1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:09,920 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel Bomb here. You know, when you wake up 3 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:12,200 Speaker 1: in the morning and you have all that crusty stuff 4 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 1: in your eyes, that's called room And it's just the 5 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:17,799 Speaker 1: remnants of a liquid coating that protects your eyes that 6 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 1: you blink away when you're awake, but that collects and 7 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:24,240 Speaker 1: dries when you sleep. But if you were a child 8 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:26,920 Speaker 1: living in central or northern Europe a couple of centuries ago, 9 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 1: ground ups would have probably told you that when you 10 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:31,520 Speaker 1: woke up in the morning with crusty eyelashes, it was 11 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: because the Sandman had been to your bedside, sprinkling his 12 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 1: magical sleepy dust in your eyes, spinning the yarns of 13 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:42,040 Speaker 1: your dreams. This might have caused you some alarm, because 14 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:45,640 Speaker 1: the figure of the Sandman isn't all magical, benevolent snooze dust. 15 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:48,479 Speaker 1: It turns out, as much as the Sandman is to 16 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: sleep as Santa is to gift, giving, a sandman's shadow 17 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:55,200 Speaker 1: side is at least as conspicuous as Santa's penchant for 18 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,680 Speaker 1: shady around the clock surveillance and distribution of switches and 19 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 1: coal to naughty kids. We spoke about how the Sandman 20 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: myths got their start with Dr Maria Tatar, a professor 21 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:09,919 Speaker 1: of German studies, folklore, and children's literature at Harvard University. 22 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:12,840 Speaker 1: She said, it's a bit difficult to trace his origins 23 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:16,040 Speaker 1: because stories about the Sandman are part of an oral tradition. 24 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: I feel confident that there are similar figures in other 25 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:21,720 Speaker 1: cultures because so many of the jolly, child friendly creatures 26 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: are shadowed by a disciplinary, evil person who invented the Sandman. 27 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:30,120 Speaker 1: Who knows the Sandman's first parade onto the page was 28 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:34,120 Speaker 1: an eighteenth century German dictionaries which briefly described the German 29 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:38,040 Speaker 1: idiom der Zantman Comte Sandman is Coming, which was used 30 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,720 Speaker 1: to tease children who were particularly sleepy looking. The first 31 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: story about the Sandman and his doings was published in 32 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 1: eighteen eighteen by German writer E. T. A. Hoffman. Der 33 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: Sandman begins with an exasperated nurse telling a story about 34 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:54,560 Speaker 1: a mythical creature who throws sand in the eyes of 35 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: little children who won't go to sleep, causing their eyes 36 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:00,480 Speaker 1: to fall out of their sockets. The sandman then collects 37 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: the eyeballs in a sack and carries them to his 38 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:04,200 Speaker 1: home on the dark side of the moon, where he 39 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:07,919 Speaker 1: feeds them to his children. Tatar said Dr Zentman became 40 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: an important story in psychoanalytic circles because Freud made so 41 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:15,079 Speaker 1: much of it in his essay The Uncanny Hoffman's story 42 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:17,880 Speaker 1: is a fairy tale for grown ups. Really, his sandman 43 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: is this dark, predatory monster. It definitely wasn't written for children. 44 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 1: Keep in mind many of the things we consider kids 45 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 1: stories today of snow white sleeping beauty were originally told 46 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:32,560 Speaker 1: by and two adults, though of course not all fairy 47 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: tales were for grown ups. In eighteen forty one, Hans 48 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:37,960 Speaker 1: Christian Andersen published a fairy tale meant for a young 49 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: audience called Old locai Ole, being a Danish first name 50 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 1: and Loca translating to shut your eye. The eponymous character, 51 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: always dressed in silk pajamas and carrying a colorful umbrella, 52 00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:53,640 Speaker 1: is never referred to by Anderson as the Sandman, but 53 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 1: the Sandman is the title most English translations assigned to 54 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:01,120 Speaker 1: the fairy tale. Old doesn't throws and into children's eyes, 55 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,240 Speaker 1: he squirts milk into them. The story is a sequence 56 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:06,520 Speaker 1: of dream like tableaus, and all seems to be a 57 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:09,960 Speaker 1: benevolent figure in them, but he does introduce the main character, 58 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:13,959 Speaker 1: a young boy, too, concepts of sexuality and death, and 59 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:16,200 Speaker 1: at the end of the story, the boy discovers that 60 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:19,480 Speaker 1: Old Locai has a brother who, instead of coming night 61 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: after night to our bedsides bringing dreams, only visits each 62 00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:26,960 Speaker 1: person once, bringing death. His name is also all Loci 63 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: Tatar said, what's interesting about the Sandman's stories is they 64 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: remind me a bit of the children's verses and lullabies. 65 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:36,720 Speaker 1: We sing to children, which are soothing and gentle, but 66 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,200 Speaker 1: there's a stark, violent side to them too. Somehow it 67 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 1: seems to mirror our ambivalence towards children. We adore them 68 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:46,440 Speaker 1: and want to tell them gentle, lovely stories, but they 69 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,320 Speaker 1: drive us crazy. At times, We and especially our ancestors, 70 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: resorted to cautionary and disciplinary tales like Little Red Riding Hood, 71 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: in which the wolf will eat you up if you 72 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 1: stray from the path. In the Hoffman story, if you 73 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:00,400 Speaker 1: don't go to sleep, the Sandman's squ to come and 74 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: scratch out your eyes. And if strong arming children and 75 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:07,080 Speaker 1: too settling down to sleep is not why the European 76 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:11,000 Speaker 1: parents and nurses of old told cautionary bedtime stories. Maybe 77 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: it's because they wanted to prepare their little ones for 78 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:17,520 Speaker 1: life's hardships. Tatar said, the unusual thing about the Sandman 79 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:19,919 Speaker 1: is he's a lot bigger than you are. There's no 80 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:22,520 Speaker 1: defeating him. You can't face him down like you can 81 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: the villains in fairy tales. There's no happily ever after 82 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:29,200 Speaker 1: except falling asleep giving in. He can't be beheaded or 83 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:32,200 Speaker 1: trapped or tricked like other villains. It's hard to distinguish 84 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 1: fairy tale, myth, legend and all of that, but in 85 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: a way, he belongs more to the realm of myth 86 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:45,480 Speaker 1: than fairy tales. Today's episode was written by Jescelin Shields 87 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:47,680 Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang for iHeart Media and How 88 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,560 Speaker 1: To Works. For more on this and lots of other topics, 89 00:04:50,680 --> 00:05:04,160 Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.