The Neverending Story by Michael Ende is a timeless tale of adventure, imagination and self-discovery. The story revolves around Bastian Balthazar Bux, an innocent but awkward, socially excluded and very misunderstood pre-teen of a widowed father who finds himself metaphorically and literally lost in the pages of a magical book called The Neverending Story. Inside the book, Bastian discovers that a terrible affliction has befallen the enchanting land of Fantastica, a mystical world filled with rock creatures, purple buffalo, and wind giants (to name a few- uns). The malevolent force he finds slowly and sporadically consumes Fantastica and all of its inhabitants. It's called the Nothing, and it threatens to destroy the world of Fantastica forever unless someone can find the one to give the Childlike Empress a new name. The Childlike Empress, also known as the Golden-Eyes Commander of Wishes, is an aloof, seemingly all-powerful and mysterious girl who rules Fantastica. She is the fabric that holds Fantastica together, and in essence, she is Fantastica. Her desire for a new name (which she believes will save the world) leads a brave young warrior on an arduous journey to find someone who can give her a new nickname. This warrior's name is Atreyu. Atreyu is a strong and persistent hunter turned adventurer whose quest begins upon receiving a message from the Child Empress to locate the giver of his new name. Although he does not fully understand his mission or final destination, Atreyu decides to fulfill the childlike empress's request. Bastian also decides to see Atreyu's story through to the end, but he ultimately realizes that Atreyu is not the only one to receive a mission from the Empress. empress to give it a new name. The examples continue to follow the two parts of the novel and the two heroes, although all are out of order according to Propp's sequence. Regardless, at least twenty-four of Propp's thirty-one functions are present in Ende's novel. CONCLUSION The mythological motifs discussed are only a few of many found in Ende's novel, although I would argue that the mythological parallels came second to his writing. an engaging story. Rather than a cookie-cutter comparison of myths, The Neverending Story is a fantastical journey through the imagination. It is only when they are examined and taken apart that the complex mythological relationships are revealed. I still wonder if the foundations of the myth lie hidden in the subconscious minds of storytellers like Michael Ende, or if the relationships found in his and others' stories are entirely coincidental.?