The Marble Emperor

Five hundred and sixty-two years ago today, Constantine XI Palaiologus became the last Emperor of the Romans, or as we know it today, the Byzantine Empire. His reign lasted from 6 January 1449 until he fell in battle on the walls of Constantinople on 29 May 1453, when the Ottoman Turks stormed the city and ended an empire that had been founded almost exactly a thousand years earlier by Constantine the Great.

Constantine XI Palaiologus is known in Greek legend as the Marble Emperor. His body was never found and it is reputed that when the Ottomans entered the city, an angel rescued the emperor, turned him into marble and placed him in a cave under the earth near the Golden Gate, where he waits to be brought to life again to conquer the city back for Christians.

This is one of many examples in folklore of the King in the Mountain, of which the most famous (but not sole) British example is King Arthur.

The reason for bringing this up is two-fold: firstly, as one or two of you know, Byzantium holds a special fascination for me, but also:

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 told 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.
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."
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 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.

And then of course, there’s this: ”unexplained” bird and fish deaths around the world (actually, the BBC reports that they probably are explained, but let’s not allow facts to get in the way).

So if you are on your way home tonight and bump into a mediaeval army full of squabbling legendary heroes, you now know that it has all been foretold and the omens have occurred properly and in time.

The Marble Emperor

Five hundred and sixty-two years ago today, Constantine XI Palaiologus became the last Emperor of the Romans, or as we know it today, the Byzantine Empire. His reign lasted from 6 January 1449 until he fell in battle on the walls of Constantinople on 29 May 1453, when the Ottoman Turks stormed the city and ended an empire that had been founded almost exactly a thousand years earlier by Constantine the Great.

Constantine XI Palaiologus is known in Greek legend as the Marble Emperor. His body was never found and it is reputed that when the Ottomans entered the city, an angel rescued the emperor, turned him into marble and placed him in a cave under the earth near the Golden Gate, where he waits to be brought to life again to conquer the city back for Christians.

This is one of many examples in folklore of the King in the Mountain, of which the most famous (but not sole) British example is King Arthur.

The reason for bringing this up is two-fold: firstly, as one or two of you know, Byzantium holds a special fascination for me, but also:

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 told 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.
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."
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 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.

And then of course, there’s this: ”unexplained” bird and fish deaths around the world (actually, the BBC reports that they probably are explained, but let’s not allow facts to get in the way).

So if you are on your way home tonight and bump into a mediaeval army full of squabbling legendary heroes, you now know that it has all been foretold and the omens have occurred properly and in time.