Category Archives: Comics
Sandman
Also Known As: John, Jon Blund, Klaas Vaak, Ole Lukøje
Sweet dreams are made of these…
The Sandman is a figure mainly from Western and Northern European folklore who is responsible for sprinkling the sands of sleep so that people can dream. At its heart, it’s a very simple piece of folklore that doesn’t seem to have much more than that. Rather, I should say that the Sandman is a deceptively major figure of folklore who appears to be a minor power. How much relevance he will have depends on the nature of the stories he is found in and those can vary widely.
Description: It seems as if a lot of popular media and books will have a description of the sandman as a human-looking male wearing a Victorian-style sleeping gown and nightcap with tassel. He might have a bag of sand or just magically produce it from pockets or thin air.
Then you have other sources of media and books that really play with his description and the Sandman will look like however they want him to look. Since the Sandman’s realm is the Land of Nod or Realm of Dreams, he could probably look however he wanted and suited the needs of the story being told.
The Land of Nod
Not the biblical Land of Nod where Cain was exiled to, but as in the Land of Sleep and Dreams.
First, we can thank Dean Jonathon Swift for this delightful play and pun on words with his 1738 book “A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation.”
At any rate, the realm of Dreams, Dream Realm, or Land of Nod is sometimes shown as being the Sandman’s domain where he reigns all-powerful and supreme, so long as people remain asleep or he doesn’t leave it.
Since it’s dreams, the place can look like anything and anywhere, and the Sandman can look however he wants and suit the needs of who’s writing the stories.
Here’s Sand In Your Eyes!
The easiest explanation for a Sandman is the morning crust or rheum that people wake up with around their eyes. It’s common, it happens to everyone, and way back when it was easy to believe and explain to young children where this discharge came from by saying that the Sandman brought it as the dust he sprinkles in people’s eyes so they can dream.
Quite frankly, calling it Sleep or Sand is a lot more poetical than calling it rheum, dried discharge, or mucus.
Getting A Good Night’s Rest
In many places, the Sandman is known by different names and has slightly different appearances.
Canada – Nilus the Sandman was a television series that aired in the 1990’s.
Denmark – The famous author, Hans Christian Andersen’s 1841 story called Ole Lukøje about the Sandman who sprinkles sand in children’s eyes to sleep. The name Ole Lukøje means “Close Eye” in Danish. Ole Lukøje carries two umbrellas, one of which has pictures underneath, that when he opens it over good children, they have good dreams. The other umbrella is blank, this one Ole Lukøje’s hold over naughty children so they will have a heavy, dreamless sleep. Instead of using sand, Ole Lukøje squirts milk into children’s eyes… a little strange. At the end of the story, it is revealed that Ole Lukøje has a brother, who only visits once, bringing Death. The brother’s name is also Ole Lukøie.
Dutch – In the Netherlands and places like South Africa, the Sandman is known as Klaas Vaak.
Germany – Unser Sandmännchen (Our Little Sandman) is very similar to Anderson’s Ole Lukøje and is part of a television series that has been broadcast since 1959. The show has also been adapted into comic book form.
Scandinavia – The Sandman is the traditional folk character who sprinkles sand or dust into people’s eyes, so they sleep and dream. He’s a feature of many children’s stories.
Sweden – In English translations, the Sandman is known as John or Jon Blund.
The Stuff Of Nightmares
Every now and then, someone likes to write a story featuring the Sandman in a more sinister light. Okay… that makes sense when the story of the Sandman likely comes from exasperated parents trying to get their children to go to sleep, that some variations could hold similarities to stories of the Bogeyman.
Bonhome Sept-Heur – Meaning the Seven O’Clock Guy, this is a French-Canadian figure who will throw sand in children’s eyes who refuse to go to sleep so he can blind them before carrying them away in his bag.
Der Sandmann – Written by E.T.A. Hoffman in 1816 is just one such book wherein the Sandman throws sand in the eyes of children who refuse to go to sleep, causing their eyes to fall out. These would then be collected up and fed to the Sandman’s children on the Moon. Lovely…
In case you’re curious, in 1993, Paul Berry would adapt this story into a stop-motion short that won Craft Prize for “Best Animation” and got an Oscar nomination for “Best Animated Short Film.”
Mos Ene – Meaning Ene the Elder is a Romanian folklore figure very similar to the character described in Der Sandmann.
What Dreams May Come…
DC Comics – there have been a few characters who have carried the name of Sandman, at least one appears to be the actual folkloric figure where the other used hypnotic sand to control people. The latter appears in an episode from the 1960’s Batman series.
Marvel Comics – The Sandman appears as a villain to the hero Spider-man. It must be stressed and noted that this version of Sandman has nothing to do with dreams, just sand, turning into, manipulating, and controlling it.
Marvel has another villain from its Journey Into Mystery comics in 1961. This Sandman was an alien who crash-landed on earth.
The Sandman – This is a 75-part comic book series written by Neil Gaiman that many people are probably familiar with. The title character rules over a dream world and appears to various characters in the series in different guises and names.
There are several other comics that feature a Sandman character.
Miles To Go Before I Sleep…
There are several different songs and poems that all reference Sandman to one degree or another. The most famous of these is the 1954 song “Mister Sandman” by The Chordettes. Other songs and poems will have the Sandman as a focus or just briefly mentioned as allusions to sleep and dreams. Of course, there is Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” that isn’t very pleasant as it sings of dreams turning into nightmares.
There are also a few movies that the Sandman has appeared, Disney’s The Santa Clause series where he is a member of the Legendary Council, and Dreamwork’s Rise of the Guardians where the Sandman is one such member and Guardian of Dreams.
Der Sandmann Kommt
Many of our stories for the Sandman begin to appear in the 18th century. Though the stories are likely older as a means of trying to explain the sleep or rheum, crust on one’s eyelids in the morning. Stories of the Sandman could have circulated as cautionary tales to try and get children to behave, especially if Hoffman’s Der Sandmann is used as a source.
In Germany, the idioms for “der Sandmann kommt,” meaning “the Sandman comes” have been found in German to French dictionaries dated to 1771. It’s used to describe a person who’s about to fall asleep. A later 1798 German grammar book posits the idiom as a phrase used by adults in a humorous manner towards children who are tired. That’s just German culture and the understanding is that such an idiom is likely to have been around a while in usage before making its way into dictionaries and grammar books.
Greek Origins?
Maybe? That seems to stretch it a bit. Though it brings us back to Hans Christian Anderson’s Ole Lukøje and his brother of the same name. Where one brings sleep and the other brings death.
In Greek mythology, Nyx, the goddess of Night, and Erebus, the god of Darkness have two children by the name of Hypnos, the god of Sleep, and Thanatos, the god of Death. These two brothers live near each other in the Underworld. Which suddenly makes Anderson’s tale have a lot more sense.
Taking Hypnos’ Roman name or equivalent deity, Somnus, three of his children are Morpheus, the God of Dreams, Phobetor or Frightener who takes various animal forms, and Phantasos who is Fantasy or Imagination. It needs to be noted that these three of Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos make their first appearances in Ovid’s Metamorphosis and are likely literary concepts used to try and break down, better explain dreams.
It makes it easy to see the Sandman in European folklore as an amalgam of all these deities or he’s just Hypnos/Somnus in the modern day.
Narahdarn
I must confess, I came across the figure of Narahdarn when a friend posted a link to a series of pictures for a number of different mythological deities grouped by pantheon. Yes, said link and pictures were for the Marvel Comics versions. Not planning to turn it down, I kept a copy of the pictures to use for later inspiration of “what to do next” for Brickthology.
In Australian mythology, there is a story of Narahdarn the Bat who is associated as a symbol of Death. His other thing is honey, the guy loves it, enough to kill for it.
Narahdarn The Bat
This story was the most referenced source for Narahdarn that I could find.
As I said already, Narahdarn loves honey, so much so he was bound and determined to himself some. Unable to locate a Bee Hive, Narahdarn set out to follow a bee to its nest. While following the bee, Narahdarn’s two wives accompanied him with jars or pots to carry home honey in.
Narahdarn followed the bee to it’s nest and marked it with dagger so he could find it later and went to get his wives who had fallen behind. He hurried the two to the tree with the bee hive in it and demanded that one of the wives climb the tree to chop out some of the honey combs. The first wife who climbed up, got her arm stuck fast within the tree hollow or split.
To the first wife’s horror, Narahdarn’s answer to get her free from being stuck was to chop off her arm. Once she realized what he was doing, the first wife began to protest. Narahdarn didn’t listen and proceeded with chopping off the arm. The first wife of shock and Narahdarn brought her body down from the tree.
Laying down the first wife’s body, Narahdarn commanded his second wife to climb up the tree. Horrified the sight, the second wife protested, saying that the bees were likely to have moved the honey to a different tree.
Refusing to accept the excuses, Narahdarn brandished his knife and forced the second wife to climb up the tree. Finding the same notch in the tree that the first wife had found, made all the more obvious with the bloody limb hanging from the hole, the second wife reached her arm in for the honey within.
Like the first wife, the second wife was now stuck too. Narahdarn chopped off the second wife’s arm as well and yelled for her to come down. When the second wife didn’t answer, Narahdarn realized what he had done and became scared. He quickly climbed down the tree, laying the bodies of both wives next to each other. No longer wanting any honey, Narahdarn ran from the place, running back to the tribe.
Back at the tribe’s camp, two of the little sisters for the wives came out to greet Narahdarn. Naturally they believed the wives, their sisters would be with Narahdarn. So it’s no wonder they were surprised to see him return alone and not just that, but covered in blood. Narahdarn’s face had a harsh look to him.
Alarmed, the two young sisters ran for their mother. Upon hearing the two girls, the mother went out to confront Narahdarn, asking him where her daughters were. Narahdarn refused to answer, rebuking the mother with saying to go ask the bee, Wurranunnah.
The mother returned to her tribe, telling them of her missing daughters and how Narahdarn would tell her nothing about their disappearances. She was certain that they were truly dead given how Narahdarn’s arms had been covered in blood. The chief of the tribe listened to the Mother and her cries that came after. The chief said that the daughters would surely be avenged and that the young warriors of the tribe would retrace Narahdarn’s tracks to discover their fate. If it was found that they were dead, then Narahdarn would be punished at a corrobboree (a special ceremony).
It didn’t take long for the young warriors to track Narahdarn’s tracks or to find the bodies of the daughters. Just as quickly, the young warriors return with their news and soon enough the corrobboree was held. Narahdarn joined the men, not realizing what was in store for him. As he danced towards a particularly large fire, the Mother let out a loud shriek and when Narahdarn turned to move away from the fire, he found himself blocked in. The men seized Narahdarn and threw him into the fire where he died.
Not the most pleasant of ways to go, but consider that justice served.
The Introduction Of Death
This next story when I found and came across seems rather Biblical in nature.
By this story, the first man in Australia was named Ber-rook-boorn, created by the god Baiame. After placing Ber-rook-boorn in the area they were to live in, Baiame placed his sacred mark on a yarran tree which happened to have a bees’ nest in it.
Baiame told the first man and woman that this yarran tree was his, along with the bees in it. That Ber-rook-boorn and his wife could take food from anywhere in the land that they wanted, just not this tree or the honey produced by the bees within. Baiame warned the two that a grave evil would come upon them all people who followed after.
With that, Baiame disappeared and Ber-rook-boorn and his wife obeyed as told, for a short time at least. For one day, while the woman was out gathering firewood, she found herself near Baiame’s tree where she found many branches on the ground. Looking up, the woman realized she was beneath the sacred tree of Baiame’s. Scared, the woman still managed to gather up an armful of branches.
Soon, the woman felt a presence over her and she looked up again. This time she saw the bees buzzing around the tree’s trunk and drops of honey that glistened from within the tree. The woman stared hungrily at the honey. She had had honey before, even if only once and surely there was enough honey, a little wouldn’t hurt or be missed. Letting her branches fall, the woman climbed the tree, determined to get herself some honey.
Once she up in the tree, the woman was greeted to a flurry of leathery wings as Narahdarn the Bat swooped down at her. Baiame had placed Narahdarn there to guard his tree. Now because of her action, the woman had released Narahdarn, bringing with him and symbolizing death. This ended a Golden Age for Ber-rook-boorn and the woman. The yarran tree, it seems wept tears for the loss of man’s immortality. These tears would become a red gum that can be found on the yarran tree.
As I said, the story sounds very Biblical and similar to the story told of Adam and Eve in the garden, how they could eat of all the fruit except from one tree and when Eve did, it’s at the snake’s suggestion and with it, when she does eat the forbidden fruit, brings death to the world. I know there’s far more to the story, but that’s just in brief for right here.
Marvel Deity
Making only one appearance within the pages of Marvel comics, specifically the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe 2006 #3, Narahdarn is presented as an Australian god of Death.
Disney’s Hercules
In the cartoon series of the same name, there is an episode where Hercules travels to Australia and goes up against Narahdarn as a god of Death.
Spartoi
Etymology – Sown-Ones or Sown Men. From the Greek word: σπείρω, speírō, meaning: “to sow.”
Also known as: Σπαρτοί (Spartos), Σπαρτος (Spartoi), Spartus, Spartes, Sparti, Serpent’s Race, Ophion’s Race, Gegenees (Earth-Born), Gigantes, Terrigenae (Earth-Born)
In Greek mythology, the Spartoi are the earth-born warriors of the war god, Ares. When the teeth of the slain dragon Dracon were planted in a field sacred to Ares, a warrior springs up from the ground fully grown, armed, and ready for battle from each tooth. As such, the Spartoi are seen as the sons of Ares.
Spartoi Of Thebes
The famous hero Cadmus is perhaps the most well-known for having planted and created such an army in his founding of Thebes.
As the story goes, Cadmus was the son of King Agenor and Queen Telephassa in Tyre. After his sister Europa had been kidnapped by the god Zeus, Agenor sent Cadmus and his other brothers to search for her. Eventually, all the brothers gave up their search and began to find other places to settle since they couldn’t return home to Tyre.
Cadmus had been told by an oracle at Delphi, to found a city where ever a cow would stop and lay down. After a good long while, the cow finally lay down and Cadmus sent his men off to the nearby spring of Ismene to fetch water as part of sacrificing the cow to Athena. As it would be, this particular spring was guarded by a dragon or serpent, Drakon that killed many of Cadmus’ men before he finally slew it with his sword.
Now a couple of different things happened. First, Athena appeared to Cadmus and gave him half of the dragon’s teeth, instructing him to plant them. As Cadmus did so on the Aonian plain, from each tooth sprang up a fully armed warrior. Fearing for his life, Cadmus threw a stone in amongst the warriors and they began to fight each other. Each thinking the stone had been thrown by another warrior. These warriors fought until there were only five of them left standing. Sometimes, depending on who’s telling the story, Athena instructed Cadmus to leave only five living Spartoi. These five remaining warriors’ names were: Chthonius, Echion, Hyperenor, Pelorus, and Udeus. At Cadmus’ instructions, they helped him to found and build the city of Thebes.
Secondly, with the dragon being sacred to Ares, Cadmus was forced to be a servant to the god for an “everlasting year,” such a time period was the equivalent of eight years as repayment for killing it. At the end of that time, Cadmus was married to Harmonia, the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. Cadmus and Harmonia had four daughters, Agave, Autonoe, Ino and Semele.
Hellanicus’s Version
In his writings, when Cadmus planted the dragon’s teeth, only five warriors sprang up from the ground. There was no fighting it out among them. In addition, Hellanicus has Zeus step in to save Cadmus from the Ares’ wrath as the war god wanted to kill the mortal. And the Spartoi, Echion marries Cadmus’ daughter Agave and their son, Pentheus succeeds Cadmus to become king.
Royal Family Of Thebes
The five surviving Spartoi from the dragon’s teeth that Cadmus sowed, go on to become the ancestors and founding families of Thebes. Additionally, whenever the Theban seer summons the ghosts of heroes past, it is the Spartoi who appear.
The descendants of the Spartoi all bear distinctive birth marks that identified them as such. Some thought is that these birth marks looked like serpents or dragons. Another source sites that this birth mark appeared as a spear.
Khthonios – (Χθονιος, Chthonius) “Of the Earth.” He has two known sons, Nykteus and Lykos. His granddaughter Nykteis marries Polydorus from Ekhiôn’s line and uniting these two families to the royal ruling line of Cadmus for Thebes.
Ekhiôn – (Εχιων, Echion – Latin) “Of the Viper,” He marries Agave, Cadmus’ daughter and their son Pentheus goes on to become king after Cadmus. He also believed to have dedicated a temple to Cybele in Boeotia.
Further descendants of Ekhiôn after Pentheus’ reign are: Polydorus who married Nykteis, a daughter of Nykteus, the son of Khthonios. They in turn had Labdakos who died soon after Pentheus’ death but not before leaving behind a year-old son Laios. At this time, Thebes was ruled by a regent, Lykos until Laios came of age.
Hyperênôr – (Ὑπερηνωρ, Hyperenor) “Overbearing”
Pelôros – (Πελωρος, Pelorus, Pelor) “Huge” or “Gigantic”
Oudaios – (Ουδαιος, Udaeus – Latin) “Of the Earth.” From his linage, there is a soothsayer, Teiresias, son of Everes and the nymph Khariklo.
Seven Against Thebes
In Aeschylus’ tragedy from 5th century B.C.E., the whole dilemma comes about because Oedipus marries his mother Jocasta without knowing it. Oedipus and Jocasta had four children of which, the incest and inbreeding caused huge problems for the people of Thebes as they saw their crops begin to fail. In response, Oedipus blinded himself out of shame and cursed his two sons: Eteocles and Polynices to figure out who would succeed as ruler of Thebes through war.
All started out well as at first, Eteocles and Polynices decided they would avoid any bloodshed over their kingdom by alternating who ruled each year. Eventually, Eteocles refused to step down as king and his brother Polynices raised an army to confront his brother, leading to the story of the Seven Against Thebes.
Much of Aeschylus’ tragedy is mainly dialogue that delves into depth many of the characters of his story until it resolves at the end with a messenger coming and saying that the army has left and both Eteocles and Polynices are now dead.
There are a number of scenes in which descendants of the Spartoi are made mention of. One scene has a Tydeus, son of Astakos and ultimately descended from the Spartoi is set to guard a gate. Another scene has a Megareus, also descended from the Spartoi sent out to confront Eteoklos after he taunts Ares, the god of War as being unable to throw him from the battlements.
When the Thebans consulted their prophets, Teiresias told them that they would win the battle if Kreon’s son, Menoikeus and the father of Jocasta, a descendant of the Spartoi, offered up his life to Ares at the spring of Dirke or the Dragon’s hole. Menoikeus did so, pulling out a sword that was already stabbed into him and killing himself. Another variation to this story has Menoikeus throwing himself from a wall to ensure the Thebans victory after hearing Teiresias’ prophesy how if any of the descendants of the Spartoi should die, Thebes would be saved.
The Haunted Fields Of Thebes
Continuing Teiresias’ part in the story of the Seven Against Thebes, the Roman tragedy of Oedipus has the seer performing Necromancy and summoning the ghosts of the Spartoi, the Theban ancestors aid their living kinsmen against their attackers.
In Statius’ poem Thebaid the summoned ghosts of Spartoi are a bit vampiric as they are made mention of draining the blood of the living. That could just be the poetic phrasing on his account for the nature of war. Statius also continues to mention in his poem how the fields surrounding Thebes, particularly the plain sacred to Ares were haunted and the ghosts of Spartoi would appear to frighten off Farmers from tilling the land.
Other Descendants Of The Spartoi
There is a grave marker for the historical Theban Epaminondas with a shield of a dragon or serpent on it. The relief symbol indicates that Epaminondas was descended from the Spartoi.
The Roman mythographer, Pseudo-Hyginus in his Fabulae, when writing about Antigona (Antigone) and her son Haemon. When Haemon came of age, he went to Thebes for their annual Games and Kreon, his grandfather recognized him due to his birthmark that all those of Spartoi linage have.
In Plato’s Sophist, he comments that the Spartoi were so earthy and unable to grasp any philosophical concepts. Saying that anything they couldn’t hold in their hands, had no existence.
Spartoi Of Colchis
As to the other half of the dragon’s teeth that Athena hung onto, she gave those to King Aeetes of Colchis near the Black Sea. When Jason and his Argonauts came to Colchis seeking out the Golden Fleece, King Aeetes set Jason what he thought would be an impossible task in order to earn it. He was to sow the dragon’s teeth and slay all the arising Spartoi from them before the end of the day.
Jason was instructed by King Aeetes to sow the teeth of a Drakon in a field sacred to the god Ares. In this case, the task wasn’t as simple as that of plowing the field, Jason was to use a pair of metallic bulls who breathed fire constructed by the god Hephaestus to plow and sow the dragon’s teeth. Making the task more daunting is that the bulls had never been tamed or yoked for doing farm labor before. So much of Jason’s time, with the aid of his fellow Argonauts, was spent in taming these fearsome, wild bulls.
As the field was plowed, Jason sowed the dragon’s teeth and as it happened before with Cadmus, an army of Spartoi rose up from the earth, fully armed and ready for battle. Just as Cadmus had done before with his task, Jason also threw a stone into the middle of the newly sprung up Spartoi. As with the previous group of Spartoi, this new group also fought each other over who threw the stone. In some instances of this story’s retelling, Jason has the help of a witch, Medeia, who uses salves, herbs and charms to protect him from the spears and weapons of the Spartoi. As this new sprung group of Spartoi rose up and fought each other, the hero Jason slew and attacked many of them in order to fulfill his task from King Aeetes and win from him the Golden Fleece.
To Sow Dragon’s Teeth
This phrase has come to be a poetic way saying that someone is fomenting chaos, contention and stirring up strife or war. More specifically, the phrase refers to a fight or problem that is to have already been taken care of and laid to rest yet pops back up anew. The original example being Cadmus’ slaying the dragon and then sowing its teeth to create an army ready to fight. In other words, the problems of the past keep getting brought up and no one is willing to move on.
Poetically, the term Dragon’s Teeth refers to subjects or people of civil strife, for whatever cause and reason cause people to have to rise up and take arms.
Other phrases or words from the story of the Theban Spartoi is the word Cadmeian (or Kadmeian). It is used to mean any victory in war often has more losses instead of gains.
Marvel Comics And Guardians Of The Galaxy
For those who’ve enjoyed the movie and read the comics, the Spartoi are an alien and cousin race to the Shi’ar with whom they have had unsteady alliances with in the past. The Spartoi come from a planet known as Spartax and have built an empire that spans hundreds of worlds. Compared to humans, the Spartoi are very long lived. J’son or Jason of Sparta and a prince is the father of Peter Quill or Star Lord in the comics. The basic concept of the Spartoi in Marvel Comics was very closely tied to Greek mythology.
Brickthology 