부산대학교 도서관

Do the huge, dragon-guarded gold treasures of the European heroic tales have real prototypes in the archaeological find material? In fact, many hoards from precious metal, discovered both by accident and under excavations, seem to prove their former owners as rich and powerful and as possible models of later heroes. But the quality of these finds might be a matter of discussion: they can hardly be taken as ensembles collected in a systematic and sensible way, with a specific purpose, and little specifies them as the royal treasures described in medieval texts. However, these hoards bear witness to princely people and to dominions, which mostly are forgotten today. Even the stories that have been connected with the objects, passed down from one generation to another and making the objects into historical documents in the eyes of their owners, are likely only in the smallest part transmitted into written sources. A different kind of treasure are the image representations of many of the pieces: They do show parts of the former thoughts and the religious ideas of those humans, whose descendants finally have recorded the last remnants of broad ancient oral traditions, as legends, myths, and fairy tales.