The Neverending Story - 1979 / MICHAEL ENDE
There usually are some subjects that soon come to mind as potential entries, but they end up becoming a draft left on the back burner for many months (or even longer), because I'm sure I'd like to write about them, but I just don't know how. This is the case with THE NEVERENDING STORY (DIE UNENDLICHE GESCHICHTE), the novel by the late german writer MICHAEL ENDE, published in 1979.
Why is it so difficult for me to talk about this book when I have already reviewed a few around here, and one of them even was a novel, as this is? This is easy to answer. I'm not the most avid reader you are going to find out there (not even close), but I have always loved reading. Since I was a child. And although I haven't been as fond of reading as I can be now, I have always read and it's been more than a good twenty years since I always have a book at hand. It doesn't matter if one book takes me longer than others; when I finish one, I begin another. I usually read novels, but not only that. I use to enjoy almost every genre and, so far and as an iron rule, I never leave a book unfinished. ´The logical consequence of all this is that I've read a lot of books (a lot, in quotes, that goes without saying). And yet, despite the passing of time and all the amazing books I've been fortunate enough to read, and even keeping in mind that this is a fantasy book aimed in principle at a young audience we're talking about, I think The Neverending Story is my favourite book ever. If someone asked me that question, I could think of a few others which could pose a serious threat to get that honour, but eventually it would be very difficult for me to choose another one before this. It is, almost certainly, the book that I've read the most times. I seldom repeat one since a long tiem ago, but I think I have read this one like three or four times as a kid (back them I found its four hundred plus pages a lot), and I remember reading it once again almost twenty years ago. I have even given it as a present, at least twice, if memory serves.
That's why I considered writing about it, a long time ago, but I never seemed to find the chance to do it, and I didn't find out how. I don't want to let this book down doing something quick and unworthy of any credibility, only because I am incapable of remembering certain things, etc. So, now that some other business are finally over, I'm willing to devote it the time and the patience it deserves. And the first thing I've done is reading it one more time. I write this as I read. The story writes itself as it is told, as happens in the book itself.
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| First german edition. The first english translation (by Ralph Manheim) is from 1983, and the spanish one from 1982 |
I'll explain this further into the review, but when I say this is a fantasy story aimed at a certain age span, I must also admit that both assertions have to be explained. On a separate issue, this book is so great that when I last read it I was surprised to find an entire chapter I did not remember anything about. I'll will tell you which one later on. The thing is that I usually have a very good memory, mostly when it comes to details and dates and, although it's clear that after so many years since the last time I had read it (as mentioned, the previous readings were a few and quite removed in time from the last one), there had to be a lot of specific things I wasn't going to remember, I had taken for granted that I was going to recall every single chapter within the book, and its plot. Let me explain myself. Of course I did not remember (neither do I now) how many chapters the book had, or their titles. But I was sure I was going to know almost everything about their contents when I reached them. I was wrong.
But in my personal case, The Neverending Story did not begin with the book, and it's been a long time since I truly believe that was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. This needs further explanation as well, but later.
One day, many years ago, I went to the movies, and I remember it like it was some kind of event. Not because of the fact that I was going to the theatre to watch a film; that I had done before. But that was the very first time I went to the movies in the city I used to live in as a kid, and not in my birthplace, where I had always gone to the movies before that day, and where I spent my holidays. It was also the first time I went without a relative (mother's family always), for I was chaperoned by some of the older kids of my parents' friends, who were supposed to be trustworthy. I don't remember any incident. In fact, I just remember the film, and nothing before or since.
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| Petersen's film poster |
That film was, of course, the adaptation of the book which was premiered in 1984 and was directed by WOLFGANG PETERSEN, another already deceased deutsch celebrity. What's more, this movie was his first shooting in english. I had no expectations. I did not know which movie was that, what it was about, or the fact that there was a book it was based on; and had I known about it, I couldn't have cared less. However, that day became one to remember, for I thought that film was the greatest thing ever made. I spent many days without being capable of removing the face of the CHILDLIKE EMPRESS from my head; she was portrayed by an Iranian actress named TAMI STRONACH, who had to be like eleven back in the day; neither could I forget the film's main theme in english, sung by a british singer called CHRISTOPHER HAMILL (LIMAHL) and written by some guys by the name of GIORGIO MORODER and KEITH FORSEY. And I guess that anyone who has seen the movie remembers vividly, among many other things, FALKOR (FUCHUR, in german) the luckdragon, GMORK the werewolf, the amulet which illustrates this entry (AURYN) and, above all, that traumatic moment with ATREYU the hero and his horse ARTAX. Exactly.
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| Tami Stronach together with Barret Oliver (Bastian in the film), in those days |
Soon after, and while I was rummaging among the books in the room of one of my aunts, I founf this one. I was taken aback. I don't remember whether I knew about its existence before I saw it or not, but I don't think I did, for it seems like I asked my aunt if that book had anything to do with the movie, so much I had enjoyed it. When I read what the back cover said I found out it was the same story, so I got ready to read it during that very same summer.
This is where it all begins. As I kid, I noticed a few things, but I was far from being in a position where I could understand everything this novel is about, and how its story is much more than a fantasy tale for youngsters. I guess that, had it been teenagers the main target of it, and had it not had the backdrop it contains, it wouldn't have been read by so many people. Just in case this fact is explanatory, the book I have in my hands right now (a paperback edition by ALFAGUARA, the publishing house that has managed, almost in their entirety, the numerous spanish editions of the book) is from its edition number sixty three, being said edition from 2006. By the way, the original edition of the novel was published by german publisher THIENEMANN VERLAGE, only on hardcover at first, because Ende wanted it to be as similar as possible to the book the story is focused on.
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| The edition I'm reading right now |
If there's someone reading this who hasn't read the book yet, and is interested in reading it, they should stop reading now. I can't elaborate a lot on every single chapter, but I'd like to quickly review all of them. Long enough to ruin the reading to those who don't know the plot, for what comes next is a comprehensive summary of the story.
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| The unforgettable front cover of the first edition I read |
The first thing to be seen when you start reading is some kind of inscription or sign, but written backwards. The text explains that the main character, BASTIAN BALTHAZAR BUX, a ten year old kid, is staring at that sign from the inside of a shop. It says Carl Conrad Coreander; Old Books (it's kinda weird that all three names begin with the letter C, for the original german name uses a K). Bastian gets there, in principle, by chance, running away from his school's bullies, for he is a chubby (not in the movie) and clumsy kid who usually is little or nothing at all valued by his school mates. It is a rainy, horrific November morning, and a subsequent mention of a currency tells us that we are in Germany (in the film, what we see is a random north american city).
Herr COREANDER notices the kid and asks him to go away. He doesn't like children, among other things, because they damage books. Bastian defends himself saying that not all kids are like that. He loves books.Coreander asks him his name and, after he gets answered, he comments on how weird three B letters in a row are. Bastian fires back saying that the name of his conversational partner has three K letters in a row, something that Coreander seemed to be unaware of. The two of them talk, and we learn about the child's problems at school and his dad's total apathy, due to the passing of Bastian's mum.
The phone rings. Bastian notices that he hasn't been able to avoid looking at the copper coloured book which Coreander is reading and whose title is THE NEVERENDING STORY. There's a strange symbol on its cover, with two snakes that bite each other's tails. When Coreander goes to a back office to answers the phone, the child is aware of the attraction that book exerts on him and he wonders if maybe that was the reason why he ended up in that shop. He just can't leave without it, but he's got no money to buy it, and Coreander won't sell it to someone like him. Almost without even noticing it, he finds himself grabbing the book, escaping from the shop and arriving late at school. He knows he can't go back home and that he won't attend any classes today, so he hides in the school's attic. He wonders about what goes on inside a book when the book is closed. In order to be part of its story, you have to read it, but said story has always been in there somehow. After realizing that his mood has improved, he starts reading.
If you have never spent whole afternoons with burning ears and rumpled hair, forgetting the world around you over a book...
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| Bastian in the school's attic |
I / FANTASTICA IN DANGER
The first thing to be remarked is that this chapter, and not the previous one, is actually the first chapter. The next one is that its beginning is adorned by a drwaing with a gigantic letter. It's always the same in every chapter, from here to the book's ending. Those drawings are ROSWITHA QUADFLIEG's, another german artist, and they are not present in every edition. My advice is reading one that comes with those illustrations, not only because of their artistic worth, but also because they strengthten the picture of the characters and their environments that you involuntarily have in your own mind, or they just help you creating your own. I remember them to be very funny to me, for I was used to the memory of every individual I had from the movie, and they all were quite different in the drawings. It all seems darker here.
This chapter's letter is A, which indicates that the order is alphabetical and there will be twenty six chapters. And what's more, every chapter's letter is the one the subsequent text begins with, and every drawing replaces said letter in the text. Hence, if we choose chapter fourteen (just to name one) as an example, which begins with the letter N, we can see that the first word is Never, so we have an enormous N letter, and in the next page the text begins with the remaining three letters of that word, instead of the entire word. This is quite the curiosity and I don't know if there's a reason why.
There's more, for while the text was red in the book's intro, it is green now. A little later we'll find out that both colours are used to differ the book's action from those moments in which Bastian stops reading and becomes the protagonist himself. I have read that the reason behind Quadflieg's drawings having red and green hues only is pointing out that both worlds (the real one and Fantastica's) are connected.
In this chapter, we learn that the world the story happens in is called Fantastica (another difference considering the original language, according to which it should have been called Fantasy, I guess) and there's something wrong with it. Four messengers, from different races and places, meet by chance in the middle of a forest and, thanks to a will o' the wisp named BLUBB we get to know that portions of the land he comes from are disappearing in some kind of NOTHING. At first, it begins little by little, but it gets bigger as time goes by. It doesn't mean that what was there before is gone and there's like a hole or something similar instead; it means that there is nothing at all. The same thing is happening in the three regions the rest of the messengers come from, and that's why they all are headed to the IVORY TOWER, Fantastica's heart, to ask the Childlike Empress for advice. Bastian, on the other hand, rejoices in the fact that the book has nothing to do with real life. There's too much real life in real life already.
On arriving at the tower, the four messengers realize that they can't see the sovereign at once. There are plenty of other messengers, from all corners of Fantastica, and the waiting for a hearing will be very long. The whole realm is suffering from the same disease and, besides, the empress is also ill. No one knows what happens to her, but Fantastica's disease has coincided with her sickness.
For the first time, we read the famed sentence But that's another story and shall be told another time.
II / ATREYU'S MISSION
The four hundred and ninety nine best doctors within the whole of Fantastica have already seen the empress, but unsuccessfully, and the one who makes number five hundred, the most famous one of them all (CAIRON, a centaur), has been with her for hours on end. The book tells us about the very special nature of the sovereign: she is Fantastica herself. Bastian recalls his mother's passing and how hard it hit him and his dad, who still remained much sadder than expected.
Cairon leaves the empress and, thanks to him, we finally know about that symbol thata appears on Bastian's book cover: The Gem, called Auryn. Its bearer is on orders from the empress and can act in her name. Everyone knows and respects what that amulet means, to the point that many do not dare mention its name and they use different denominations.
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| The Auryn, also known as The Gem or The Glory |
Cairon announces that he is only bearing the amulet by circumstance, and it will soon be handled to someone worthier than him. Given the lack of answer to the sovereign's illness, she has told Cairon there is a hero in some place named GRASSY OCEAN, who is called Atreyu, to whom the Auryn will be passed and who will be trusted with Fantastica's fate. The doctor himself travels far to find him as a matter of emergency, for the bad news haven't reached Atreyu's region yet, and he is surprised when he finds out that the hero is a ten year old kid. If I am correct, all this is shortened in the movie, with Atreyu showing up at the tower among all the wise men, as if he already knew he should be there.
Atreyu (or SON OF ALL, after having him been raised by his people once his parents died) is told that he is free to decide whether he wants to accept the mission (called the GREAT QUEST) or not, and if he does, he is to leave right know. He accepts, and Cairon gives him the amulet and tells him to not use it, to not judge or decide, and to not carry any weapons. To just allow himself to go with the flow. The Auryn will guide him. Meanwhile, Bastian, in his own strange way, identifies himself with Atreyu. The kid leaves almost at once with his little but powerful horse Artax, that has the gift of language here, but not in the movie. At the same time, some place else, a terrifying creature gets under way as well.
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| Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) and Artax, in the film |
III / MORLA, THE AGED ONE
IV / YGRAMUL, THE MANY
Atreyu experiences his first contact with the disease that is troubling Fantastica when he happens to run into three bark trolls in the forest known as HOWLING FOREST (precisely the same one in which the four messengers from the first chapter had met). The Nothing turns out to be unbearable for the sight, as if one was becoming blind.
During the first days after his departure, Atreyu dreams with a big purple buffalo with a white stain on on the forehead. That is the buffalo he was bent on hunting (some kind of rite of passage among his tribe after which one becomes a true hunter) right before being summoned by Cairon. In his dreams, he gets closer and closer to his prey, but on that night, the animal eventually talks to him and tells him to go to the SWAMPS OF SADNESS in search for the tortoise named MORLA, THE AGED ONE. She will help him.
Once he gets there, that aforementioned traumatic moment involving Artax takes place. It is very much appreciated that it feels shorter when you read it, than the memory I keep of the film, for I even get chills as I read, and I am no longer a child. I don't know what is worse, if witnessing this affair watching a talking horse explaining everything it is going through, or through that look of mute desperation that the animal showed in the movie. Let's go on. Bastian, of course, is crying.
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| It doesn't look well |
Indifference takes control of the kid and it is a good thing that the Auryn is guiding him somehow for, hadn't it been that way, who knows what could have happened. He eventually reaches the very centre of the swamps, TORTOISE SHELL MOUNTAIN, which is no other thing than an ancient and enormous tortoise that speaks with herself: Morla, The Aged One, which seems to be experiencing the highest degree of apathy, sadness and indifference, even after telling Atreyu what the situation is all about. Nothing matters anymore. But the boy's skilled insistence pays off and she ends up confessing that the existence of the Childlike Emnpress is not measured by time, but for the names she is given. She needs a new one, but no one in Fantastica can give it to her. Perhaps UYULALA, in the SOUTHERN ORACLE, knows who can, but that place is so far that Atreyu would die before reaching there. That's why nothing matters.
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| Morla and Atreyu in the movie. I can't remember whether she talked to herself in the film or not. |
IV / YGRAMUL, THE MANY
Atreyu is forced to stop when he reaches the DEEP CHASM, expecting to encounter Ygramul at every turn. Not far away from there, advances at full throttle the creature that had also begun its journey by the end of the second chapter; it turns out to be a very big wolf that is chasing him. Atreyu doesn't know it, and the wolf will not stop until it finds its prey.
That's when the hunter boy finds a really big spider web in which an also very big luckdragon has been trapped. The dragon fights to break free from the web, while it can hardly defend itself from the ongoing attacks of a horrendous creature that changes its appearance nonstop: Ygramul. Atreyu gets closer, Auryn in hand, asking for the fight to be stopped. Ygramul turns and shows one of its many horrible faces. Bastian, as engaged in the reading as he is, screams in terror.
Meanwhile, Ygramul turns again when it hears a horrible scream, thinking that maybe there's someone else around, for the boy it has in front hasn't uttered a sound. Atreyu and the ugly being begin a conversation. The kid tells about the reason why he is there and comments that he needs the dragon, but Ygramul explains that the dragon will die soon, so it won't be useful. But it also reveals Atreyu a secret about its own venom: if Atreyu allows Ygramul to bite him, he will die in one hour, but will be able to go anywhere at will, thus being able to reack the Southern Oracle in time. Atreyu accepts, chooses to go south and faints.
Soon after, the big wolf arrives at the place where the previous scene has taken place, only to find an empty spider web.
The film doesn't differ much (overall, I mean; I'm not talking about details here and there) from the book, but the reader who, just like me, begins to read after watching the movie first, should notice a very big difference here: this chapter is nowhere to be found in the film, and nothing is said (if I'm not mistaken) about a certain Ygramul. What happens then? After losing Artax and leaving Morla, the boy is unhappy and desperate, and he wanders aimlessly and with many difficulties through the Swamps Of Sadness, being on the brink of succumbing to the influence of the place, just like Artax did. But he is rescued, just in time, by something that comes from the sky, right before he is caught by the wolf that chaes him. When Atreyu regains consciousness, he is already in the south, right by the Oracle. Falkor, the luckdragon, has saved him, and he feels much better.
V / THE GNOMICS
V / THE GNOMICS
Bastián, on the other hand, is left completely alone inside the schoolhouse.
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| Atreyu wakes up and Falkor greets him. In the film, of course, in which the dragon is kinda ugly. The dragon is voiced by Allan Oppenheimer, who also lend his voice to some other characters |
When he awakes once again, he sees that the dragon is bandaged and peacefully asleep beside him. He feels much better himself, and he heads to the cave in which the tiny being that he has seen before, and her partner, live (URGL her, ENGYWOOK him). They happen to be two cantankerous gnomes and they argue about who's more necessary right know for the two visitors. She's a healer and he's a scientist, and a alleged scholar in all things Uyulala and Southern Oracle, but he needs Atreyu's help to get some data he's missing in order to write a comprehensive book on the subject.
Engywook takes the boy to his observatory, from where an enormous gate can be seen. It is flanked by two big sphinxes with the body of a bull, the forequarters of a lion, eagle's wings and human face. The expression on both effigies' faces turns out to be a mystery.
VI / THE THREE MAGIC GATES
Atreyu heads to the Great Riddle Gate and, the closer he gets to it, the bigger the irrational fear he feels due to both sphynxes' proximity. He decides to go on with much difficulty, keeping his eyes on the ground and, right when he believes panic will prevent him from advancing further, he hears the echo of his last step. Fear vanishes and he realizes that the first gate is behind him. Very close to him is already the second, instead of the endless plain that could be seen from the outside, but once he gets there, the image that he can see in the mirror is that of a fat kid who is wrapped in blankets and reads a book.
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| In the film, both Atreyu and the gnome observe how someone is about to cross the Great Riddle Gate |
Bastian doesn't understand anything.
Atreyu crosses the Magic Mirror Gate, but in doing so, he pays the price. He doesn't remember anything. Neither who he is, nor what he is doing right there, in front of the No-Key Gate. He doesn't understand what's the point in having a door with no handle which doesn't lead anywhere, being it exactly the same on both sides. So he choses to go away.
Bastian shouts to Atreyu to not go, absorved in reading as he is.
Atreyu turns and decides to watch the copper brightness on the door, which comes from the soft material it is made of. It has to be the FANTASTICAN SELENIUM about which he had already been told by the gnome; it is an indestructible material which reacts to one's own will. When Atreyu touches it, the door opens and the carefree kid crosses towards a corridor full of big columns that do not support anything.
In the attic, Bastian has to resort to artificial lighting, for it's almost dark up there.
VII / THE VOICE OF SILENCE
After indefinitely wandering around this new landscape, Atreyu finds himself surrounded by some kind of whisper, and when Atreyu addresses it, it asks the boy to express himself in verse. Atreyu makes a rhyming question and the voice that comes and goes admits to be Uyulala, THE VOICE OF SILENCE in THE PALACE OF DEEP MYSTERY. Atreyu does not recall his mission, but the conversation leads to the voice admitting that it will soon cease to exist, The hunter's curiosity peaks with the whisper confessing the sovereign's illness and her need of a new name. Said name must be given by a human, as always. Atreyu has a hard time trying to rememeber all this for, as mentioned, he doesn't remember which took him there. The whisper fades away, but asks Atreyu to remember, until he falls asleep.
Oh, nothing can happen more than once, but all things must happen one day. Over hill and dale, over wood and stream, my dying voice will blow away.
When the kid awakes, in that plain which could be seen beyond the gates, but before crossing them, he not only remembers Uyulala, but also his quest as well. A human has to be found. Atreyu sees the Nothing once again and realizes there are no sphinxes anymore. He eventually finds Falkor and the dragon tells him he's been away during seven days and their nights, and he rides on it for the first time to reach the gnomes' cavern. Atreyu shares his experience, about which he keeps a vivid recollection. Later, both Urgl and Engywook leave that place, due to the Nothing, unaware of the fact that fame awaited the latter. Atreyu and Falkor carry on with the mission.
VIII / THE WIND GIANTS
He begins to walk and arrives to a place where everything seems to be crooked, and he listens to some kind of music. He doesn't have the amulet with him so he hides and, from his hiding place, he observes a parade of weird beings that contort themselves as they march. He does not dare ask, but he follows them, until he witness in horror how they are only marching in search of the Nothing, to throw themselves into it in some kind of colective suicide which is due to the fact that what is imminent cannot be avoided. Atreyu hasn't ever been so close to the Nothing as he is now, and he notices how it callas him, but he resists and walk his way back until he reaches the gates of a city which seems to be abandoned. He enters there.
IX / SPOOK CITY
Before I go on, there's something funny I'd like to talk about. I have just realized it. This chapter is named after the city, which makes sense, but the previous one, according to the spanish translation, is named after the land where that city is, I guess because of the fact that Atreyu gets there after falling to the sea. Not only is that the spanish name is quite funny (more or less, spanish for IN THE LAND OF SCUM), but also the fact that in the english translation that eighth chapter is titled after those wind giants, and that makes more sense, in my opinion. But there's more: when Gmork names that land, already in chapter nine, its name has nothing to do with the very peculiar spanish translation; it is called Land Of Ghosts. But surprise, the original german version uses the same names the spanish one does (IM GELICHTERLAND and SPUKSTADT), which are literally copied by the latter. To cut a long story short, the title of the ninth chapter is shared by all three languages, but the eighth one talks about giants in english and, verbatim, of scum in german and spanish.
By the way, what it is told here is only tiptoed by in the movie. Oh, and in the meantime, Bastian is starving up there in the attic. It's been a long time.
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| Gmork. I guess that, barring some other considerations, there's no need to mention that Petersen's movie hasn't aged very well, as far as certain issues are concerned |
Back to the world in green, Gmork tells Atreyu its story, and this happens to be one of the gravest, most interesting and significant moments in the entire novel. It's not easy to summarize. Gmork explains there are other worlds apart from Fantastica, the humans one, for instance. And there are some creatures, like himself, that can jump from one to another, with different appearances. Atreyu asks how to go to where the humans are. Gmork replies that falling into the Nothing, as the inhabitants of that city did (the previous horror parade was just part of them) when they lost all hope. Once in the world of humans, the beings from Fantastica become some kind of lie, delusion or nonsense. Here, they are real, but not anymore when they are out of this world. Gmork warns Atreyu that his time is almost up, so he must go now, although it all won't matter soon, for the Nothing will swallow everything. But at the same time, this conversations negins to make the werewolf suspicious.
Humans loathe Fantastica for all that, and they want to finish it off, unaware of the fact that, in doing so, they are just increasing their own lies. According to Gmork, Fantastica's people, once in the world of humans, are only content making the humans believe that Fantastica doesn't exist. If humans do not believe in its existence, they do not want to visit it. And that's where the power over them lies: all thos elies, once again, which rule the humans' ideas. That's the rule of power and Gmork has been by its side, working for it. When Atreyu denies any involvement in such narrative, the wolf unveils some social criticism at large: it says the boy is dumb and he doesn't know what he will become once in the world of humans; maybe he will serve the purpose of humans hating what they don't know, purchasing what they don't need and so on. Thanks to the Fantasticans, things are done and undone in the human world: wars, empires, submission... lies. And Atreyu will end up becoming one, whether he likes it or not.
It's all a vicious circle. The Nothing increases the amount of human lies and that's why no human wishes to visit Fantastica anymore. This way, no one will be capable of giving the empress a new name. The disease of one world is the disease of another, forever and ever: the ordinary and unimaginative life Bastian so much despised comes from Fantastica's disease, which is fueled by human behaviour. Bastian begins to think about his own lies and their consequences.
The conversation leads to Gmork admitting that he also had its own mission, whose failure eventually brought its current state. When the wolf lost the boy's trace (Atreyu doesn't know anything about this yet), it arrived to this place where GAYA, THE DARK PRINCESS, welcomed it with great honours and made it feel at home. Gmork lowed its guard and ended up unveiling its mission and, one day, it woke up in chains. Gaya reminded it that she too was a Fantastican and, as such, one of the wolf's enemy. After that, she headed to the Nothing with her servants, to fall into it. Only Gaya could take that chain off, so Gmork was left doomed.
Soon after, Atreyu becomes aware that it was him whom Gmork's masters had ordered it to annihilate, and so he tells the wolf. Gmork pretends to be dead, but it is not and, with a final effort, hurts the kid in the leg. Atreyu cannot escape its jaws.
X / THE FLIGHT TO THE IVORY TOWER
The author takes advantage of the situation to explain how special Fantastica is when it comes to its, let's say, geography. Nothing works there the same way it does in the world of humans, and concepts we usually deal with such as distance, weather, etc, depend in Fantastica on the will and mood of each character. There are no frontiers or maps, for they could not be drawn, and the very centre is that tower, although said place could be close or far away. It depends.
Falkor tells Atreyu that it once met the Childlike Empress, who looks like a child his age, despite being, in fact, ageless, and who has to be addressed as the GOLDEN-EYED COMMANDER OF WISHES. She's Fantastica's greatest mystery and its best kept secret. Already in the tower they find everything is deserted. Atreyu wears the Auryn again and he hardly reaches the MAGNOLIA PAVILION, the sovereign's residence. He must give the Auryn back to her and announce the bad news. There she finds a thin, pale girl who looks like a ten year old, dressed with a silk tunic and with her hair white as the snow.
Bastian feels like he can see the face of the girl for a moment, even in detail and beyond the book's depiction. He feels in fact like she looks him back, and thinks that no name could suit her better than MOON CHILD. When the clock strikes ten Bastian is ready to keep on reading, but he doesn't know that that previous stare will take him heart and soul into the story.
XI / THE CHILDLIKE EMPRESS
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| Tami Stronach as the Childlike Empress |
But... what is the savior waiting for and why isn't he here already? He knows the name that must be given to the girl and he only has to use it to address her. Unless he doesn't care about all this, of course. But the Childlike Empress says his eyes have promised her he would come and that he already belongs to the Neverending Story. If he's not coming, the only thing they have left is to resort to the OLD MAN OF WANDERING MOUNTAIN, who is someone who writes absolutely everything in his book and cannot be looked for, but only found. That applies to the sovereign as well. She counts on her seven INVISIBLE POWERS, and she will save four to go after the old man. The remaining three will look after Atreyu and the dragon.
The boy sleeps and, when he wakes up, he finds Falkor by his side. They both are in some kind of cavern with a fountain, around which two snakes bite each other's tails. He falls asleep again. Meanwhile, the empress begins her journey.
Keep goimg! Just keep going, no matter where!
But what's next? Who's the old man the empress is talking about? What's all this? We've been through a chapter that cannot be found in the film and I have also said that some other things are told by the movie in a very shortened fashion. But what begins now is something entirely different. In fact, it is something I don't know.
A breather is mandatory now, for the film ends here. In it, the Childlike Empress, while still with Atreyu in the Magnolia Pavilion, begs Bastian (even saying his name) to say her new name; according to her, the boy knows it is his own story what he's reading at the moment, even if he cannot believe it. Bastian overcomes his skepticism and accepts, screaming Moon Child to the top of his lungs from the attic's window. After it, they both meet (Atreyu is gone) and she shows him a shiny grain of sand which turns out to be what remains of Fantastica (by the way... the original version of the movie keeps the name of the spanish translation of the book, FANTASIA, when the english one is Fantastica). Bastian says something similar to what Altreyu already said: everything has been in vain. But she gives the remains of her realm to him and says it hasn't, because it will rise again in him, in his dreams. He just has to wish it. The more wishes, the better. So the kid, starting big, asks to ride Falkor. From the sky he sees landscapes which were supposed to be gone and he even hovers above Atreyu and Artax. Everything will be alright. The film has a big ending when Bastian pays his bullies back at the very end. Everything is easier when you have a luckdragon.
The moviegoer from forty years ago will probably think that this movie hasn't aged very well. Let alone if we compare it to the book, because the film, although pleasant, is a little bit childish in comparison. And even more if someone who is used to current technology decides to give it a chance now without even starting from the original story. But who cares? One thing's certain: as far as this entry is concerned, the chances I will get to post more pictures (almost all of them so far were from the movie) from now on, will be zero.
Before I go on, I'd like to comment (quickly, for there is no reason or merit that justifies my taking longer) how the first film's success (and most likely the worldwide boost it meant for the book's sales) brought another two. I think there is no important actor from the first one who stars in them, and the weirdest thing is that Michael Ende himself took part in the script of both (also in the first movie's), for they are two abominations of the highest order. The second film (THE NEVERENDINSTORY II: THE NEXT CHAPTER, 1990) was directed by some GEORGE MILLER (do not mistake with the main man behind the MAD MAX saga), who at least bothered to tell, his own personal way, some things that are actually featured in the book (resuming the action after what was told in the Petersen's flick, of course). But it is really bad. Horrible. And yet, it is much better than the atrocity from 1994 (so atrocious that even its own name doesn't make sense, given that it is known as both THE NEVERENDING STORY III: ESCAPE FROM FANTASIA and RETURN TO FANTASIA; no comment), directed by PETER MCDONALD. This third thing is only related to the book thanks to some characters, for the story is an original one and has nothing to do with it. As a trivia fact, let's say that the famed JACK BLACK plays one of his first roles.
Avoid the two of them no matter what, for they are just a big stain in the book's legacy and everything it means. It was clearly a mistake to green-light such terrible and stupid plans. While the first film currently has an average mark of 7.3 on IMDB, the second's is a 5.1 and the third's a 3.2. No need for further explanation.
So the story doesn't end. Isn't that what it is all about? The movie reaches until this point in the book (and that is how I thought the book would be the very first time I read it), but we are not even halfway through it. What comes next and why is it not featured in the flick? I guess that, back in the day, I thought that, if there was still more than half the story to be told, a film which could tell the whole thing had to run for much longer than this one. The most important thing is that this was where the book actually began for me. Everything would be new from now on. The funny thing is that the personal anecdote has some similarities with the next chapter.
There's still some other thing I want to say, and I think this is the right time to do it. Leaving Petersen's work aside, the book, as it is, is kinda weird. That's how it always felt for me, but I can't describe the sensation properly. I don't know whether it has to do with the translation (I read it in english once, but I don't remember if I felt something similar) or what. The themes that are featured here may be familiar and more or less recurring and there is no doubt this is far from being an isolated example of a story that conceals some criticism or messages within what it looks like a harmless tale. But it still feels strange. As if it belonged to you and, at the same time, it didn't; as if it was something to be cherished and treated carefully, always keeping a respectful distance. As if it had some kind of aura that separated it from the average book that is always around, kept in a poor state. The colours, the drawings... everything seems to be there for a reason and nothing has been left at chance. Just like Bastian's own encounter with the book, within the book. Some explanations and depictions, for instance, may look simple at first, but when you give them a second thought, you reach the conclusion that they are not that simple, for they not only demand an above par talent and imagination, but they also possess a rationality which is both straightforward and overwhelming.
I may be digressing here, but I've always found this quite striking and I don't know if there's someone out there who feels something similar. Not that I know someone who has had the same relationship with this book that I have. The thing is that everything I have just explained will be even more highlighted in a second half (the book itself doesn't make this differentiation) which I deem the unkown one of the two, thanks mostly to the movie. Unknown or not, I always remember it as more solemn and interesting than the one which is told by the film. I guess you can say that said second half is where all those dreams and wishes bastian were supposed to use to rebuild Fantastica with at the end of the flick, are developed.
This is why I mentioned above that, having watched the movie first was the best thing that could have happened to me, for I was expecting a book that told me something similar and I was welcomed with much more than that: a whole section which is not featured in the film and that is longer and better than the one it was. Had I read the book first, I would have expected amore or less faithful flick to the entire novel, and I would have been disappointed to find out it only tells about roughly its first half.
XII / THE OLD MAN OF WANDERING MOUNTAIN
The girl enters the egg. There's a reddish gleam that comes out from a copper-coloured book which is closed and floats in the air. On its cover, there are two snakes that bite each other's rears, as on the Auryn worn by the empress, and its title is The Neverending Story. Bastian wonders how the book he is currently reading can also be within that very same book. He's still in the attic (let's remember that the film is long gone at this point). She gets closer to the book, which is open now, and the gleam coming from its sea-green text, lights up the old man's face, who remains silent. He just writes everything that is happening or it rather happens because he writes it, according to him. But he doesn't say anything, for his mouth is shut; he just writes it and yet, it can be heard.
This chapter is quite challenging. From this moment on, an odd philosophical debate which I don't deem suitable for a certain audience takes place, and it could be summarized saying that it is not that the whole of Fantastica is in the book, but the book itself is Fantastica. And the book is within itself. The girl asks the old man for help. Can he take a look inside his book and see the future? He answers the pages are blank. He knows what has happened, for he has read it while he's written it, and he has written it because it has happened. The Neverending Story writes itself.
The man tells the empress the egg is her tomb. She has entered Fantastica's memory; how does she mean to get out of it? She replies that every egg means a beginning. Only if it's broken, he says. The egg was open because of her power, but once inside she's lost that power. So they are trapped and this is the end of the girl's (neverending) story. But a human can create a new beginning (it seems that, somehow, what can be read here is what could be seen at the end of the movie). Said human is reading all this right now and he already belongs to the Neverending Story, for it is now his own story. The Childlike Empress asks the old man to tell her that story just as he has written it (?), so he gets ready to write the whole thing again. And everything he writes must happen. It will be an ending with no ending and they will enter the CIRCLE OF ETERNAL RETURN, which can't be escaped from. But the human will ba able to, as long as he saves them all.
The old man accepts and starts writing. This way, he is telling the sovereign the entire story from the get go. The colour of the text he is writing becomes reddish and his voice resounds. Bastian hears his voice too, although backwards (the inscription which hanged on Koreander's front door, but read rearward). He doesn't get this at first and, soon after, he gets disappointed because he doesn't know that story. It is his own, but he hasn't realized yet. He will when he listens to his own name uttered by the old man. The reader notices here that the paragraphs which were read at the very beginning of the book are green now, instead of red, as in said beginning. Bastian's story, still in the attic, remains red, but the other one is already green for it has become part of a neverending story of which, as already mentioned, he's part of like it or not. Someone out there could have begun reading it and everything will be repeated in a loop.
Bastian gets scared and the author aptly toys with the famed saying which advices to be careful with what it is wished for, baceuse it might come true. Bastian has always wished to take part in something like this, knowing that it was only make believe; now that he realizes that it is not and things get serious, what he wishes is to run away. The old man tells it all, just like we know it, until he gets to the part in which he meets the Childlike Empress, and back to square one. Only Bastian can break that circle. Otherwise, nothing will change. So he gets his act together and tells the Moon Child he is on his way, making the egg to hatch. At this moment, the green paragraph runs into the next one in red, as joining it. A wild wind begins to blow. When the clock strikes midnight, the lights in the candelabra that Bastian is using to read in the attic, go out.
I know this chapter has turned out to be longer, and even a little bit more tiring, than usual, but I'd like to leave here a paragraph from its beginning which is a very good example of what I said about Ende's witty explanations, etc, which may look simple, but are deeper than they look:
Not even the most intrepid mountain climbers ventured into these fields of everlasting ice. It had been so very, very long since anyone had succeeded in climbing this mountain that the feat had been forgotten. For one of Fantastica's many strange laws decreed that no one could climb the Mountain of Destiny until the last successful climber had been utterly forgotten. Thus anyone who managed to climb it would always be the first.
It makes sense, doesn't it?
XIII / PERILIN, THE NIGHT FOREST
Bastian awakes in some kind of darkened place in which she floats and feels better than ever, and there he meets the Childlike Empress, who tells him that is only the beginning and Fantastica will rise again thanks to his wishes. The more, the better (the movie's ending, again). Fantastica depends on them. The first one is getting to finally see her, and she gives that above mentioned sand grain to him, as the only remains of her realm. But that present turns out to be a seed that is beginning to grow and from which silently sprouts a forest, full of light and colours, that Bastian names PERILIN, THE NIGHT FOREST.
She asks him why took him so long to reach her, thus making her go after the Old Man Of Wandering Mountain, and Bastian answers that he was embarrassed, for he thought he wasn't worthy of someone like her. But then, the reflection in the girl's eyes shows him that his looks have changed completely, for the better. She vanishes, but Bastian notices she left the Auryn with him. Its reverse says Do What You Wish. He reaches the conclusion that something like that means that he not only is allowed to do as he wishes, but he is also encouraged to do so.
Bastian enjoys himself with his new looks, despite being alone, but after a while he feels like he's always been like that. He forgets he once was fat, etc, and that's why he doesn't feel the need to be different. Another one of those smart explanations courtesy of Michel Ende, I guess. A fulfilled wished leads to another: to become strong. He is now the LORD OF THE JUNGLE, Perilin's lord. He climbs to a very high plant to observe his creation from above and he remembers with contempt, although briefly, those who laughed at him before.
XIV / THE DESERT OF COLORS
Now he is tough and determined, but he's forgotten he was a cry baby one day, and that process leads again to a new wish: he wishes to show true grit facing a creature which is at the same time both beautiful and very dangerous. And that is what is crossing his mind when, from afar, a fire being gets closer to him; it happens to be a gigantic lion which always features the same colour of the sand on the hill it is going through. The lion asks who made the previous signal, and when the kid answers back, it introduces itself as GROGRAMAN, LORD OF THE DESERT OF COLORS, aka the MANY-COLORED DEATH. After they stare at each other for a while, the lion bows before Bastian and offers itself as his servant. The kid explains that he wants to get out of the desert; but what happens is that he can't, for the lion carries the desert with itself and there's no one to make that wish come true, because Grograman's presence means death to anyone within a very long distance. Bastian is protected by the amulet and the lion admits that, because of all this, Bastian is the only being it has ever talked to, and that its own existence is just a mystery for Grograman.
Grograman invites him to ride it and at full speed takes him to a place which is its palace and, according to the lion, its tomb as well. It asks Bastian to never get rid of the Auryn while in its domain and, above all, when he is close to the lion. When they reach a big hall, Grograman tells Bastian that its time is close, but everything will soon be back to normal and maybe Bastian can explain the lion why. Grograman turns black and asks Bastian to enter another hall which has been waiting for him forever, and to not be afraid of the night noises. In the hall, the boy smartens up and enjoys the stange luxury, until a horrible noise makes him to go back where a motionless and cold Grograman lies. Bastian goes out, unaware of the fact that the lion cannot be helped and what he finds is... Perilin, once again. When he goes back in, he lies down by the lion, in tears, and falls asleep.
XV / GROGRAMAN, THE MANY-COLORED DEATH
After that, both head to Goab, but the desert does not keep the same colours where they used to be. Bastian's initial are gone as well. The boy and the lion engage in a conversation about how contradictory feels the fact that Grograman assures it has existed forever, and so have that room that had been waiting for Bastian, and the sword, but at the same time Bastian has the sensation that all those things have been there for a couple of days. But Fantastica is the realm of stories, and a story may be new and tell about the past, for the past is born with it. From the moment Bastian gives something its name, that something exists since forever.
Later that night, Bastian cries again over the lion's destiny, although he is not afraid of the noises anymore. He goes out to contemplate Perilin as well, and goes back in to sleep by Grograman. And on and on for many days. The lion and the kid become friends and Bastian asks if he can stay there forever. Grograman replies he can't, for there's only life and death there, and no stories. Bastian needs his own. The boy says he can't leave, because Goab is too big and the lion can't ride him out of it, for it carries the desert with himself. The only way out is wishing to get out of it, but not only that: Bastian needs to wish going somewhere else. Concepts such as close and far are measured only by wishes in Fantastica. When Bastian finds out about his next wish, he will be able to leave Goab using the strange TEMPLE OF A THOUSAND DOORS, a maze of doors with no outside which leads everywhere and which can be reached from any place too. It can be entered using any door, no matter how simple, depending on the moment being the right one or not. That's why you can't enter twice through the same door, and none of those thousand doors can take you back to the place where you reached the maze from. Only a true wish can take you to the entrance, and only another one can guide you through the maze, so you can get out of it. But, what's a wish? Where do they come from?
A few days later, both talk about what is engraved on the back side of the Auryn. The lion warns Bastian that the inscription doesn't mean the boy can do as he wishes, but that he must do what he really and truly wants. That is the most difficult task of them all. It is about his deepest longing, an unkown one which is reached wish after wish. Bastian says he's not scared, but Grograman tells him that it is not about fear, but honesty and vigilance, to avoid getting lost himself forever; and the lion gets mad at the boy when Bastian asks Grograman if not every wish you have is a good one. You could tell the Many-Colored Death is a little bit fed up of so many questions, I guess.
Meanwhile, the kid has become valiant, thus losing the memory of his former usual cowardice. Given he is not afraid of anything anymore, he begins to wish there could be people around who can witness his exploits. He wishes to be famous. One night, after Grograman dies, he feels that will be his last time with the lion. Something is calling him and he can feel it. While being by Grograman, he sees the door of his chamber is open, and a red light through its opening. Before it closes, he thanks and says goodbye to the unmoving lion, he promises him he'll be back, and leaves. The door closes after him.
XVI / THE SILVER CITY OF AMARGANTH
Bastian appears in a weird room with three doors. He used one of them to come in, and the remaining two are a black one, on the left, and a white one, on the right. Thre has to be a typo or something similar here, because in the spanish edition (and I've checked the two I have here at hand) the kid appears in a new chamber right after, but it is not stated which door of those previous two he chose. The english edition makes clear that Bastian goes through the white one.
In the next chamber there are two more doors (apart from the one he came in through), both of them yellow this time, but the one on the left is tall and narrow, and the other one is short and wide. He uses the left one and enters a new room, bathed by a different coloured light and, between the wooden door and the metal one, he chooses the former. And that's what he does for times on end, leaving many choices, rooms and doors of all kinds behind (there's always a difference between the doors in every chamber), through the maze, and yet, he can's get out of it. Until he begins basing his decissions on his wish of meeting Atreyu, and he eventually goes out into the open, to a beautiful forest, through some kind of chapel. When Bastian reopens that last door, he only finds the insides of said chapel.
He walks for a while and he finds a bunch of fine looking people comprised of princess OGLAMAR and four knights, named HYKRION, HYSBALD, HYDORN and HYNRECK, THE HERO, who seems to be leader of them all and the one who has the final say. Bastian hides the Auryn and choses to not reveal his name. He joins the group and learns they are headed to THE SILVER CITY OF AMARGANTH, where QUERQUOBAD, THE SILVER SAGE, has organized a tournament after which the best three men will be chosen to go on a mission which aims to find Bastian (THE SAVIOR) and escort him so he can remain safe and sound. The judge is a hunter named Atreyu, who happens to be the only person who can recognize the Savior.
Hynreck, on his part, seems to be more interested in the princess, who will only marry the best warrior of them all. That's why she is also taking part in the party: she wants to be sure of what Hynreck is capable of. He speaaks of the Savior with disdain, and he says he's just overrated. Bastian listens carefully and takes note. The other three knights had joined the princess and the loudmouthed warrior by chance. When they leave, Bastian rides an animal which is half donkey and whose name is YIKKA; it knows who Bastian is, but it promises to keep the secret.
The spectacular and very much in demand (because of the tourney) city, some sort of fantasy Venice, is surrounded by MORU, LAKE OF TEARS, whose water is so salty that only silver can withstand in it. Its inhabitants are called Amarganthians. When Bastian finds lodging, he thanks the group and proceeds to remain on his own. The city centre is already hosting the events the tournament consists in, but Bastian only wishes to find Atreyu, who is on the balcony of one palace, from which he witness the contest, together with Falkor and Querquobad. The tourney is not about life or death fights, but about spectacle and some other factors that are to be paid attention to.
Finally, the three previous knights stand strong, proving to be the best of them all, but Hynreck enters the scene to challenge them all at once. Soon after, they have been defeated by Hynreck and the old sage asks if anyone wants to challenge him. Bastian, who else, answers that he does, but his name still remains unknown. Arrogant Hynreck defies him through several tests, being defeated by Bastian in all of them, until the boy dares Hynreck to swim Moru, to which the alleged hero refuses and wisely so, for that means suicide. Bastian calls him a coward and an already ashamed Hynreck attacks him with his sword. Then, Sikanda jumps to Bastian's hand and humiliates the warrior in a very comical fashion, although that's far from being Bastian's intention. Oglamar is nowhere to be seen anymore.
Atreyu recognizes Bastian for what he's just done, but above all, because of his gaze, despite how different he looks now from the boy he once saw through that mirror. The hunter let everyone know that no quest will be necessary anymore, due to obvious reasons. Bastian introduces himself and the entire city bursts in joy. That same night, Amarganth throws a party for the ages.
XVII / A DRAGON FOR HERO HYNRECK
On that same night, and to the amazement and utter joy of the few who were still awake, Falkor sings. Atreyu and Bastian become friends, and the latter tells the former that he has the Auryn. The hunter looks surprised, but remains silent. Bastian notices it and offers the amulet to him, but Atreyu rejects it in a somehow abrupt manner. The conversation goes on and Atreyu admits having seen what's engraved on its reverse, but also that he has no idea what it means, for hunters can't read. Bastian tells him and asks if, had Atreyu known before, would he haved proceed differently. Atreyu says no, Bastian asks why Atreyu has said that Bastian looked different when he first saw him through the mirror, and the hunter gives Bastian his own version. Bastian is puzzled, because he's always been exactly as he is now and, had he not, he would remember it.
Later on, it occurs to Bastian that if Atreyu doesn't look very much amazed by his most recent feats, perhaps it is because the hunter thinks that they are not that creditable when achieved while in possession of the amulet. Bastian wants Atreyu to think highly of him without hesitation, and starts wishing that he can show Atreyu how good he is at storytelling.
He will have the chance to on the next day, in some kind of festive contest in which the Amarganthians, famous for being Fantastica's singers and storytellers, will perform their craft before the Savior who, in return, will tell them a new story that they will be able to add to their limited repertoire. Bastian tells THE STORY OF THE LIBRARY OF AMARGANTH, in which MUQUA, AQUIL and the ACHARIS appear, the origin of lake Moru and Amarganth as it is now are told, and also some of the mystery surrounding said library. Bastian cracks the rest of that mystery and, as a result, the Amarganthians can finally enter their own library, also known as LIBRARY OF THE COLLECTED WORKS OF BASTIAN BALTHAZAR BUX. Thanks to the library, their repertoire is not limited anymore. Atreyu is both impressed and baffled.
When they leave the building, the three previous H knights ask Bastian to accept them under his wing, which he does. They also tell him that Hynreck is depressed, because of Oglamar, and all five men go to meet him at the lodge where Bastian had left Yikka. The princess has made clear to him that she only wants the best warrior and he is not. And that thoroughness is the reason why he is so much in love with her. Nothing can be done about it. At the request of the three knights, Bastian comes up with a plot in which the princess has been abducted by SMERG the dragon, and only a one of a kind hero can rescue her. While they are talking about the horrific monster, someone announces the news: a dragon which looks exactly like the one Bastian had depicted, has kidnapped a lady. The unsuccessful hero wastes no time in chasing the dragon after and trying save the lady. But that's another story and, as many others, it shall be told annother time.
Bastian and Atreyu, on their part, decide to leave the city too. Atreyu thinks that Bastian might wish to go back to his world to help over there and the kid, who has forgotten his former shortages, thinks that there's nothing to prevent him from it. The knights give Yikka to Bastian, everyone says goodbye to Querquobad and they all leave, Atreyu by air and the rest by land.
XVIII / THE ACHARIS
The brand new bunch starts its journey in search of Bastian's way back to his world. The kid doesn't know yet he's not willing to go back; he has only agreed on it as a gesture of good will to Atreyu. Due to that, to Fantastica's geography being determined by wishes (no matter how unconscious they are), and to Bastian being the one who decides which way they go through, the road leads the five guys and their mounts to the Ivory Tower. But unconsciously, you know.
Bastian thinks about what he's done when creating Smerg, in order to make Hynreck happy again, and he is restless, for he doesn't know how the story will end and the dragon poses a serious threat, not to mention the situation between the knight and the princess. He recalls that the empress does not favour any creature in Fantastica over others, but he doesn't have to be like that. He does not wish to be remembered because of creating monsters, but because of his great deeds. As a benefactor.
As the group marches on, the reader notices that Bastian has forgotten even more things, although he doesn't know it, of course, for some things about his past are now completely alien to him. But Atreyu and Falkor do notice it. While camping inside a cavern, Atreyu enquires Bastian about his past, and the boy tells stuff and talks about his memories, although they are just leftovers. Until he's got nothing left to tell. That's when Atreyu explains to Bastian that the Auryn bestows power and makes dreams come true, but it also deprives its bearer of his memories in return. That's what happens with humans at least. Memories from their world. The amulet shows the way, but conceals the finish line. Bastian plays Atreyu's words down, based on the fact that the Childlike Empress knew what she was doing when she gave the Auryn to him. Atreyu agrees.
Later that night, both meet the Acharis, builders of Amarganth and, reportedly, Fantastica's ugliest beings, or almost. In order to compensate the world for the way they look, they build precious things. Bastian feels sorry for them, partly because, once again, he's not sure whether they have existed forever or he has created them when telling that previous story about the library. He promises them that, upon awakening, they will have become SHLAMOOFS, some sort of ever joyful butterflies. Bastian goes to bed happy, because of his altruistic good deed (we know there's no altruism in Bastian's proceedings at all, for he wishes to impress Atreyu and become famous due to these kinds of things), although Atreyu is not entirely sure about this. When they all wake up. they find out that the acharis are gone and, instead of them, there are tons of strange looking moths which try to demolish the beautiful tower the Acharis were building last night, out of plain fun. They also call Bastian The Whatchamaycallim. Bastian gets mad and forbids them to tear the tower down; he explains who he is and how he has created them, and from what, but the shlamoofs laugh at him. Bastian begins to doubt if what he's done is a good deed.
XIX / THE TRAVELING COMPANIONS
Meanwhile, they have arrived to a forest whose trees do not allow any light to enter, and they spend the night over there, in the ruins of a castle. But they arrive again to that castle after leaving it and unintentionally detouring several times. Yikka tells Bastian in private that they are not progressing because Bastian has ceased wishing to arrive at the Ivory Tower. While he has wished it, they have made a lot of progress. It turns out that, after this conversation, Bastian wishes to go there once again. And besides, Atreyu apologizes to him, alleging that he was meaning well with his advice, but said avice was useless anyway, for the group was not reaching anywhere. You just can't help losing a memory when you wish for something new, but without that wish, nobody will leave the loop they are currently in.
Bastian makes his wish public and the group's goal will be, from now on, finding the empress, for she will be able to advice Bastian on how to go back to his world. But Falkor tells him to forget about seeing the sovereign again, for she can only be found once and he has already met her. Bastian gets mad and, after explaining his stance and making it clear for everyone, they all leave that place and finally reach to the end of that forest. Atreyu and the dragon are still concerned.
As many other times before, the hunter and Falkor fly ahead of the bunch and study what they have ahead of them and how far. This time, Atreyu announces that they are being followed by some different characters, still from afar. The next morning they are surprised by some peculiar beings who happen to be princes coming from several corners of Fantastica. Bastian's reputation precedes him and these people want to join him, so he can help them having a story of their own. Bastian answers there's nothing he can do about it before he finds the Childlike Empress, so he ask them all for their help. The new signings are delighted with the idea.
Little by little, many more beings join, and they are even weirder every passing day, with nothing to do with humans. They are all explained about Bastian's purpose and they all want to join him. They arrive to a forest brimming with disturbing giant orchids.
XX / THE SEEING HAND
Bastian is informed that the now enormous group is scared of the forest they have entered. That place is within the domain of the SEEING HAND, also known as HOROK castle, in which XAYIDE the sorceress lives. Bastian tell everyone to calm down and later, Atreyu announces the presence of a hand shaped building which is not very far from them. Despite there's no need to arrive to it, Bastian wants to do it.
Later on, and due to their impossibility to find any privacy, the two friends ride Falkor together. Bastian gets a proposal. Without the Auryn, nothing can be wished, but with it there's a serious risk of Bastian losing himself and losing his bearings as well. Atreyu was guided by it, but nothing was taken away from him, perhaps because he is not a human being and there is no memory from another world to be lost. That's why Atreyu offers himself to carry the amulet and he wants Bastian to trust his leadership. As expected, the kid says no and an argument ensues, in which Atreyu tells Bastian that he's changed, for worse, and Bastian accuses the hunter of being jealous. He also announces that he wants to stay in Fantastica forever. That's why he doesn't care about his memories and he could always give more names to the empress. Humans are not needed.
When they go back to the camp they are told about the drama. Bastian's army has been attacked by powerful armoured giants which, aparently, cannot be defeated, and they have abducted the three H knights and left a message from Xayide to Bastian, in which she demands his unconditional surrender and his becoming her slave, and all that before roughly one day. If there's no compliance or something out of the ordinary happens, the three knights will die. Bastian refueses to accept and orders his army to march some other direction, as if running away; he will take care of the rest, together with Atreyu and Falkor, if they want to. Otherwise, he'll take care of it on his own.
The hunter and the dragon accept and they all set out at night. They have a plan according to which, Atreyu will play Bastian to distract the giants that guard the castle, and Bastian will try to reach a skylight which seems to be unguarded. Bastian enters the castle and reaches the deepest basement, where the three kinghts are being held captive. The giants don't seem to be very good at guarding and, besides, all of them have left after Atreyu. Bastian frees the prisoners, but the noise draw the guardians back. Then Sikanda does its part again, crushing some of them. When they fall, it can be noticed they are hollow. The rest fall soon after and, after meeting Atreyu and Falkor, the party heads to Xayide's chamber. She bows down before Bastian as fast as she can, and promises him unconditional obedience and her help, should he wish to forgive her.
The sorceress must follow Bastian to the Ivory Tower. In order to get out of that forest and until they find the rest of the evergrowing army, Bastian forces Falkor to carry Xayide on its back against the dragon's will. Falkor asks for instructions and she just says Straight ahead. Once they all get together, Bastian is told that five of the giants had already shown up, in a friendly manner, with a litter. Xayide says that's the most comfortable way for her to travel, if Bastian agrees. Atreyu tells Bastian that the witch, in doing so, is just showing that she had all planned from the previous day, and she has allowed herself to be defeated on purpose, so she can manipulate Bastian. The kid is really pissed off now, and tells Atreyu and the dragon that he is sick and tired of them both and their advices. They can leave if they want to, if they don't like the way Bastian does things. The hunter and Falkor leave, Xayide smiles and Bastian forgets he once was a child in his former life.
XXI / THE STAR CLOISTER
Bastian's army grows nonstop and one of the first creatures to join the then small bunch, a being of the blue djinn species named ILWAN, has become some sort of confidant and right hand to the boy. Atreyu and Falkor are still members of said army, but now they march at the rear end and without addressing a Bastian who expects their apologies (to no avail), so he can treat the couple magnanimously. On the other hand, he barely rides Yikka anymore, because he prefers to travel on Xayide's litter. The witch sucks up to him as much as she can, so she can manipulate him. She advices him to stop thinking of others and start thinking of himself first, and explains to him that the giants are ruled by her own will, because they are hollow. She can control everything which is hollow. And so could Bastian, if he wished to.
What Bastian does first is to get rid of a sorrowful Yikka, although he's not sure about it. To make it up for it and to thank its services, he makes up a story thanks to which Yikka will be capable of getting married and giving birth (its breed can't), for that is its biggest longing.
But he is not convinced that he is acting entirely well. Xayide annoys him, for he is still aware of certain things, but she manages to notice all that in his behaviour and she quickly does something that can help Bastian forget about it. Thus, after the thing with Yikka, she gives him an invisibility belt that Bastian names BELT GHEMMAL. She tells him that the belt will help him being protected from any harm, to which the kid reacts in surprise. Who could be willing to hurt him? Xayide carries on with her shenanigans and explains to him that he should be careful and stand above everything, leaving his feelings aside, but he still trusts Atreyu and Falkor and values their friendship. The conversation goes on and the sorceress tells him that Atreyu is plotting to steal the Auryn from him. Bastian gets angry and tells her to stop slandering.
Later, Bastian thinks quietly about what he just been told and decides he wishes that good sense. To stand above his feelings and to learn how to be indifferent. That's the way to reach his True Will. I guess that, according to the text, said prudence means wisdom too.
At night, he notices that on the summit of a nearby mount there is some kind of dome which is lighted up. From that place six big barn owls fly to the camp and they introduce themselves as air couriers from THE STAR CLOISTER OF GHIGAM, sent by USHTU, MOTHER OF INTUITION. Said cloister seems to be the centre of all wisdom and over there the monks learn the KNOWLEDGE, taught by the THREE DEEP THINKERS, who run the cloister. Ushtu is one of them. The other two are SCHIRKRY and YISIPU. The former is known as the FATHER OF VISION, with day eagles at his service, and the latter is the SON OF REASON, who has evening foxes as his servants.
The three thinkers happen to request the presence of the GREAT KNOWER (Bastian, who else?) to help them solve a question they can't. Bastian accepts, as long as he is accompanied by Atreyu and Xayide. The three thinkers have human form, but their heads match the kind of animal they have at their service. The question is a riddle about which Yisipu thinks something different from what Ushtu senses; that intuition teaches something different from what Schirkry sees, and what he sees differs from what Yisipu thinks. And it shouldn't be like that. What is Fantastica? That is the riddle. Fantastica is the Neverending Story, answers Bastian. It is written in a copper coloured book which is in the attic of one school. Now that I come to think of it, doesn't this assertion somehow contradict the fact that Bastian has already forgotten his own childhood? But in any case, in the face of all the doubts brought up by these answers, the kid summons everyone attending the meeting to watch the sky closely the next night, from the roofs. Come the moment, Bastian uses the stone AL TSAHIR (already seen in the chapter about Amarganth's library, although I did not mention it until now) and, thanks to it, that famed school attic can be seen in the sky.
When they all go back to deliberate, the three thinkers believe they have seen themselves in that vision (the stuffed animals in the school's attic) and Bastian puts an end to the conflict stating that all three are right. Despite their insistence to stay with them, Bastian announces they are leaving the cloister and they go back to the camp. As for the contradiction I just mentioned, he forgets the attic and having ever attended school. The copper coloured book as well. This way, he doesn't wonder how he ended up in Fantastica anymore.
XXII / THE BATTLE FOR THE IVORY TOWER
They eventually arrive to the tower's surroundings, but one of the messengers that Bastian sends to announce his impending arrival, comes back with the news that the empress is not in the tower. Since long. ago. Bastian deems inappropiate that the Moon Child doesn't wish to see him, for he is sure that she knows about his intentions and yet, she's not where she should be. But, at the same time, he doesn't have to give the amulet back, and that's fine with him. He remembers that one time when Falkor said that the sovereign can only be found once and he feels nostalgic for Atreyu and the dragon, so he decides to wear the magic belt to visit them while remaining unnoticed. When he finds them, their conversation assures Bastian that, given his moral drift, Atreyu will try to steal the Auryn from him on that very same night.
That revelation hits Bastian hard. Nothing matters anymore and he realizes that not only has Xayide been the only one who's been loyal to him, but she has also guessed Atreyu's intentions right. He orders the three H knights to guard his tent, so they can detain anyone who tries enter it, and he makes up his mind about ruling over Xayide's giants. He asks them to get ahold of the dragon.
When Atreyu and Falkor are arrested, showing no resistance, a crowd gathers to witness the situation. Xayide is absent. Bastian accuses them of betraying his friendship and the empress' will as well, who gave him the amulet, and banishes them from his army and from himself, sparing their lives for the sake of the good moments shared in the past. Xayide congratulate shim and goes on with her manipulation, telling Bastian that it should be him the one who succeeded the Childlike Empress as the CHILDLIKE EMPEROR. His power over Fantastica would be total. Not in vain, he is its saviour and has created everything that inhabits it now. That one, and no other, is Bastian's True Will.
On arriving at the tower, Bastian gives orders to his people to build whatever is needed to reach the now unreachable Magnolia Pavilion, and he is not bothered when someone warns him that said pavilion is the empress' home when she is there with them. But nothing can be done about it, although a despotic Bastian couldn't care less: it has to be done. Later on, he arranges an assembly in which he announces that he will succeed the sovereign for all intents and purposes, and urges everyone to obey. In seventy seven days, a huge coronation party will be held, and the witch will take care of it. Everyone thinks that what Bastian is planning is an atrocity, but they obey, for he wears the amulet.
Bastian feels empty, and he wishes that the former empress goes to him. But to no avail, and he ends up forgetting the memory of her gaze that he still had. The attempts to reach the pavilion continue, but they are in vain, and even the H knights behave as despondent assholes, bored as they are. All these things can be felt in the air and the atmosphere is grey and oppressive. All the messengers that had beens sent to every corner of the realm come back to the tower and Bastian learns that many dignataries refused to attend his coronation and, what's more, some of them have openly rebelled.
The big day comes and everything is ready, although there is no enthusiasm. Xayide, by the way, has prepared an enormous throne made of mirrors which moves on its own. She has also increased her terrifying guard, providing it of horses as black as the giants are. There's also a boring parade in which every subject in attendance must bow before Bastian and say something stupid as proof of their entire devotion to him. After a few hours of ceremony, a faun tells Bastian that Atreyu has declared war against him, so he can get the Auryn back, and he is on his way to the tower with some followers.
At first, the H knights take care of the rebellion and Bastian partisans outnumber the rebels, but Atreyu's army manages to gain ground, until it reaches the tower that same night. That's when Xayide's black guard begins to take action, wreaking some serious havoc. The book tells about all the stories that resulted from that battle, for everyone who live it has their own. But they are to be told at another time. The most important thing to say is that Atreyu could be fighting only to save Bastian from himself, and that's why he can storm the tower.
Bastian, so far absent from the combat, looks for Atreyu among the fighters so he can face him. When he finds him, the hunter places his sword on Bastian's chest and asks him to surrender the amulet, for his own sake. Bastian calls Atreyu a traitor and he answers Bastian that he is delusional and he hasn't created anything or anyone. Bastian owes everything to the Childlike Empress. The kid draws Sikanda, against the sword's will and, after that horrible noise from back when Bastian spent some time with Grograman at night is heard, he hurts Atreyu without minding the lion's warning. The hunter falls down, but Falkor rescues him. What looked like an almost certain rebel victory turns into the opposite after Atreyu leaves battle. Bastian feels victorious but bitter at the same time, and his silver cloak has turned black. There are many casualties and the Ivory Tower falls too. Bastian blames Atreyu and swears to chase him.
The reader may have noticed that these last chapters of the book's recap are longer. They truly are. There's also some things that take place in this one which can't be omitted. Bastian's greed and his despotic drift have reached to a point that could have hardly been foreseen a few chapters earlier.
XXIII / THE CITY OF THE OLD EMPERORS
He begins wandering and eventually arrives to a weird and messy city, inhabited by human looking fellows who seem to have succumbed, given their looks, to utter insanity. Bastian tries to talk with some of them, unsuccessfully, until a grey monkey tells him to forget about it, for those people can't tell Bastian anything. The monkey is called ARGAX, which tells him that this nameless city could be very well knows as the CITY OF THE OLD EMPERORS, because all the people living in it wished to be Fantastica's emperor once. Argax is its superintendent, as it says, and it tells Bastian that this place is his future home. All the people there are humans who, back in the day, refused to go back to their world and now they can't anymore, for in order to do so they have to wish it, and they have run out of wishes already. And you can only wish for something as long as you keep some recollection of your own world. There's no future without past. Some of them became emperors, actually, and some of them did not, but they all end up in the city all the same. They all wore the Auryn at some specific moment, but the empress' power cannot be used to strip her of it.
Little after, Bastian witness what Argax calls the JUMBLE GAME, invented by the monkey to distract these beings, who cannot communicate through language anymore. They roll some dices and, according to the outcome, they use all twenty six letters and, sometimes, every once in a while, there's a resulting word that makes sense. It the game is played for all eternity, every story has to arise, including this one.
The kid is frightened. Argax explains that he must find a wish (he needs the Auryn) that allows Bastian to go back to his world, but that is going to be a very difficult task, for he might have just a few of them left. Argax doesn't believe Bastian will be able to achieve his goal. He will have to spend another one in the SEA OF MIST, to begin with, and the monkey allows Bastian to leave the city. Only for this time. Bastian is confused. He has wished his doom and rejected his salvation. He's at least sure of what that city means and he doesn't want to come back. At night, he stops remembering that, not very long ago, he was capable of inventing stories, and he gets rid of Sikanda, burying it so it won't be ever used to hurt a friend.
He starts wandering again, alone, for he doesn't want to be kept company by anybody. He only wants to find his way back, but he is aware of the fact that the amulet cannot be used for the sake of it, for his wishes are scarce and he cannot afford to lose them without a reason why. But, unconsciously, he begins wishing that he can be part of a whole, after so much loneliness, even if it is as just another individual. He arrives to the Sea Of Mist and, walking along the shore, he reaches a very silent city where everyone looks like a child, nobody is alone and everything seems to be made of the same thing, some kind of braided wicker. It is a sea city, but all the ships are hanged ove the mist. While he thinks about it, some likeable guys tell him that the mist goes up every night and the ships get ready to sail. That city is called YSKAL (BASKETVILLE as well), and the yskalnari (The partners) call the Sea Of Mist SKAIDAN, which is an enormous ocean of white vapour that splits Fantastica in two. It can be walked on its bottom, but always keeping in mind that the direction will be lost at one moment or another. Bastian introduces himself as SOMEONE, and they anwer they do not have individual names (they don't use the word I; only We), they are the yskalnari and that is more than enough (I guess this word game between the boy's wish, while being on his own, and the sense of community, is completely intentional).
The ocean can only be sailed doing what these people do with that aforementioned wicker. It comes from the reed that grow in the sea and can float on it, and that's why all the clothing and everything else is made of that material. Just in case someone falls to the sea.
The sailors accept Bastian in that night's trip, although you can never know its destination or length. While on the ship, he learns that, given the fog is always calm, the sails would not be of any use here, and neither a screw or some oars could make the ship move, so it works thanks to its crew's imagination (at least two members of it at the same time, or more, depending on how fast you want to sail; hence the solidarity among these people who, on the other side, are all so similar looking among each other, that they don't even need to make an effort in order to unify their imaginations; they don't have any disagreements either), through some kind of ceremony or dance which includes a song. Bastian becomes another yskaln and enjoys the abandon that said ceremony makes him experience, although he also forgets that there are people in his world. He can only remember now, and vaguely, his home and his parents.
With every passing day, he starts to wish for something new, although he doesn't know exactly what yet. Until one day, a big bird terrorizes the crew and abducts one of its members. When the danger is over, the yskalnari go back to their routine without saying a word about what has happened or missing the abducted. The individual doesn't matter, and Bastian realizes that that is not enough for him. There's harmony, but no love, and he wishes to be someone who is loved as he is. The issue is that he doesn't know the way he is anymore. He chooses to remain an outsider for the remainder of the trip and, once they reach the shore, he thanks the yskalnari and starts to follow a path which runs amidst an endless and colourful forest of roses.
XXIV / DAME EYOLA
But the main thing, as the book itself explains, is Bastian. He follows the already mentioned path, even with total serenity, given his situation, until he sees a sign which says To the HOUSE OF CHANGE. When he arrives to that house, he notices it to be quite weird and funny looking, and that it also changes little by little. From the outside he can listen to some kind of song that seems to welcome him. Inside, he finds a very cozy chamber with lots of tasty looking fruit and a picturesque lady who reminds Bastian a tad of his own mother (although he doesn't remember neither when, nor where), mostly because of her behaviour, for that lady looks like a giant fruit herself.
She invites him to sit and eat, and the boy finds out that every single piece of fruit he eats is unmatchable, and that the woman feeds herself by watering. She does it her herself. She tells him a story which is basically Bastian's since the moment he gave a new name to the Childlike Empress until he got to this place, which is not called that way only because it changes the way it looks, but because it changes those who live in it as well. And that means a lot to Bastian, who had wanted to be different while remaining unchanged. She names the protagonist of that story and bastian answers that said name is actually his, but she doesn't look surprised. She explains that Bastian has been expected from generations past, and no matter how fresh the story she has just told sounds, for it is about a very distant past.
The lady introduces herself as DAME EYOLA, and all the fruit that Bastian eats without feeling full, grows out of her. When she's happy, everything blossoms: And she is. A lot, because Bastian is there. Was her sad, everything would wither, but she keeps on blossoming as the kid eats. The house has changed its inside during the conversation and, at one point, the dame tells Bastian that the house wishes him to enter an adjacent room, for it has a surprise. The new room is full of excessively big furniture. The house enjoys those kinds of things and in fact is a bigger place inside than it looks from the outside. Dame Eyola caonfesses to Bastian that only her and the boy have been in that house, and that she has been waiting for Bastian for so very long because she has always wanted a son she could pamper. Her grandma and her mum as well, but she has one now. When Bastian says that that doesn't make any sense, she replies that her mother and previous ancestors were in fact her, actually, after they withered and blossomed again. They Dames Eyola can only be their own child, if they wither first, but they can't give birth.
Bastian falls asleep and, when he wakes up, he finds himself in a big crib. He doesn't matter, for he's in great spirits and so is Dame Eyola, whom he finds in a completely different than the one from the previous night chamber. The outside of the house and its surroundings couldn't be more pleasant, and the inside changes all the time, so the kid never gets tired of exploring around. And besides, the woman's fruit is quite addictive, and he never moves away too much from the house. Weeks go by. Both woman and boy have long conversations and a repentant Bastian tells her how he arrived there. She says that he has only followed his path, that of his wishes, and that path is always winding. In order to go back he must find the fountain the WATER OF LIFE comes out from, and that place is the most secret one in the entire realm and there's no easy way to get there, although the way that takes there is always the right one. That place is at Fantastica's borders, which do exist, but they are inside the realm. That's where the empress gets her power from and she can't even get there herself. That place can obly be reached with one last wish, despite forgetting something else.
Bastian asks if there's no other way to do it, other than losing it all. But, truth is, noting is actually lost, but transformed. He doesn't need to hurry: when that last wish comes to his mind, he'll know it. That change the house is supposed to generate takes place little by little, and the kid doesn't need to be so much looked after by the lady. His desire for the dame's food decreases too. In return, he starts to wish that he can love, although he knows he can't, no matter how strong the desire. When he tells Dame Eyola about it, she answers that he has finally found his last wish. Loving is his True Will. He will be able to when he drinks the water from the already mentioned fountain, and he will be able to return as soon as he carries said water to someone else.
According to the dame, Fantasticans cannot love. There are some who can drink from that water, but no one knows who those creatures are. She also says that humas will end up bringing love to Fantastica in the future, and both worlds will become one. Dame Eyola had promised Bastian to tell him what it is he would lost when reaching his last wish. The time has come. He must forget his parents, but those words, father and mother, sound alien to Bastian. He has to leave the next morning and his wish, the last one, will guide him. When he says good night to the lady he realizes she has withered. She tells him to not be worried about it, and neither has him to on the next day. Everything is as it should be.
By morning, she's still in the same place. She looks like a black tree. Bastian thanks the house and thanks her. He thanks both. When he leaves, he sees the previous seemingly endless summer has been replaced by winter and there's snow. The house closes itself and its doors and windows disappear.
As I said, these chapters are longer and more difficult to be summarized. Everything seems meaningful now. And yet, and even at the risk of abusing the reader and their patience, I have to say that I read this book for the first time more than forty years ago, and I don't think there's been a single time ever since when I haven't remembered this chapter after eating some fruit (apples, mostly) which has turned out to be specially good. There, I said it.
XXV / THE PICTURE MINE
Yor invites Bastian to his cabin and he is surprised when he realizes the kid still remembers his name. He confesses to be a blind man, but only up on the surface, for he can see down in the complete darkness of his mine (THE MINROUD MINE, also known as the PICTURE MINE). That mine exists for humand who cannot find the fountain. Yor takes Bastian to take a look at his pictures, on a snowy plain, but the boy has to remain completely silent. They are thin, coloured and transparent, and they display both bizarre and everyday scenes, but Bastian doesn't know what those pictures have to do with him. Later on, Yor tells him that those pictures are forgotten dreams from the human world, and they are somehow the foundations over which Fantastica stands. They are the unknown dreams. Yor asks Bastian if he has seen himself in one, and warns him: he must find at least one of his dreams in them.
Yor does not speak much. He doesn't like it. But he makes an exception with Bastian. He explains to him that he is looking for the Water Of Life, and that he wishes to love, but given that he only remembers his name, he won't be able to answer the question the water will ask him about who he wishes to love. And if he doesn't, he won't be able to drink. That's why he has to find a forgotten dream, among those pictures, that takes him to the fountain, thus forgetting himself. That task demands hard work and patience.
The next day, he studies lots of pictures, but they are all indifferent to him. He sees how Yor comes up from his mine with new sheets and he places them in the snow. Bastian learns the winter is everlasting there. He keeps on searching, but he doesn't find anything, so the miner advices him to go down to the mine and start digging there. Bastian says he cannot see if surrounded by total darkness, as Yor does; he doesn't have any light either, because he already used Al Tsahir for something else. There is no other way but to work in darkness and Bastian, despite still keeping all his gifts and the amulet, is scared.
But practice, time and Yor's instructions make Bastian capable of orienting himself and working in the heat of the mine's depth, until one day, the miner tells him that Bastian has to manage on his own inside a gallery where he can only move if he crawls. There, Bastian trusts that maybe luck, destiny or whatever, will take him to something he can't see. He has learnt to stop pitying himself and patience and silence are his best assets now. And yet, despite all his gifts, he feels tired.
After we don't know how long, Bastian finds a picture of his dad (wearing his robe, as a dentist) locked in a block made of ice. He doesn't recognize him, but the image stirs something up inside of him in a manner that he finally loses the memory of his own name. Bastian longs what he sees and wishes to help that person, who seems to be willing to say something, until he feels that what that man wants is for Bastian to not abandon him.
The next morning, the nameless boy tells Yor that he is leaving in search of the fountain, and the miner tells him to carry his picture with him and to not lose it or break it, for that is the only thing he's got left in Fantastica. They say goodbye as friends.
The kid wanders through the snowy plain feeling like the picture is guiding him somehow, until he is surprised by the noisy Schlamoofs, former Acharis, coming from the sky. The boy fears their noise might break his picture, but those bugs pay no attention to him. They tell him they have been looking for him, for they are tired of their own existence; they have become mindless clowns with no purpose at all, and they want him to be their boss, given that he was the one who gave them that kind of life. Hence, he will be able to make some sense out of it, giving them commands or whatever. If not, he could at least return them to their former life, for no one works the silver filigree anymore and Amarganth's lake has gone dry. The boy can't do any of that anymore and the clowns try to abduct him. He can hardly defend himself, but he does, until a noise coming from afar make the Schlamoofs run away. But the picture is broken. Nothing can be done now.
Falkor and Atreyu appear.
XXVI / THE WATER OF LIFE
Falkor, as a luckdragon, understands what the water says, for the languages of luck are paired with one another. He says the water invites to be drank. How? The water asks their names. The boy doesn't know his, but Atreyu answers for him instead. Why doesn't he speak? He has forgotten everything. With no memories, the snakes won't let him through. Atreyu will be his spokesperson, for he is his friend and he remembers everything the boy told him about his world. The water is not sure. What's with Atreyu's wound? Atreyu answers that him and the boy were right and wrong at the same time, but the kid has relinquished the amulet willingly. Good enough. They are all welcome, for that place is Auryn and all three have arrived there to bring it. The Auryn is the door the boy is looking for, but the snakes will only let him through if he renounces everything the Childlike Empress gave to him, for nothing that belongs to Fantastica can trespass that gate. That's what it takes to drink the water. Here is where the empress' powers end, and she's the only one who can't enter that place (inside what the fountain itself calls the centre of Auryn), for she cannot get rid of what she is. Atreyu announces the boy is ready.
The black snake's head rises without letting the white snake loose, and both bodies form a black and white gate. Atreyu crosses it, hand in hand with the boy. As they get closer to the fountain, all the gifts that the kid had gotten, vanish one by one, and he goes back to his former chubby self. Now he is naked before the Water Of Life. He hasn't recovered his memories yet and he feels insecure, until he gets into the water and drinks it, feeling that the joy of being born again invades him. Now he knows who he is and where he comes from, and the good thing is that that is exactly what he wants.The most important thing is the happiness that being able to love brings, and Bastian himself will be forever certain of it.
Bastian asks his friends to go with him, but Atreyu tells him they are only there to accompany him, for they have been there before, although they were not aware of it back then (after their encounter with Ygramul, I guess). He tells him that he recognizes now the boy he saw at the Magic Mirror Gate. Bastian wants to carry water with him for his dad, which should not be possible in principle, but Falkor announces it is, and that the water says they all must to get under way. Bastian, specifically, through the gate where the white's snake head lies, although it is not moving. Has Bastian finished all the stories he began while in Fantastica? He hasn't. None of them, he replies. The white snake won't let him through until everything is finished, unless he finds someone who can do it for him. Atreyu volunteers, even if the stories are many, given that one leads to another all the time. Falkor says they will achieve it with luck. Bastian promises to never forget the hunter, and Atreyu asks him to never forget Fantastica in return. The dragon and him go back to Fantastica through the black gate.
The white snake has moved its head and there's a gate now. Bastian takes water with both hands and plunges into the dark screaming Father! Father! I am Bastian Balthazar Bux!
The text is back to red now.
Bastian finds himself screaming in the school's attic, unaware of how long is been since he first arrived there. He wants to give the copper book back to his owner, and he is not afraid of the punishment, but the book's not there. When he goes downstairs to the classroom area he notices is nine o'clock in the morning, but there is no single sound to be heard and every hall is empty, although people can be seen through the windows. The school is closed, but he manages to get out using a scaffold.
He runs home and, on arrival, he gets scared that his father might not be there anymore. But he is, and runs to him asking about where he's been. His dad looks pale and as if he had been crying. Other than that, he looks like his usual self, like long ago, and Bastian tells this to him, but his dad lets Bastian know that he's only been away for one day. His father had panicked when he was told by the people at school that his son had not attended his classes the previous day, so he called the police and all. Bastian spends hours telling him everything, and he notices that his usually absent dad is paying complete attention to him. It's already dark when he finishes, telling his dad that he wanted to bring some water to him, but it fell. Bastian realizes his dad is weeping, and he understands that he was actually able to bring him that water. His dad promises him that, from that moment on, everything will change.
The next day everything is covered in snow, and Bastianp's father tells him that both will take a day off to do fun stuff. Bastian thinks school's out perhaps because christmas is here already, but his dad tells him that the previous day was sunday. This, if I'm not mistaken, is conflicting with the fact that the story began on a school day, for that day (the day before yesterday) should have been saturday. Bastian loves the idea, but before doing anything else, he wants to go to Herr Koreander's bookshop himself, and tell him the truth. He wants to do it alone, and his dad is surprised and pleased with his boy's determination. Bastian promises he won't be late.
He seems to lose his courage when he gets to the shop, but he enters it nevertheless, expecting an angry reaction from the owner. Koreander recognizes him, but when Bastian confesses what he did, he tells the kid that he is not missing any book. Bastian tells him the book's title and he explains how the book looks like, but Koreander replies that he never had a book like that. Bastian insists, so Koreander asks him to tell everything. Bastian does, but without so many details like with his dad.
When he is done, Koreander believes him, and tells Bastian that the book comes from Fantastica itself and that it doesn't belong to them. Someone has to be reading it at that moment. Some humans go to Fantastica and stay there, while other can't go; and the very least go and come back, like Bastian, bringing health back to both worlds. They both agree on how lucky one is if they can count Atreyu as their friend, and the old man admits having been in Fantastica and given a name to the sovereign. He says every story is neverending, that there are many possible ways to Fantastica (not only books), and every book can be magical, depending on the reader. The Childlike Empress cannot be seen twice, but she can be seen again if given another name, and that one time will become the first and only one.
They both say goodbye and promise to talk again. After all, like Herr Koreander says, there is not much people you can talk to about this kind of stuff. Bastian's dad is waiting outside and, as they both get away, the bookshop owner thins aloud that Bastian will be able to show the way to Fantastica to many, so they can bring back the Water Of Life.
And he's correct. But that's another story and shall be told another time.
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| A copper coloured book... |
A very long recap. I think it was a good thing to read the book again. The last time was in 2007, I believe, so no matter how good my memory can be, for I couldn't have been capable of doing something worthy of this novel basing myself only on my memories. They serve their purpose when it comes to the movie and those days of old, but not to everything that gets told in twenty six (plus one) chapters.
Way above I promised I'd say which one was the chapter I did not remember anything about the last time I read the book. That one in which the Sea Of Mist appears, but I thought there was an entire chapter devoted to it, and now I see is just part of the one about the City Of The Old Emperors. And reading the book now I have realized that I did not remember the chapter about the Acharis either. Or maybe I did, because the moment I read their names I remembered about them, but not what Bastian turns them into. The same applies for the Star Cloister. Not to mention lots of tiny details I had forgotten: the final farewell, Sikanda's destiny or Xayide's end. And most likely many other things I don't remember now that will probably become some different others next time.
I did recollect how anxious I always got when reading that part about the recently mentioned city, how sorry I was for Dame Eyola and the nerves I got when it was time for the miner's chapter, the closer you get to the ending. That treble right before the last chapter is just unbeatable. All in all, the more strange and brilliant second half (the one which is not featured in the film) is almost flawless, and much better than the first one. I guess it can be said that the first half is adventure and the second is, I don't know, much more than just that. Although I insist, the book does not make that separation between the two halves that I am doing. It comes as a natural thing, perhaps because Wolfgang Petersen's film does not cover the entire book.
As for an analysis of what Michael Ende's intentions are, concerning the book's message, that is a very tall order, even if I have just read it (again), and I don't want to resort to what some artificial intelligence tool says. I will try my own way though. As I said, I do not think this is a book for children. No way. Young adults? Teenagers? That's the audiende the book is supposed to be targeted to, but at the same time I do believe that's currently the most apathetic one when it's time to read a book, and the one which is going to pay the least attention to the novel, if they ever get to read it.
I prefer to say this is abook for grown up children. I read it as a child and thoroughly enjoyed because of its story, but my ignorance prevented me from reaching the very core of it. As an adult I think I have been able to appreciate it as I think it is: a book about the joy of reading, the love for books and their stories, parent and child relationships (at least to a certain extent), and second chances (Bastian's despotism, based on the fact that power ends up corrupting those who abuse it, leads to an unexpected redemption which takes place thanks to the boy's repentance; something similar can be said about his dad's change). There might be some kind of social criticism as well; something that was suitable almost fifty years ago and still is. I could never explain myself properly about this.
Or maybe I'm wrong and nothing is like I explained it. If Ende had none of the things I have just mentioned in mind, then I think his success is complete, for I'd be fulfilling what the ending says about every story being neverending and this would be just mine. Each of us could make a different interpretation and I'm just fine with that.
To cut a long story short, a book for people who are not children anymore but somehow wish they still were. Grown up kids, as I said. I think that's The Neverending Story's ultimate reader, that who truly values the book; someone who boosted their imagination as a child and had a blast, thanks to Atreyu and Bastian's stories, and who was capable (or not) of understanding the book and finding many more meanings in it when they read it again as an adult.
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| Una interpretación de cómo podría ser la Torre De Marfil vista desde lejos |
By the way, I think I will have to do something similar, some other time, with MOMO, another one of Ende's books and maybe the most popular one after this novel. Despite being previous, for it was published in 1973. Moved by the interest that The Neverending Story instilled in me, I asked to be treated with this other book, that I guess met an unexpected commercial push thanks to Petersen's film (which, on the other hand, powered the popularity of the book it is based on) and, after I read it (I remember it as very good), I went to the theatre to see the namesake movie that was premiered in 1986, directed by JOHANNES SCHAAF, which I also recollect as good, although what would I know about it back then?
But, as Ende said so many times before, that's another story. For later.
Thanks!
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Comenta si te apetece, pero siempre con educación y respeto, por favor. Gracias!
Have your say if you want to, but be polite and respectful, please. Always. Thanks!