Sleeping Anti-hero and Villain
Sometimes this type of story or archetype is also attached to not-so-heroic figures, who are either simple anti-heroes or fully villains, whose return would mean the end of the world, or whose sleep represents something positive. This kind of archetype is known as the "Chained Satan" archetype. Among examples of this are:
- The Sleeping Giant mountain in Connecticut, United States was said by the local Quinnipiac Indians to be the demon Hobbomock, sealed by the Great Spirit. One day he would supposedly awaken and destroy the world
- Mher (Armenia)
- Artavasdes II of Armenia, who according to Moses of Chorene was chained and cursed to stay eternally chained by his father Artaxias II.
- Loki in Norse mythology was bound by the gods after he engineered the death of Baldr. With the onset of Ragnarök, Loki is foretold to slip free and fight alongside the forces of the jötnar against the gods.
Read more about this topic: King In The Mountain
Famous quotes containing the words sleeping and/or villain:
“I heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands as directed to
me whispering to congratulate me,
For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the cool night,
In the stillness in the autumn moonbeams his face was inclined
toward me,
And his arm lay lightly around my breast—and that night I
was happy.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“In tragic life, God wot,
No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:
We are betrayed by what is false within.”
—George Meredith (1828–1909)