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 8-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Wind Giants”
Atreyu and Falkor fly through Fantastica, hoping to reach the border of the world and cross to the human realm. From their position in the clouds, they observe the Nothing destroying more and more of their world. Falkor suggests that they have finished the mission and learned the cause of the Empress’s illness and its cure and should return to the Ivory Tower, but Atreyu wants to push forward for a little longer.
Encountering the Wind Giants, the pair learn that Fantastica has no borders, but before they can fly away, the giants’ battles hurl Atreyu from Falkor’s back, and he loses AURYN. Awakening on the beach, Atreyu calls for Falkor, but the luckdragon doesn’t appear. When Atreyu realizes that AURYN is lost, he searches for a path. Hearing music, he observes a procession of dancers comprised of ghosts, vampires, and night-hobs. He follows the group and watches them as they hurl themselves into the Nothing. Sensing that he too is drawn to the Nothing, Atreyu runs away and enters the gates of a crumbling town.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Spook City”
Falkor searches for Atreyu, determined to find his friend. Meanwhile, Atreyu walks through the deserted Spook City, feeling hopeless. He hears a wail and discovers a starving werewolf chained in a backyard. Using the name Nobody to hide his identity, Atreyu questions the creature. Gmork, the werewolf, tells Atreyu that Fantastica is in danger because humans have forgotten their dreams and “can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion” (125). Built on the imaginations of human beings, Fantastica only becomes real when humans believe in their dreams. From his attic, Bastian suddenly realizes the connection between Fantastica and the human world and wants to help save the magical land.
Nearing death, Gmork, further explains that he is a messenger of the Nothing and was sent to hunt down the Empress’s hero, a warrior named Atreyu. His goal was to aid in the destruction of Fantastica, but he failed in his mission. Atreyu reveals his identity and Gmork dies. However, when Atreyu approaches Gmork, its jaws latch onto his leg, and Atreyu finds himself bound to the dead werewolf as the Nothing approaches.
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Flight to the Ivory Tower”
While searching for Atreyu, Falkor finds AURYN in the sea and saves the medallion for his friend. Drawn by a powerful force, Falkor finds Atreyu and frees him from Gmork’s jaws just as the Nothing nears the boy. The two head to the Ivory Tower and the Empress but find that as they fly through the air, their world is turning grey from the ravages of the Nothing.
Determined to return AURYN to the Empress and complete his mission, Atreyu makes his way to her pavilion. There, he finally gazes into the eyes of the Childlike Empress, whose hair has become white. At that moment, Bastian also meets the gaze of the Empress and immediately knows her name—Moon Child.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Childlike Empress”
Upon receiving the amulet from Atreyu, the Empress praises the boy for completing his mission. Atreyu, however, feels despair, believing that he failed to bring a human with him to name the Empress. The Empress disagrees, noting that Atreyu brought the human with him. She explains that Atreyu’s mission was not only to provide her with answers, but also to call forth her savior, who would soon cross the border between their worlds, drawn to Fantastica by a wondrous story full of peril and adventure.
Bastian realizes now that he is the human who can give the Empress her name, but he remains unable to speak and fears entering Fantastica. Although the Empress explains that the human only needs to say her name aloud, Bastian feels shame and doubts his worthiness to even appear before Atreyu and the Empress. Aware that Bastian remains uncertain, the Empress decides to leave the Ivory Tower and seek out the Old Man of Wandering Mountain, who can help her bring Bastian to Fantastica.
Chapter 12 Summary: “The Old Man of Wandering Mountain”
Carried in a glass litter controlled by four invisible powers, the Childlike Empress roams in search of the Old Man of Wandering Mountain, whom she can only locate by not having a set destination. Eventually, she enters the large egg where he lives and climbs a ladder to his dwelling, where she finds him writing The Neverending Story as it happens. The Empress asks the Old Man to tell the story of Fantastica starting from the beginning, which he does. Bastian reads the story as the Old Man writes and narrates, realizing that the story of Fantastica is also his story, for it starts at the moment he enters Mr. Coreander’s bookshop. Unable still to speak the Empress’s name, Bastian reads the story again and again, until finally he cries out “Moon Child, I’m coming” (166), at which point the candles in the attic blow out.
Chapters 8-12 Analysis
This segment of the text highlights the continuing danger of the Nothing as a force that impedes both story development and human growth. As a metaphor for the lack of imagination and the human tendency to let stories fade and be forgotten, the encroachment of the Nothing threatens not only the fantastical world, but also the human world. Of special importance to this theme is the discussion between Atreyu and Gmork.
Like Bastian, Gmork resides between and in both of the worlds—Fantastica and the human realm. He tells Atreyu that he has no world of his own but is “able to go in and out of many worlds” (124), changing his form to suit his location. As a liminal figure who understands both realms, Gmork also reveals that Fantastica and its creatures are merely “dreams, poetic inventions, characters in a never-ending story,” and that once these Fantasticans enter the human world they become merely “delusion and madness” (125). This discussion suggests that Fantastica is the realm in which human creations and artistic imaginations thrive in representational forms. Yet, without the positive use of these abilities—without the writing of stories and the inventions of humans—the beautiful and fantastical creations of Fantastica fall into the Nothing and instead become lies that manipulate and harm people. As Gmork notes, once the beings of Fantastica reach the human realm, they are “like a contagious disease that makes humans blind, so they can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion” (125). Reading this conversation, Bastian comes to the realization that the two worlds are connected. Overall, the revelations of Gmork highlight one of Ende’s central themes—that the human imagination and particularly the ability to tell stories have a profound impact on the real world.
The idea that the human imagination can impact realms of fantasy is further explained by the Empress when Atreyu finally meets her. Reiterating that “all lies were once creatures of Fantastica” (147), the Empress tells Atreyu that there are right and wrong ways to cross the border between the two realms. The correct way involves the free will of humans, who journey to the fantastical through their own desire and return to the human world “a changed person” (148). The wrong way forces the creatures of Fantastica to enter the human realm. Thus, Ende sets up a philosophical statement in favor of allowing freedom of expression that thwarts lies and manipulation.
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