Ole Lukoje - Death

In Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale Ole Lukoje (Lit. Ole The Eye-Closer), or The Sandman in English. Ole Lukoje is the Sandman, and he closes children's eyes to take them to sleep. His brother is also called Ole Lukoje- the Closer of Eyes- but he will only visit you once.

We call him Death, but he is not a mean-spirited skeleton like we are accustomed to think. It's quite nice of him to take you where you're going.

I dressed him him the uniform of Manuel Rodriguez, a Chilean Hussar- the thing that amused me most is that the only thing I needed to do was change the gold into black and silver- the skulls and crossbones were already there.

~


"I will show you my brother. He is also called Ole-Luk-Oie but he never visits any one but once, and when he does come, he takes him away on his horse, and tells him stories as they ride along. He knows only two stories.
"One of these is so wonderfully beautiful, that no one in the world can imagine anything at all like it; but the other is just as ugly and frightful, so that it would be impossible to describe it."
Then Ole-Luk-Oie lifted Hjalmar up to the window. "There now, you can see my brother, the other Ole-Luk-Oie; he is also called Death.
"You perceive he is not so bad as they represent him in picture books; there he is a skeleton, but now his coat is embroidered with silver, and he wears the splendid uniform of a hussar, and a mantle of black velvet flies behind him, over the horse. Look, how he gallops along."