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 4-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Ygramul the Many”
In his search for the Southern Oracle, Atreyu enters the Land of the Dead Mountains, but his passage is stopped by the Deep Chasm, home to Ygramul, a fearsome spider-like monster. Additionally, the dark wolf continues to track Atreyu, following in his wake. Bastian cheers on the hero from the school attic, sensing a similar loneliness between himself and Atreyu.
Making his way carefully through the mountain tunnels, Atreyu finds a luckdragon trapped in a spider web and fighting for its life. The young hero tries to stop the monster’s attack by explaining his quest and showing AURYN to Ygramul, but the spider refuses to let the luckdragon go. Eventually, after learning that the bite of the monster will kill within one hour but will also allow the victim to travel to any part of Fantastica that they desire, Atreyu agrees to be bitten. As he receives the bite, Atreyu proclaims his wish to travel to the Southern Oracle, and “the world [goes] black before his eyes” (66).
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Gnomics”
Atreyu awakens in a mountain with the luckdragon, Falkor, who also used his wish to travel to the Southern Oracle. Although injured, the two are tended to by the healing gnome, Urgl, and her husband, Engywook, who is a professor. As a scholar of the Southern Oracle, Engywook tells Atreyu of his work and shows him two sphinxes that guard the entry to the oracle.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Three Magic Gates”
After relating his mission, Atreyu learns more from Urgl about the three gates that lead to the Southern Oracle. The first, guarded by the sphinxes, is known as the Great Riddle Gate, and those wishing entry can only pass through if the sphinxes close their eyes, a decision that is based on chance rather than the worthiness of the individual seeking entrance. The second gate, the Magic Mirror Gate, shows travelers their true inner nature, so all who seek to enter must behold and confront who they truly are. The third gate, called the No-Key Gate, only appears once a traveler has gone through the second gate. Beyond that gate lies Uyulala, the Southern Oracle. Urgl notes that while he has researched the gates for years, he has never learned what happens to those who meet Uyulala, and he asks Atreyu to report back if he survives the journey.
Atreyu makes it through the first gate with ease. When passing the second gate, the mirror shows Atreyu not himself but an image of Bastian in the school’s attic. Bastian expresses surprise and wonders if he is known in Fantastica. The third gate opens when Atreyu touches the door, and he enters. Meanwhile, Bastian, realizing that it is night, lights a candelabrum and continues to read.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Voice of Silence”
Entering a forest of columns, Atreyu hears a voice singing. When he questions the voice, Atreyu learns that he must speak in rhyme to communicate with it. The voice introduces itself as Uyulala, the Oracle, and tells Atreyu to ask his questions. Atreyu learns from the Oracle that only a human child can give the Empress a new name and save Fantastica. The Oracle also explains that Fantastica will fade unless humans visit and remember the magical realm. After returning to the gnomes, Atreyu learns that he spent seven days and nights with the Oracle and that both he and Falkor are healed of their wounds. The pair go forth together to seek the human child and bring him to the Empress.
Chapters 4-7 Analysis
This section of the novel focuses on the continuation of Atreyu’s Hero’s Journey (also known as a “monomyth”) and Bastian’s evolving role in the narrative of Fantastica. The testing of Atreyu continues in this segment as he encounters the spider monster, Ygramul, and confronts the challenge of the three gates. While these enemies and challenges prove difficult, Atreyu finds help from others—another common element of monomyths.
The first ally that Atreyu encounters is Falkor, the luckdragon, who helps prepare him for his continuing mission by partnering with him and continually advising him to “have luck.” Falkor’s frequent references to luck foreshadow Atreyu’s successful entrance through the perilous first gate of the sphinxes. Engywook notes that “the sphinxes’ decision is based on pure chance” (82), but as Atreyu walks through the gate, his fear evaporates, and his luck surfaces. In addition to the luckdragon’s assistance, Atreyu also benefits from the help of the elderly gnomes, who treat his wounds and provide him with medicine, food, and detailed instructions about the three gates. Engywook in particular provides an essential function in the success of Atreyu’s journey by walking the hero through the steps he must take to reach the Southern Oracle.
The next step in Atreyu’s journey is his approach to the inmost cave, which in the novel is his meeting with the Southern Oracle, Uyulala. Typically, in monomyths, this element involves the hero reflecting on his journey and often provides a moment of rest, but this particular segment of Atreyu’s journey holds much deeper philosophical significance.
While Atreyu mostly asks questions of the Oracle, she does provide reflective statements about the world of Fantastica and the reasons it is threatened. Noting that the Empress needs a name, Uyulala laments that “no human has visited Fantastica, / [for] they no longer know the way” (97). With the Oracle’s enigmatic statement, Ende both highlights Atreyu’s next task and also inserts a metafictional commentary on the fading use of imagination in today’s modern world. This pattern of storytelling appears often throughout the novel, for the very nature of a never-ending story implies a seamless blending between one world and the next. Just as Fantastica is born from the minds of humans, it can only thrive as long as human minds continue to feed and nourish it. This concept can be interpreted as a call to action on the part of the author: With Bastian’s vicarious experience of Atreyu’s journey, Ende emphasizes that everyone in the real world is a “human child” whose imagination has power and agency equal to Bastian’s. Thus, the larger purpose of The Neverending Story is to encourage readers to avoid “the Nothing” of a life without dreams and help “Fantastica” grow by imagining its splendor into existence.
These chapters also highlight Bastian’s increasingly direct involvement in the world of Fantastica. The first instance occurs while he reads about Atreyu’s encounter with Ygramul. Horrified by the stare of the monster as described in the book, Bastian cries out. Immediately, the book relates that “a cry of terror passed through the ravine and echoed from side to side,” but “that sound could not have been made by the boy who stood there as though paralyzed with horror” (63-64). Although he dismisses it as impossible, Bastian still wonders if his cry resounded in Fantastica. His second entrance into the story occurs when Atreyu looks into the Mirror Gate and sees Bastian reading the book in the school attic. Bastian recognizes the boy as himself, but again, he questions the truthfulness of the description, believing “it could only be a crazy accident. But a very remarkable crazy accident” (88). Despite his doubts and hesitation, Bastian begins to wish that he could name the Empress and muses that if Atreyu came to get him and take him to Fantastica, “he could help them, and they could help him” (104). Therefore, Bastian gradually comes to realize that his actions do indeed impact Fantastica directly, a dynamic that emphasizes Ende’s larger theme of the power of human imagination.
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