Issue 9: "Tales in the Sand"

Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcolm Jones III

• Standalone story
• First story reprinted in The Doll's House (excluding Sound of Her Wings)
• Audible Act I Chapter 9

General: When asked about this story, Gaiman has said that he did some research on African oral tradition, and then went out and made this story up from beginning to end. The Gaiman statement is from an interview which appeared in the Comics Buyer's Guide, a trade journal. To me, the story sounds absolutely authentic as an example of oral tradition. Little seems to make it essentially "African", however, except the clothes, hair, and skin color. I see here two of Gaiman's best traits as a writer: primarily, storytelling ability (and I mean storytelling as an art, not technical skill); secondarily, the ability to sound right even when he's making it all up. One correspondent has noted a great deal of similarity to Australian Western Desert Aborigine tradition. In particular, the manhood ritual and the sacred sites are quite close. However, the story, from context, is quite clearly meant to be African; for example, page 1 refers to apes and lions, page 14 panel 1 to gazelles, and so forth.

Page 1#

• The Trickster is a cross-cultural archetype, most familiar to modern audiences in the form of Bugs Bunny.

  This reference to the "Trickster," knowing Gaiman, may be more important than one might expect... I mean, who causes so much pain to Morpheus (as well as, eventually, having no small part in his death)? Loki, of course: the Trickster.

  Now, sure, "Tales in the Sand" was written about four years before Loki is introduced to the story, but we're talkin' about Neil Gaiman here. Maybe Gaiman was using parallel structure (albeit a very sparse form), maybe it is just as foreshadowing, but i do not think it is a coincidence that the next story arc Nada shows up in is also monsieur Loki's debut. It is obvious that this idea isn't fully formed, and I don't have access to my library right now (all in cardboard boxes -just moved) but i think this should be at least pondered. (thus writes oshinsky@webspan.net)

Page 2#

• Panel 1

  It is impossible for tale to only be told once as described in this issue, because attrition would eventually cause it to be lost, as people died before they could tell it. However, twin births are common among Africans, and it is likely that the tale is told to both twins at the same time, which would help alleviate losses. I suspect that the tribe is willing to forego custom and have a storyteller repeat the story if no other appropriate teller is available. But none of this really has any relation to the story.

• Panel 2

  Circumcision as a rite of passage is common in many societies.

Page 4#

• Panel 6

  Grandmother Death: This is the same Death we saw in issue 8.

Page 6#

• Panel 1

  We saw Nada in Hell in issue #4. We will see her again in later issues.

Page 8#

• Panel 3

  The King of Birds appears to be either an all white ostrich, or perhaps some sort of moa (moas being a now extinct line of giant flightless birds of approximately that body shape).

Page 10#

• Panel 2-3

  This has the flavor of one of Kipling's Just-So stories. In The Sandman Companion, Gaiman states that this is here to signal to the reader that the original story has decayed over time.

Page 11#

• Panel 3

  These are Cain and Abel (see #2 of this series); the dispute is approximately the same as is given in Genesis.

• Panel 5

  Kai'ckul is what Nada called Dream in issue 4.

Page 12#

• Panel 5

  First reference to Dream and his siblings as the Endless, who are not gods (but who have occasionally been worshipped as gods; Dream is L'Zoril to the Martians, "a very old god", and Oneiros, the god of dreams, to the Greeks).

Page 13#

• Panel 1

  The threefold repetition of a word like "coughed" is a common motif in oral tradition. It provides rhythm and reinforcement.

• Panel 4

  It is not clear why mortals cannot love the Endless.

Page 14#

• Panel 5

  Desire is one of the Endless; this is the first characterization of Desire as "always cruel".

Page 15#

• Panel 4

  Virginity is often a requirement of a bride.

• Panel 5

  More Just-So stylings, although most myths would have specifically named the flowers.

Page 16#

• Panel 2

  Dream does not care about virginity; this sounds to me too much like a 20th century character speaking.

Page 24#

• Panel 1-2

  So what could be the differences in the women's story?

  JBird66680@aol.com says:

  I always thought that it had something to do with the fact that she refused dream three times, but the men thought it was because of her sense of duty.
  Perhaps the women felt that she really refused him and didn't give in, but was raped by Dream, then killed herself. Maybe the women would realize that the reality behind the story would not be so romantic as the tale that the men idealized, because their [the women's] own reality would be less of a fairy tale [with the hardships of marriage and childbirth and caring for the family] than the fantasies that the men embraced. but anyway, i always thought rape would be the major difference between the stories.
  

Credits

• Originally collated and edited by Greg Morrow.
• William Sherman and Mike Fessler mikef@brownvm.brown.edu commented on the traditional nature of this story.
• Michael A. Stoodt stoodt@cis.umassd.edu, and others, confirmed the contents of The Doll's House.
• Chris Siebenmann cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu thinks that Dream came off pretty well in this story, but in the women's story is portrayed as a real bastard. I was under the impression that Dream was a bastard in the men's story....
• Joanna JBird66680@aol.com -- for the women's story
• Ralf Hildebrandt added more details.
• Richard Munn added a note about the decay of the story from The Sandman Companion.

Last modified by Richard Munn on 2023-08-15 - Updated issue inclusion blocks, adding extra trades, and audible/netflix episodes
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