Sapientes – The Wise Men
The Wise Men
A king (usually identified as Herod) is advised by seven wise men; unbeknownst to him, they grow rich by (falsely) interpreting the citizens’ dreams for a steep fee. The king is afflicted with strange blindness whenever he leaves the city, and the wise men are unable to cure him. They seek the aid of a young soothsayer - in most versions identified as Merlin. His superior power and virtue are shown when he correctly interprets a man’s dream, proving that unlike the sages, he can see the truth, and – also unlike the sages – he refuses payment. Merlin is taken to Herod’s bedchamber, where he informs the king that deep beneath the room is a boiling pool fed by seven hot springs, which are the cause of his blindness; they dig up the floor, and find this to be true. Merlin then tells the king that the only way to stop the springs is with the heads of the seven deceitful and greedy advisors. They are beheaded, the springs stop flowing, and Herod’s blindness is cured.
[Added by Jane Bonsall]
Note
The story of Merlin interpreting dreams for the king is found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Rerum Britanniae, in which Merlin reveals that Uther Pendragon's tower continually is knocked down by two dragons locked in combat below its foundations. Nishimura notes that there is a Turkish folktale analogue for this, in which a child solves a dream that the imams cannot solve (Krappe, 1930, pp. 279-281). Nishimura also notes additional relevant related narratives:
Reference stories, etc.: Jataka, 77 ‘Mahasupina-j.’; Rakugo ‘Sasaki Seidan’; Folklore ordos, No. 23 ‘Maître Porc (Dr. Pig)’. The story is similar to ‘A Man who knows things well’ in Grimm’s Fairy Tales, KHM 98 ‘Doktor Allwissend’. See also Minakata Kumagusu’s ‘The Legend of the Chicken’ (p. 163) in Juni-Shi-Ko.
Additional Bibliography: Chauvin VIII 226; Landau 48; Krappe, 1924, pp. 398-407, 1930, pp. 279-282.