Sandman

The Sandman is a mythological character, which, at least from the 17th century on, has associated with time, especially the time for children to go to bed. A parallel can be drawn from the Sandman to Hypnos, the god of sleep. Hypnos's mother is Nyx, the goddess of night; his twin brother is [Page 1127]Thanatos, the god of death. As the donor of sleep, Hypnos has power over gods and humans. In Homer's Iliad Hypnos usually appears in human shape, but to hide from Zeus, Hypnos disguises himself as the bird of the night. Hypnos can make people fall asleep with his pure appearance, but he sometimes uses the noise of his wings or juices out of a horn to put people to sleep.

The oldest known source of the Sandman is from Sweden. In 1691, a Sandman-like figure, called Jon Blund, was mentioned there. The Oxford English Dictionary contains an entry on the Sandman from 1772: “sandman noun (the sandman) [sing.] an imaginary man who is said to make children fall asleep.” A German dictionary entry from 1777 describes the Sandman in two versions: First, it is a man transporting and selling sand. Second, in fun, parents say to their children that the Sandman is coming when they become tired and rub their eyes, as if one had put sand into them. This explanation refers to another root of the Sandman history, the Sandmen and Sandwomen, who lived in the German Vogdand. The sand they prospected was used as scouring powder for cleaning.

In the 19th century, the Sandman character found its way into various areas of literature and music. In 1815, E. T A. Hoffmann wrote the narration The Sandman. One of its main characters is Coppelius, a cruel man who scatters sand into children's eyes until they are bleeding and even tears them out of their sockets. Like the earlier version of the Sandman, Coppelius appears in the evening time. Hans Christian Andersen's The Sandman was published in 1841. In the original text, the Sandman is called Ole Lukoje, meaning “Ole, shutter of eyes.” He sprinkles sweet milk into the eyes of children. While they are sleeping, he comes and opens his umbrella with pictures on it for the children who have behaved, so that they will have pleasant dreams. The others don't dream anything. In music, the character was used by the composer Robert Schumann, who set music to the poem “The Sandman,” by Hermann Kletke. In Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hansel und Gretel (Act Two, Scene Two) from 1893, the Sandman appears to the two frightened children who stay in the forest during the night and he sings: “The little Sandman am I. …” He wants to bring some grains of sand for their tired eyes.

Between 1988 and 1996, the American author Neil Gaiman wrote a famous comic book series called The Sandman. The protagonist of the series, who was also called Morpheus, is the ruler of the world of dreams. Also, in the 20th century, the Sandman appeared on radio and television series and shows. Every Tuesday since 1923, the radio station KHJ (Kindness, Happiness, Joy), situated in Los Angeles, has broadcasted bedtime stories with the title “Sandman.” On May 22, 1956, Radio DDR (Radio German Democratic Republic) began with the program “The Sandman Is Coming.” On television, the Sandman had his first appearance on November 22,1959, at the DFF (German Television Broadcasting). Since then, Unser Sandmaennchen (Our Little Sandman) is watched by millions of children and adults every evening at 6:50 p.m. in various countries. It is probably the most famous children's program on German television.

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