Sandman
The Sandman is a character in popular Western folklore who brings good sleep and dreams by sprinkling magic sand on to the eyes of children.
Representation in traditional folklore
Traditionally the Sandman is a character in many children's stories, invoked to help (or lull) children to sleep. He is said to sprinkle sand or dust on or into the eyes of the child at night to bring on dreams and sleep. The grit or 'sleep' in ones eyes upon waking is supposed to be the result of the Sandman's work the previous evening.
Ole-Lukøie, one of Hans Christian Andersen's more obscure folk tales, told of the different dreams the Sandman gave to a young boy in a week.
E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote an inverse depiction of the lovable character in a story called Der Sandmann, which showed how sinister such a character could be made. According to the protagonist's nurse, he threw sand in the eyes of children who wouldn't sleep, with the result of those eyes falling out and being collected by the Sandman, who then takes the eyes to his iron nest on the moon, and uses them to feed his children. The protagonist of the story grows to associate this nightmarish creature with the genuinely sinister figure of his father's associate Coppelius. The late stop-motion animator, Paul Berry (whose credits include "The Nightmare Before Christmas") produced an award-winning animated short - "The Sandman" - based on Hoffman's story. See entry under "Depictions on film."
Depictions on film
"The Sandman" - 1992, 35mm, 10 min, color, puppet animation; Directed by Paul Berry; Production Company - Batty Berry Mackinnon Productions; Produced by Colin Batty, Paul Berry, and Ian Mackinnon; From the story by E.T.A. Hoffman; Animated by Paul Berry.
Depictions in contemporary music
The sandman character as been portrayed in a number of songs including Please Mr. Sandman by Jimmy Donley, Mr. Sandman by the Chordettes, Mr. Sandman by Blind Guardian (in a slightly different form), Sandman by America, Enter Sandman by Metallica, and Mein Herz brennt by Rammstein, in which the Sandman is impersonated and represented rather sinisterly. The sandman also is mentioned in the opening line of the Roy Orbison hit song, In Dreams and Don McLean refers positively to the Sandman in the chorus to Wonderful Baby ("Sandman says maybe he'll take you above"). The Sandman also speaks in one passage of Mad Man Moon on the album Trick of the Tail by Genesis.
Depictions in modern fiction
- Various comic book characters have been named after the Sandman, with two from DC Comics, the Silver Age Sandman and Neil Gaiman's Dream of The Endless being based directly on the folklore.
- The Sandman is briefly mentioned in Terry Pratchett's novel Soul Music, where we're told that, on the Discworld, he sends people to sleep with sand, without taking it out of his sack (i.e. knocking them unconscious with a sandbag).
- A Sandman was highlighted in The WB television series Charmed, in the episode San Francisco Dreamin'. In the episode the Sandman is shown as a positive magical creature who allows beings to work out their subconcious problems through their dreams.
- The Powerpuff Girls once battled the Sandman after he decided to force the entire world to sleep, so he wouldn't have to keep putting them to sleep himself. This Sandman was presented as a small, fairylike old man in comically exaggerated pajamas. This episode was unique among the series because all of the dialogue rhymed.
- In the 1980s cartoon, The Real Ghostbusters, a renegade sandman goes on a little lunatic rampage putting Manhattan's people to sleep for 500 years before being stopped. When confronted he turned all the living dreams into nightmare as a defensive strategy.
- In an episode of the television show Martin Mystery called "Attack of the Sandman" The sandman is portrayed as a malevolent creature that takes sadistic enjoyment out of trapping people in their nightmares.
See also
References
Tatar, M., 2003, "Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales", Princeton University Press.
Hoffman, E.T.A., 1817, Der Sandmann in "Die Nachtstücke".
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