Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

form given above it appears through him for the first time within the borders of the
christianized western Europe (see Gregorius' Miraculorum Liber, I., ch. 92). After him it
reappears in Greek records, and thence it travels on and finally gets to Arabia and
Abyssinia. 20 His account is not written before the year 571 or 572. As the legend itself
claims in its preserved form not to be older than the first years of the reign of Theodosius,
it must have originated between the year's 379-572.
The next time we learn anything about the seven sleepers in occidental literature
is in the Longobardian historian Paulus Diaconus (born about 723). 21 What he relates has
greatly surprised investigators; for although he certainly was acquainted with the
Christian version in regard to the seven men who sleep for generations in a cave, and
although he entertained no doubt as to its truth, he nevertheless relates another - and that
a Germanic - seven sleepers' legend, the scene of which is the remotest part of Germania.
He narrates (I. 4):
"As my pen is still occupied with Germany, I deem it proper, in connection with
some other miracles, to mention one which there is on the lips of everybody. In the
remotest western boundaries of Germany is to be seen near the sea-strand under a high
rock a cave where seven men have been sleeping no one knows how long. They are in the
deepest sleep and uninfluenced by time, not only as to their bodies but also as to their
garments, so that they are held in great honor by the savage and ignorant people, since
time for so many years has left no trace either on their bodies or on their clothes. To
judge from their dress they must be Romans. When a man from curiosity tried to undress
one of them, it is said that his arm at once withered, and this punishment spread such a
terror that nobody has since then dared to touch them. Doubtless it will some day be
apparent why Divine Providence has so long preserved them. Perhaps by their preaching
- for they are believed to be none other than Christians -- this people shall once more be
called to salvation. In the vicinity of this place dwell the race of the Skritobinians ('the
Skridfinns')." 22
In chapter 6 Paulus makes the following additions, which will be found to be of
importance to our theme: "Not far from that sea-strand which I mentioned as lying far to
the west (in the most remote Germany), where the boundless ocean extends, is found the
unfathomably deep eddy which we traditionally call the navel of the sea. Twice a day it
swallows the waves, and twice it vomits them forth again. Often, we are assured, ships
are drawn into this eddy so violently that they look like arrows flying through the air, and
well acquainted with Germanic tribes. One of the orthodox fathers of the Syrian church, James began
writing sermons circa 474 AD; he was made bishop of Batnae, in the district of Sarugh, and province of
Mesopotamia, in 519 AD, two years before his death.
20 The story likely made it's way east via the narrative of James of Sarugh rather than Gregory of Tours.
According to Edward Gibbons' Of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 33, the names of the
seven sleepers are inscribed in the Roman, the Abyssinian, and the Russian calendar. A similar story
appears in the Koran (Sura 18) as a divine revelation of Mohammed.
21 Paul the Deacon (c. 723-799).
22 The term Skrid-finns used here indicates the Finn's as skiers, elsewhere used in this work as "Ski-Finns."
In his translation of Paul the Deacon's History of the Lombards, William Foulke (1974) notes: "What is said
about the Scritobini (or Scridefinni) can be traced to one and the same source as the account of Thule given
in Procopius' Gothic War, II, 15 or of Scandza in Jordanes' Gothic History, 3."