The Annotated Sandman Edited and largely written by Greg Morrow Issue 4: "A Hope in Hell" Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg Fourth part of first storyline, _More than Rubies_ Fourth story reprinted in _Preludes and Nocturnes_ Disclaimer: Sandman and all related characters are copyrights and trademarks of DC Comics Inc. Sandman and this annotation are intended for mature audiences only. Notice: Commentaries and additional information should go to morrow@fnal.fnal.gov (Internet) or morrow@fnal.BITNET. This material is posted by the editor directly to rec.arts.comics and COMICS-L, and is licensed to appear on Compu$erve and GEnie. It is also available via anonymous ftp from theory.lcs.mit.edu in pub/wald/sandman. Please contact the editor if you see this material on any other forum. Reproduction in any form without permission of the editor (as agent for the contributors) is forbidden. Page 1 panel 7: The Morningstar is Lucifer Morningstar, the ruler of Hell. Isaiah 14:12 reads "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" (King James translation) or "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!" (Revised Standard). The pocket edition of the OED includes in its definition of Lucifer, "The morning star; the planet Venus when it appears in the sky before sunrise. Now only poetic." Milton may have also used the appelation "Morningstar" for Lucifer, probably in _Paradise Lost_. In addition, a character in Roger Zelazny's book _Jack of Shadows_ is called Morningstar, and occupies a role analogous to Lucifer. Page 4 panel 1-4: This is not the same gatekeeper as seen elsewhere; first known appearance of Squatterbloat. Squatterbloat speaks in triolets; the rhyme scheme is ABAAABAB, and the first, fourth, and seventh lines are the same, as are the second and eighth. The B lines are a syllable or two longer than the A lines. Note that DC has established that demons who rhyme when they speak are higher in Hell's hierarchy than those who do not. Panel 5: A new title for Morpheus: "King of the Nightmare Realms". Page 5 panel 5: Etrigan first appeared in a Kirby book of the 70s. He is a demon, the son of Belial and the half-brother of Merlin. He shares a body on Earth with Jason Blood, and has since the time of Camelot. Etrigan has had three series, all called _The Demon_, with one currently being published. Originally, his speech did not rhyme; this is an innovation of Alan Moore. Etrigan is, to judge by the meter of his speech in several instances, pronounced "eh-tri-GAN", with a short i sound. (I'd reproduce it phonetically except that 1. most of the audience wouldn't get it and 2. this keyboard doesn't have the right characters--all three vowels are non-Roman: epsilon, small-caps-I, aesch.) Page 6 panel 5: The Wood of Suicides is from Dante's _Inferno_. It's in the Second Round of the Seventh Circle. According to John Ciardi's translation, since they destroyed their bodies, the suicides are therefore denied a human form in Hell. Furthermore, since the supreme expression of their life was their destruction, they can only express themselves (i.e: speak) when they are being destroyed. So long as they bleed, the suicides may talk; they find expression through their own blood. You will notice that Morpheus snaps a twig off a passing tree whilst in the Wood. Only then does the suicide begin to relate his story. The Wood has also appeared in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's book _Inferno_, which is a modern retelling of Dante. The Wood may also have appeared in other DC characters' visits to Hell; I am not sure. Page 7 panel 3: Kai'ckul is another name for Morpheus; the prisoner is a woman named Nada. Nada will be important at least twice more, in a single issue and a major storyline. Page 8 panel 1: Dis (according to my dictionary) is identical with the god Pluto, or with the underworld of Hades. However, Virgil's _Aeneid_ mentions Dis as a city in the underworld, while Dante's _Inferno_ identifies it as the city occupying the sixth to ninth circles of the Christian Hell. Dis Pater (literally, "death father") was a Latin god of the underworld, probably once an ancestral spirit. By classical times, it had become identified with Pluto. The name is morphologically similar to Jupiter ("sky father"). Panel 4: Lucifer's wings are problematic. His angelic wings traditionally were torn off as part of his punishment, or were burned off in the descent to Hell. These are, however, bat-like, and may be replacements Lucifer caused to grow. Page 9 panel 2: "Lucifer" is Latin for "Lightbringer", more or less. Note the reference to Dream's family, including the first mention of Despair. Page 10 panel 5: According to my dictionary, "diumvirate" should be spelled "duumvirate". The fact that Hell was ruled by a triumvirate was established in some other DC comic, perhaps early issues of Hellblazer. As a result of the followup (in _Swamp Thing_ #50) to _Crisis on Infinite Earths_, Lucifer was forced to accept Beelzebub and Azazel as co-rulers. The names of these archdevils can also be found in Milton, among other sources. A different light will be shed upon this in a later storyline. Also, the first storyline in the new run of _The Demon_ was tumult and shouting about the ruling of Hell. The triumvirate has also appeared in the secret origin of "Stanley and His Monster" (by Phil Foglio, and very funny, of course, in the later issues of _Secret Origins_). Page 14 panel 2: What dead god? An unexplained reference. It is possible that this may refer to the Christian god Jesus, who died, although he is by no means the only god to have done so. Panel 6-7: This is the demon from _Sandman_ #1, here identified for the first time as Choronzon, who appears in the writings of Aleister Crowley. Page 15 panel 7: The game of reality is not one I have seen before. Gaiman has a gift for inventing totally new things that sound completely right, such as the ritual that invoked Morpheus in _Sandman_ #1 and the tale in _Sandman_ #9. A somewhat similar game, except that the participants actually transform themselves rather than merely discussing it, is played in T.H. White's _The Sword in the Stone_. The game of reality is quite similar thematically to the Riddle Game of old, which is exemplified in J.R.R. Tolkien's _The Hobbit_. Page 18 panel 1: I am aware of no predilection in snakes for spider-devouring. Page 20 panel 4: Agony and Ecstasy have popped up once or twice before, first in _Hellblazer_ 12. They are Lucifer's enforcers. Page 24: This is John Dee, Dr. Destiny, who has been mentioned before. The amulet is the same amulet for which Ruthven Sykes traded the helmet to Choronzon; it allegedly protects the wearer from "anything", and it is known to work against magical sendings. Contributors include: Sol (colomon@zip.eecs.umich.edu), Ian Lance Taylor (ian@airs.com), David Goldfarb (goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu), and William Sherman (sherman@oak.math.ucla.edu) found citations for "Lucifer Morningstar." Ian and David, and Sasha (sasha.bbs@shark.cse.fau.edu) and Andrew David Weiland (aw1s+@andrew.cmu.edu) found citations for the Wood of Suicides. Ian also found Agony and Ecstasy's first appearance, and referenced _The Sword in the Stone_. Viktor Haag and Chris Jarocha-Ernst (cje@heart.rutgers.edu) commented on the infernal trinity. Chris also pointed out that Tim Maroney had identified Choronzon some time ago. R I K speculated on the nature of the dead god. Andrew Weiland and David Perry (perry@schaefer.math.wisc.edu) traced the lineage of "Dis". Tanaqui C. Weaver (tweaver@isis.cs.du.edu) spotted Squatterbloat's poetry and relayed Neil Gaiman's correction on the first mention of Despair. David Henry (UD137927@VM1.NoDak.EDU) recalled the Riddle Game.