Southern Oracle

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Southern Oracle
First appearance	The Neverending Story
Information
Aliases	Uyulala
Species	None
Occupation	Oracle
Created by	Michael Ende

The Southern Oracle is a fictional character created by Michael Ende in his book The Neverending Story. This character is also called Uyulala, and appears in the film adaptation The Neverending Story.

[edit] In the book

In the book, the old tortoise Morla told Atreyu that Uyulala (the Southern Oracle) is the one who knows the reason why the Childlike Empress is dying. Only with the help of Ygramul, the Many, Atreyu is capable of putting himself near the Southern Oracle.

There, Atreyu learns from the gnome Engywook, a scholar of the Southern Oracle, that in order to speak with Uyulala, he must pass through three doors:

• The first door is watched by two Sphinxes. Nobody knows the reason why some people can pass through this door and other people can't. The people who try to pass and can't are condemned to resolve all the world's riddles and questions until the end of the time. In Greek mythology, the Sphinx presented riddles and punished those who could not guess them.
• The second door is like a mirror which reflects the true personality of the observer. Surprisingly, some people brave enough to pass the first door between the two Sphinxes can't pass this second door through their own reflection.
• The third door is made of a strange metal which reacts with people's desires. If you wish to pass, the door will be closed. But if you don't wish to pass, then the door will be open.

Engywook couldn't tell more to Atreyu because all the people who have passed all the three doors never wanted to tell him about who or what Uyulala is.

When Atreyu passes the three doors, he discovers that Uyulala is only a voice that speaks in verse, and it only understands the phrases when these phrases are told in verse.

In a very poetic and beautiful conversation between Atreyu and Uyulala, Atreyu learns the reason why the Childlike Empress is ill, and what he has to find in order to restore her health.

Michael Ende used this passage to develop the following idea: that human men and women have forgotten Fantasia, and that's the cause of why the human world and the world of Fantasia are both ill.

After this conversation with Atreyu, Uyulala dies and the Southern Oracle with its three doors is sucked into the Nothing.

[edit] In the movie

The movie version of the Southern Oracle is similar to the book's, with some modifications.

The first door judges whether the person attempting to pass through it "feels his own worth," and if the person is found wanting the two sphinxes open their eyes and unleash bolts of yellow light from their eyes that kill him. The second door is a mirror much like the book's, located in a snowy wilderness. There is no third gate. The oracle itself has a physical form resembling a blue version of the two guardian sphinx statues by the first door, and doesn't speak in verse.

As with the book, the oracle crumbles and dies after revealing the cure for the Childlike Empress' condition.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende and its adaptations v • d • e
Book:	The Neverending Story
Films:	The NeverEnding Story | The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter | The NeverEnding Story III
Television:	Animated series | Tales from the Neverending Story
Characters:	Atreyu | Bastian Balthazar Bux | Carl Conrad Coreander | Childlike Empress | Gmork | Luckdragon | Southern Oracle | Ygramul
Other:	Auryn | Fantastica