"The Sandman" is a short story by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann which was first published in 1817. The main character Nathan was scared of the Sandman - a night visitor who took away the eyes of children and put them into his glittering mechanism. As an adult, Nathan meets the teacher Coppelius who also reminds him of the Sandman, and strange events happen in his life that lead him to unlikely consequences.