The sandman's coming. The Sandman is a famous fantastical being known by different names in different cultures (Klaas Vaak in Dutch), but did you know that Hans Christian Anderson wrote a fairytale about it? Andersen called the guy Ole Lukøie (also spelled in different ways). Lukøie loosely translates to "shut your eye." Andersen's version, Ole Lukoie, was first published in 1941. The Sandman is most commonly known to sprinkle magical sand into the eyes of children, but Anderson's Ole Lukoie uses milk. An earlier and scarier story about the Sandman was published by German writer E.T.A. Hoffman in 1818. In Hoffman's (adult) version the Sandman throws sand in the eyes of sleepless children, causing their eyes to pop out of their sockets. The Sandman collects the eyeballs and feeds them to his children. A nice bedtime story, isn't it? The Sandman in this podcast is based on Andersen's story and modified by our modern connotations with the Sandman.
Always keep believing in your fairytale!
Kim
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