51 pages • 1 hour read
Michael Ende, Transl. Ralph ManheimThe Neverending Story
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1979A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Perilin, the Night Forest”
Bastian finds himself hovering in the air with Moon Child. She explains that this is the beginning of Fantastica, and that the magical world will be reborn from Bastian’s wishes. With his first wish, Bastian is able to see the Empress, who presents him with a grain of sand—all that is left of Fantastica. With his next wishes, Bastian plants a seed, and a forest grows with luminous and colorful blossoms and leaves. Bastian also realizes that he has a new body—one that is handsome and slender rather than plump and awkward. Presenting Bastian with AURYN, the Empress explains that the emblem will allow him to do what he wishes and that as long as he wears it, he will be her representative in Fantastica.
With the Empress gone, Bastian sets about creating the Perilin, the Night Forest. He is happy to have a beautiful body but begins to assume that he has always been handsome. Indeed, each wish causes Bastian to lose his memories of the past, one by one. The loss of his memories does not yet impact his happiness, though, and Bastian climbs and runs through the forest with unadulterated joy.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Desert of Colors”
Bastian wakes in the forest to find that he is also strong. As he watches the sun rise, Bastian notices that the forest is crumbling, and in its place, a colorful desert takes shape, which he names Goab, the Desert of Colors. Bastian’s explorations of the new landscape inspire him to wish for courage, in addition to his newfound handsomeness, strength, and endurance. Thus, when he meets a flame-colored lion named Grograman, Bastian experiences no fear. Instead, he and the lion become friends, and even when the lion turns to stone in the night, Bastian remains by its side.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Grograman, the Many-Colored Death”
In the morning, Grograman turns from stone to flesh, explaining to Bastian that he dies each night only to regenerate with the rising sun. The lion also gives Bastian a magical sword that Bastian names Sikanda. This weapon, Grograman explains, must never be drawn from its sheath; instead, the sword will leap into Bastian’s hand whenever he is threatened and protect him.
Throughout his stay with the lion, Bastian explores the land; he also muses on his newfound power and listens to Grograman’s explanations of Bastian’s role in Fantastica. Bastian is confused by his creation of the world, which the lion explains comes into being because the boy wishes it, but also exists prior to the wish. Additionally, Bastian contemplates the message on the back of AURYN: “DO WHAT YOU WISH” (201). Although he believes this message gives him the power to do anything he wants, the lion corrects him, explaining that “it means that you must do what you really and truly want” (201), and that Bastian must discover on his own what that is. Finally, Bastian realizes that he is lonely and wants the company of other people, and he leaves through a door that suddenly appears.
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Silver City of Amarganth”
Bastian finds himself in the Temple of a Thousand Doors and opens door after door in search of his next adventure. Realizing that he wants to see Atreyu, Bastian opens an olive-green door and is surprised to find himself in a clearing. There, four knights and a beautiful lady welcome Bastian. He learns that the knights are on their way to a tournament set up by a sage and overseen by Atreyu. The winners will join Atreyu to search for the Savior of Fantastica. One of the knights, Hero Hynreck, confesses that he hopes to win the competition to prove himself to the princess.
Held in Amarganth, a silver city set on a Lake of Tears, the tournament has attracted hundreds of contestants. Bastian decides to enter and ends up defeating Hero Hynreck with the power of his magical sword. Watching from the stands, Atreyu recognizes Bastian. Noting that no expedition will now occur as the Savior has arrived, Atreyu receives Bastian, and the whole town holds a celebration.
Chapter 17 Summary: “A Dragon for Hero Hynreck”
Bastian tells Atreyu of his adventures while they listen to Falkor sing for joy. Atreyu notes that Bastian looked different when he saw him in the Mirror Gate, but Bastian has no memory of his past appearance and tells Atreyu that he has always looked as he does now. Hoping to win Atreyu’s admiration, Bastian decides to make up stories, which is something that no one in Fantastica can do well. After listening to the Amarganthians tell stories, many of which are repetitive, Bastian offers a history of Amarganth and the founding of its library.
The citizens are overjoyed and discover that they now have a library filled with stories composed by Bastian. Yet, one individual remains sad—Hero Hynreck, whose defeat at Bastian’s hands has caused the princess to reject him. To provide Hynreck with a way to redeem himself, Bastian creates a dragon named Smerg that has kidnapped the princess. Atreyu suggests that Bastian should probably return to his own world, and Bastian agrees. Along with Atreyu, Falkor, and three knights, Bastian sets off on his journey home. Rather than riding a horse, Bastian chooses to ride Yikka, a pack mule.
Chapter 18 Summary: “The Acharis”
The group travels together in the rain, all believing they seek a road to return Bastian to his home world. However, because Bastian does not truly want to go home, they are headed toward the Ivory Tower. Bastian also worries about his creations, wondering if the invention of a dragon was a morally right choice. While the dragon will provide Hynreck with a purpose, it might also harm the creatures of Fantastica. Atreyu notices that Bastian has lost more of his memories and warns his friends that while AURYN makes his wishes come true, it also makes him forget his home and his past.
One night, Bastian and Atreyu hear mournful sounds coming from a cave. There, they encounter the Acharis, creatures who live deep in the earth to hide their “ugliness” and sadness. With their tears, the Acharis wash silver from the bedrock and in the dark construct the artistic buildings of Fantastica. When they see Bastian, they beg him to give them new bodies so that they will no longer be sad. Bastian pities the Acharis and transforms them into beautiful butterfly beings called Shlamoofs, the Everlasting Laughers. However, rather than expressing gratitude, the Shlamoofs mock Bastian, and their antics threaten to destroy the filigree towers they created as Acharis.
Chapters 13-18 Analysis
From this point on, the novel focuses on Bastian, rather than Atreyu. Instead of functioning as the hero of the narrative, Atreyu fades into the background, functioning as the deuteragonist (or the secondary charactery in a drama), rather than as a joint protagonist. The entry of Bastian into Fantastica also alters the plotline significantly, introducing a new journey of self-discovery for the human boy. Wielding AURYN as a force of change, Bastian begins to reshape both Fantastica and his own being through wishes, the use of which results in both positive and negative consequences for himself and for the world around him as his desires grow more and more unbalanced. Provided initially with a single grain of sand, Bastian reforms the world of Fantastica with his mind alone, emphasizing once again Ende’s ongoing theme of the power of human imagination. The first two places he creates—Perilin, the Night Forest, and the Desert of Colors—reveal symmetry and purpose, for although Bastian is unaware how his wishes take shape, the narrator reveals that the Night Forest is “connected with the fulfillment of his wish” to be “handsome and strong” (183). Similarly, the desert reflects Bastian’s “need to be tough and inured to hardship like Atreyu” (183). Thus, the two realms manifest in response to Bastian’s desires and allow him to experience the personality traits and physical abilities he longs to embody.
These early creations of Bastian’s demonstrate restraint, unity, and logical purpose, as is demonstrated by the fact that the forest and the desert exist in tandem with each other, with the forest only forming at night and the desert appearing during the day. Likewise, the desert lion, Grograman, lives a cyclical existence, turning to stone each night and reviving each morning. According to the lion, his existence serves a purpose: “[My] dying gives life and my living death, and both are good” (196). Thus, these initial manifestations of Bastian’s desires balance each other and provide clear boundaries between the dark and light, dead and alive. As long as Bastian remains in this area, Fantastica remains both stable and in constant flux, and all is well.
However, Ende introduces a darker shift into the narration of Bastian’s journey and creates a sense of doubt around the nature of his wishes, for when the boy leaves the forest and desert, his wishes begin to bring harm to world of Fantastica and to himself. One of Bastian’s first missteps involves his creation of the dragon, Smerg. Although Bastian’s goal is to allow Hero Hynreck to serve a purpose and fulfill his nature, he soon realizes that he “created an unpredictable menace” (240) that could injure or kill the creatures of Fantastica. Similarly, Bastian’s wish to make the Acharis into the cheerful and frivolous Shlamoofs, and their resulting destruction of the silver buildings, makes him question whether “he had really done a good deed” (249).
This segment of the text also includes a variety of biblical and literary allusions. The death and resurrection of the lion, Grograman, for instance, echoes the story of Christ, while the continual references to Bastian as the “savior” likewise suggest Christian imagery. Additionally, Bastian chooses to ride the pack mule, Yikka, rather than a more traditional steed, which alludes to Christ’s decision to ride a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. However, Ende alludes to Bastian as a heroic Christ figure not to show Bastian’s spiritual wisdom, but instead to highlight his humanity and flaws. Indeed, although the boy is called a “savior,” Bastian’s attempt to save the Acharis result not in a better state of being for the sad creatures but instead condemn them to embody a degraded and ridiculous new life form.
Likewise, the literary allusions throughout this section of the novel also underline Bastian’s weaknesses and flaws. For instance, the dragon he creates is named Smerg, an obvious allusion to J. R. R. Tolkien’s dragon Smaug (The Hobbit, 1937). Yet, unlike Smaug, who functions as a formidable opponent and is represented as a traditional dragon, Smerg’s appearance is exaggerated to the point of absurdity. Bastian describes his creation as possessing “the body of a mangy rat and the tail of a scorpion,” the hind legs of a grasshopper, and the hands of a child (233). Additionally, Smerg has three heads—the heads of an old man, an old woman, and a crocodile. While meant to instill fear, the depiction of Smerg suggests farce rather than drama and highlights Bastian’s failure to live up to the imaginations of his literary predecessors.
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