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Documentary, History Channel - Clash of the Gods - S01E08 Beowulf
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00:01He is the mythical hero of the Norse world.
00:06Locked in an epic battle of man against monster.
00:10Destined to confront not one, but three terrifying beasts in a quest for undying glory.
00:19This is the legend of Beorulf.
00:23But could it be more than just legend?
00:26Prepare to experience the oldest story in the English language in an entirely new way.
00:34This is the strange truth behind the fiction of Beorulf.
00:39The stench of death permeates Denmark's Royal Hall.
00:57Headless bodies.
01:02Bloody entrails.
01:06A savage beast is on the rampage.
01:09He is Grendel.
01:14A monstrous outcast, banished from society, whose rage has turned to violence.
01:21I always compare Grendel to Predator.
01:25You know, sort of hulking and dark and threatening.
01:29Night after night, the monster's vicious reign of terror continues.
01:34He's killing warriors.
01:40He's tearing them apart limb from limb.
01:43He's decapitating them.
01:45There are body parts all over the place.
01:47Denmark desperately needs a hero.
01:50Someone strong enough to face off with the monster.
01:54Someone who can take him down.
01:57That hero is Beowulf.
02:01Beowulf is the biggest possible hero you can imagine.
02:06He can do anything.
02:09He's not afraid to lose his life.
02:12This is exactly what a hero in his culture has to be like.
02:16Willing to lay down his life for honor, for glory.
02:19Beowulf is no ordinary human being.
02:21He really is a heroic figure.
02:24Like the heroes in Greek mythology, his powers definitely exceed those of an ordinary man.
02:34In a dark age when terror was everywhere and heroes were few,
02:38the myth of Beowulf resonated as the ultimate clash between good and evil.
02:46Between a valiant warrior and a myriad of monstrous enemies.
02:54The legend of Beowulf is a fictional story inspired by fact.
02:58Today, experts are still unsure who created it.
03:05But it's believed to have originated in England in the 7th or 8th century AD.
03:10Making it the oldest story in the English language.
03:14The action of the poem takes place in the 6th century in Scandinavia.
03:20But the poem itself was written in Anglo-Saxon England after the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons in 665.
03:26Christianity had recently taken root at England at the time of the writing of Beowulf.
03:35The poem reflects a society that has a deep pagan background and that has stories that come from its pagan past.
03:44What the poem does is it recasts these stories in a Christian mold.
03:49So that its listeners would be able to keep touch with their past.
03:52They would reinterpret it in a Christian way.
04:01In the myth, Beowulf's first nemesis, the monster Grendel, has an intriguing link to the Christian Bible.
04:09The text says that he is descended from the line of Cain.
04:15According to the Old Testament, Cain, son of Adam, was mankind's first murderer.
04:21He slayed his brother Abel out of jealousy and came to symbolize the worst of human passions.
04:26Grendel inherits that vile legacy.
04:31Grendel resents and is jealous of the humans who are feasting in the Mead Halls.
04:36All of the men in the Great Hall are having a good time and they are telling stories and they are all together and united.
04:45And he seems to envy that. He seems that he will never be part of that kind of thing.
04:49And his reaction to that is to attack and destroy.
04:52In the ancient text, Grendel's physical appearance is left to the imagination.
05:00The only clue is the phrase, a fiend out of hell.
05:05Grendel is described as a demon of the dark, if you like.
05:10Wherever he moves, darkness surrounds him.
05:12In the myth, the monster holds Denmark under siege for 12 years.
05:23He kills 30 people at a time. You can't see him coming.
05:28He's bloodthirsty and likes to crunch on bones.
05:32After he decimates the king's warriors, Grendel turns his rage on innocent civilians.
05:42But there is one person he cannot harm.
05:46The Danish king, Hrothgar.
05:49Like many real kings of the Dark Ages, he is thought to have the power of God on his side.
05:56Strangely enough, Grendel doesn't attack King Hrothgar.
05:59The king is seated on a throne that's protected by God himself.
06:03And so Grendel has to keep his distance.
06:07All of Hrothgar's warriors have failed him.
06:09But in the nearby kingdom of Grendel, there is one who will stand above all others.
06:20The Beowulf comes from Scandinavia.
06:23He is a warrior descended from great warriors.
06:26And he's a man who has a reputation for his strength, his courage, and his ambition.
06:33He wants to make a great name for himself.
06:35At the outset of the poem, Beowulf is a well-known warrior.
06:41He's a leader of what seems to be a war band or a group of men who traveled together.
06:48He's not really a mercenary, per se.
06:51It's not as if he is looking for pay.
06:53It's merely along the lines of him looking for a good fight.
07:00Beowulf is primarily seeking glory, what the Old English were called loff.
07:06It's this kind of glory that attends a person of high honor who's lived up to his obligations under the honor code at the time.
07:13It's the kind of glory and status that noblemen of his time aimed for that really motivates Beowulf.
07:20Beowulf knows there is one way to achieve everlasting distinction.
07:25To do what no man before him has done.
07:28He must slay Grendel.
07:30Night falls.
07:40The hall comes alive with the sounds of celebration.
07:46But this time, it is a trick designed by Beowulf to lure Grendel from his lair.
07:51He's not going to wait for an attack. He's going to make sure that an attack will happen.
07:58And his use is actually surprisingly scientific method.
08:01He recreates the circumstances of the first attack.
08:06And there is singing and there is merriment.
08:09And Grendel, sure enough, hears this and he comes to get his meat.
08:15The beast is thirsty for blood.
08:17Thirsty for blood.
08:23But Beowulf is ready.
08:29In the dead of night, as the party dies down, the hero lies in wait.
08:36He will either kill or be killed.
08:42Finally, Grendel makes his move.
08:44Beowulf and his warriors brace for attack.
08:54All the warriors pull out their swords and they start to try and hack and hew at Grendel.
09:00But Grendel is impervious.
09:02No sword can harm Grendel, no metal weapon of any kind.
09:08Grendel has put a curse on all such weapons preventing them from affecting him.
09:14He grabs one of Beowulf's warriors and he rips him in half, drinks down his blood, throws the body down and then goes for Beowulf.
09:28This is the myth.
09:31But what is the link to reality?
09:34Ninety miles north of London, England is a place called Sutton Hoo.
09:42This area was once ruled by powerful Anglo-Saxon kings.
09:49In the 20th century, archaeologists excavated the ancient burial mounds and made a startling discovery.
09:59Evidence of bodies mangled and murdered in a very brutal way.
10:08They died violently, suddenly.
10:11Almost as if killed by a monster.
10:20Many of them buried face down or with their heads lopped off, necks broken, buried in all kinds of strange positions.
10:29So they were buried in a shaming way.
10:31It is shocking evidence of violence in a once prosperous kingdom.
10:37In the same era when the myth is thought to have originated.
10:41Experts theorize that these victims were Anglo-Saxon criminals, sentenced to death for defying the king.
10:49These seem to be criminals who were executed and buried in this place,
10:53which had apparently gone from being a place of worship to a place of terror.
10:57Now the connection to Beowulf simply could be that these kinds of violent public executions were a way that a king could maintain order within his kingdom.
11:09Could these gruesome deaths have inspired the story of carnage in the court of King Hrothgar?
11:15The hunt for clues leads back to the myth.
11:18The monster Grendel is terrorizing the blood-soaked hall of the king.
11:32No sword can pierce his skin.
11:36But Beowulf refuses to give in.
11:39He has one weapon left.
11:42His bare hands.
11:43It is a classic struggle between David and Goliath.
11:48Monster versus man.
11:50The future of Denmark's people hangs in the balance.
11:54And Beowulf is their last line of defense.
11:58It's mayhem in the Danish court of King Hrothgar.
12:11Beowulf and the monstrous giant Grendel are locked in a death match.
12:19Suddenly, our hero gains the advantage.
12:22Beowulf grabs Grendel's arm and he twists it.
12:28Beowulf, the world's strongest warrior, pulls at the monster's arm with all his might.
12:35Grendel howls and his shoulder is dislocated and Beowulf twists it again and twists it again and then pops it right off.
12:45And the bone splits from the sinew, it springs apart, the muscle rips away.
12:52Agonized cries flood the hall.
13:01Grendel tears off into the night, hemorrhaging blood.
13:04There is Grendel armless with the life draining out of his arm, heading back to his marshy home, knowing he has very little time left.
13:17Deep in the woods, the wounded monster stumbles to the ground and draws his last breath.
13:25Beowulf has slain the beast. He holds high his prize trophy, Grendel's bloody arm.
13:38News of Grendel's death spreads fast across the land and Beowulf is celebrated as a superhero.
13:47He has achieved the glory and honor he set out to find.
13:57But a grim reality soon sets in.
14:01There are scores of slain warriors to bury.
14:05The Beowulf text describes how the warriors were laid to rest.
14:15The description matches what is now known about real funerals in the ancient Norse world.
14:21In a ship burial, the person who is going to be buried and his valuables, gold, silver, will be put in the ship.
14:33And the ship will be sent out to sea and it will be burned.
14:37It was a wanton destruction of valuable goods in a society that was not awash in goods.
14:42But it's a sign just of the seriousness of the loss and the prestige and importance of the person who is being buried.
14:52Amazingly, evidence of these ritual burials.
14:56The same ones described in Beowulf can be found not underwater, but underground.
15:05Today, there are hundreds of mysterious mounds scattered across northern Europe.
15:09Many are still waiting to be excavated.
15:13At Sutton Hoo in England, where archaeologists discovered those mysterious mangled bodies,
15:20the burial mounds have yielded more stunning evidence about the world of Beowulf.
15:26In 1939, excavations turned up a buried ship, dated to the time when the Beowulf myth is believed to have been written.
15:35The wood had completely decayed away, but you could still see the shapes of all the planks and the ribs running at right angles across it.
15:45It looked like a complete wooden ship.
15:48But closer examination revealed it was more than just a ship.
15:52It was the tomb of an unknown ruler, teeming with buried treasures.
15:59Sutton Hoo is the richest grave from England and is, well, the richest grave from the Dark Ages from Northern Europe.
16:09It's telling us about the elite of Dark Age society.
16:12The actual artifacts that were dug out of Sutton Hoo look like the things that are described in Beowulf.
16:20There are helmets with boar crests on them. There are swords with decorated, twisted handles and so forth.
16:26And so there seems to be some kind of connection between what's described in Beowulf and what we found in Sutton Hoo.
16:31The Sutton Hoo excavation proved, for the first time, that the legend of Beowulf is more than just a fictional thriller.
16:41But it's not the only site yielding evidence of the truth behind the myth.
16:46In the Danish countryside, archaeologists have made an unusual discovery.
17:00Evidence of a real ancient hall.
17:04The wooden superstructure rotted away centuries ago.
17:07But based on the location of its post holes, it one-stretched 150 feet long, making it one of the largest halls of its kind ever found.
17:19Could this be the mythical hall of King Hrothgar?
17:26In the story of Beowulf, the scene of Grendel's attack is called Herat, which means Hall of the Stag.
17:33It is both a throne room and a banquet hall, where the king's warriors gather to celebrate victory.
17:41Herat is described as this great hall, which is comparable to none other in the world.
17:48It's a sign of civilization, a sign of sophistication.
17:51And it becomes kind of a wonder of the world, this culture.
17:55The hall, recently uncovered in Denmark, is in the same area its ancient kings once called home.
18:01Radiocarbon testing dates the site to the 6th century AD, the same period when the myth was said would have taken place.
18:12But there's more.
18:15Excavations in the area around the ancient hall have yielded precious artifacts that could only have belonged to a powerful king.
18:22Some are for daily life, knives, needles and so on, but they're also rather beautiful jewelry, made of gold and silver, coins and so on, that give the impression that this is a site of some importance.
18:38But who was the king behind this hall?
18:42And could he be connected to the myth?
18:45An intriguing clue can be found in a series of stories collectively called the legendary sagas.
19:00They are fact-based accounts about the Norse world that were written between 1100 and 1400 AD.
19:09Many of the Norse sagas are based on family histories and we find this very engaging combination of historical material and mythological traditions.
19:19The sagas tell of a Danish king named Hrothgar who lived around the 5th or 6th century AD.
19:30If Hrothgar was a real king, could Beowulf have been a real hero?
19:36Deep in the marshes, a mother mourns the death of her son.
19:54Her son is Grendel.
19:59Her grief becomes rage.
20:01This is the second of Beowulf's three monstrous enemies.
20:08He's defeated Grendel.
20:10Now he must take on Grendel's mother.
20:15She's quick, cunning and out for blood.
20:21Grendel's mother is a very, very enigmatic figure in the text.
20:25She certainly seems more bestial than Grendel.
20:27Her emotions are more beast-like. She's just bent on revenge.
20:35Revenge for the death of her son, whose severed arm has become a trophy, a mockery.
20:47Grendel's mother feels a mother's pain when her son is killed by Beowulf.
20:52So she enters into a feuding frenzy to attack Hrothgar.
20:59And she goes without much regard for her own safety.
21:05As the warriors sleep, Grendel's mother enters the hall.
21:10She pounces, killing with brutal efficiency.
21:27Terror grips the king's court again.
21:32But Beowulf is not there to save it.
21:38He is spending the night away from Herod, unaware of the unfolding terror.
21:47With her hands stained by the blood of Denmark's warriors,
21:51Grendel's mother vanishes into the night.
21:54Beowulf is enraged when he learns of the carnage.
22:01Just days ago, he heroically saved the warriors who now lay dead.
22:07But the king is alive.
22:10He sits protected on his untouchable throne, despondent.
22:14Hrothgar is humiliated by the fact that so many of his men have been killed by Grendel and also now his mother.
22:26And he's been unable to be a shield.
22:28And Beowulf says to him,
22:30It's better to act than to sit in mourning.
22:33Once again, Beowulf knows he must look death in the eye.
22:40He has built his reputation through heroic deeds.
22:44Now, he must maintain it.
22:49With Hrothgar and his men by his side, Beowulf will hunt down Grendel's mother.
22:57They follow the blood trail along a winding path.
23:00Grendel's mother and Grendel live at the bottom of the haunted Myr.
23:13The Myr is an icy lake swarming with poisonous snakes and sea dragons.
23:23The only way to get to Grendel's mother is to go through them first.
23:27To the early Christian writers who recorded this myth,
23:33these serpents represented something equally threatening in the real world.
23:38Pagans.
23:40The hunt for Grendel's mother has led Beowulf to an icy lake teeming with venomous serpents.
23:53To get to her, he will have to go through them.
24:01This will be a decisive battle in the fight for Denmark.
24:05Between a warrior hero and a wicked mother who is descended from the Bible's most infamous murderer.
24:12Cain.
24:13Grendel's mother is never named in the poem.
24:18She just is Grendel's mother.
24:20But she is a very fearsome creature in her own right.
24:24Perhaps in some ways even more dangerous because now that her son has been killed,
24:28she has the rage of a bereaved mother.
24:33Before Beowulf plunges beneath the ice, his men give him a special sword.
24:39Its iron blade is tempered in blood and has never failed in battle before.
24:53Beowulf's comrades cannot bring themselves to go further.
24:55The hero must brace for battle alone.
25:10Under the surface, deadly serpents lie in wait.
25:15Beowulf tries to use his sword against them.
25:18But no human weapon can harm these supernatural beasts.
25:27He manages to break away and find the entrance to the lair of Grendel's mother.
25:31For a second time, man will confront Monster.
25:45Grendel's mother comes in and she attacks him.
25:56He grabs her hair, grabs her shoulder, throws her down.
26:09And she is up in a shot and she snags him with her filthy claws and he tumbles back on the floor.
26:17Beowulf is in grave danger and his sword again proves useless.
26:28It's supposed to be very powerful and very strong, but it actually has no effect on Grendel's mother at all.
26:36It can't penetrate her scaly hide.
26:41Suddenly, something catches Beowulf's eye.
26:44He sees on the wall or nearby an ancient sword forged by giants, which is not a mortal making.
26:52It's really a magic weapon.
26:58In one resolute arc, he strikes Grendel's mother and severs her head.
27:05It is the death of a second evil.
27:15Dawn of a new hope.
27:17Beowulf has proven his bravery again.
27:21But this is more than a mythical triumph.
27:24It is a reflection of the changing world in which the Norse people framed the myth.
27:28A world where paganism had eroded and Christ had risen.
27:35We might see the death of Grendel's mother as a religious metaphor.
27:40Just as Grendel's mother dies, so paganism is dying.
27:45And Christianity is rising.
27:46And just as Beowulf frees Prothgar's kingdom from the threat of Grendel's mother, so Christianity is bringing light to the world of paganism that preceded it.
27:58600 A.D.
28:06The British Isles.
28:08A religious revolution is underway.
28:12Roman Christians have come north to convert all non-believers.
28:18In the late 6th century, Pope Gregory sent Augustine to England to convert these Anglo-Saxon pagans.
28:26Augustine was told by Gregory, go to the pagan temples that the Anglo-Saxons already used, and convert them to Christian use.
28:35Convert the kings, so that the people underneath the king will follow the king.
28:45The Anglo-Saxons were ultimately converted.
28:47But their pre-Christian legends lived on in the stories they passed down, including the legend of Beowulf.
28:57Beowulf attempts to update and bring into the Christian present some of the old-fashioned heroic values of the early Norse era.
29:10People who are brave in adversity, people who are loyal to comrades.
29:14When the Christians conquered, they recast the myth of Beowulf as a metaphor of good versus evil.
29:24The story continues.
29:35At the haunted lake of serpents, Beowulf surfaces.
29:39Victorious.
29:40He heads for the hall of King Hrothgar.
29:52And arrives triumphant.
29:59Beowulf's return shocks the king's court.
30:01He had been given up for dead.
30:05Hrothgar hails him as the ultimate hero, and stages a great celebration.
30:11Beowulf has achieved the glory and honor he came to Denmark to find.
30:16Now, he is eager to return to his own kingdom to the north.
30:22Geatland.
30:23In the story of Beowulf, the Geats were not a mythical tribe.
30:40They were real warriors from the southern tip of Sweden.
30:45Well known to the writers of the myth.
30:48The poem refers to the Geats and it refers to the Swedes.
30:51What we are looking at are two different dynasties.
30:55It is a deep rooted split that you see actually last all the way to the end of the Viking Age.
31:01This real life rivalry between the Geats and the Swedes comes to a head in the next chapter of Beowulf.
31:09And it is up to Beowulf to lead his people to victory.
31:15In one epic battle on a giant lake of ice.
31:21This is Lake Vanorn.
31:26It is the largest body of water in Sweden, covering some 2200 square miles.
31:33In harsh winters it freezes over, forming a land bridge between two distant territories.
31:39Today, it is peaceful.
31:44But 15 centuries ago, according to the myth of Beowulf, it was the setting of a bloody battle.
31:52The Swedes against the Geats.
31:56On his return to Geatland, Beowulf discovers that the Geats are embroiled in the middle of a Swedish feud.
32:08A civil war between members of the Swedish royal family has spilled over into Beowulf's homeland.
32:16The hero must confront death once again, but this time not against monsters, but against his fellow man.
32:28Beowulf's forces prevail, and in return for his heroism, he is granted the throne of Geatland.
32:50His quest for glory is now complete.
32:56It is a decisive moment in the myth.
32:59But could this epic battle have really happened?
33:06According to old Norse sagas, which are thought to be based on real history,
33:10a violent battle did occur on a frozen lake around the year 530 A.D.
33:19The Battle of Lake Vadern is the decisive battle between the Geats and the Swedes.
33:23And it happens on the frozen water of an enormous freshwater lake.
33:27It is one of the first known giant cavalry battles in the north.
33:31And many, many warriors are slain on both sides.
33:33This real battle was said to have happened near Ernenes, Sweden.
33:40Modern scholars believe Ernenes was a real settlement, right on the shore of Lake Vadern.
33:50Once again, the historical record seems to match the myth.
33:54A real battle, in a real location.
34:01Could there also be evidence of a real hero?
34:05The search for clues leads back to the myth.
34:17After the ice battle, Beowulf rules Geatland in peace for many decades.
34:22He's no longer that young hero that he was when he was fighting Grendel and then Grendel's mother.
34:29He's much older. He's no longer at his prime.
34:33But still, he's exemplary.
34:36As a young man, Beowulf had quenched his thirst for glory.
34:41As an aging king, he has no desire for more.
34:45But 50 years after his heroic conquests in Denmark, the old warrior must face one final showdown with a terrifying monster.
35:00The dragon of Ernenes.
35:02It stretches 50 feet long and guards a gargantuan hoard of gold.
35:09Dragons represent human greed but really amplified because this is this monstrous creature whose only interest is in gathering gold and keeping it.
35:20The trouble begins after a young slave escapes from his master and hides in a cave.
35:30He doesn't realize he is entering the lair of the dragon.
35:34As the monster sleeps, the slave spots the hoard of gold and succumbs to temptation.
35:45He steals the cup from the dragon's treasure.
35:51Not knowing that this cup is in fact the favorite item of the dragon.
35:58The dragon stirs, finds the golden cup missing, and sets off for revenge.
36:23So he starts setting farms and fields on fire.
36:26Creating much destruction in a very short time.
36:31The dragon wreaks havoc across the land.
36:34Then, the ultimate insult.
36:37Beowulf's own home is burned and he prays for restoration of his loss and seeks some kind of redress and begins to think about revenge.
36:50Once more, the old warrior is called to defend a nation's honor.
36:57It will be his last stand against evil.
37:00He is the kind of hero who is going to be willing to go out and face, at this point, certain death.
37:07Beowulf leads his men into battle, with his kingdom and honor hanging in the balance.
37:17This will either be the hero's final triumph, or his tragic end.
37:30A fire-breathing dragon is devastating the kingdom of the Geats.
37:42Beowulf, the aging hero king, dons his battle gear one more time, and the hunt for a third beast begins.
37:50The bravest soldiers ride alongside Beowulf.
37:59Among them is the young son of a fallen warrior.
38:03His name is Wiglof.
38:04He's immature, he's inexperienced, he's the one that you would probably say is going to contribute the least to the actual fight against the dragon.
38:18The men come upon the dragon's lair in the middle of a dense forest.
38:22Beowulf steps cautiously inside.
38:31And finds the monster asleep.
38:36But before the hero can strike, the dragon awakens and attacks.
38:41Beowulf yells to his other warriors for help.
38:53All of Beowulf's other fellows have run away to hide in the woods because they're too terrified of the dragon.
39:00All, except for one.
39:03Young Wiglof.
39:04Once mocked for his youth, he now stands out for his bravery.
39:11Risking his life to fight alongside the hero he idolizes, as Beowulf confronts his greatest enemy.
39:18So goes the myth.
39:21But what is the connection to reality?
39:29The dragon is mythology's ultimate monster.
39:32Within a sort of Christian tradition, dragons often represent the super serpent, a gigantic manifestation of Satan.
39:43But if you go back before Christian tradition, dragons seem to represent something like an ultimate embodiment of power and ferocity and mystery.
39:55But the great fear that people have always had is that despite all of the seemingly regular patterns that you see in nature, there might also be fantastic chaotic unknowns, the monsters that could suddenly leap out.
40:10Dragons play a central role in myths throughout the world.
40:15And despite the thousands of miles and thousands of years that separate them, the similarities between the stories are more striking than the differences.
40:26Most of them have hard scales, have these long serpentine bodies with long pointed tails, long necks ending in a horned head.
40:37Many breathe fire.
40:39Many have wings.
40:40Many wonder whether there were actual dragons.
40:54Given how prevalent the stories about them are in the world's myths, it would seem that they must be based on something real.
41:01My own theory, which is, other people have it too, was that at some point someone was walking through the Gobi Desert or parts of Central Asia where dinosaur bones are exposed.
41:11And they saw a T-Rex skeleton and said, wow, if those are the bones, can you imagine what the thing looked like?
41:18And from there you could imagine the creature. So they're large, they're scary, they're fierce.
41:22Dinosaur fossils have been discovered around the globe since mankind's earliest days.
41:31In a time before science, could they have inspired mythology's ultimate monster?
41:36The myth concludes.
41:48Beowulf charges the dragon with his sword.
41:53The dragon strikes back.
41:56Wounding Beowulf.
41:59But there is still one more chance for victory.
42:01The belly is the beast's Achilles' heel.
42:07As Wigloth looks on, Beowulf maneuvers his way underneath the dragon and thrusts his sword into its stomach.
42:20The monster is defeated.
42:23But Beowulf has paid the ultimate price for this final moment of glory.
42:27Beowulf is bitten in the neck by the dragon.
42:30So even as he slays the beast, he himself knows he's going to die because the wound begins to swell and to burst.
42:42He says, at least bring me some of the dragon's treasure so that I can see what we fought for, what we've won,
42:48and look once more upon the glorious treasure.
42:51Beowulf says, I am the last of my line. I have no heir. My fathers before me are all dead.
43:01So because you were brave, Wigloth, I'm giving you my famous chain mail and my sword and my helmet.
43:07An old hero dies, and a new one is born.
43:14The final stanzas of the epic describe Beowulf's funeral.
43:25His body placed on a pyre and set alight.
43:32Beowulf's death at the end of the poem represents the idea that all men and all their works shall die.
43:46A great hero, the icon of northern warriors, is dead.
43:53But his legend is just beginning.
44:00Today, hundreds of ancient burial mounds still dot the landscape of Scandinavia.
44:05Some have yielded evidence of truth behind the myth.
44:10But many are still unexcavated.
44:13Could one of them be the grave site of a real Beowulf?
44:17Is it possible that Beowulf was a real person?
44:19Yes, of course it is.
44:21The history surrounding him fits with history.
44:24And the reason why we tend to say, yes, it's possible that he was a real person,
44:27is the very simple fact that there were legends that were kept orally,
44:32that were the basis for this poem.
44:34That tells us that there should be some truth to it.
44:40Whether real man or myth, Beowulf is bravery personified.
44:47To the ancients, he embodied the best in man.
44:52A warrior's life.
44:53A warrior's life.
44:56And a hero's death.
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