The endless story

{{Book sheet A = Die unendliche Geschichte | Original publisher = Thienemanns Verlag | Original number of pages = 420 | Translation year = 1982 | Title translation = The Neverending Story | Translator = Miguel Sáenz | Illustrator translation = Roswitha Quadflieg | Editorial translation = Alfaguara | City translation = Madrid | Country translation = Spain | ISBN translation = 84-204-2522-2 | Number of translation pages = 419 }} The Neverending Story (German: Die unendliche Geschichte) (The Neverending Story in Latin America) is a children's novel by the German writer Michael Ende first published in German in 1979. It was a real success from the moment it was published and has been translated into more than 36 languages and made into a film in various film adaptations.

This is a novel that despite having been described as "a new classic of youth literature", was always defended by its author as a novel that extends beyond mere narration to become a criticism. For example, Ende defended that the novel expresses the desire to find the reality that surrounds us by going through the reverse path, that is, the internal part of each one that resides in his or her imagination.In the author's own words:

When we look at a goal, the best way to achieve it is to always take the opposite path. It's not me who invented that method. To get to paradise, Dante, in his Divine comedy, begins to go through hell. (····) To find reality you have to do the same: turn your back and go through the fantastic. That's the journey that the hero of The endless story. To discover himself, Bastián must first leave the real world (where nothing makes sense) and penetrate the country of the fantastic, in which, on the contrary, everything is loaded with meaning. However, there is always a risk when such a journey takes place; between reality and the fantastic there is, in fact, a subtle balance that should not be disturbed: separate from the real, the fantastic loses its content.

Michael Ende in an interview El País.

Plot

The book is divided into 2 distinct parts. The first takes place between the fantastic world of which the book called The Neverending Story speaks, the kingdom of Fantasy, and the real world. In the fantastic world, the protagonist is a young warrior named Atreyu, who is asked by the Childish Empress, ruler of Fantasy, to start a search to find a cure for the disease he suffers from and which is slowly killing him. The other protagonist is a child from the real world, Bastián Baltasar Bux, motherless and lonely, who reads the novel that tells the story of Fantasia, and for whom the story becomes more and more real.

The story begins when Bastian walks into an old book store owned by Karl Konrad Koreander. When the owner goes out to meet him, Bastián explains his situation, that there are several classmates who attack him and make fun of him. After a long talk and taking advantage of an oversight by the bookseller, Bastián stealthily takes one of the books: The Neverending Story, which catches his eye because of its striking appearance, with the Auryn symbol on the back. front page.

Once at school, he hides in an attic that no one usually goes to. Feeling safe, she opens the book and plunges into reading. The book talks about Fantasia, which is in grave danger, because for some reason unknown to its inhabitants, its inhabitants and places are beginning to disappear, leaving a "Nothing" in place, replacing the beings that cease to exist. Nothing progresses as the Empress's illness progresses, there being a clear relationship between the two and, as is discovered when the plot progresses, with Bastián.

The story unfolds and different characters appear, such as the lucky white dragon Fújur; as well as different challenges for Atreyu, which he will overcome until he finds salvation for the kingdom and for the Empress, which she achieves by coming into contact with Bastian, through the book as a link between the two.

The second part takes place immediately after the denouement of the first. It takes place entirely in Fantasia, and describes Bastián's journey through her and how he reconstructs her from her imagination.

Main characters

Bastian Baltasar Bux

Bastián Baltasar Bux is the protagonist of the story; he is the one who finds the book and reads it hidden in the attic of his school. Halfway through the book, he becomes a character in The Neverending Story, or in Fantasia. He is invested with the AURYN amulet, which grants him wishes. The Childish Empress tells him that the more wishes he makes, the bigger Fantasy will be. But Bastián doesn't know that for every wish he makes, enriching Fantasy, one of his memories disappears. Mistaken for the sorceress Xayide, he betrays the Child Empress and attacks the Ivory Tower, critically wounding Atreyu. With almost no memories, and unable to make new wishes, Bastian happens to pass through the City of Ancient Emperors. He embarks with the Yskálnari through the Sea of Fog, spends a season in the Change House with Lady Aiuola and finally spends a long time working in the bowels of the Minroud of Yor, searching for an image, a forgotten dream, to help him find his True Will and thus return to the real world. With the help of Fújur and Atreyu, he returns to the real world as a better person, capable of love, taking his father from the Waters of Life, which was his deepest wish. Bastián and the bookseller Koreander exchange stories of his adventures in Fantasia. Koreander reveals that a person can return to Fantasia as many times as he wants, as there are many gates to Fantasia, and that he can see the Empress whenever she needs a new name. He also suggests that Bastian teach others the way to Fantasia.

Atreyu

Atreyu is a young hunter from the tribe of the "Grassmen," also known as "Greenskins. His parents died from a purple buffalo shortly after his birth, in such a way that he is raised by the entire village (Atreyu, in classical fantasy or Great Language, means & # 34; Son of all & # 3. 4;). It is to him that the Empress entrusts the Great Quest to save the land of Fantasia with the cure for the disease she suffers from.

The Childish Empress

The Childish Empress, monarch of Fantasy, resides in the Ivory Tower, a palace at the heart of the kingdom. The description of her is that of an indescribably beautiful girl, no older than ten years, despite being infinitely older than any other being. Her hair is snowy white, like her tunic, and her eyes, the color of gold (one of her many titles is & # 34; the Lady of Desires, the one of the Golden Eyes & # 34;)

Although she is formally the ruler of Fantasy, she does not interfere with her subjects or impose any obligation on them other than to be as they are, without distinguishing between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, being thus a corporeal Fantasy, reason for which all his subjects respect his authority. If she died, all her creatures would die immediately, since she is the heart of all Fantasy and the entire kingdom of hers lives on her thanks to her.

Auryn

It is the symbol of the Childish Empress, for which reason the inhabitants of Fantasy respect it to the point of not pronouncing its name, but instead call it euphemistically the Jewel, the Splendor or the Pentacle. The medallion provides its bearer with absolute protection, since no Fantasy being would dare attack its bearer. When carried by a human, Auryn fulfills his wishes until she reaches his True Will. However, the risk is that he forgets the real world completely and then cannot return to it, since each wish costs a memory of the one who makes it.

Fújur (Falkor or Falkor)

Fújur is a lucky white dragon, one of the rarest animals in Fantasy, where lucky dragons are nothing like ordinary dragons. They are creatures of the air and good weather, unbridled joy and, despite their colossal size, light as a summer cloud. Therefore, they do not need wings to fly. Its body is long and flexible, with mother-of-pearl scales. His eyes are ruby in color. They swim through the air in the sky just as fish do in water. From the ground, they look like slow lightning. And the most wonderful thing about them is their singing, the book says that whoever has heard it will never forget it and tells his grandchildren. His voice is like the pealing of a bronze bell. After Artax, Atreyu's horse, dies in the Swamp of Sorrows, Fújur accompanies him on the Great Quest.

Xayide

Xayide is a magician or sorceress (who has one green eye and one red eye) who lived in "La Mano Vidente" (a castle in the shape of a hand sticking out of the ground with windows in the shape of eyes, with a tower on each of its fingers) before Bastian defeated her, later offering himself as her advisor. However, her true intentions are to sow discord between Bastian and Atreyu.

Karl Konrad Koreander

Owner of the bookstore where Bastián finds The Neverending Story. Previously he had already gone to Fantasy.

Gmork

Werewolf at the service of Nothing who is chained by the dark princess for her mission: to kill Atreyu. He has huge green eyes. He is based on the wolf Fenrir from Norse mythology.^{[citation required]}

Creation process

The story of how Michael Ende set about writing his most famous novel was a long one. It began in February 1977 with the visit of the publisher Hansjörg Weitbrecht to the author at his Genzano house. As soon as the subject of the next book to be published was brought up, Michael Ende began rummaging through a shoebox and brainstorming a bunch of ideas. On a piece of paper, he wrote the following summary: "A boy picks up a book, literally finds himself inside the story, and has trouble getting out". Once Weitbrecht had expressed his approval, Ende promised to deliver the manuscript before Christmas. He assumed the project would be straightforward, and privately wondered how he could stretch the material to fill a hundred pages.

The body of the new book grew before the eyes of Michael Ende. Before long he was on the phone with his publisher, requesting an extension of the deadline. The book would be somewhat longer than expected, but was expected to be finished before the fall of 1979. During the course of 1978, however, the publishers heard nothing from the author. Then, in the fall of that year, Ende finally resurfaced. The book, he told his publisher, was not yet complete. Young Bastian had refused to leave Fantasia, and it was his duty as his author to follow him on his journeys.

Ende's next communication left his editors even more concerned. The book, she explained, required a special design: a leather-bound volume inlaid with mother-of-pearl and complete with brass clasps. Weitbrecht hurried to Genzano. After much discussion, publisher and author agreed on a bound volume printed in two-color ink. Each of the twenty-six chapters, beginning with an ornamental letter, would be illustrated by Roswitha Quadflieg. Concerned by the sharp increase in production costs, Weitbrecht made his way back to Stuttgart.

Ende's struggle to escape the world he had created became more and more intense. During conversations with her publisher, he sounded almost desperate—it was a matter of literary survival. Unless Ende could find a way out of Fantasia, Bastian would be trapped inside it. By the end of the year, even environmental circumstances seemed to be conspiring against him. The winter of 1978-1979 was one of the coldest in living memory. Snow was falling on the Alban Hills and the temperature dropped to minus ten degrees. Houses in Genzano were not designed to withstand such extremes, and Ende's was no exception. With ice clogging the pipes and wrapped in wet blankets, Michael Ende kept working. Despite these difficult conditions, he was finally able to find a solution: AURYN, the gem, would be the way out of Fantasia. It would not be the only time that The Neverending Story would prove to be a magical book.

Symbols

The Neverending Story is a self-contained book. In the story, the book appears, in the story told within the story, it appears again. Each time it means something different. Ultimately, following Bastián's adventures is following the adventures of someone who is increasingly trapped by literature. In the first part of the book, it is narrated how the protagonist begins to read, and what fascinates him about the book: in Atreyu he sees his ideal as impossible for him.

• The Nothing that destroys Fantasy is the lack of imagination of the humans of the real world: they no longer believe, they do not dream.

• As Bastián reads, it becomes increasingly evident that the call to give him that new name is him, but he lacks the value: What Ende means with this is not just what it seems: Bastian feels fascinated by reading, but his destiny is not just reading, sooner or later he himself will be thrown into the adventure of creating his own stories. This is what symbolizes the Give it a name the Empress. Nothing spreads through Fantasy because humans have stopped creating stories: they no longer dream.

• Old of the Errant Mountain: This is perhaps the most mysterious character of the novel, as well as the Empress himself. It is said to be the opposite of this: she is a child, he is old. A clue is given when the Empress climbs a staircase of letters that leads to her den: “The letters did not always treat her well.” Tentatively, this explanation, simplistic, could be ventured: the Children's Empress is the inspiration that makes stories born. The Old is the rigor that is needed to write, all that is arduous in writing.

• The only task that is received in Fantasy, "do whatever you want," doesn't mean that Bastián can do whatever he likes, means he must follow his wishes until they take him to his True Will. This is Bastian's search for Fantasy.

Bastián searches for his True Will, but innumerable obstacles stand in the way of finding it. And by doing what is not really wanted, he falls deeper and deeper into perdition. Bastián's twisted desires make him forget his homeworld more and more, which doesn't bother him, because he doesn't want to go back there anyway. However, he who remembers nothing, he can desire nothing. When he loses the last memory of his own world, Bastián will no longer be able to wish for anything. Likewise, when the author is lost in his fantastic world, forgetting “reality”, he can no longer create anything. The basis for creation is reality itself, he cannot forget it.

Accommodations

Movie adaptations

• Die unendliche Geschichte was the first adaptation of the novel. Launched in 1984, it was directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starred by Barret Oliver (Bastián), Noah Hathaway (Atreyu), and Tami Stronach (Children's Empress, in its only film raid). The soundtrack was composed by Klaus Doldinger and Giorgio Moroder. The film only covers the first part of the book, until the time Bastian enters Fantasy. Ende was terribly disappointed by the result, to the point of declaring that the film was "a gigantic commercial melodrama based on cheesy, stuffed and plastic," so he asked to withdraw his name from the credit titles, where he only appears as the author of the novel.

• The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter, led by George T. Miller and starring Jonathan Brandis, was premiered in 1990. Many of the themes of the second part of Ende's novel are used, but completely losing the essence of the original story.

• The Neverending Story III starring Jason James Ritcher, Melody Kay, Jack Black and Julie Cox, was premiered in 1994. The film is based on some of the characters in the original novel, but with a completely new story.

Musical

• Interminable History, Musical It is the first theatrical adaptation in musical format of Michael Ende's work, produced by Beon Entertainment, in which there is no lack of scripts to the previous version (like the song Neverending Story), but always giving it its own nuances and, above all, being very faithful to the original book.
• The cast has 35 actors (juveniles in general terms) among which we can highlight: Martina Hernández, Claudia de Paz, Karina Scutelnicu, Alicia Scutelnicu, Noelia Rincón and Rocío Barroso share the role of Bastian. Miguel Sánchez, Alonso Baquero, David Sarnago, Marcos Sarnago and Pablo Castiñeira interpret Atreyu. Teresa Abarca and Alba Cuartero share the role of Emperatriz Infantil. Josean Moreno is Fújur, Teresa Ferrer Xayide and Álex Forriols Gmork.
• Produced by Dario Regattieri, the musical has music by Ivan Macías (the soundtrack of 16 songs), and lyrics by Félix Amador, while Federico Barrios Fierro takes care of the artistic direction and José Félix Romero is the assistant of movement and choreography. In addition, KREAT FX is the company responsible for creating animatronics, electronic figures that allow recreation of fantastic beings that are part of this story.
• It will be available at the Calderon Theatre in Madrid from October 5, 2022 to May 2023, with prospects of extending dates and even taking a national tour.

Other adaptations

• The novel inspired two series, one of animation and another performed:
  • The Neverending Story (1995-1996), animated series led by Marc Boreal and Mike Fallows

    It relates the adventures of Bastian in Fantasy, although with a different line of argument than the novel.

  • Tales from the Neverending Story (2001-2004), series led by Giles Walker and Adam Weissman

    Develop the full story in 13 episodes in the UK or 4 movies in the United States.

• It has also been adapted in a dramatic work with ballet and opera in Germany. The score of all these theatre versions is Siegfried Matthus.