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 marginalized and much misunderstood pre-adolescent son of a widowed father, who finds himself metaphorically and literally lost in the pages of a magical book called The Neverending Story. Within the book, Bastian discovers that a terrible affliction has befallen the enchanting land of Fantastica, a mystical world full of rock creatures, purple buffalo, and wind giants (to name a few). The malevolent force he finds is slowly and sporadically consuming Fantastica and all of its inhabitants. His name is Nothing and he threatens to destroy the world of Fantastica forever unless someone can find the one who will give the Childlike Empress a new name. The Childlike Empress, also known as the Golden-Eyed Wish Commander, is an aloof, seemingly omnipotent 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 courageous young warrior on an arduous journey to find someone who can give her a new nickname. That warrior's name is Atreyu. Atreyu is a strong and persevering hunter-turned-adventurer whose quest begins after receiving a message from the Child Empress to locate whoever gave her the 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 to the end, but in the end he realizes that Atreyu is not the only one with a mission from the empress and... middle of paper... he is put to the test from the empress to give her a new name. Examples continue to follow both parts of the novel and both heroes, although all are in disarray 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 but a few of the many that can be found in Ende's novel, although I would argue that the mythological parallels came second to his writing. a compelling story. Rather than a cookie-cutter comparison of myths, The Neverending Story is a fantastical journey through the imagination. Only when examined and dismantled do the intricate mythological relationships reveal themselves. I still wonder if the foundations of the myth lurk in the subconscious of storytellers like Michael Ende, or if the relationships found in his and others' stories are entirely coincidental?