King asleep in mountain

The king asleep in the mountain (D 1960.2 in Stith Thompson's motif-index)Template:Sfnp is a prominent folklore trope found in many folktales and legends. Thompson termed it as the Kyffhäuser type.Template:R Some other designations are king in the mountain, king under the mountain, sleeping hero, or Bergentrückung ("mountain rapture").

Statue of Ogier the Dane (Danish: Holger Danske) in Kronborg Castle, Helsingør; Ogier is said to sleep in the castle until one day when Denmark is in peril

Examples include the legends of King Arthur, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Charlemagne, Ogier the Dane, King David, Frederick Barbarossa at Kyffhäuser, Falanto of Taranto, Genghis Khan, Constantine XI Palaiologos, Kraljević Marko, Sebastian of Portugal and King Matjaž.Template:SfnpTemplate:R<ref>Šmitek, Zmago. 1999. “The Image of the Real World and the World Beyond in the Slovene Folk Tradition". Studia Mythologica Slavica 2 (May). Ljubljana, Slovenija. pp. 178-179. https://doi.org/10.3986/sms.v2i0.1848.</ref>

The Thompson motif entries A 571, "Cultural hero asleep in mountain", and E 502, "The Sleeping Army", are similar and can occur in the same tale.Template:Sfnp A related motif is the "Seven Sleepers" (D 1960.1,Template:R also known as the "Rip Van Winkle" motif), whose type tale is the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus (AT tale type 766).

General features

Frederick sends out the boy to see whether the ravens still fly.

King in the mountain stories involve legendary heroes, often accompanied by armed retainers, sleeping in remote dwellings including caves on high mountaintops, remote islands, or supernatural worlds. The hero is frequently a historical figure of some military consequence in the history of the nation where the mountain is located.

The stories gathered by the Brothers Grimm concerning Frederick Barbarossa and Charlemagne are typical of the stories told, and have been influential on many variants and subsequent adaptations. The presence of the hero is unsuspected; until some herdsman wanders into the cave, typically looking for a lost animal, and sees the hero. The stories almost always mention the detail that the hero has grown a long beard, indicative of the long time he has slept beneath the mountain.Template:Citation needed

In the Brothers Grimm version, the hero speaks with the herdsman. Their conversation typically involves the hero asking, "Do the eagles (or ravens) still circle the mountaintop?" The herdsman, or a mysterious voice, replies, "Yes, they still circle the mountaintop." "Then begone! My time has not yet come."Template:Citation needed

The herdsman in this story was then supernaturally harmed by the experience: he ages rapidly, he emerges with his hair turned white, and often he dies after repeating the tale. The story goes on to say that the king sleeps in the mountain, awaiting a summons to arise with his knights and defend the nation in a time of deadly peril. The omen that presages his rising will be the extinction of the birds that trigger his awakening.<ref>Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsche Sagen (1816/1818), no. 23.</ref><ref>Kaiser Karl im Untersberg (German)</ref>Template:Dead link

Examples from Europe

A number of European kings, rulers, fictional characters and religious figures have become attached to this story. Major examples are King Arthur of Britain, Charlemagne of the Franks, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, as well as Template:Sfnp<ref name=ashliman/> Ogier the Dane and William Tell.<ref name=ashliman>Template:Cite web</ref>

Baltic states

• A motif in Latvian legends involves a castle sinking into ground leaving a hill behind it. In legends that have someone enter such hill, the inhabitants of the castle are found in sleep-like state. If the visitor is able to guess the name of the castle, it is returned to the surface with its inhabitants awakened. The choir song "Gaismas pils" (The Castle of Light), which is part of Latvia's Cultural Canon, drew inspiration from these legends.Template:Citation needed
• Vytautas the Great in Lithuania is believed by some to rise from the grave to defend the country when danger threatens it.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Britain and Ireland

• King Arthur (Great Britain and Brittany). According to the legend, Arthur was taken away to Avalon to sleep until he was needed by the people of Britain. Several legends talk of a herdsman who stumbles across a cave on mainland Britain, wherein he finds Arthur sleeping, often with his knights and Excalibur by his side.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In a variation on this, sometimes the exploring herdsman finds instead just Arthur's knights, or Sir Lancelot, Guinevere and the knights sleeping in wait on the return of the "Once and Future King". In early Arthurian literature, Arthur references his predecessor Brân the Blessed as having his head placed on a mound overlooking Britain so as to protect it. He wishes to do the same, and later they overlook and protect Britain together.Template:Citation needed
• Merlin of the Arthurian legend, who is imprisoned in an oak tree by Nimue.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Thomas the Rhymer is found under a hill with a retinue of knights in a tale from Anglo-Scottish border. Likewise, Harry Hotspur was said to have been hunting in the Cheviots when he and his hounds got holed-up in the Hen Hole (or "Hell-hole"), awaiting the sound of a hunting horn to awaken them from their slumber. Another border variant concerns a party of huntsmen who chased a roebuck into the Cheviots when they heard the sweetest music playing from the Henhole. However, when they entered, they became lost and are trapped to this day.<ref>Henry Tegner; Ghosts of The North Country, 1991 Butler Publishing, Template:ISBN. p.13</ref>

Wales

• Brân the Blessed. Referenced as protecting the Isles and overlooking Britain; his head severed and placed on a mound. Arthur later says he wishes to do the same and in early Arthurian literature both guard Britain together.
• Owain Lawgoch, Welsh soldier and nobleman (14th century).
• Owain Glyndŵr, the last native born Welshman to hold the title "Prince of Wales"; he disappeared after a long but ultimately unsuccessful rebellion against the English. He was never captured or betrayed and refused all Royal pardons.
• An unnamed giant is supposed to sleep in Plynlimon.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Ireland

• Fionn mac Cumhaill is said to sleep in a cave/mountain surrounded by the Fianna. It is told that the day will come when the Dord Fiann is sounded three times and Fionn and the Fianna will rise up again, as strong and well as they ever were. In other accounts he will return to glory as a great hero of Ireland.<ref>Augusta, Lady Gregory – Gods and Fighting Men (1904)</ref>
• The 3rd Earl of Desmond, who dozes under Lough Gur with his silver-shod horse.Template:Sfnp
• The 8th Earl of Kildare, who is at temporary rest under the Curragh of Kildare.Template:Sfnp
• Dónall na nGeimhlach Ó Donnchú, in legend around County Kerry.Template:Sfnp
• Cu Chulainn in Nationalist circles in Northern Ireland.Template:Citation needed

England

• King Harold. In Anglo-Saxon legends he survived the Battle of Hastings and will come one day to liberate the English from the Norman yoke.<ref>The Science of Fairy Tales: An Enquiry Into Fairy Mythology, Edwin Sidney Hartland, 1925 edition, p. 143</ref>
• Sir Francis Drake. It is stated that if England is in deadly peril and Drake's Drum is beaten, then Sir Francis Drake will arise to defend England from the sea. According to the legend, Drake's Drum can be heard at times when England is at war or significant national events take place.Template:Citation needed
• Knights asleep at Alderley Edge in Cheshire. There is an enduring legend of a cavern full of knights in armour awaiting a call to decide the fate of a great battle for England. There is no king named, but there is a wizard involved, who is referred to as Merlin in later versions of the legend.<ref>Louisa Stanley, "Alderley Edge and Its Neighbourhood", 1843</ref>
• King Dunmail. A Cumbrian King said to be defeated at the hands of Edmund I of England and Malcolmn of Alba. Dunmail's warriors are said to have fled with his crown, climbing into the mountains to Grisedale Tarn below Helvellyn, where they threw it into the depths to be safe until some future time when Dunmail would come again to lead them. Every year the warriors are said to return to the tarn, recover the crown and carry it down to the cairn on Dunmail Raise by the A591.Template:Citation needed

Caucasus region

Armenia

• Mher<ref>Mher in the Carved Rock Template:Webarchive, J. A. Boyle, at the Library of the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand</ref> (see Daredevils of Sassoun).
• Artavazd I.Template:Citation needed

Georgia

• Legend has it Queen Tamar is not dead, but is sleeping in a gold-wreathed coffin in a mountain. According to it, she will wake up one day and restore the Georgian Golden Age.<ref>[1] Georgia's Queen of Queens Tamar the GreatTemplate:Bare URL inline</ref>

Dutch and German-speaking realm

• Dietrich von Bern, legendary Germanic hero, was spirited away to the dwarf kingdom to return in the time of greatest need.Template:Citation needed
• Charlemagne, Emperor of future Germany, France, and the Low Countries, rests in the Untersberg near Salzburg (Austria).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, sleeps in the Kyffhäuser mountain and will rise to save the Empire (Germany).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Henry the Fowler, King (Germany).Template:Citation needed

Switzerland

• William Tell (Switzerland, in some legends accompanied by two other Tells<ref name=ashliman/>).

Greek, Hellenistic and Byzantine

Ancient Greece

• Theseus (Athens).

Byzantine Empire

• Constantine I, said to have been turned into a stone statue, although not resting within a mountain.Template:Citation needed
• Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, said to have been turned into marble and thus was known as "Marmaromenos", "the Marble King". He was said to be hidden somewhere underground, some say inside walled up Golden Gate of Constantinople, until his glorious return as the Immortal Emperor.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• John III Doukas Vatatzes (also known as "Kaloyannis III'").Template:Citation needed

Hungarians

• Csaba, the son of Attila the Hun who is supposed to ride down the Milky Way when the Székelys are threatened.
• King St. Stephen, King St. Ladislaus, King Matthias Corvinus.

Italy

Roman Empire

• Nero (Nero Redivivus)

Spain

• King Rodrigo, said to escape from the Moorish invasion and await for "the time of maximum need" to save his people.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sebastian I. With his death, the house of Aviz lost the throne of Portugal. Sebastianists hold that he will return to rule Portugal's Fifth Empire.

Portugal

• Sebastian I, who Sebastianists hold will one day return on a hazy morning in time of need, hiding in a mysterious island surrounded by fog until then.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Famous Legends From Portugal: With some Portuguese Legends presented in English for the first time, Miguel Carvalho Abrantes, p. 27-28, 40.</ref>

Nordic countries

• Ogier the Dane (Template:Langx, Denmark).
• King Olaf II (Norway).
• Väinämöinen, the protagonist of the Finnish national epic Kalevala. At the end of Kalevala, he leaves on a boat, promising to return when he is most needed.
• Knights of Ålleberg (Sweden).

Slavic nations

East Slavic

• Alexander Suvorov (Russia), Russian generalissimo, sleeps in a deep cave where prayer is heard and icon lamp burns. The legend says Suvorov will come back to save his country from a mortal danger.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Taras Shevchenko (Ukraine), Ukrainian poet and painter, believed to be a supernatural hero (charakternik), is said to sleep under his grave mound in Kaniv or even in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.Template:Citation needed

South Slavic

• Marko Kraljević (Serbia, Macedonia).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Matija Gubec (Croatia).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Kralj Matjaž (Slovenia).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Napoleon Bonaparte was believed to be still alive and hiding in Irkutsk, Russia, gathering an army to return and conquer the world. According to a Romanian bishop Melchisedech, there was a Slavonic sect whose members shared this belief along with a widespread worship of Napoleon.<ref>The Science of Fairy Tales: An Enquiry Into Fairy Mythology, Edwin Sidney Hartland, 1925 edition, p. 144</ref>

West Slavic

• Bolesław the Brave, king of Poland, asleep with a host of knights in a cave hidden somewhere in Giewont, a mountain massif which is itself said to resemble a sleeping knight. Several different versions of the legend exist, sometimes involving a different historical figure or another cave in the Tatra Mountains.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite summitpost</ref>
• St. Wenceslas (Václav) of Bohemia (Czech Republic). He sleeps in the Blaník mountain (with a huge army of Czech knights) and will emerge to protect his country at its worst time, riding on his white horse and wielding the legendary hero Bruncvík's sword.<ref name="Old Bohemian Legends 1894">Alois Jirásek, Old Bohemian Legends (1894, Staré pověsti české)</ref>

Examples from Asia

Asia Minor and Middle East

Iran

• Kay Khosrow, legendary shah of Persia. The city of Shazand is said to contain a cavern system where Kay Khosrow is hidden along with other immortals. Legend says he will reappear and help Saoshyant in the last war at the dawn of resurrection. <ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Shah Bahram VarjavandTemplate:Citation needed

East Asia

Mongolia

• A traditional tale of the death of Genghis Khan says he died falling from his horse while being injured, but that whether he died or not is unknown, and he may be merely resting. Every spring and autumn "those who know the secret" of where Genghis is buried are said to put new sets of clothes into his casket and take the old ones out, worn and frayed. Folklore reports another instance of evidence that Genghis would return: every year there is a sacrifice for Genghis Khan in the Ordos and two white horses (the horses of Genghis Khan) appear. In the third year of the Chinese Republic (1914), though, just one horse appeared. When the second horse came, four years later, it had saddle galls. This was taken as evidence that Genghis Khan had been using the horse, and was making ready to appear again.<ref>Owen Lattimore, Mongol Journeys, London: Doran & Co., 1941, pp. 35–37</ref>

China

• A traditional tale of the Chongzhen Emperor survived through the fall of Beijing and will reappear was widely spread in Qing dynasty.Template:Citation needed

Japan

• Kūkai, founder of Shingon Buddhism. He is said to be in deep meditation in a temple on Mount Kōya, Wakayama Prefecture, awaiting the coming of Maitreya, the next Buddha.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Philippines

• Bernardo Carpio, the "King of the Tagalogs", is said to be trapped in the mountains of Rodriguez, Rizal, east of Metro Manila on Luzon. Legend has it that Carpio, a man of superhuman strength, causes earthquakes as he struggles to break free of his chains.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Tibet

• Gesar of Ling, believed by the Tibetans to return one day and restore order on Earth.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Vietnam

• The temple of Trần Hưng Đạo, the supreme commander who defeated Kublai Khan's invasions of Vietnam, housed a sword chest that rung if the nation was in peril, but it also foretold victories.Template:Citation needed

Examples from Africa

A king and queen are said to be sleeping in legendary desert city of Zerzura. Trespassers are warned not to wake them. According to the legend they will eventually one day waken.Template:Citation needed

Examples from the Americas

United States

• The Pueblo hero-god Montezuma is believed to have been a divine king in prehistoric times, and suspended in an Arizona mountain that bears his image.Template:Citation needed
• The Sleeping Ute mountain in Colorado is said to have been a "Great Warrior God" who fell asleep while recovering from wounds received in a great battle with "the Evil Ones" (there are many other variants of this legend).Template:Citation needed
• Tecumseh of the Shawnee.Template:Citation needed
• Emperor Norton is claimed by several defunct civil rights groups to have been destined to return to the US when the unity of the Republic is at its nadir.Template:Citation needed
• Some adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory believe that American figure John F. Kennedy Jr. will one day return to purge corruption from the American government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• An urban legend claims that Walt Disney has been cryogenically frozen and is stored under the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride at Disneyland.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Peru

• The Inkarri (from Spanish Inca Rey, "Inca King") of the indigenous peoples of Peru, who will return one day to restore the Inca Empire.<ref>OMER, Aurélie. Cuatro versiones inéditas del mito de Inkarrí. Áreas de estudio: Shipetiari y Quero. Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, 2015, vol. 41, no 81, p. 405-434.</ref> There are two main versions of the myth with several local variations:
  • In the first, Inkarri was the last Sapa Inca. He was decapitated by the Spaniards, who buried his head in an unknown location. The head is not dead but hibernating while it regenerates the rest of the body. When the regeneration is complete, Inkarri will return.Template:Citation needed
  • In the second, Inkarri and his wife Qollari were the founders of Cusco. They fled to the Amazon jungle (to a place called Paititi, or variations thereof), where they sleep under rocks and will return one day.Template:Citation needed

Brazil

• The Pedra Bonita massacre was a massacre involving a cult of Sebastianists who believed the lost king was buried in a hidden kingdom underneath their settlement.Template:Citation needed

Examples by religion

Judaism

• King David is depicted in Hayim Nahman Bialik's tale "King David in the Cave" as sleeping along with his warriors deep inside a cave, waiting for the blast of the shofar that will awaken them from their millennia of slumber and arouse them to redeem Israel.<ref>"Canaanism:" Solutions and Problems Template:Webarchive, Boas Evron, Alabaster's Archive</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This role was not attributed to King David in earlier Jewish tradition.Template:Citation needed
• The body of the Golem of Prague is said to be hidden in the attic of the Old New Synagogue.Template:Citation needed

Christianity

• St. John the Evangelist – according to the Golden Legend, he is only sleeping in his grave at Ephesus until the coming of the Antichrist, when he would be needed as a witness.<ref>Isidore of Seville – De ortu et obitu patrum (5th century)</ref><ref>Jacobus de Voragine – The Golden Legend</ref>Template:Dubious

Islam

• Muḥammad al-Mahdī (Shīʿa motif, identified with the mysterious son of Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī but occasionally other important figures in Shīʿa history like al-Ṭayyib Abū al-Qāṣim), sometimes called The Qāʾim) when identified with a historical figure as opposed to someone yet-to-come, the individual is endowed with unnaturally long lifespan and is said to be in occultation.Template:Citation needed
• Jesus, whom Muslims believe to be in occultation, will return alongside the Mahdi to defeat the false Messiah, the Dajjal. Though Muslims believe Jesus will return to Earth, this is not a resurrection, as Muslims do not believe Jesus died on the cross. Rather, Muslims generally believe that Jesus entered Heaven alive, and that he will return to Earth before the End of Days. See also: Islamic view of Jesus' death and Occultation (Islam)

Druze

• al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh (either died or disappeared in 1021 AD at the age of 35), is believed by the Druze to return at the End of Time to rule from Egypt.Template:Citation needed

Hinduism

• Viṣṇu is often depicted as asleep, woken up by the other gods asking for his help. His avatar Krishna informs Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita that he periodically returns to Earth to establish order and justice. The Mahabharata specifically claims that Vishnu will appear in his tenth avatar of Kalki, yet to come, at the end of the Kali Yuga to rule as king.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Sleeping anti-hero and villain

Sometimes this type of story or archetype is also attached to not-so-heroic figures, who are either simple anti-heroes or fully villains, whose return would mean the end of the world, or whose sleep represents something positive. This kind of archetype is known as the "Chained Satan" archetype.<ref name="Mher in the Carved Rock">Template:Cite web</ref> Among examples of this are:

• The Sleeping Giant mountain in Connecticut, United States was said by the local Quinnipiac people to be the demon Hobbomock, sealed by the Great Spirit. One day he will supposedly awaken and destroy the world.Template:Citation needed
• Artavasdes I of Armenia, who according to Moses of Chorene was chained and cursed to stay eternally chained by his father Artaxias I.<ref name="Mher in the Carved Rock"/>
• Loki in Norse mythology was bound by the gods after he engineered the death of Baldr. With the onset of Ragnarök, Loki is foretold to be set free and fight alongside the forces of the jötnar against the gods.Template:Citation needed
• Gog and Magog in Christianity and Islam
• Dukljan (Serbian mythology).Template:Citation needed
• Typhon and Enceladus in Mount Etna.Template:Citation needed
• Tamamo-no-Mae (Sessho-seki)
• Sun Wukong (Journey to the West)

In popular culture

In the 2015 video game Undertale, a song associated with the character Asgore plays named Bergentrückung.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

See also

• Cthulhu
• The Chosen One (trope)
• Honi HaM'agel
• King Arthur's messianic return
• The Longing
• Seven Sleepers
• Sidhe
• Stasis
• Suspended animation
• Rip Van Winkle

Bibliography

• Template:Citation Template:JSTOR
• Template:Citation
• Template:Citation

External links

• List of other sleeping hero legends