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.
Prologue-Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
Bastian Balthazar Bux, “a fat little boy of ten or twelve,” enters a book shop and encounters the owner, Carl Conrad Coreander (5). Coreander expresses his dislike for children and asks what the boy is doing in his shop. Bastian explains that he is escaping from school bullies and admits that he lacks the bravery to fight back. When asked about his parents, Bastian explains that his father is uninterested in his life and his mother has recently died. While Coreander leaves his armchair to answer the phone, Bastian notices the book the man had been reading. Titled The Neverending Story, the book calls to Bastian, and he decides to steal the volume and run from the shop. Almost immediately, Bastian feels guilt and fear, but the pull of the book remains strong, and Bastian decides to hide in the school attic to read.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Fantastica in Danger”
In the Howling Forest of Fantastica, four magical creatures meet to discuss a growing threat to their world. These beings—a will-o’-the-wisp, a night-hob, a rock giant, and a tiny—have been sent by their respective species as messengers. All have noticed the Nothing, an evil force that creates absence and loss by obliterating beings and things, and they plan to alert the ruler of Fantastica, the Childlike Empress, of this danger. Bastian is enthralled with the narrative but relieved that the problems in Fantastica have no bearing on his own reality. The magical beings journey to the Empress, where delegations from all of Fantastica’s species are gathered. There, they learn that the Childlike Empress is very ill and that no one knows how to stop the Nothing.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Atreyu’s Mission”
The doctors of Fantastica have examined the Childlike Empress, but none has discovered the cause of her illness. The Empress’s illness impacts not only her, but all of Fantastica, as “she [is] the center of all life” in the kingdom (32). Her sickness reminds Bastian of his mother’s illness and death, and he contemplates his father’s continual exhibition of grief. The most revered Fantastican doctor, a centaur named Cairon, announces that the ruler’s illness is linked to the threatened destruction of Fantastica. She has instructed Cairon to find a hero named Atreyu to search for a savior who will rescue the kingdom. She charges Cairon to give her medallion, AURYN, to Atreyu for protection. The centaur journeys to the Grassy Ocean to recruit Atreyu, who is a Greenskin hunter of purple buffalo. When Cairon meets Atreyu, he is surprised by the warrior’s youth, but the boy accepts the mission and sets off on his quest with his talking horse, Artax. Bastian feels kinship with Atreyu as he learns that the young hero is an orphan, and he continues to read with fascination.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Morla the Aged One”
Atreyu leaves his people and begins his journey. Dreams of purple buffaloes invade his sleep, and a group of bark trolls shows him the effects of the Nothing on their bodies. Climbing to the top of a tree, Atreyu views the Nothing for himself and now clearly understands the danger it poses. In a dream, Atreyu speaks to a buffalo that tells him to seek out Morla the Aged One, a wise and ancient turtle. The route to Morla leads through the Swamps of Sadness, which cause Artax to lose all hope and sink to his death. Alone, Atreyu finds Morla, who tells the boy that the Childlike Empress needs a new name in order to get well. Although Morla advises Atreyu to give up his quest, she notes that the Southern Oracle may have further answers. Meanwhile, a mysterious shadow creature begins following Atreyu.
Prologue-Chapter 3 Analysis
In the Prologue and opening chapters, the narrative establishes two themes: the importance of imagination and the impact of Grief in Reality and Fantasy. These opening sections also provide a frame narrative—the story of Bastian reading—in order to immerse readers more fully in the novel’s plot. Finally, the story Bastian reads establishes Atreyu as the hero of the first half of the novel and encourages a comparison between the two young protagonists.
From the beginning, Bastian is described as a child with a talent for imagining and reading. For instance, after he steals the book, Bastian feels guilty and tries to imagine what he might do to alleviate the problem of his thievery. He envisions “boys who ran away to sea and sailed out into the world to make their fortune,” but as he doesn’t know how to reach a seaport, he gives up on this plan (12). His ability to envision such fanciful solutions to his very mundane problems highlights his inner talent for imagination right from the start. This dynamic primes readers to expect a wild ride as he settles down to read his stolen book despite his feelings of remorse, excited to encounter the adventures within.
Continuing the imaginative theme of the novel, the characters that populate the world of Fantastica are also highly creative constructs in their own right. The first chapters introduce a variety of fairy tale beings and locations, including a rock chewer, a night-hob, an Ivory Tower, a dwarf, a centaur, purple buffaloes, and green-skinned people. These outlandish elements, in addition to the mention of magic, place the story that Bastian reads firmly within the folk tale or fairy tale genre, signaling that the story will continue to defy conventional expectations while articulating a higher moral philosophy.
Although the death of Bastian’s mother is addressed implicitly rather than explicitly, this traumatic event has obviously had a profound impact on the boy’s psyche. Although he briefly mentions his mother’s death to Mr. Coreander, Bastian also hints more fully at his loneliness and his father’s grief in his frequent italicized reactions to the story of Fantastica. When reading of the Empress’s illness, for instance, Bastian recalls his mother’s operation and death, after which “everything had changed between Bastian and his father” (32). The boy notices that his father doesn’t play with him or tell him stories any longer and often just sits in front of the television without looking at it. Thus, the Nothing that threatens the lives of Fantastica and the Empress mirror the trauma and sadness that infect both Bastian and his father.
The framing of the narrative, with Bastian reading and commenting on the story as it happens, allows Michael Ende to delve into the complex interplay between fiction and reality. Indeed, while Bastian reminds himself that “the Neverending Story had nothing to do with [reality]” (23), he often considers the plot in light of his own experiences. When he realizes that Atreyu is an orphan, for instance, Bastian feels a sense of kinship with the fictional hero due to the loss of his own mother. As the story progresses, Bastian becomes more deeply invested in the story, even contemplating how he might provide the Empress with a name and timing the consumption of his own snacks with Atreyu’s pauses to rest on his long journey.
Finally, these first chapters set up Atreyu as a traditional hero who is progressing through the stages of the standard hero’s journey. He receives a call to adventure from Cairon and accepts the mission; supernatural aid is provided in the form of AURYN; and he begins to go through a series of trials, including the death of his talking horse, Artax, and his journey to find Morla. Atreyu is also juxtaposed with Bastian throughout these first chapters, and the two characters also serve as foils to one another. While Bastian is afraid, Atreyu is fearless, and while Bastian has lost his mother, Atreyu has been adopted by his entire tribe. These differences will gain much greater prominence and significance when Bastian sets out on his own mission in the second half of the novel.
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