Barbarossa, the surname of Frederick I., emperor of Germany, of whom there is this tradition, that "he is not yet dead; but only sleeping, till the bad world reach its worst, when he will reappear. He sits within a cavern near Saltzburg, at a marble table, leaning on his elbow; winking, only half-asleep, as a peasant once tumbling into the interior saw him; beard had grown through the table, and streamed out on the floor. He looked at the peasant one moment, asked something about the time it was; then drooped his eyelids again: 'Not yet time, but will be soon.'"

Barbarossa (i. e. Red-beard), Horuk, a native of Mitylene; turned corsair; became sovereign of Algiers by the murder of Selim the emir, who had adopted him as an ally against Spain; was defeated twice by the Spanish general Gomarez and slain (1473-1518).