The Annotated Sandman
    
               Edited by Ralf Hildebrandt and largely written by Greg Morrow
      
                         Issue 38:  "The Hunt"
             Neil Gaiman, Duncan Eagleson, and Vince Locke

                First story in anthology _Convergences_
                  Not yet reprinted in any other form

Themes:  _Convergences_ is about storytelling, as is _Sandman_ overall.  In
particular, _Convergences_ tells tales where the storyteller becomes the 
story, and where reality intersects with story and with fantasy.  And, it
may be noted, dreams are where reality and fiction converge.
	A common thread among the stories is the intersection (or 
convergence) of characters with their own divergent lives.  Another is the 
passage from the familiar to the unfamiliar, as happens to the central 
character in each story.  Also, in each tale, the central character is not
a native to the Dreaming but visits a portion of it, and encounters a native 
of the Dreaming, in the process of the tale.  One may also note the role 
of time in each tale, with some aspect of different times converging.
	In "The Hunt", Vassily passes from the comfort of his forest to the
unknown outside world, and, indeed, from the Old World into the New.  The 
past is seen in the tale of long ago, the present in the telling of the tale, 
and the future in Celeste's relationship with Christopher.
	Value plays an important, if ambiguous, role in "The Hunt".  To
various characters, value is in dreams; the eye of the beholder, or of the
dreamer; or in experience.  All these disparate ideas converge in the final 
word on the subject:  a woman who "knew the value of things" though we are not
told how value could be known; perhaps we are to believe that value may be
defined in all these ways.

Page 1 panel 1:  Old Country:  Immigrants to America are often portrayed as
referring to their original homeland as the Old Country.
	Palaver:  From Portuguese palavra (originally from Latin, of
course), meaning talk, conversation, particularly at length or with little
content.
	Panel 3-4:  Chrissakes:  Christ's sake.  The Christian religion
holds that it is a sin to take their god's name in vain, although this is a
sin observed more often in the breach than in the keeping.  It is also a
tradition that the holy name has power over those with magic in their
blood.
	The storyteller and his granddaughter have made no appearances
other than this story.
	Panel 5:  Asafoetida:  Also asafetida, a highly scented, dark yellow 
gum resin with a bitter acrid taste obtained from the roots of several plants 
of the genus _Ferula_ found in Central Asia.  Some species of _Ferula_ are 
found in the Mediterranean area as well, but these are not noted as yielding 
asafoetida.  The plants are typically tall with divided leaves.  _Ferula_ are 
umbelliferous, related to carrots, celery, parsnips, and herbs such as 
parsley.  The word is from medieval Latin asa, "gum" (a borrowing from 
Persian "aza") + fetida, "stinking".
	Asafoetida is the primary flavoring ingredient of Worcestershire 
sauce, along with anchovies.  It is also used to test the responses of
infants, since its odor is an inducer of lachrymose behavior patterns.
(It makes babies cry.)
        Like the highly scented garlic, asafoetida is traditionally
a repellent of vampires and/or werewolves.
    	Burial at a crossroads is traditionally a method of ensuring that
the undead do not rise again to torment the living.  One tradition holds
that the rising undead will not know which way to go upon rising and cannot
leave the crossroads; an alternate tradition holds that crossroads are
sacred grounds, due to their shape.
	Panel 6:  MTV:  An American cable network with affiliated networks
around the world that primarily plays music videos.

Page 2:  Real forests, true bears, true wolves:  Akin to Platonic forms,
the creatures and places in stories are the true essence of the creature or
place, without the rounded-off corners or the compromises required of
things that exist.  A wolf such as you might meet is hardly more than a
dog who has not forgotten how to hunt; a wolf such as you might hear about
is a shaggy beast, born to the hunt, little more than hunger and fangs
and burning eyes, a creature who might someday hunt you.

Page 3 panel 1:  True folk:  see above.
	Panel 2:  We infer that the taleteller's name is also Vassily.
	Panel 4:  The gypsies, or Romany, as they are said to call
themselves, are a nomadic European people of a common stock.  In tales, they 
are fortune-tellers, traders, and thieves; bewitching beauties who
may steal a man's eye while their cousin steals his purse, or his babe.
Heed a gypsy's warning, and beware the curse of a gypsy wisewoman.
                 
Page 4 panel 1:  Note Vassily's eyes, which here suggest the vertical
pupils of a cat.  The granddaughter's eyes from pages 1-2 may also suggest
this form.
	Panel 5:  Note Vassily's skill in hunting.
	Panel 8:  Koschei:  From the _Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore,
and Symbols_ (Jobes, 1961), Koschei is an evil, immortal Slavic spirit with
a secret weakness (presumably that he kept his life in his heart), finally 
slain by a hero.  He is compared to the Shinto spirit-snake Koshi, the
Minotaur of Greek myth, and Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent of Norse myth.
	The _Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend_ 
(Mercatante, 1988) notes:

      In Russian folklore, an evil wizard whose soul is hidden in a duck's
   egg. Though often called deathless or immortal, Kostchei could die if
   one could find where the egg that contained his soul was hidden. If
   the egg was destroyed Kostchei also would be destroyed. In
   Stravinsky's ballet L' Oiseau de feu (The Firebird) Ivan, the hero,
   finds the egg in the hollow of a tree and destroys it, causing
   Kostchei and his evil court to disappear forever. Kotstchei appears in
   James Branch Cabell's novel _Jurgen_. 
      Variant spellings; Koschey, Katschei.

	_The Red Fairy Book_ recounts a tale wherein Koschei is killed when
his head is struck by a horse, a horse the hero received from Baba Yaga. 
After Koschei's head is cracked, the hero removes his head and burns it.
	In one version of the story, Koschei is the king of the snakes.
	No refs on the Cloak of Night.  The Drum Inescapable is also 
referred to in _Books of Magic_, Book III, page 27, panel 6.  A wyvern is a 
draconian creature; one guards the center of the Dreaming.  Yggdrasil is the 
World Oak of Norse myth.  In hunts, assistants beating drums are often sent 
to drive quarry before them so that the huntsmen may slay them with less of 
a chase; thus, the significance of the Drum Inescapable.

Page 5 panel 2:  Gaje':  From context, the Romany word for outsider.
	Panel 5:  Here, "The People" is likely distinct from "True Folk"
and possibly akin to "The Family" of page 1 panel 1.
	Panel 9:  Value's in Dreams:  A convergence.

Page 6 panel 3:  Pskoff:  (Also Pskov) A lake and a city in the European
part of Russia.  Vyatka:  Former name of Kirov, another city in the European 
part of Russia.
	Panel 7:  The gypsy is not reacting to Vassily's hands, which are
normal as far as I can tell, but to what she sees in his eyes.
	Panel 8:  The gypsy is making the sign against the evil eye with
her left hand, and the sign against the devil with her right.

Page 7 panel 5-6:  I have no idea what the small bone carved into the shape
of a small bone means.  Perhaps a charm of some sort?  The wooden
finger-ring makes its second appearance.
	Panel 7:  Celeste:  From Latin meaning "heavenly".  Michael
Jackson:  A pop star whose popularity with teen culture waxes and wanes in
an unpredictable fashion; also noted for his eccentric habits, his
androgyny, and his extensive plastic surgery.

Page 8 panel 1-2:  Vassily did not slay the peddler woman, nor was she
eaten by a beast, nor was her pack taken by bandits.  Who, then, killed
her?  Perhaps Vassily's father?
	Panel 4:  Forest is home to ghouls and ogres:  Ironic, considering 
what transpires in the inn.
	Panel 5:  Note the book.

Page 9 panel 1-3:  It is traditional for heroes to be beset by monsters
while on the road, and the villainous innkeeper is a staple of the genre.
	Panel 7:  Note the valuable lesson.
	Panel 8:  Considering that the inn's fare was characterized as
"poor" on the preceeding page, we are probably meant to infer that Vassily 
-ate- the villainous innkeeper.  Note that Vassily is wiping his mouth.

Page 10 panel 1:  This is certainly Lucien, Dream's factotum and librarian,
among other duties.
	Panel 2:  Note the remark on the definition of value.
	Panel 6:  This is the traditional tale of Koshchei.

Page 11 panel 3-5:  The old man believes in fairies, is more than a century 
and a half in age, and can rip his granddaughter's throat out with his
teeth.  The storyteller becomes the story.
	Post-modern:  At least one definition proclaims this to be a style
which consciously uses complex forms with allusion to historic styles.  Its
application to this story, or to _Sandman_ as a whole, is left as an
exercise to the literary critics.
	Panel 6:  Raven:  Probably Lucien has employed one of Dream's
earlier raven-companions to aid him.

Page 13 panel 5:  Note Vassily's teeth, as well as his eyes.

Page 14 panel 7:  Again, "The People".  Note the figure in the lower right 
who seems to be in a semihuman shape.  Is the figure behind the fire of
superhuman height?

Page 15:  Baba Yaga is a witch from traditional Russian tales.  She has
iron teeth, lives in a hut which has chicken legs, and flies across the
night sky in a mortar which she drives with a pestle.  She is a great
sorceress and, generally, evil.  Baba Yaga, or a facsimile thereof, appears 
in _Books of Magic_, Book III.

Page 17 panel 2:  Trust the story-teller:  Contemplate this, too, as you
contemplate the depth of this tale.  If the story-teller tells you not to
trust him, may you trust his word in this?
	Panel 3:  Scented powder was used to cover up body odor in eras
past when folk did not bathe often.
	Panel 4:  Men and women, it is said, are driven stark mad by the
light of the full moon.

Page 18 panel 4:  Cold iron traditionally has power over those with magic
in their blood (particularly the Faerie folk).
	Panel 7:  True Death:  A storyteller's kind of death, as with the
true wolves, or a death final enough to snuff the soul with the body?  Or 
perhaps The People may pass through more than one kind of death, since the 
gypsy woman's death was not notable enough to be called the True Death.

Page 19 panel 2:  There are rules to magic, and to the Dreaming, and one of
them apparently holds that Lucien cannot steal, but may only purchase.
	Panel 3:  Note that Lucien's glasses seem to distort his face,
increasing the apparent size of his features, indicating farsightedness, a
curious ailment for a librarian.  Compare with his appearance on page 10,
panel 6, where his glasses seem to be of the opposite prescription (note
the curve of his face, not the size of his eyes).
	Panel 5:  The continents indeed do move, as the scientists say, 
although this could not be known to Vassily, who may even be ignorant of
the concept of continents.  In any case, the continents have been roughly in 
their current shapes for many millions of years, so the last thief Lucien 
refers to could not have been an ordinary human (although _Brief Lives_, the 
subsequent storyline, indicates that seemingly human beings have been around 
for much longer than commonly believed).
	Panel 7:  Dwarrow, nightgaunt:  "Dwarrow" is probably a variant of 
the dwarves (dvergar, in Old Icelandic) of Norse myth.  "Nightgaunts", 
faceless flying humanoid servants of the god Nodens, appeared in stories by 
H.P. Lovecraft, an early horror author.  In particular, they may have 
appeared in "The Dream-Quest of Unkonwn Kadeth".  They tickled people into 
submission and could transport them to "the Dreamlands", a Lovecraftian 
analog to the Dreaming.
	Again note Vassily's teeth and eyes.

Page 20 panel 7:  Newfound habit:  Ordinarily, it takes two occurrences to
mark a "habit", but Dream may be indulging in sarcasm.  Note also that he
is dressed in what appears to be formal wear; prior to his capture, he
always dressed in clothing appropriate to the highest stratum of society
and to his audience.

Page 21 panel 3:  Dream is not unsympathetic to the young man, for he is
as besotted by romance.  Dream's realm is one of imagination, and Dream
takes precedence over Desire when the object of desire is constructed from
imagination, as in Vassily's case.
	Panel 5:  The Merrie Comedie of the Redemption of Doctor Faustus,
by Christopher Marlowe:  Marlowe's most famous work concerns the fall of
Doctor Faustus, who sought a long life at the cost of his soul.  This is
clearly a sequel, one which Marlowe may in fact have planned but never
written.  Recall that Lucien's library is a library of works never
completed.  Marlowe appeared in _The Doll's House_, in "Men of Good
Fortune".

Page 22 panel 1:  I am told by ladyfriends of mine that menstruation is
often accompanied by dreams of blood, though that is certainly not the only
possible cause for this dream.
	Panel 6:  Tokay:  An aromatic wine, made in the region around the
town of the same name in Hungary.

Page 23 panel 2:  Finally, a hint into the nature of The People; a clan of
shapechangers or lycanthropes.
	Panel 3:  An adequate description of the mating rituals of a
variety of mammalian carnivores.
	Panel 5:  Sexist:  The sexism of the story is weak and of the
second order, but lies in the role of the Duke's daughter as prize, and the 
power of Vassily to choose his woman; the important sorts of power, to make
life's choices, lie with men.  This is filtered through a modern
perspective, wherein the Duke's daughter does not scream or faint when
confronted with strange men in her bedroom, and where a woman of the People
may be a better hunter than a man, but the sort of sexism endemic in fairy
tales remains.

Page 24 panel 2:  Novaya Zemlya:  Two islands north of the Russian
mainland, inside the Arctic Circle.  The islands are virtually uninhabited, 
so I doubt Celeste is seriously claiming that The People are from there;
probably she just named the first Russian wilderness that came to mind.
	Panel 4-5:  Celeste is manifestly wrong about the story, as the
storyteller is right (and lit-crits be damned!)
	Panel 6:  Another reference to value.  Note the grandfather's eyes
are the same as Vassily's.  The storyteller becomes the story.

Release history:             
Version 1.0 released 13 Dec 92
Version 2.0 released and archived 20 Mar 93

Contributors include:
	Lance Smith (lsmith@cs.umn.edu) reported a vast database on Koshchei's 
significance, noted some traditions about crossroads, imagined shapes in 
a little girl's eye, agreed with me about ravens, noted changelings, cited
nightgaunts, and wondered about Lucien's optometrist.
	The Theme Team consulted on the literary deconstruction of
_Convergences_, and consisted of:
		David Pautler (pautler@ils.nwu.edu)
		Lance Smith (lsmith@cs.umn.edu)
		Enrique Conty (jester@ihlpm.att.com)
		Chuck Jordan (jordan@castor.cs.uga.edu)
		Andrew Moran (andrew@cs.chalmers.se)
		Deborah Ginsberg (debg@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu)
		Robert A. Carlin (carlinra@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu)
		Soren Petersen (speterse@peruvian.utah.edu)
		Jim Drew (jrd@frame.com)
	David Goldfarb  reported on asafoetida,
cross-referenced _Books of Magic_, agreed with my inferences of homicide on
the part of Vassily's family, and noted anomalous human beings from _Brief
Lives_.
	Michael Bowman (bvmi@odin.cc.pdx.edu) cross-referenced _Books of
Magic_.
	Jay Laefer  defined asafoetida.
	Torsten Wesley Adair (torsten@cwis.unomaha.edu) noted Michael
Jackson's androgyny, cross-referenced _Books of Magic_, took issue with my
"crimson" prose about the red, red moon, noted Kit Marlowe
	Ian Lance Taylor (ian@airs.com) concurred with my impression of the
fate of the innkeeper and deconstructed the tale's sexism.
	Andrew KUCHLING  confirmed the
traditional use of asafoetida, disagreed with my interpretation of "true"
wolves (saying "true wolves as opposed to the People in wolf form", an
interesting interpretation, but not supported, given the mention of "real
forests" and "true folk"), and cited nightgaunts.
	Carl Fink (carlf@panix.com) noted a culinary use of asafoetida.
	Michael Kelly (mkelly@ovid.helios.nd.edu) noted a psychiatric use
of asafoetida.
	David Henry  noted the convoluted
avoidance of sacred names in curses, noted folklore gestures, and cited 
dwarrow and nightgaunt.