Falkor

Falkor (German Fuchur) is the white luckdragon of Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story (1979) and its 1984 film, a joyful, wingless flying dragon who carries the young hero Atreyu across Fantastica.

The Story

In Ende's novel, a lonely boy named Bastian steals a book from a shop and begins reading it in the school attic. The book tells of Fantastica (Fantasia in the film), a world dying from a spreading emptiness called the Nothing, and of the young warrior Atreyu, who is sent to find a cure for the land's sick ruler, the Childlike Empress.

On his quest, Atreyu finds a luckdragon caught in the web of a monstrous spider-creature, Ygramul, and frees him. The dragon, Fuchur, becomes his companion and steed, carrying him across Fantastica at great speed. In the second half of the book, after Bastian himself enters the story, Fuchur continues to play a part in its ending. The 1984 film by Wolfgang Petersen covers only the first half of the novel and renamed the dragon Falkor for English-speaking audiences.

Appearance and Powers

Ende's luckdragons are unlike the dragons of legend. Falkor has a long, supple body covered in pearly, pink-and-white scales and a flowing mane, and he flies through the air without wings, as easily as a fish swims. Luckdragons are creatures of air and warmth and of pure joy, and their good cheer brings good fortune: as long as Falkor believes in their luck, things tend to go right. He speaks, sings, and is endlessly optimistic. The film version gave him a furry, dog-like head and the voice of Alan Oppenheimer.

Origins and Sources

Ende wrote the novel in German, and it was published by Thienemann in 1979. Ralph Manheim's English translation followed in 1983. The book is printed in two colors of ink to separate Bastian's world from Fantastica's. The German name Fuchur is often linked to the Japanese idea of a lucky dragon, which fits the playful, good-natured creature Ende created and distances him from the European tradition of hostile dragons.

Legacy

Falkor became one of the most beloved film dragons of the 1980s, and the scene of Atreyu riding him is a pop-culture staple. Ende disliked the film and tried to have his name removed from it. Falkor's friendly, wingless shape echoes Eastern dragons more than Western ones; compare Chinese dragons and dragons across cultures.

Related

• Lóng (Chinese dragon): The lóng is the Chinese dragon: a long, scaly, usually wingless creature with four clawed legs that rules rain, rivers, and seas and became the emblem of the emperor and of Chinese culture.
• Haku: Haku is the river spirit of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001), who appears as a boy and as a flying white dragon, and who helps the girl Chihiro survive in a bathhouse for spirits.
• Puff the Magic Dragon: Puff the Magic Dragon is the gentle dragon of the 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary song by Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton, who lives by the sea and plays with a boy named Jackie Paper until the boy grows up.
• Shenron: Shenron is the Eternal Dragon of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga (1984) and anime, a vast green Eastern-style dragon who appears when all seven Dragon Balls are gathered and grants a wish.
• Chinese Dragons
• Dragons Across Cultures
• Dragon Books

Sources and Further Reading

• Michael Ende, Die unendliche Geschichte (Thienemann, 1979)
• Michael Ende, The Neverending Story, trans. Ralph Manheim (Doubleday, 1983)
• The NeverEnding Story, directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Neue Constantin Film / Warner Bros., 1984)

Cite this entry: “Falkor,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/falkor.