Sandman

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The Sandman is a giving character in popular Western folklore who brings good sleep and dreams by sprinkling magic sand on to the eyes of children.

Contents 1 Representation in traditional folklore 2 Depictions in modern fiction 3 Depictions in film and television 4 Depictions in contemporary music 5 References

[edit] Representation in traditional folklore

Traditionally he 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' (rheum) in one's 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.

[edit] Depictions in modern fiction

• Various comic book characters have been named after the Sandman, with two from DC Comics, the various Sandman superheroes 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).

• The character of 'Karla', the Russian master spy in John Le Carre's Smiley's People is nicknamed the Sandman. As George Smiley explains "You know why they call Karla the Sandman, don't you? He has a way of putting to sleep [killing] whomever gets too close to him."

• Sandman appears in the Specter dark fantasy The Myth Hunters by Christopher Golden. He is a vicious character that kills children and steals their eyes.

[edit] Depictions in film and television

• The Sandman (1992) short movie (35mm, 10 min, color, puppet animation); based on the Der Sandmann by E.T.A. Hoffman; directed by Paul Berry.
• In the Nickelodeon television show Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Sabrina gets a job as a sandman putting people to sleep in the mortal realm through an Other Realm job agency. She breaks the rules of her job, however, by interfering with her boyfriend Harvey's dreams, and also those of her headmaster, Mr. Kraft. Mr Kraft has nightmares about stacking peas and as revenge for giving Sabrina detention, she uses a pea-shooter to terrorise him.
• In the Nickelodeon cartoon The Fairly OddParents, the Sandman (voiced by Jackie Mason) is revealed to be a fairy who works as the Mattress King, a mattress salesman. All sleep-related wishes granted by fairy godparents had to be approved by the Sandman.
• The Nickelodeon show Are You Afraid of the Dark?, features the Sandman (played by Bobcat Goldthwait). This Sandman however was evil, he tried to hold a fairy tale obsessed girl captive in the land of nod, where fairy tales have an evil side.

• A depiction of the sandman appears 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 subconscious 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, fairy-like old man in comically exaggerated pajamas. This episode was unique among the series because the entire dialogue rhymed.

• Courage the Cowardly Dog encountered the Sandman, who wanted to take Muriel. He was depicted as a skinny man in a mask and purple pajama-like tights. He threw glowing blue sand into people's eyes, causing them to immediately fall asleep.

• In the 1980s cartoon The Real Ghostbusters a renegade sandman goes on a 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 the animated series Martin Mystery, an episode featured the Sandman as a creature who trapped people in their nightmares.

• Sandmännchen is a German TV series about the Sandman. Before reunification in 1991 there were two versions - one West German and one East German. The East German version is the most well-known and popular, and it was also the only one to be continued after the German reunification. After the fall of communism, the DDR version of Sandmännchen has been seen as program which was used for propaganda purposes, depicting an idealised version of communist society and technological progress in the DDR and other communist countries. When the first DDR citizen went to space in 1988 he brought a Sandman doll and held a televised speech to the children of the DDR. The USSR kosmonauts had brought a female doll named Mascha. This was depicted in the movie Good Bye Lenin!, where the main character is also a fan.

• A character known as "Stephen The Sandman" has appeared in The Life and Times of Juniper Lee.

• In the 2002 film The Santa Clause 2 and the third installment The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, the Sandman is portrayed as a member of the Council of Legendary Figures. He is portrayed in these films by Michael Dorn.

• In the Special Unit 2 episode "The Grain", the Sandman is depicted as a link, made out of sand, who enters a person's body while they are sleeping, possessing them and unleashing their id.

• In the 2000-2002 series Dark Angel (starting in Season 2), a character known as Sandman (whose true last name was "Sandeman") was noted as being the father of all the transgenics.

• The 1976 science fiction film Logan's Run features police-like characters who are called Sandman. Their job it is to track and kill "runners," people who do not submit to the mandatory "carousel," being the fake lottery to be re-born, at the age of 30.

• Spiderman 3 (2007) One of Spiderman's villain enemies is Sandman. A man that can morph into any shape of sand.

• Smallville - Clark Kent encounters an enemy similar to that of Spiderman's enemy Sandman that can take any shape of sand (in an episode of Season 4). Although he is never actually refered to as "Sandman" in the show.

[edit] Depictions in contemporary music

The sandman character as been portrayed in different guises in a number of songs:

• "Blood Red Sandman" by Lordi — In this song the Sandman is impersonated and represented rather sinisterly.
• "Enter Sandman" by Metallica
• "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison — The sandman is mentioned in the opening line.
• "Mad Man Moon" by Genesis (album: A Trick of the Tail) — The sandman speaks in one passage of the song.
• "Mein Herz brennt"' by Rammstein
• "Mr. Sandman" by The Chordettes
• "Mr. Sandman" by Blind Guardian (which conveys a very different tone)
• "Please Mr. Sandman" by Jimmy Donley
• "Sandman" by America (album: America)
• "Wonderful Baby" by Don McLean — This song refers positively to the Sandman in the chorus: "Sandman says maybe he'll take you above".
• "Song Of The Sandman" by Enya
• "Sleep Song" by Graham Nash
• "Monarch Of The Sleeping Marches" by Disincarnate
• ETA Hoffman's story was adapted into a chamber musical titled, "The Sandman", by Northwestern University performance studies major, Tyler Beattie.

[edit] References

• Tatar, Maria [1987] (2003). Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691014876. 
• Hoffman, E.T.A. (1817). "Der Sandmann", Die Nachtstücke.