Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

who was pleased with their courteous manners, gave them time for reflection, so that they
should not at once fall under the sentence of death. But they concealed themselves in a
cave and remained there many days. Still, one of them went out to get provisions and
attend to other necessary matters. But when the emperor returned to the same city, these
men prayed to God, asking Him in His mercy to save them out of this danger, and when,
lying on the ground, they had finished their prayers, they fell asleep. When the emperor
learned that they were in the above-mentioned cave, he, under divine influence,
commanded that the entrance of the cave should be closed with large stones, "for," said
he, "as they are unwilling to offer sacrifices to our gods, they must perish there." While
this transpired a Christian man had engraved the names of the seven men on a leaden
tablet, and also their testimony in regard to their belief, and he had secretly laid the tablet
in the entrance of the cave before the latter was closed. After many years, the
congregations having secured peace and the Christian Theodosius having gained the
imperial dignity, the false doctrine of the Sadducees, who denied resurrection, was spread
among the people. At this time it happens that a citizen of Ephesus is about to make an
enclosure for his sheep on the mountain in question, and for this purpose he loosens the
stones at the entrance of the cave, so that the cave was opened, but without his becoming
aware of what was concealed within. But the Lord sent a breath of life into the seven men
and they arose. Thinking they had slept only one night, they sent one of their number, a
youth, to buy food. When he came to the city gate he was astonished, for he saw the
glorious sign of the Cross, and he heard people aver by the name of Christ. But when he
produced his money, which was from the time of Decius, he was seized by the vendor,
who insisted that he must have found secreted treasures from former times, and who, as
the youth made a stout denial, brought him before the bishop and the judge. Pressed by
them, he was forced to reveal his secret, and he conducted them to the cave where the
men were. At the entrance the bishop then finds the leaden tablet, on which all that
concerned their case was noted down, and when he had talked with the men a messenger
was despatched to the Emperor Theodosius. He came and kneeled on the ground and
worshipped them, and they said to the ruler: "Most august Augustus! There has sprung up
a false doctrine which tries to turn the Christian people from the promises of God,
claiming that there is no resurrection of the dead. In order that you may know that we are
all to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ according to the words of the Apostle
Paul, the Lord God has raised us from the dead and commanded us to make this
statement to you. See to it that you are not deceived and excluded from the kingdom of
God." When the Emperor Theodosius heard this he praised the Lord for not permitting
His people to perish. But the men again lay down on the ground and fell asleep. The
Emperor Theodosius wanted to make graves of gold for them, but in a vision he was
prohibited from doing this. And until this very day these men rest in the same place,
wrapped in fine linen mantles.
At the first glance there is nothing which betrays the Germanic origin of this
legend. It may seemingly have had an independent origin anywhere in the Christian
world, and particularly in the vicinity of Ephesus.
However the historian of the Franks, Bishop Gregory of Tours (born 538 or 539),
is the first one who presented in writing the legend regarding the seven sleepers. 19 In the
19 Apparently unknown to Rydberg, Gregory of Tours' story is a faithful translation of a tale found less than
a century eariler in the homilies of Saint James of Sarugh (452-521 AD), a bishop in Syria, a region also