout Perilin and revives with the daybreak. After spending some wonderful time in the desert with the fiery lion, receiving the magic sword Sikanda, Bastian comes to wish to become famous and surrounded by friends, and a door opens for him into the Temple of a Thousand Doors. He wanders around until he wishes to see Atreyu, and he finds himself outside the Silver City of Amarganth. A great tournament is being held by Atreyu to find someone to search for and protect the savior of Fantastica, and Bastian enters the contest to put an egotistical knight called Hero Hynreck in his place. Atreyu finally realizes it is him and the two are reunited.

At this point it becomes clear that Bastian is losing his memories, and it quickly becomes apparent to Atreyu that each time Bastian makes a wish he loses something of himself from his world. First he forgot he was ever fat, thus becoming confused when Atreyu brings it up, and then he forgets the he was ever weak or unliked and so on.

In the Silver City, Bastian shows off his gifts to the storytelling townspeople. As with Perilin and Goab, which he wished into existence only recently yet have both existed within Fantastica for thousands of years, he tells the story of the history of the city that floats on the Lake of Tears and of the locked library within: Library of the Collected Works of Bastian Balthazar Bux. Soon after, he does it again when he makes amends with Hynreck by thinking up a terrible dragon named Smerg that has kidnapped the knight's princess. Atreyu and Bastian set out on a journey to return Bastian to his world, which Atreyu is determined to do, and Bastian spends his time thinking about the consequences of his wishes, for the dragon Smerg has wreaked havoc on the countryside. Soon after, they encounter creatures he talked about in his story about the Silver City: the Acharis, the ugliest creatures in all Fantastic who create beautiful works of art using the sublime silver their tears wash out of the earth. Feeling sorry for the weeping creatures, Bastian wishes that they become the Shlamoofs, the happiest creatures in the world. However, these new creatures have no purpose at all other than to make jokes and without a care they destroy the artistic work the Acharis built the night before.

Despite wondering if he is making the right wishes, Bastian is losing more of himself, accepting that he has always been handsome, strong, and admired. He even begins to forget what brought him to Fantastica at all and starts believing he created the whole world himself. When asked about the human world, he can tell less and less. Around this time, hundreds, then thousands, of princes from nations across Fantastica begin flocking to Bastian in the hopes that he might give their country a story of its own. By now Bastian has begun to squabble with Atreyu, and has decided to visit the Childlike Empress in the Ivory Tower first before trying to get home. The huge procession ends up marching through the lands of Xayide, a witch who lives in a hand-shaped castle called the Seeing Hand with empty armored guards. She is defeated easily and offers herself up as a slave to the mighty savior of Fantastica. While Atreyu sees that she planned the whole thing from the beginning, Bastian is distracted by her flattery and begins spending time with her. Atreyu and Bastian get into a terrible fight, and keep their distance from each other. Xahide encourages him to make wishes for himself until first he wishes his modest mule mount away so he may ride with her, then he wishes to become the wisest man in all Fantastica. The caravan then is visited by messengers from Ghigam, the Star Cloister, which is home to monks in the pursuit of knowledge led by an eagle, a fox, and an owl. They ask Bastian about their world and using a magic stone acquired in the Silver City Bastian lights the sky to reveal the schoolhouse attic where The Neverending Story sits, beyond the stars themselves, after which the stone disappears and the philosophers break into arguing factions after seeing an uninterpretable truth.

Moving on, the caravan finally reaches the Ivory Tower, only to discover that the Childlike Empress is gone. By now Bastian has sent Atreyu and Falkor away, believing they wish to take AURYN for themselves while pretending to look out for his well being. With Xayide by his side, Bastian decides that as the creator of this world he has every right to sit on the throne as emperor. Although no one is able to access the ruler's Magnolia Pavilion, a coronation is planned anyway, only to be interrupted by a rebel army led by Atreyu. Those loyal to Bastian battle fiercely with the rebels until Atreyu and Bastian come face to face. Forgetting any warnings about drawing his special sword Sikanda when it did not want to be drawn, Bastian strikes Atreyu, who is carried off by Falkor. Bastian's cloak turns from silver to black as he pursues them on an empty armored horse, in search of vengeance for being denied his coronation, only continuing on foot when the beast breaks apart from stress.

He comes across a strange city of nonsense buildings and streets filled with people of all ages doing nonsense things: shaving mirrors, wearing dish rags, playing with blocks without making words, and generally acting very busy while doing nothing of value. A monkey named Argax informs him that this is the City of the Old Emperors, where all humans lost in Fantastica come to stay. They had all run out of wishes before managing to get back to the human world, whether or not they succeeded in being crowned emperor, and lost the AURYN for good before ending up here. Bastian learns that Atreyu saved his sanity by keeping him from becoming emperor and using up his wishes on terrible things.

Ashamed, Bastian uses up a wish, and therefore memories of making up stories, in order to leave the city, then wishes to be part of a group as just another member with nothing special about him. (By now Bastian knows that he cannot move forward without wishing, so despite however few he has left he must continue wishing for something. Without the right wish, he cannot leave Fantastica and save himself.) This leads him to the Sea of Mist the monkey said he must cross and the people called the Yskalnari in the town of Yskal, or Basketville. For a time he is happy to exist amongst them without any distinction. However, he discovers during their floating journey across the misty sea that individuality means so little to them that they do not care when one of their members is carried away by a monster.

He then wishes someone would love him unconditionally and ends up at the House of Change, where the plant woman Dame Eyola looks after him like a mother does a small child. She tells him his own story, the one he has forgotten aside from his parents, and babies him for a long while. She tells him that not only must he find his final wish to get home, he must do it to reach the Water of Life at the border of Fantastica that lies not outside but on the very inside. He leaves when he finally discovers it: he wants to be able to love someone outside himself.

Long ago in the Silver City of Amarganth when Bastian received the magic stone he used to light the sky, a poem indicated that its light was meant to be used to "guide him in the dark depths of Yor's Minroud." He now learns what that is when he meets Yor the picture minor and experiences his pitch black Minroud, a deep mine, where one can access the forgotten dreams of humans that make up the foundations of Fantastica. Yor tells him that in order to fulfill his final wish, especially now that he has only his name left, Bastian must find a forgotten dream that is his, something that will connect him back to something in his world. After long searching in the dark, for he has no light to search by, Bastian brings up a dream of a man wearing a dentist's smock and standing frozen in a block of ice. He takes the dream with him in search of the Water of Life.

As he trudges along, Bastian is confronted by the Shlamoofs wanting him to give them purpose in their joke lives and be their leader, and their terrible noise shatters his dream. He is saved by Atreyu and Falkor who have finally found him. By way of apology and accepting all he has done wrong and what he deserves, Bastian takes off AURYN and places it at Atreyu's feet. In that moment they are transported inside the Gem, the place where the Childlike Empress gets her power but can never go. The Water of Life in its great fountain is guarded by two snakes of impossible size biting each other's tail to keep from destroying everything, one white and one black. The black snake's head sits between them and the Water, and Falkor interprets the Water's messages. The travelers are only allowed to enter when Atreyu provides Bastian's name, when Atreyu vouches for him despite his lack of memory, and when Atreyu explains that Bastian has made amends for his wrongdoing by giving up AURYN on his own. Bastian drinks of the Water and all his memories come back to him, along with a new joy in simply existing as a fat, slow boy. However, he is not allowed through the next gate to the human world until Atreyu promises to finish all his unfinished stories for him. Bastian scoops up some of the Water of LIfe for his father and jumps through the gate.

Back in the human world, Bastian returns home to discover he was gone just one night. His father, despite his coldness since the passing of Bastian's mother, was worried sick about him and listens to the whole story of where Bastian was. His tears are the Water of Life brought back by Bastian. They agree that things will be different from now on, and indeed it seems they will, for Bastian is now ready to take responsibility for himself and goes to apologize to Mr. Coreander for stealing the book, which then disappeared. The old man listens to his story as well, commenting that he did not know the Childlike Empress by the name of Moon Child for he named her something else, and asks that Bastian come by now and then. Afterward, Bastian runs across the street to his waiting father.

The basic tale of The Neverending Story is not that unusual. We are all familiar with stories about people with good intentions or great ambitions realizing sooner or later that they had caused more harm than good with their selfish actions and inability to listen to their friends. What makes this version special is the same as what makes the movie Big special: a young boy is granted power that at first he uses creatively, then eventually begins to neglect and abuse in the same way everyone else does despite having a unique perspective on the situation. He forgets what made it special in the first place in search of glory and power, false sources of happiness. As shown in the first live action film, the story of Atreyu bringing Bastian to the Childlike Empress by engulfing him in his adventure is a great story in and of itself. However, it is important that the story continue after that because for all book lovers the first story or creation is only the first step in a greater adventure of self discovery. There is a potent life lesson here about learning to love yourself and those around you rather than escape completely into something else or allowing yourself to forget what matters to you. I think it is a metaphor that could be applied to many things, including addictive substances and jobs, that allow us to believe the world is different than it is.

The Childlike Empress sees Bastian as he wants to be: strong, handsome, admirable. That is because she is the beginning of a story, the beginning of a dream that can be anything you make it. She seems him as full of beautiful potential. And because he is now in the story, he becomes it! In the fantasy world we can be anything we want, but to forget who we really are leads to self destruction, even if the road seems to be taking us to the top of the world for a while. And frankly, we often cannot dig ourselves out of our fantasy world without help, in the same way that our fantasies can be made worse by others. Atreyu represents those friends who accept us for how we really are while Xayide represents the ones that encourage self destructive behavior while making it look like the better option, often not really caring what happens to anyone but themselves. The fact that she dies trampled by her own mind-controlled creations while Atreyu wears the scar Bastian gave him with dignity shows that true friends will survive with us while false friends will only bring us down with them if we let them. She had to create or manipulate all her companions while Atreyu is accompanied by a rare and beautiful luckdragon, and Bastian is, in turn, lucky to have him there as a loyal friend. And, in the end, love is the most important thing. Specifically, being able to love others and care for them is vital to living a good life. Living for something outside yourself makes you the best version of yourself. Bastian's father was unable to break out of his sadness and Bastian was the only one in the world who could save him. While saving Fantastica was wonderful for the world, saving his father is Bastian's greatest personal achievement after choosing for so long to be resentful towards the grieving man. It also marks the amazing change in the previously self-pitying little boy, now capable of forgiveness and encouragement.

In addition to being its own fabulous story, the book also pays homage to an assortment of classic fantasy and fairy tales. Bastian and Atreyu's friendship reminds one of that between Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings, being both the closest relationship either one has while also bringing them both a lot of conflict through their differing perspectives on the object of power (AURYN vs. the one ring). The parallel is especially strong when Bastian's determination wavers and Atreyu tries to take the amulet from him in order to save him, being unable to think of any other way. Certain creatures like the dragon Smerg or the gnomics remind one of JRR Tolkien's classic work, too. It has also been pointed out to me that the Ivory Tower bears resemblance to the white city of Gondor or the Two Towers.

On a different note, there are pieces of the book that call back to classic European fairy tales. Dame Eyola and the House of Change are positive influences on Bastian, but they remind me of part of The Snow Queen, through being the antithesis to a story in which the protagonist is lured into a comfortable home where she forgets herself in the midst of her journey. Some tales resemble specific stories, while at other times only smaller elements of them do. For example, the characters meet amazing creatures, helpful people, and talking animals. They are often given magcial gifts by these characters, such as Bastian's sword Sikanda, that come with rules or enchantments. These tropes add to The Neverending Story's feeling of timelessness and whimsy.