History Main / KingInTheMountain

* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' subverted it to the point of deconstruction with Fou-lu. He was meant to be this trope if things goes as planned, if the Fou Empire (which he founded) wasn't corrupted to the point of wanting him ''dead''. Instead, Fou-lu's ''entire'' storyline in the game can be best described as "What Happens When A Country's Government Sees The Return Of Its KingInTheMountain As An UnwantedRevival". It goes poorly for all involved.

-->“American jerks are going home.
-->Now we sleep for a thousand years.
-->When we wake, the world will end.”

* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'': ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's role as a KingInTheMountain is made even more explicit. Instead of being accidentally frozen in an iceberg and presumed dead for years, he's intentionally placed in cryogenic sleep when it turns out that the super-soldier serum is slowly killing him. The implication is that he will be revived to fight again when S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists find a way to cure him.

* Frederick I (Friedrich Barbarossa or Kaiser Rotbart), asleep in the Kyffhäuser mountain in [[UsefulNotes/TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Thuringia]], Germany. There are a number of versions of this story as to when he will come out. Some folklorists see this myth as a transferred one, originally the emperor sleeping under the mountain was Barbarossa's grandson Frederick II ("Stupor mundi"), who awaits his return beneath Mount Etna. According to that theory, patriotic Germans later changed this -- too Italian for their tastes -- myth into one about Frederick Barbarossa and the Kyffhäuser. Frederick Barbarossa also has the advantage that he has no known grave.

* Frederick I (Friedrich Barbarossa or Kaiser Rotbart), asleep in the Kyffhäuser mountain in [[UsefulNotes/TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Thuringia]], Germany. There are a number of versions of this story as to when he will come out. Some folklorists see this myth as a transferred one, originally the emperor sleeping under the mountain was Barbarossa's grandson Fredrick II ("Stupor mundi"), who awaits his return beneath Mount Vesuvius. According to that theory, patriotic Germans later changed this -- too Italian for their tastes -- myth into one about Frederick Barbarossa and the Kyffhäuser. Frederick Barbarossa also has the advantage that he has no known grave.

* A modern legend related to this trope involves Subhas Chandra Bose, the Indian independence leader who escaped British India for Germany then took two submarines (one German, the other Japanese--they rendezvoued off the coast of Madagascar so that Bose could change ships) to Japanese controlled Southeast Asia. Supposedly, he died in a plane crash in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 18, 1945, but he is said to have survived the crash and either became a Hindu mystic or somehow took refuge in Soviet Union. Some (including his relatives) have claimed that he would return to an independent India (although no one has quite claimed that he would return to lead India at time of its need).

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': The Quincies have ancient folklore speaking of a [[ShroudedInMyth Sealed King]]. The legend states that 900 years after he is sealed, he will regain his heartbeat; 90 years after that, he'll regain his intellect; 9 years after that, he'll regain his power. The Final Arc takes place during the year he regains his power and plunges [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters everyone]] into a war he started a thousand years ago. [[spoiler:Yhwach reveals the last stanza of the legend is that 9 days after he regains his power, he'll regain the world]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', the original Optimus Prime (in stasis lock) sits in his command chair in the Autobot ark, which crash-landed and buried itself under a dormant volcano, awaiting a revival millions of years in the future.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'', Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is revealed to be this, awakening from a coma 40-odd years after being shot. In a pretty dark subversion of the trope, he turns out to be pretty disappointed with the direction that African-American culture has gone in his absence.
* As with the legend, this happens to ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''' version of King Arthur. And when King Arthur came out, the Magus replaced him after using so much magic without a channel like the grimoire.
* In ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'''s take on ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's origin, his role as a KingInTheMountain is made even more explicit. Instead of being accidentally frozen in an iceberg and presumed dead for years, he's intentionally placed in cryogenic sleep when it turns out that the super-soldier serum is slowly killing him. The implication is that he will be revived to fight again when S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists find a way to cure him.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', it's lampshaded how Nazi's are simply ''obsessed'' with cloning or resurrecting Hitler in one way or another. As mentioned in the Real Life section below, this may count as an evil version of the trope.
* Quentin Trembley, of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', may be the most bizarre example of this ever written. He is the founder of Gravity Falls and 8 1/2th President of the United States, and disappeared after riding his horse over the edge of a ravine, backwards. It eventually transpires that he preserved himself in peanut brittle, believing it could sustain his life, and hid himself away in a secret chamber, leaving a series of cryptic and nonsensical clues as to how to find him. He is finally awoken, after a couple of centuries, when the protagonists have need of him.

See also AwakeningTheSleepingGiant, which comes into play when it does happen; while not technically neutral, they are effectively so because they are not in the fray. SisterTrope to SealedGoodInACan and SealedBadassInACan; they overlap in those rare stories where the king does wake. Compare SealedEvilInACan. Compare PresentAbsence, RipVanWinkle and YearOutsideHourInside.

* [[Webcomic/YetAnotherFantasyGamerComic]]: There is a prophecy that King Eric I of Drostardy would rise from his grave to defeat the ultimate evil in the world's darkest hour. [[spoiler:This is exactly what happens, full-resurrection while Ranna breathes]].

* {{Anvilicious}}ly deconstructed in classic Russian short story ''The Epic Hero'' by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. The hero's power comes from his mother -- the evil witch. His deeds were just a demonstration of brute strength, and they were few. And when he ''really'' is needed after a millennium of sleep, turns out that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome he has long died]] and "[[{{Squick}} snakes have eaten his body up to the neck]]". The author was very unhappy with [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped how the czar handled his job of running the country]].

See also AwakeningTheSleepingGiant, which comes into play when it does happen; while not technically neutral, they are effectively so because they are not in the fray. SisterTrope to SealedGoodInACan and SealedBadassInACan; they overlap in those rare stories where the king does wake. Compare SealedEvilInACan. Compare RipVanWinkle and YearOutsideHourInside.

* {{Anvilicious}}ly deconstructed in classic Russian short story ''The Epic Hero'' by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. The hero's power comes from his mother -- the evil witch. His deeds were just a demonstration of brute strength, and they were few. And when he ''really'' is needed after a millennium of sleep, turns out that [[RealityEnsues he has long died]] and "[[{{Squick}} snakes have eaten his body up to the neck]]". The author was very unhappy with [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped how the czar handled his job of running the country]].

* In ''Literature/MagicMetahumansMartiansAndMushroomCloudsAnAlternateColdWar'', Frederick Barbarossa, as per a contingency plan drawn up by Heinrich Himmler, is sought out and awakened after WWII by a group of remaining Nazis led by Otto Skorzeny to liberate Germany from Allied and Soviet occupation and establish a FourthReich. [[spoiler: Despite initial success thanks to shock and awe, the fact that Barbarossa's knights are not inherently supernatural (other than the magic that let them slumber for centuries) means that [[RealityEnsues they're soon overwhelmed by modern weapons and wiped out]].]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Camelot 3000}}'' takes the KingArthur legend described above and runs with it. Arthur does indeed return in the hour of England's greatest need: an alien invasion in the year 3000.

* ''[[http://www.strangehorizons.com/2006/20060703/squadron-f.shtml The Welsh Squadron]]'' by Margaret Ronald from ''Magazine/StrangeHorizons'' has KingArthur and his men show up in WWII as a squadron of fighter pilots during the Battle of Britain.

* [[Literature/{{Mabinogion}} Bendigeidfran]] (or Brân the Blessed, not to be confused with '''Creator/BrianBlessed'''), giant and King of Britain. His severed, still living head was buried under the White Hill in London, facing France, to protect the Island of the Mighty from invasion. A jealous KingArthur dug it up, claiming his strength alone was enough to safeguard Britain.

** Gilles le Breton, being ''Warhammer''[='s=] KingArthur, was taken to a ship on his death that sent him to the Lady of the Lake, and it is said that he will return in Bretonnia's time of need. A lot of people in-universe speculate that the Green Knight, a mysterious warrior who challenges Questing Knights and occasionally appears to aid Bretonnian armies when they need help, is actually Gilles. [[spoiler:And they're right. It's rather darkly subverted in the GrandFinale; by the time he returns Bretonnia is beyond saving, and all he can do is lead a doomed LastStand off-screen while the real battle for the fate of the world happens elsewhere]].

* ''Webcomic/TheDreamlandChronicles'': Keeping KingArthur alive but out of the way is [[http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/chapter-15/page-1048/ crucial to Nicodemus]].

* Nerevar from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', and he [[spoiler:finally returns in Morrowind's hour of need as the player, who is his reincarnation]]. Nerevar is known as a great leader who united the Dunmer and brought peace and prosperity to Resdayn, and they have been divided since his death. The Ashlanders eagerly await his return so that their people can know prosperity again.
** The BigBad Dagoth Ur is a villainous version. He was thought to have been vanquished, but having already attained [[PhysicalGod godhood]], his defeat was only temporary and he regained his power over several millennia leading up to the events of the game.

** It was the subject of a joke from the Cold War years. An old Polish lady visits the Tatra mountains and is shown the entrance to the cave by a local guide: "Here is where the sleeping army lies, ready to wake in Poland's hour of need." Says the lady: "Well, what are they waiting for?"

* Belief may have waned over the years, but for some time, assassinated populist Louisiana governor Huey Long was expected to return to lead the state to prosperity.

* Camilo Cienfuegos, one of UsefulNotes/FidelCastro's closest allies during the Cuban Revolution, disappeared during a flight over the Straits of Florida one night in 1959. Cubans believed his plane crashed, exiles believed he was shot down on Castro's orders. But it's also a popular belief in both groups that Camilo survived the crash and decided not to return to Cuba, hiding somewhere in Ybor City in Tampa. Cubans on the island believe that Camilo, who was extremely popular for being a kind, jovial, and loving man, will return to rescue Cuba from its economic plight, while exiles believe that Camilo will return to kick out Castro for good.

* A Mongolian folk tale holds that in 1227, Genghis Khan called for the most beautiful maiden in his empire, who turned out to be the princess of Xi Xia. When she went to Genghis, her father gave her a knife to conceal in her clothes, telling her that she would know what to do. As the princess lay with Genghis, she took out the knife and cut off his penis. Genghis called his guards and [[{{Major Injury Underreaction}} sent her away, saying he wished to sleep]]. He has been sleeping since then, and will one day awaken to save Mongolia.

* The BigBad from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', Dagoth Ur, is a villainous version. He was thought to have been vanquished, but having already attained [[PhysicalGod godhood]], his defeat was only temporary and he regained his power over several millennia leading up to the events of the game.

[[folder:Jokes]]
* A 201_ joke playing 194_. Churchill: "King Arthur, who is Brexit?"
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/{{Doctor Who}}'':

%%* In ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' %% Zero Context Example

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':

* In the ''TabletopGame/GURPSTechnomancer'' setting, Stalin turned out to be this for the Soviet Union. He awoke after the fall of the USSR and tried to MakeTheBearAngryAgain.

* According to a Polish legend, there is [[SealedArmyInACan a whole army]] of knights (whether a king is included varies depending on the version of this legend), sleeping in a cave under the Tatra mountains until the time of need comes. Every now and then, someone stumbles into a cave. The king asks them "Is it time?" and they have to explain to him the country's situation. If he finds it desperate enough, the army will ride out to fight the invaders. If not, he concludes that it is not, in fact, time, and he resumes his wait.

* ''VideoGame/{{DarkSouls3}}'' plays the original folkloric theme of the trope straight and takes it [[UpToEleven]]: when [[CosmicKeystone the link of the fire]] is threatened, all the [[PhysicalGod lords of Cinder]] that have ever ruled rise from their graves to avoid [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the end of the Age of Fire]]. It is the player's task to hunt down those of them who [[RefusalOfTheCall refused the call]].

* The Avatar Aang in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' accidentally seals himself and Appa, his [[TeamPet flying bison]], in ice for a hundred years. He does indeed return to save the world, although judging by what [[AntiVillain Zuko]] says in the first episode, everyone probably expected an old man [[OrcusOnHisThrone in hiding]] rather than a {{Keet}} CheerfulChild.

* According to some conspiracy researchers, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler did not die and instead fled to Argentina, but is an EvilCounterpart of this.

* In ''Literature/MagicMetahumansMartiansAndMushroomCloudsAnAlternateColdWar'', Frederick Barbarossa is sought out as per a contingency plan drawn up by Himmler and awakened after WWII by a group of remaining Nazis led by Otto Skorzeny to liberate Germany from Allied and Soviet occupation and establish TheFourthReich. [[spoiler: Despite initial success thanks to shock and awe, the fact that Barbarossa's knights are not inherently supernatural (other than the magic that let them slumber for centuries) means that [[RealityEnsues they're soon overwhelmed by modern weapons and wiped out]].]]