King under the Mountain | Symbolism of the Sleeping Hero 

"A shadow lies upon his tomb, In Moria, in Khazad-Dum, But still the sunken stars appear, In dark and windless Mirrormere. There lies his crown in water deep, 'Till Durin wakes again from sleep..." - JRR Tolkien

These iconic heroes prove that providence and destiny might sometimes lie sleeping but they never die. Great work, as always, sir.

I don't think there has ever been a time until now where we are so desperate for these heroes of old to return to save us. Another very interesting video.

King Sebastian of Portugal has had profound impacts on both portuguese and brazilian folklores, having vanished after a battle against the the Sultan of Morocco, rumoured to return in times of great peril to either nation, depending on who you ask

Another fantastic video Reiver. The sleeping hero has always been of interest. I sometimes think it is supposed to serve as comfort that things aren't that bad otherwise Arthur would return. Or investing us with a moral responsibility to ensure that things don't get so bad that he needs to. Great stuff mate.

The King in the Mountain myth gives people hope that they are not alone. It reminds me of the Savior God of some religions, who comes to gather those faithful to him and save them from something. People have always needed hope that they are not alone, that in their dire need some supernatural god or godlike person will come to their aid. It does make a good story with thrilling possibilities.

Brilliant video mate really enjoyed this, and the spirit of these great hero's is waking.

Your channel is growing so fast now. Well done, you deserve it

Excellent. I just finiahed reading The Mystery of the Grail. May we live to see better days.

It is important not to forget your history. Much of our histories are told in songs and tales. I'm glad you are keeping these traditions alive. Thank you for another inspirational talk of heroes and legends.

Love these stories, thankyou ❤😊

Yes please keep making these videos they're fascinating! Also thanks for mentioning Wenceslas. I'm not Czech by blood but I grew up there and have been to Prague many times. His statue is still there. I love this story and being a Christian I am always remindid of Jesus returning.

I like the idea that the return of the king under the mountain is spiritual. That the fear of being thought of as stupid, weak and disapointing to the returning king is what inspires a people to take action in his expected return. I would love to see a king and his knights popping round and showing invaders that their swords still sing against silly teenagers with kitchen knives from Asda.

am a new subscriber I found your channel a month ago and have been binge watching videos I love European folklore!

Where is Arthur when you need him. Joking apart, the wisdom of the Legendary Arthur and his advisor Merlin would be of great use in today's world. Excellent video, mate. Keep them coming!

in my homeland (Morocco) we have a chain of mountains called Atlas, and one of them is known as "the sleeping monk", because it is shaped in a way that reminds you of a sleeping person

I love starting my day with a new video from this channel. I only knew of the Arthur legend of this trope. I was not aware that there were other king in the mountain legends.

Epic topic!

Gargoyle Tv show really got me hooked on these old folklore tales. Love the channel brother. Keep em coming!

A brilliant piece! I love the split screen 'dimension split' idea. Impressive. Cu on the other side. 🌟👍

Fantastic video mate, wonderful telling!

I feel the spirit awakened in my soul. Fantastic video. Thanks for making these so I can share with my boy his heritage.

Drakes Drum and the Fairy Flag are two items worthy of the telling. There used to be a magazine called Realms of Fantasy where in there was a tale of a R.A. F. squadron that flew in the skies of the U.K. during the second world war,. They were implied to be the Knights of the round table come to aid their land in time of need. When one asked after Arthur he was told "the man who holds the cane wore the crown" A reference to Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister during the war. At the end of the war they flew off never to be seen after Churchill also sort of faded into history as well. I always seem to remember that tale. I have a copy someplace. Then of course there is the battle scene in Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Your channel is in a league of its own I watch as much as I can of your bloggs I don't have a lot I get lost and can truly escape when listening to your channel its truly a bright in the dark tunnel im in, I thank you so much, ja from Wakefield ( wakey) for short, THANKYOU

Timely and spiritually inspiring.Thanks for another great video ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Excellent history and legends of the past 😊👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏😊👍👍 Great discussion about the influence of these sleeping kings…they are in our minds….still…today 😉

Brilliant stuff. The will, the hope and the beliefs of the common folk. Us the people. It's all a positive thing. Nuff luv to everyone. 👊💛👍

Very interesting video , king in the mountains love it

Absolutely fantastic video. Your channel goes from strength to strength.

I was somewhat disappointed Constantine Paleologos-the last Roman Emperor was not included. According to myth he was mortally wounded during the fall of Constantinople and now lies in stasis in a secret chamber under the temple of Hagia Sophia waiting for the time he will rise again to restore the Easter Roman Empire. Still the video is amazing and I loved the conclusion regarding apathy because some great power will come to the rescue.

Nice work local lad 🙂

If they're going to wake up, this would be a good time for it!

I'm starting a new one: Teddy Roosevelt is entomb in the Mt. Rushmore monument. He will rise again when the people need him.

I love these stories, especially of Arthur and Finn who are both dear to my heart

Great video. A timeless trope indeed. Reminds me of We Need a Hero by Bonnie Tyler in 1986. Where have all the good men gone And where are all the gods? Where's the streetwise Hercules To fight the rising odds? Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed Late at night, I toss and I turn And I dream of what I need I need a hero I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast And he's gotta be fresh from the fight

Very interesting look into folklore that has influenced many societies - I know that Arthurian Legends had an enormous resurgence in Britain during the Second World War. A time when people needed a dormant hero.

Very interesting n well tod, thanks

❤❤ somehow i missed this 😮😮😮 as always Duke, were not worthy 😊 nice one ladxx

An excellent video Reiver! I was looking for your old version of this video just the other day when discussing Arthurian myth with my Girlfriend, as she'd recently taken an interest in said subject. I'll have to show her you're updated version. As for how we should interpret these stories, I'd say it is hard for heroes to return, physically or spiritually, in a world so out of love with the romantic that shuns the very idea of heroism.

This was BRILLIANT!! 💗👍❤

Thank you so much for this special video! ❤️ Fantastic and very detailed as always. I think the King under the mountain represents the potential that each of us has. Everything resides in our spirit. We can be mediocre and corrupted in our values, or we can elevate ourselves. This was a special early birthday present 🤗✨ Thank you very much as always for your incredible work!

thank you for you the amazing story love your folklore stories and love mythology and folklore can't wait for more and keep makeing the amazing folklore and stories your channel is growing relly fast a gim oround of you you deserve mpre subs glad i found this channel its a gem and i found this really interesting and unique

Coming from Cornwall I was aware of the King Arthur sleeper under the hill legend but wasn’t aware of any other legends regards other national hero’s. Never heard of the King Harold or Francis Drake legends. Fascinating.

'America 3000', a really cheesy sci-fi movie, features a variation of the king under the mountain. But instead of a king, it's the last president of the USA, who has become a kind of messianic figure to the people of a post-apocalyptic future, who is believed to someday return. And I don't want to spoil it, but this plays an important role in the movie.

Love your channel thanks for all your doing.

Heroes rise when we need them as we would never know what one is.

That was interesting and enjoyable

Brilliant video. I think we're ready now for the heroes of our past to return, in whatever form, and inspire us to become heroes ourselves and remember our strength. Thanks for this.

I think about Drake's drum quite a bit, especially recently. I saw it once as a child and it does have an aura about it, certainly. Excellent video as usual :)

You chose some really beautiful scenery.

I see them as an archetype but very real- the spirit of the king will return in the form of a great leader to pull the people together in the time of great need.

👍🏻 love this channel and such a great video brother.

it is a great myth . was reading a poem where walter scot invented the idea of the wizard Michael scot sleeping in his tomb with his book of magic in his hands in Melrose abbey .

The Returning Hero, a sign that not all has been lost. And if a body is never found, well...

What an interesting topic to explore, another great video. I’d love to make videos like this, I find your channel inspiring! Thank you from Worcestershire 🤗

Portugal has a legend similar to king Harold, where king Sebastian 1st who disappeared in a battle against the morrocans would return (sometimes on a ghost ship or a white horse) to help Portugal against a dire threat. This legend is still popular today in Portugal, the azores and Madeira

Great analysis

Good Video. Nice work. Shared.

There is an interesting aspect in the (most popular) versions of the Barbarossa legend that you missed: His question whether "the old Ravens are still flying", which he asks in regular intervals (most pouplar version; every time his long red beard has grown around the table in front of him three times, he'll wake up and allow someone to find a way into his hall under the mountain to ask them) is actually symbolic and doesn't refer to the actual ravens flying around the mountain, but to all the smaller and bigger German noblemen who quarrel among each other for their own petty selfish interests. The old German Kaiserreich (Holy Roman Realm of German empires) was an elective kingdom with a comparatively weak central power and really made up of a lot of peoples speaking Germanic dialects who didn't really think of themselves as one people, and there was always much feuding and infighting. The historical Barbarossa spend most of his reign fighting internel rebellions and feuds in a mostly futile attempt to strenghten the central power of the emperor and bring more stability to the realm, which is why legend usually romanticizes him as this wise and benevolent king and savior figure even though he certainly was just as much a stonecold politician as any other ruler. So the legend says he eventually got tired of endlessly trying to pacify all those petty quarrels and feuds and he won't come back until the Germans have finally put that behind them and have learned to stand together as one people. Only then would he return and lead Germany into an era of peace and prosperity. This aspect of the legend was probably emphasized during the romantic period, when the desire to have a real national state like other European nations grew stronger and was idealized among the Germans (and also got connected to the liberty movement, because people reasoned that a revolution of the people like e.g. in France could never happen if only one of the dozends and hundreds of small German states rebelled against their local lord (which neighboring lords would soon subdue), but only if it was done by a national liberty movement. So that's the propaganda background behind Kaiser Wilhelm having this statue constructed with the awakening Barbarossa under the mountain associated with himself. It was saying: We did it, we are now a unified national state, the old ravens fly no more - we are now destined for greatness (Well, we all know how that turned out, but you gotta acknowledge a great propaganda move for what it is ;-) ).

In slovenian folklore they say King Matthias Corvinus who was king of Hungary sleeps inside a mountain in Slovenia with his mercenary army called the black army and will return when the world will be in big danger.

I only recently came across your channel and I must Jay it is quite informative and enjoyable ty for your videos.. also as far as King under the Mountain myths and legends there are a few from America aswell I'm including brief description for you .. United Statesedit 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.[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).[citation needed] Tecumseh of the Shawnee.[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.[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.[23]

Very good, I like how it turned into a wider analysis towards the end bringing up the use in relatively recent popular culture, these stories are important to us in any era and now more than ever. We did at one point think we had a story of our own of this in Staffordshire because of a man named Hargrave Jennings who mentioned an underground tomb, guarded by a man in armour with an ever burning lamp; but he listed his source as Robert Plot, and under closer inspection Mr Plot never actually recorded that. Jennings seems to be confusing the story for one recorded in Gloucestershire, he likely mis-remembered the Gloucestershire location 'Colton's Field' with the village of 'Colton' near Cannock Chase.

In Iron Age myth, Bran the Blessed had his soldiers cut off his head in death and, place it facing the sea by the River Thames on the White Hill (Tower Hill) by which now is the Tower of London. The belief being he would warn of any coming invasion. A bit like Nelson on the top of his column looking out towards the sea.

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I really enjoy your channel. Have you ever considered making a video on The Wild Hunt?

The King? He is Within, Thou Art Sovereign!

Reminds me of the books that Game of Thrones was based on. That a Stark ancestor would rise to defend the North from the Whitewalkers. Edit: Also in the poem by Alfred Noyes, The Admiral’s Ghost, that Lord Nelson would return if ever England needed him.

Excellent video. Being from Somerset I am adamant that Arthur is buried in Glastonbury 😉

Do you think the King in the Mountain theme be linked to burial mounds and barrows? These heroes are so important they lie under mountains rather than mounds? 🤔

I wonder if King Dunmail, the supposed last king of an independent Cumbria (as we might now think of it) would qualify as a "king under the mountain" type of figure?

We have to learn to work together and save our selves from our selves before our ancient animal Hybrid Gods and Goddesses, and our ancient humanoid Gods and Goddesses to be able to return. And it's not that we can't work together and save our selves from our selves, we can but we don't want to, and this is just the way it is

The serpent king ( Zahhak ) from Iranian mythology, best known from the Epic Book ( Persian Book of Kings ) is a devil king who has been captivated in the Damavand mountain and will return back before the apocalypse to ruin the entire world .

I know of a king sleeping in Argentina.

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First time I watched this, a few minutes ago, there was a fault with the visual, creating a vertical split screen. This happens from time to time, since the last 'improved' vsn of U tube. Anyone else noticed this? I think the 'king in the mountain' idea is best seen as a figurative truth. There are collective spirits everywhere, which lie dormant awaiting the need for thier revival. 🌟👍

Only when we learn to work together, and again save our selves from our selves, just as we Gaia personally one of the small genuine chosen ones saved our self from our self, will these historical mythology beings return. Whom had summoned we Gaia from the underworld back in 2012? was it we have no idea.

Hey @DukeofAvalon, what happened to your narration of the tale of the once and future king? Why are some of your videos gone? Did the )W's at )outube take them down? If I remember correctly they took down your wandering Jew video... ☹️ Do you have an archive of your other videos? Could you reupload them somewhere else? Maybe Patreon? Indescribably good content as usual 👍🏻

Coolest name ever…Finn McCool 😎

This is all true.. I've seen.... Things

Isle of Man

As you may... Or may not know i am the King of Florida.. K.o.f. 😀 🍻 cheers

Seems like an archaic Indo European trop. Reminds me of Vishnu and Vidarr

My favorite examples are Jesus and Cthulu.

the once and future king You just have to look to English history and see it, when we are truly in need, heroes have risen to save the people. confidently finishing a game of bowels, To tell their men what 'England Expects' or to ensure that men will still say "This was their finest hour."

Hey ive been following you for ages but not sure how to contact you directly. I caught a faerie with my little boy on camera. The footage is really cool, id love to send it over, see what you think.

Lion El Jonson...