Paul the Deacon's tale is set in an unknown place and an unknown time during the reign of King Guntram of Burgundy. The only identifying features in the tale are a forest, a small brook, and a mountain. As the story goes, King Guntram and his entourage entered this mysterious region during a hunting expedition. Although the group was quite numerous, they evidently split up in the forest to go about their hunting, leaving the king with only one loyal and trusted guard.

When he went once upon a time into the woods to hunt, and, as often happens, his companions scattered hither and thither, and he remained with only one, a very faithful friend of his, he was oppressed with heavy slumber and laying his head upon the knees of this same faithful companion, he fell asleep. From his mouth a little animal in the shape of a reptile came forth and began to bustle about seeking to cross a slender brook which flowed near by. Then he in whose lap (the king) was resting laid his sword, which he had drawn from its scabbard, over this brook and upon it that reptile of which we have spoken passed over to the other side.

"And when it had entered into a certain hole in the mountain not far off, and having returned after a little time, had crossed the aforesaid brook upon the same sword, it again went into the mouth of Gunthram from which it had come forth. When Gunthram was afterwards awakened from his sleep he said he had seen a wonderful vision. For he had passed over a certain river by an iron bridge and had gone in under a certain mountain where he had gazed upon a great mass of gold."

With these simple landmarks and trajectories to follow, Guntram and his companion were reportedly able to retrace the steps of the mysterious mouth-dwelling dream critter, eventually reaching a cave on the mountainside. In that cave, they reportedly found a massive hoard of treasure--all that was missing was a dragon to guard it.

King Guntram reportedly claimed this treasure for himself, but also set aside a great portion of the precious metals and gems to be donated to the church. According to the tale, he had an ornate gold-and-gem-covered canopy crafted for the tomb of St. Marcellus in Châlon-Sur-Saone. Paul the Deacon claimed that this canopy, supposedly built from the treasure that the old king's mouth-dwelling dream reptile helped discover, was still in existence during his own lifetime in the 8th century.

--C. Keith Hansley

SOURCE: www.thehistorianshut.com; primary source History of the Lombards by Paul the Deacon, 3.34, translated by William Dudley Foulke (1904)

EDITOR'S NOTE

Doubtful, like all Dark Age accounts, but fun. And some genuinely dreamlike touches make me wonder. Note how Guntram in sleep buys into his dream-body's scale, seeing a sword as an iron bridge and a small stream as a great river. I wonder if the 'massive' treasure shrank too, viewed through human eyes? Yet it was enough to fund a jeweled canopy!

Guntram was about the only medieval king to be declared a saint. Part of it was a trail of miraculous healings that makes me suspect he was more of a tribal shaman than a king in a modern or even medieval sense (his courtier's calm might be familiarity with such shamanic goings-on) but part was a generosity unusual among rulers at the time. Of course, he could afford to be! Raising revenue like this...

--Chris Wayan

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