d it on one of these occasions,
and went in. He found himself in the presence of these men in armour. A
sabre was half-sheathed in the earth at his feet. He tried to draw it,
but every one of the sleepers lifted his head and put his hand on his
sword. The intruder fled; but ere the gate of the cavern clanged behind
him he heard voices calling fiercely after him: "Why could we not be
left to sleep?"[157]

The population of the south and west of Yorkshire is largely Celtic. A
tradition of Arthur seems to have been preserved among them to the
effect that he and his knights sit spell-bound in the ruins of a castle,
believed by the clergyman who communicated it to Mr. Alfred Nutt to be
Richmond Castle. Wherever it was, a man named Potter Thompson
penetrated by chance into the hall, and found them sitting around a
table whereon lay a sword and a horn. The man did not venture, like the
Sutherlandshire intruder, to blow the horn, but turned and fled at once.
There, it seems, he made a mistake; for had he done so he would have
released Arthur from the spell. And as he crossed the threshold again a
voice sounded in his ears:--

"Potter Thompson, Potter Thompson, hadst thou blown the horn,
Thou hadst been the greatest man that ever was born."

He had missed his chance, and could not return into the enchanted hall.
By the twelfth century the legend of Arthur had reached Sicily, perhaps
with the Normans. Gervase of Tilbury tells us that a boy was in charge
of the Bishop of Catania's palfrey, when it broke loose and ran away. He
pursued it boldly into the dark recesses of Mount Etna, where, on a wide
plain full of all delights, he found Arthur stretched on a royal couch
in a palace built with wonderful skill. Having explained what brought
him thither, the hero caused the horse to be given up to him, and added
gifts which were afterwards beheld with astonishment by many. Arthur
informed him, moreover, that he had been compelled to remain there on
account of his wound, which broke out afresh every year.[158]

In Teutonic lands the legends of the sleeping host and the sleeping
monarch are very numerous. Grimm in his Mythology has collected many of
them. I select for mention a few only, adding one or two not included by
him. Karl the Great lies in the Unterberg, near Salzburg, and also in
the Odenberg, where Woden himself, according to other legends, is said
to be. Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungen Lied, dwells in the
mou