The Neverending Story, Chapter 6 - The Three Magic Gates
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In which we get a tantalizing glimpse of something heretofore only hinted.
Falkor(1) was still sound asleep when Engywook brought Atreyu back to the gnomes' cave.
Urgl has laid out a small feast(2) to help Atreyu rebuild his strength. Atreyu protests that there's not time to sit back and eat, but Urgl insists, and Engywook says they have matters to discuss. Throughout the chapter, Engywook is dismissive of his wife's abilities and strengths.
Bastian grows hungry, eats the rest of his sandwich and his apple, then realizes that was his last meal and tries not to think too hard about the logistics of the situation.
Engywook suggests Atreyu ask him questions about the Oracle, so that he doesn't just start rambling, but then tells Atreyu to start with something easier when he asks who or what Uyulala is. Atreyu and Engywook discuss the mechanics of entry to the Oracle.
The sphinxes' eyes radiate all the questions of the world, so only when they close their eyes can one proceed past that point where their eyes meet(3) and through the stone Great Riddle Gate, although they have admitted fools and the treacherous, as well as the brave and wise, and seem to have no preference for either serious reasons or flippant ones for consulting the Oracle in the first place.
Bastian hears the clock strike three, and wonders if his father has realized he's not coming home, has called the police to start a search, where they might look if he did. He paces around the attic for a bit to calm his nerves, and is startled by his reflection in a huge old mirror. He looks at himself for a moment, then says "No!" and sits back down with the book as it grows darker.(4)
Engywook and Atreyu continue discussing the path, and the second gate, the Magic Mirror gate, which is both and neither open and closed. It's a mirror that shows your innermost self, which you have to face and walk into to proceed.
Then there's the third gate, the No-Key Gate, which is just closed, with no knob and no keyhole. Engywook's theory is that it's made of Fantastican selenium(5) which responds to the will of willful creatures. He thinks that if one can forget their purpose, can come to want nothing, they may pass and speak to Uyulala.
Atreyu is worried that he won't be able to make it through all three gates, and asks again who Uyulala is. Engywook says nobody who's made it has ever told him, and asks Atreyu if he'll promise to tell what he finds beyond the No-Key Gate. Atreyu, cleverly, deduces that if nobody has told Engywook, there must be a reason, and he cannot promise without knowing why it might not work.
At this, Engywook gets angry at Atreyu, saying all he gets for his life's work is ingratitude. He goes back into the gnomes' home cave and slams the door. Urgl asks Atreyu to pay Engywook no mind, he's just set himself up for disappointment, looking for such an answer as he does. Atreyu says of course, and thanks Urgl, and asks her to pass on his deepest gratitude to Engywook. He says if it's allowed, he will try to tell if he comes back. Urgl quietly wishes him luck as he walks toward the first gate, saying he'll need lots of it.
Atreyu, for his part, feels fear as he approaches the sphinxes, though it doesn't stop his course. It grows, and grows, and just as he's about to feel he can't go on, he feels it lift, and knows he will never fear again.(6) Somehow, the sphinxes have let him pass.
He sees the Magic Mirror gate, and when he walks up, he sees an image that very much resembles Bastian's hideaway.
Bastian, reading this, freaks out a little, and then tells himself to pull it together, and keeps reading, thinking it would be wonderful if they had heard of him in Fantastica.(7)
A faint smile of astonishment played over Atreyu's lips as he passed into the mirror image -- he was rather surprised that he was succeeding so easily in something that others had found insuperably(8) difficult. But on the way through he felt a strange, prickly shudder. He had no suspicion of what had really happened to him.
For when he emerged on the far side of the Magic Mirror Gate, he had lost all memory of himself, of his past life, aims, and purposes. He had forgotten the Great Quest that had brought him there, and he didn't even know his own name. He was like a newborn child.
Baby-Brain-Atreyu has forgotten why he should go through the No-Key Gate, but in seeing it, he becomes fascinated with it. He considers leaving, for which Bastian yells at him not to, but then returns to it with curiosity. As he strokes it, it opens a crack, and then more, and soon he sees a strange place filled with columns and staircases and pillars but with no roof, and he passes through the No-Key Gate, which closes behind him.
The clock strikes four. It's getting too dark for Bastian to read. He looks for a light switch, to no avail. But, he has matches in his pocket. He finds the candelabra he saw earlier, and lights all seven candles on it. By this light, he can read.(9)
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(1) Illuminated F sits atop what I assume to be the Magic Mirror Gate.
(2) Pun fully intended, on my part and I'm sure on Ende's and Manheim's.
(3) Not asking for much, are they?
(4) It doesn't feel as dark in November as it does in January or February, for most of the Northern Hemisphere, but it is. (Source: I have some sort of seasonal affective thing, but it's literally tied to daylight hours, not to the winter season keeping me indoors, so it hits for about a month on either side of the solstices. I'm just coming out of the summer daylight-hour-induced insomnia as I write this, in fact.)
(5) Selenium is the name of a real element in our world. It's not particularly special to us, we need trace amounts but it can be very toxic in even small quantities. One is left to wonder (me, I am "one") what's supposed to be so special about Fantastican selenium, or if it was just selected because it's an element most people aren't familiar with.
(6) This is so often framed as a positive thing in children's literature. But, fear preserves, in moderation. Just like pain sometimes tells you the limit of what's safe after an injury. I just think it's rather reductive to suggest that all fear is negative and to be avoided.
(7) So, on the one hand, I think I understand where this sentiment comes from, because who didn't want to be special as a kid? Hell, who doesn't want to be special as an adult? But a tiny, cynical part of me is still angry at the kids in stories who get to be when I didn't. It's not their fault, it's the fault of trends in children's literature that make what is escapism for some and cruel teasing of what could but does not exist for others. I had a bit of a troubled childhood, yes, why do you ask…
(8) Insuperable - impossible to overcome.
(9) Buddy, you could have just lit the one at a time, don't you understand conservation of resources?!
