King in the mountain
From Free net encyclopedia
A king in the mountain, king under the mountain or sleeping hero is a prominent motif that appears in many folktales and legends.
Contents |
General features
Template:Unsourced Image:Barbarossa.jpg 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 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.
Often 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."
The herdsman is usually 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 in the mountain sleeps in the mountain, awaiting a summons to arise with his knights and defend the nation in a time of deadly peril; and the omen that presages his rising will be the extinction of the birds that trigger his awakening.
Examples
The motif is interesting in that it combines the idea of a supernatural national defender with the concept of conservation. A number of kings, rulers, and fictional characters and religious figures have become attached to this story. They include:
- Csaba, the son of Attila the Hun (Hungary) who is supposed to ride down the Milky Way when Hungary is threatened.
- King Matthias Corvinus (Hungary) from southern Slavic myths.
- Frederick Barbarossa (Germany)
- Henry the Fowler (Germany)
- Charlemagne (Germany, France)
- William Tell (Switzerland)
- King Arthur (England, Wales)
- Sir Francis Drake (England)
- Ogier the Dane (Danish: Holger Danske, Denmark)
- Wenceslas or Václav (Czech Republic)
- Theodore Roosevelt (United States)
- Sebastian I, (Portugal) (it is said by Sebastianists that the king will return in a hazy morning in time of need)
- Emperor Constantine XI of the Eastern Roman Empire, a.k.a. the Immortal Emperor turned to marble (a similar story, although Constantine was said to be turned into a statue, not to be resting in a mountain.)
- Bran the Blessed (England, Wales)
- Owain Lawgoch (Wales)
- An unnamed giant is supposed to sleep in Plynlimon in Wales.
- Marko Kraljević (Serbia)
- King Olaf I (Norway) (After being defeated at the Battle of Svolder Olaf fought on until the last aboard his mighty ship the Long Serpent before leaping overboard never to be seen again...or at least not until his supposed return.)
- The mythical sage Väinämöinen is 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.
- Kralj Matjaž (Slovenia)
- Giewont massif which is said to be a sleeping knight (Poland)
- The remains of the Golem of Prague are said to be in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue in Prague, and that it can be brought back to defend the Jewish people. (Jewish mysticism)
Stories that include the king in the mountain motiff are prominent aspects of the three Abrahamic religions:
- Most of Christianity expects the Second Coming of Jesus to bring the Reign of God.
- Shiism expects the return of the Mahdi.
- It is believed that the prophet Elijah shall return at the end of time to foretell the coming of the Jewish Messiah.
The sleeping hero in popular culture
In his books about Adolf Hitler, chilean revisionist Miguel Serrano depicts Hitler either as a prophet or a reincarnation of Vishnu/Wotan awaiting in New Swabia for the time of his Second Coming; ultimately, he will return (Serrano says) to save the world in the verge of his perdition at the hands of the jewish total Global domination plans. This pseudo-scientific construct, merging disparate topics about spiritism, Vril mysticism and other missconceptions, makes Hitler, thus, an exponent of the King in the mountain legend.
J.R.R. Tolkien uses the king in the mountain in the form of the Dead Men of Dunharrow.
A similar story appears in the 1989 movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where the sleeping hero is a knight from the Crusades, made immortal by the Holy Grail.
A version of the sleeping hero legend is included in several entries in the Nintendo game franchise 'The Legend of Zelda', most explicitly in the Gamecube version, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
British author Susan Cooper makes use of the return of King Arthur as a plot element in The Dark is Rising Sequence.
Neal J. Iacono's 2001 novel Dracula: Son of the Dragon applies the King in the mountain motif to Vlad Tepes.
In music, a single by Kate Bush released on 24 October 2005 is named "King of the Mountain". This song connects popular myths about Elvis Presley's death to the king of the mountain motif.
After his death in 1984, urban legends arose that comedian Andy Kaufman would return from seclusion. These rumors were fueled by Kaufman himself, who joked about faking his death, only to return 20 years later. Similar legends surround the death of Tupac Shakur.