Writing a factual or fictional dream is a difficult task as its ›otherness‹ will challenge all of our accustomed modes of narration. So the existence of established cultural and textual patterns is a welcome help. This collection of essays describes these patterns, their historical and individual modifications and their relation to the dream-discourse in selected case studies and general considerations. The scope of the contributions ranges geographically from the Near East and Europe to Northern America, Africa, China and Japan and historically from Antiquity to the present, including studies on the Old Testament, the Babylonian Talmud, Dante, Tang Xianzu, La Fontaine, Cáo Xuěqín, Bräker, Jean Paul, Manzoni, Heine, Keller, Freud, Sōseki, Schnitzler, McCay, Éluard, Bâ, Sassine, Fantouré, Kipphardt, Bächler, Sarris, Gaiman and others.