The Annotated Sandman

                Edited by Ralf Hildebrandt and largely written by David Goldfarb

     Issue 70: "The Wake: 1 Which Occurs in the Wake of What Has Gone Before"

                         Neil Gaiman, Michael Zulli

Page 1 panel 1: Each of the Endless receives a messenger appropriate to
their nature, although it is not quite clear why Destiny should receive
a dove.  If Destruction received a messenger, it would of course be a hawk,
to reflect Destruction's warlike nature.  Destruction also embodies change,
while Destiny is stasis; perhaps that is why Destiny's messenger carries
an opposite symbolism to Destruction's.
       panel 4: Notice that the first painting in the gallery is a mirror.
We've seen before that the gallery of each Endless has a mirror where their
own sigil would be.

Page 2 panel 2: As seen previously, the frames here are views through
mirrors, which is why we see Destiny in one here.  It may be that Destiny,
whose nature precludes hope, can be viewed as despairing.  The black-framed
picture is reportedly a self-portrait of Zulli.

Page 3 panel 2: Death's messenger is a harpy eagle, a bird of prey -- possibly
also an eater of carrion?
       panel 4: These are the kind of parakeet known as "lovebird".

Page 4 panel 1: We've heard the true version of this rhyme in "The Parliament
of Rooks": 40:7.3-4.  Delirium's messenger would seem to have been a magpie.
       panel 3: For more information on this necropolis, consult issue #55.

Page 7 panel 6: Naturally, it is Desire who creates the *heart*... 
       panel 7: ...But it is not known why Despair should create the eyes. 
                Perhaps because she skewers her own eye in the Brief Lives 
                arc? [Insert exact reference here]
       panel 8: Note that Destiny's book has a miniature version of this very
panel.

Page 8 panel 2: And of course, it is *Death* that gives the envoy *life*.
       panel 4: The name "Eblis" derives from Arabic myth.  Eblis was a
spirit of fire, to be the head of angels (he is referred to in Sura 18 of 
the Qu'ran).
When Eblis refused to bow to Adam (because Adam was made of clay), God 
cast him out of heaven. Eblis then vowed to seduce man to forsake God. 
Thus he became Satan or the Devil. We can compare this to Lucifer Morningstar 
in the Christian religion.

	"O'Shaughnessy" derives from Arthur W. E. O'Shaughnessy, a mid-19th-
century poet.  Most of his work is deservedly obscure, but one poem, entitled 
"Ode", has achieved a modest fame.  Its theme is that art and dreams shape the 
world, and that poets and musicians are the world's true kings. It has thus 
been understandably popular with poets and musicians, and has been set to 
music several times.
       panel 7: "Creature" in its literal meaning of "created thing".

Page 9 panel 1: The same question was asked of Mistress Veltis when she entered the same
room, in "Cerements". [Insert exact reference here.] Also, the room was
described as having "six silver cerements" hanging from the walls.
Coupled with Eblis' answer to the voice, this leads me to believe that
each cerement is meant for one of the seven Endless.
Possibilities for who the missing *seventh* cerement is meant for, (and
reasons against):

- Death: she is supposed to be the last of the Endless to leave the
universe, (#20, page 20, panel 6, among others), and so cannot die. (But
we have not been explicitly told she can't die.)

- Despair: Despair was killed at one point. (But there is no reason why 
she can't die again.)

- Destruction: he has "given up" his job as an Endless, and so isn't
permitted a funeral with the required cerement. (But just because
Destruction has "given up", doesn't mean that he has stopped being an
Endless.)

Page 10 panel 4: The image at top right is Edvard Munch's well-known
"The Scream"; the one in the middle is William Blake's "Ancient of Days".

Page 11 panel 3: Note that the pictures have changed; they now seem to depict
Egyptian funeral customs. Which ties in with the Egyptian sphinxes on either 
side of Dream's throne.

Page 12 panel 7: In A Season of Mists, Dream was described as (paraphrasing) 
"collecting names to himself, as one would friends." [Insert exact reference here]
Here, however, the new Dream refuses to be called "Morpheus". Yet another
difference between the old and new Dreams.

Page 13: Note that there is no page number.
         Note how Eve gets progressively younger. We've also seen this happen in
         (I think) A Parliament of Rooks. [Insert exact reference.]

         panel 1: "In aeternum" simply means "in eternity", or possibly "into eternity".

Page 14: And now Eve grows older again. Eve's age seems to be eternally in flux.
(Although Cain and Abel both seem to stay the same age. But then again,
in A Parliament of Rooks, we were told that Eve wasn't Cain's mother.)

Thomas Wilde @ tvs_wanderer@yahoo.com:
Judging from both "A Parliament of Rooks" and this, Eve would seem to
be some kind of abstract representation of the Triple Goddess spoken
of in a number of pagan cultures. It's worth mentioning that by
Gaiman's weird cosmology, and from the art from the Biblical story
told in "Parliament", the Eve in the Dreaming seems to change from the
unnamed woman driven away by Adam, to Lilith, to Eve herself... from
Maiden, to Mother, to Crone. Then again, aren't all the creatures of
the Dreaming abstract representations, *but* Abel and Cain? Eve isn't
their mother because (maybe) she just wears their mother's shape. 

Page 15 panel 2: There was a legend in medieval times that toads had jewels
embedded in their skulls; this was a morality fable of beauty in ugliness.
        panel 6: Richard Madoc was last seen in Calliope, (Sandman #17).
Note that he wears gloves, and is now in a nursing home. (See "Calliope" for 
the reason why.)

Page 16 panel 1: Note that the griffon is missing from the left of the main 
entrance, and that the wyvern has taken its place.

Page 17 panel 6: The man with the wing appears to be the same one that appeared in the
Kindly Ones, whom Dream talked to. [Insert exact reference here]

Page 18 panel 3: The ring was given to Alex by Rose Walker in The Kindly Ones. 
[Insert exact reference here]

Page 18 panel 5: Audrey was Hob Gadling's last wife/SO. Hob visits her grave in The Kindly
Ones. [Insert exact reference here]

Page 20 panel 1: Note that the figures in the windows represent the dreams
that we've seen Dream recreate: from right to left, Mervyn's pumpkin, Abel's
boots, and Gilbert's flowers.

Page 21 panel 2: "Duma's feet may, or may not, quite touch the ground." Possibly as a
result of having been corrupted. [See my annotation in the Kindly Ones section.]

Page 22 panel 1: Note Titania arriving at the top of the stairs.

Page 23 panel 1: Alex Burgess is quoting the page from the _Liber Paginarum
Fulvarum_ describing Morpheus.  In issue #1 he was shown reading that page
over and over.  Note the Siamese cat on the rocks, probably the cat-prophet
from "Dream of a Thousand Cats"; also the figure with the staff further up
the stairs, who is quite possibly Odin.


Release History:

Credits:
     Timothy Hock Seng Tan <083285@bud.cc.swin.edu.au>
     Greg "elmo" Morrow (morrow@physics.rice.edu) created the Sandman
Annotations.
     Carl Fink (carlf@panix.com) noted the panel in Destiny's book, the
pictures of Egyptian funerals, the lack of a page number on page 13, and
pointed out the cat and Odin.
     Kevin Meehan (kevinm@acy1.digex.net) referenced Eblis; so did Jess Nevins
(jnevins@bgsuvax.bgsu.edu) and Brian Roe (bar1@cornell.edu).
     Marc Singer (marcs@wam.umd.edu) noted the Blake picture.
     Amy Borden (borden@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu) identified Death's messenger.