When Mythical Dreams Reveal Reality
By Mariana Marhefka
Everyone has dreams, but almost no one has prophetic ones– and with the potential dangers, no one should want to. The epic story Gilgamesh, translated by Stephen Mitchell, is the oldest written story discovered to date. Although it is even older than the Bible, it is still able to be compared to modern day writings. The book Into the Dream, by William Sleator, is one such text. Gilgamesh and Into the Dream share a pivotal focus on dreams, especially nightmares, and a climactic foretelling, while they differ in the way that characters have (and interact with) the dreams.
Near the beginning, the main characters of both books start to have interesting dreams. In Into the Dream, the first dreams are relatively benign, as the children start to notice the dreams are coming true. In Gilgamesh, dreams begin as nightmares, but Enkidu tells Gilgamesh his dreams are actually good, and will come true as keys to his success in defeating the monster Humbaba. The first dream is described as follows: “‘Enkidu, dear friend, I have had a dream, a horrible dream. We were walking in a gorge, and when I looked up, a huge mountain loomed, so huge that we were as small as flies. Then the mountain fell down on top of us. Tell me, dear friend, what does this mean?’” Throughout the stories, both characters’ dreams get progressively worse. In Gilgamesh, it is shown that the worse the dream gets, the better it will be for his quest, while Into the Dream’s nightmares become real as they are. Both however, become bearers of seemingly grave prophecies.
When the dreams are at their most terrifying peak, characters in both books find their worst nightmares coming true. Enkidu has a dream about the gods condemning him to death. The next day, he gets sick, and for 12 days he is fatally ill, finally dying. Mitchell translates, “Enkidu fell sick. He lay on his bed, sick at heart, and his tears flowed like streams. He said to Gilgamesh, ‘Dear friend, dear brother, they are taking me from you. I will not return. I will sit with the dead in the underworld, and I will never see my dear brother again.’” In Into the Dream, the prophetic children dream about them being caught by the government agency trying to harness their power. Two days later, the scene plays out just as they had expected it to. Both Gilgamesh and Into the Dream show a climax of sadness that turns out not to be code for good dreams, no matter how mightily they may wish it.
The difference between Gilgamesh and Into the Dream seems to lie mainly in the characters. Gilgamesh shows a single character having a dream at a time, and when they wake up, the role of the other character is to interpret the dream. After Gilgamesh has his first dream, Enkidu tells him “‘Don’t worry, my friend, the dream you had is a favorable one. The mountain stands for Humbaba. He will fall just like that mountain. Lord Shamash will give us victory, we will kill the monster and leave his corpse on the battlefield.’” However, Into the Dream adds to its spooky surreality by all characters having the same foretelling dream. The difference, although slight, changes the tones of the books. Everyone has dreams, so Gilgamesh is normalized, even if dreams of the gods are abnormal. But, having the same dream on the same night is much more uncommon, so the tone of Into the Dream is set as mysterious and fantastical.
Both texts focus on dreams and the way they come true, but their characters interact with those dreams in different ways. Dreams in both books turn worse and worse over time. They come to a peak and come true, not in the characters’ favor. The two books differ with the amount of characters having the dream, and the way they react to it. Gilgamesh’s influence on every modern storyline is great, but comparing these two texts, the main influence seems to be the importance of dreams in real life situations.
