All language subtitles for Dark.Marvels.S01E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

Narrator:
Tonight, legendary blades

wielded by
the most fearsome fighters.

Heads severed, arms lopped off
with this sharp sword.

Blood spilled
all over the field.

Narrator:
From the brutal Viking axe...

Michael Livingston:
One berserker warrior kills
40 men with his axe.

Narrator:
...to the razor-sharp
samurai sword...

They are single-edge blades
wielded with efficiency.

They could slice
through anything.

Narrator:
...to the deadliest
double-edged weapon of all.

You were not
looking to simply win.

You were looking to massacre.
No one is to be left alive.

Narrator:
We explore history's
bloodiest blades

and the warriors
who made them so lethal.

No longer was it
just punctures from a spear.

Now we're talking limbs
and heads flying off of bodies.

Narrator:
Not all inventions are made
with good intentions.

Unlock the twisted history

behind the world's
darkest marvels.

Narrator: 793.

The Vikings raid a wealthy
Christian monastery

on the island of Lindisfarne

near present day
Newcastle, England.

One of the more frightening
events to happen in England,

in the Middle Ages is when what
we call the Vikings show up.

And they show up
in force for one of
the first times on record

at a place called Lindisfarne,
and they destroy the abbey.

Kelly Devries:
It's an old monastery.
It's a rich monastery.

It's existed forever.
We've got evidence
of its wealth.

And we hear that they went in
and killed everybody.

They just wantonly destroyed
an entire monastery

that had been there
for centuries,

that had a place
in a religious society.

The monks did not
put up a fight,

and so many
of them are killed.

Larissa Tracy:
And it's the monks
who survive

who write the story.

And they create this image

of Vikings as these
most horrific,

brutal, savage,
crazed warriors.

Michael Livingston:
The terror of this as these
Vikings come ashore

and take everything
was extraordinary.

These people come off
the water in these boats

and wreck the joint,
burn it, and then leave.

This becomes the M.O.
of the Vikings.

The Vikings were often feared

because they were more
of a hit and run force.

They would row up to a dock,
disembark,

cause havoc and chaos
in the towns.

You know, rape, pillage,
grab what they could,

load their boats back up,

and leave before the town
could ever put up a defensive

or an offensive
against these Vikings.

And they'd just move off
to the next town

and do the same thing town,
and town, and town again.

Narrator: The key
to their successful raids

is an arsenal
of deadly weapons.

Kelly Devries:
The Viking weapons are
heralded in history,

and they should be.

They're weapons of war.

They're weapons
of destruction

of a people who were bent
on destruction,

often for destruction's sake.

Narrator:
But of all their weapons,

there is none more fearsome

and fabled than
the Viking axe.

Kelly Devries:
If you think about an axe

and the damage it
could do to someone.

I mean, if it doesn't hit
with a dead-on blow

that penetrates the body
or takes off a limb or so,

the percussive force
of just the rest of the axe
is going to kill the person.

Michael Livingston:
So, you have bearded axes,

which have a blade
that sort of extends
down towards the haft.

And you have
other axes, Danish axes,
which are longer hafted,

and which you
can get a better swing on

to chop down a big tree
or chop down a big person.

Shane Adams:
For a bearded axe,

there's many
different fighting edges,

but the one
definite kill edge

is that rounded sharpened
head of the axe

with the weight behind it
being able to, you know,
carve into your body.

Michael Livingston:
An axe isn't just
for killing people.

It's also something
you can use on the fly
to repair the boat--

the very thing
that you're dependent on
to cause this warfare.

So, axes are like
a Swiss Army knife,
if you will,

but one that's really large
and you can decapitate
a person with.

Narrator:
This versatile tool may also
be the weapon of execution

used in a sadistic ritual
known as the blood eagle.

Among the Vikings
who have become very famous,

one of them
is Ragnar Lothbrok.

Now, Ragnar is thrown
into a pit of vipers,

a pit of snakes,
by King Aella of Northumbria,

and he's killed
in this pit of snakes.

And according to legend,
in vengeance for that,

his son Ivar the Boneless
and his other sons

take their revenge on Aella
by perpetuating the blood eagle.

Jordan Wagner:
The idea is taking a sword,
and you cut open the skin.

Then you're using an axe
to break the ribs,

to expand them outward,
potentially upward.

Larissa Tracy:
So they are open
like a pair of wings,

removing his lungs and
placing them on his shoulders

while they're still pulsing
until he dies.

Of course, they're
covered in blood, so it gets
the name blood eagle

because it looks like wings
of an eagle, bloodied.

Larissa Tracy: This story
has become embedded

in the image
of Viking savagery,

and it's associated
with their use of weapons,

particularly the axe.

Narrator: Another famous saga
with an axe at its center

is the story
of Egil Skallagrimsson.

Kelly Devries:
Egil is a man in
the 10th century.

There's no question
he's a psychopath.

He kills for
the meagerest of means.

At six years old,
he loses in a ball game.

He goes home and gets an axe

and puts it
in his opponent's head.

And his mother, she said,

well, he's going to be
a good Viking one day.

Narrator:
Proving mother knows best,

Egil goes on to murder
at least a few hundred
more people

during the course
of his life.

His legacy earns him
the title of berserker,

a unique class
of Viking warriors

known to fight
in a rage-fueled trance.

Vikings get a reputation as
savage and horrible berserkers.

They just go mad
with a battle frenzy.

And this is where
we get the term berserk.

Somebody going berserk
is somebody who's just

going completely mad
in a frenzy.

But there's a motivation
behind that battle rage,

and it was a way
of psyching yourself up
to face your enemies.

And you could convince yourself
that you were invulnerable

when you were in that state.

And so it has a very specific

purpose on the battlefield.

Berserkers were
more psychopathic

than the psychopaths
that were Vikings.

Eileen Joy: Berserkers
were believed by some

to have taken
a kind of hallucinogen

before going into battle to
get themselves into a frenzy.

Kelly Devries:
All sorts of things
about mushrooms

and maybe other psychedelics
and so forth.

I think they were just bad eggs
in a bad egg carton.

Narrator: One of the most
legendary berserker rampages

occurs in a 1066 battle.

Michael Livingston:
After the death
of Edward the Confessor,

the King of England,
there is no clear heir
to the throne.

So what ends up happening
is a lot of people

want to have
the throne of England.

Narrator:
Including the King of Norway,
Herald Hardrada,

who assembles an army
of nearly 9,000 Vikings

and 300 ships
to seize England.

Michael Livingston:
In what's called the Battle
of Stamford Bridge,

when Herald Hardrada
comes ashore,

they have essentially
a Viking army.

He supposedly gets caught
out of position by the English,
who marched very fast.

He's on the wrong side
of a river without
any of his armor.

And supposedly,
according to one story,

one berserker warrior
of the Vikings

stands on that bridge
to buy his comrades time,

and just starts
mowing down the English,

and kills 40 men with his axe

before he himself
is finally taken care of.

Kelly Devries:
Eventually he's killed
in the most cowardly way,

by a man in a boat
who goes under

and stabs him through
the groin with his spear.

Narrator:
This ferocity on the
battlefield can be attributed

in part to
the Viking belief system.

Larissa Tracy:
Vikings seemed very fearsome

because they believed
in the idea of Valhalla.

Michael Livingston:
Valhalla is Odin's hall
in the afterlife.

This is about
the best place you can go.

When you get there,
you get to spend the days
fighting each other,

and having sex,

and having lots
of things to drink

and lots of things to eat.

I mean, we have to admit,
Valhalla's the cool heaven.

Larissa Tracy:
And so if they were slain
on the battlefield,

then that is how
they were supposed to die.

They were happy to face
that possibility.

And it's that sense
of fated finality

that made them so terrifying
to their enemies,

because they weren't
afraid to die.

Narrator:
Ultimately, the Vikings
are defeated by the English

in the 1066
Battle of Stamford Bridge,

bringing an end
to their raids shortly after.

But one century later,
a sword forged in Japan

would gain
even greater notoriety.

Narrator:
Kyoto, Japan, 1192.

The Emperor Go-Toba
appoints the first shogun.

The shogun, it's a title,

so it means basically
the military leader of Japan.

The shogun was
the ultimate power.

He could make any rule
he pretty much wanted.

Narrator:
Supporting the shogun
is an elite class

of warrior knights
known as the samurai.

Mike Yamasaki: The samurai
are a very unique persona.

They're not like
your typical warrior per se.

Of course,
it's common for a samurai
to learn swordsmanship,

how to ride a horse,
basic military strategy.

But they also had to learn
brush writing and poetry,

how to read the classics,

so they had education
on the higher level.

Narrator:
Their minds may be sharp,

but their blades
are even sharper.

Mike Yamasaki: The sword
always got the attention

as the weapon of the samurai,

and it became literally like,

if you didn't have your sword,
you weren't a samurai.

Narrator: The samurai's
most recognizable sword
is the katana.

It's lightweight,
single-edged,

with a razor-sharp
curved steel blade,

two to three feet in length.

The katana,
as a two-handed sword,

was made in such a way
that it was not just
an offensive weapon,

but also a defensive weapon.

Larissa Tracy:
Samurai warriors
did not carry shields.

Their swords
were their shield.

They were so fast
and so skilled with the blade,

the idea is
their opponent's blade
would never touch them.

So the sword would have to
be made in such a way

to be able to take the shock

of blocking another weapon
striking it.

At the same time,
have that sharp edge

to be able
to take limbs and heads

on the next fell swoop.

It's one of
the finest edged weapons
ever made for combat.

It is one of
the most iconic weapons

of the samurai era in Japan,

and it's permeated
pop culture.

It's also really effective
at what it does,

which is cutting through things
quickly and effectively.

Mike Yamasaki: The katana
is the weapon of power.

A lot of people
I've talked to said

they would rather get shot
rather than cut by a katana.

They're razor-sharp
and wielded with efficiency.

They could slice
through anything.

Daniel Dickrell:
It's also much lighter than
a traditional longsword,

so it can be swung faster
and more effectively in combat.

Narrator:
The katana's legendary power
begins with its forging.

One of the unique
characteristics of the katana is
also its material structure.

So, it has very hardened steel
at the edge,

which makes it very,
very sharp,

but it has a more
milder steel in the core

which makes it durable
and flexible.

Mike Yamasaki:
It is built out of
the highest quality iron ore

which is smelted
from sand iron.

And that's
what makes it so hard--
capable of shaving glass.

Daniel Dickrell:
The process of making the
steel is taking iron sand,

a very unique form of iron,
and putting it

in a very hot fire-- upwards
of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

This process reduces
that iron sand down
into a carbon steel

which then can be worked
and made into the swords.

Narrator: Once the sword
is near completion,

it is blessed
by a Shinto priest

to spiritually purify it in
preparation for the samurai.

Mike Yamasaki: It's like
they're inseparable.

A good sword is known to have
a good soul, in a sense,

and that soul
is what's taken care of

and appreciated by the owner,
the samurai.

So if your sword
was on the ground,

and somebody stepped over it,
they're stepping over your soul.

You're allowed
to kill that person.

Shane Adams: Now, as spiritual
as the samurai were,

the way they tested their swords
was actually quite dark.

The sword would be
tested upon humans to see
how well it would cut.

Mike Yamasaki:
As you can see on this sword,

test cuts were often recorded
in gold and silver.

Most likely these
were criminals that were
slated to be executed.

And they were "volun-told"
to be the targets.

So, like, one of these here,
it's two bodies,

also cut through the torso.

So they would stack them
and then cut down.

Kind of sucks
to be the bottom guy

if it didn't go
all the way through.

Narrator:
But not all test subjects
were criminals.

There were other samurai
who were bad

who wanted to test
their skill or their sword

on innocent bystanders.

Now you have to understand
that at that time

the lower class
were looked at as pawns

and that their lives
didn't matter.

Greg Jackson: There were
instances where evil samurai

would hide and wait
for a commoner to come by,

and they'd test the sword out
by seeing how well

it ran through this commoner.

There's a story
about an evil samurai

named Gonpachi,
the bridge killer,

and he would go out at night
and he would kill for fun.

These people were not the
epitome of a true samurai.

To kill somebody
for your own selfish reason

is against what's known
as the good samurai code.

Narrator:
According to legend,

it's not just a samurai
that can be evil.

It also extends
to his sword.

Shane Adams:
There was an old tale

about two swordsmiths,
Muramasa and Masamune.

And a challenge was set
against them

to see who made
the best katana.

The swords were made,
finished,

and placed into a river
with the edge against
the oncoming current.

Muramasa's sword cut
through everything.

Fish, leaves,

everything that
that blade touched, it cut.

Whereas the Masamune sword
only cut the leaves and grass

that flowed
through the water.

Narrator: Believing
his blade is superior,

Muramasa quickly
declares victory.

Shane Adams:
Until a monk came by
and said,

no, the sword that cut
through everything was wicked.

Where the Masamune sword
was forgiving,

because it
left the fish alone.

Masamune was so great,
and Muramasa was so evil.

Shane Adams: Muramasa swords
became quite popular

because everybody
was intrigued about
these blades of evil.

And sure enough,
some of these swords

were used in horrific scenes
of murder and violence.

Mike Yamasaki: Tokugawa, who
was the shogun at the time,

was injured,
as well as his father,

by Muramasa blades.

He always had a superstition

that they would cause the death
or bad luck of his family.

So he made a law stating
that it was illegal

to possess Muramasa blades.

And today there are very few
because so many got destroyed.

Narrator: But the katana isn't
the samurai's only blade.

There are others
with a much darker purpose.

Narrator: The katana is
the weapon most associated

with samurai warriors
of feudal Japan.

But there are
two other samurai blades
that are just as lethal.

One is the wakizashi.

Mike Yamasaki:
A wakizashi is known to be

the companion sword
to the katana.

And it's because
katana were only allowed
to be worn by samurai,

but wakizashi could be worn by
people of other classes.

So that's why there
was a lot of wakizashi made,

and their numbers
outnumber katana by far.

A wakizashi is 12 inches
to 24 inches,

and a katana
is 24 inches and longer.

Narrator: Last but not least
is the tanto.

Greg Jackson:
The tanto comes to Japan
around the 9th century

and it gains
a lot of popularity.

It's a very short blade.

And because of that,
it's easy to conceal,

it's easy to wield,
and it catches on.

Mike Yamasaki: The tanto,
it's basically a knife,
a giant knife or a dagger.

They were designed
for stabbing or for slicing.

And they were very thick,

up to 9 or 10
millimeters thick.

They still had a razor edge,
but they were very strong.

So you could almost punch
through some parts of armor

depending on the type
of armor it was.

Greg Jackson:
So the tanto's our short one,

the katana's the long one,
the wakizashi is our
middle length blade.

The middle child if you will.

Narrator:
The skills required to wield
just one of these blades

can take a lifetime
to perfect.

But in the 17th century,

a legendary swordsman invents
a new style of fighting

using two of them at once,
known as Niten Ichi-ryu.

Mike Yamasaki: Well,
Miyamoto Musashi is heralded

as Japan's
greatest swordsman.

Musashi was actually
way ahead of his time.

He was a pioneer
as far as strategy goes.

A lot of people would fight
with their longsword only--
one sword.

That was kind of like
the unwritten rule.

And he fought-- boom.
Guy blocks.

He pulls out his short sword
and kills the guy.

And now he can use
two swords.

That's going against what
was the unwritten code.

So he developed
all these new strategies,

and that's what
made him dangerous.

He had over 60 matches,
and he died of natural causes,

which tells you
he was very good.

Because generally when
you lost a match back then,

you didn't live.

Narrator:
But death doesn't always

come at the hands
of the enemy.

When a samurai
had to face dishonor

or wanted to escape dishonor,

he committed
what's called ritual suicide,

or hara-kiri seppuku.

Greg Jackson:
Seppuku is to take a sword,

typically using a tanto
or the wakizashi,

plunge it into your gut,
and basically debowel yourself.

This was a way
to preserve their honor
as they leave this world.

Samurai believed that their soul
came from their stomach.

So in times of seppuku,

they would make an incision

and open up their stomach,

so their intestines
would come out.

And then eventually
that samurai would die

either, of course,
of the blood loss,

or would have
an assistant with them

that would then behead him
at that point in time.

The most famous story
about seppuku

was the story
of the 47 ronin.

Narrator:
In 1701, Lord Asano Naganori
is ordered to commit seppuku

after assaulting
a corrupt court official.

When Naganori's death
leaves his 47 samurai
without a master,

they become known as ronin.

And their only goal in life
was to avenge their lord,

but they knew by doing so

they would have to
give up their lives.

Narrator: After about
two years of planning,

the 47 ronin
finally retaliate

and kill the court official.

Mike Yamasaki:
They took his head,
present it at the temple,

and then waited there
to get their punishment,

which was, of course,
because they were samurai,

they were allowed
to commit seppuku.

Narrator:
46 of the 47 ronin

end their own lives
in ritualistic fashion.

One of the men is pardoned,

some say
due to his young age.

Everybody respects them
to this day for what they did
and how they did it.

And they proved
how deep the loyalty
and honor was for a samurai.

So in that sense,

that's a pure example
of what seppuku was.

It was an end to the honor.

Narrator: Seppuku
isn't abolished until 1873,

but some engage
in the practice well into
the 20th century.

So there's an episode
of modern seppuku

by the famous author
Yukio Mishima.

Narrator:
On November 25th, 1970,

Mishima, with the help
of one of his followers,

performs seppuku in front
of the Tokyo army base

after they fail
to incite a coup.

Mike Yamasaki: And he had
one of his top students
be his decapitator.

The first cut hit his shoulder.
The second cut hit his head.

And he's, like,
totally panicking by now.

And then the third cut,
he finally did it.

Narrator:
While ritual suicide
falls out of favor,

there another
grisly sacrifice that
continues in modern day.

Greg Jackson:
The yakuza is an organized
crime syndicate,

and they would use the tanto.

For them, it was
the ritualistic blade

if you had committed an offense
to the organization.

So what they would do is,
if they did something wrong,

they take out their finger,
cut it with a tanto,

and then wrap
the finger up ritually

and then give it to
their boss as an offering.

And most cases,
it was a tanto that was used
for this ritual.

Narrator: The samurai blades
have left their bloody mark.

But there's another weapon
that's believed to have killed

the most soldiers prior
to the invention of the gun.

Narrator: Over a 1,000 years
before the samurai
first swing a katana,

another deadly blade
helps forge what would become
the Roman Empire.

Its name-- the gladius.

Kelly Devries: The gladius
was a short stabbing weapon.

Sharp at the tip and
devastating to have the blow.

Devastating not because
of the weapon itself,

but devastating
because of the man
who wielded that weapon.

The Roman soldier.

The most disciplined killer
in history.

Narrator:
But the Romans' initial
inspiration for the gladius

is found in the hands
of their enemy.

Narrator: 218 B.C.

Rome declares war
on Carthage,

triggering the second
in a series of wars

fought for dominance
over the Mediterranean.

These are known
as the Punic Wars.

Narrator: After their
crushing defeat at sea
in the First Punic War,

Carthage, now led by
the Great General Hannibal,
has a new strategy.

Joyce Salisbury: They have
land armies with elephants,

and Hannibal
does the unthinkable.

He takes the war to Italy,
to Rome itself.

He marches with his elephants
coming over the Alps.

So, he ends up in Italy

and begins marching
down the peninsula.

Narrator: The two forces
finally collide

near the ancient city
of Cannae,

and Hannibal's men are armed
with a secret weapon.

Known as
the Gladius Hispaniensis,

the sword originates
from the Iberian Peninsula
in present day Spain.

Hannibal and his warriors were
up against 80,000 Roman troops.

Now, he knew that he only had
50,000 troops himself.

But a lot of the warriors
had sword in hand,

up against those
Roman soldiers with spears.

It is a very effective weapon,
the shortsword,

and the Roman armies
are not prepared for it.

And that sword
that they were wielding

turned the tide
in that battle.

It's utter carnage,
and one of the worst losses

that Rome suffers,
and really establishes Hannibal

as the greatest general
of all time potentially.

Narrator: By most estimates,

the Romans lose between
55,000 and 70,000 men.

The Romans could hardly bury
all their dead.

There were limbs,
there was blood.

Hannibal is there
for more than a decade,

and he is just going up and down
Italy just destroying things.

The massive amount of damage,

the massive amount of loss,

it's an incredible invasion.

And then the Romans get smart.

The Romans, I think,
took back from that battle,
not just a loss,

but they learned
from their mistakes and
learned about that sword.

Narrator: The Romans
improved the Spanish blade

by changing the material
from iron to steel,

which makes it stronger,
lighter, and sharper.

Daniel Dickrell: They added
the pommel at the end

to prevent the hand
from slipping off,

and various features
that made it more usable

on the Roman battlefield.

Narrator:
The Roman gladius measures
less than two feet long,

with a three-inch wide
double-edged blade.

Weighing just under
two pounds,

it can be swung
with enough force

to produce a gaping wound
four inches long.

A gladius has a wasp waist.

So, the blade swells,

and then it comes
into a wasp waist,

and then it broadens out
again at the hilt.

Narrator:
This new and improved
version of the gladius

helps Rome level the playing
field against Carthage

during the Battle of Zama
in 202 B.C.

No longer
was it just spear cuts

and, you know, wounds,

punctures from a spear.

Now we're talking
limbs and heads
flying off of bodies.

Needless to say, the Romans won,
Second Punic War is over,

and that's how the gladius
becomes the kind of weapon

that will change the future
of ancient warfare.

Narrator: 197 B.C.

Another enemy
is standing in the way

of Rome's complete dominance
of the Eastern Mediterranean.

After the Romans had
defeated the Carthaginians,

they turn their attention
to the east, to Macedonia,

who had been an ally
of Carthage.

Narrator:
The Macedonian forces

are led by King Philip V,

but he's no match for
the fiercely armed Romans.

When the gladius was introduced
on the field of battle,

very quickly King Philip saw
his army began to get decimated.

Aaron Irvin:
You are now hacking limbs,
killing enemies,

literally cutting your way
through the enemy's formation.

This is not a war
of attrition.

You are now looking to do
as much mortal damage

as you can to the enemy.

You are not looking
to simply win,

you are looking to massacre.

No one is to be left alive.

Narrator:
The Roman army completely
annihilates their enemy.

Roughly 8,000 Macedonian
soldiers are dead,

and another
5,000 are captured.

Joyce Salisbury: King Philip
witnesses the scene

with his army devastated,
heads severed,

arms lopped off
with this sharp sword,

blood spilled
all over the field.

And King Philip flees
the scene ignominiously,

never to be seen again.

The Romans had demonstrated
once and for all,

armed with the gladius,
the eastern armies

could not stand against them.

Greece fell,

and Rome continued
further east.

Narrator:
For the next three centuries,

the Roman Empire grows,

reaching its peak
in 117 A.D.,

spanning over
2.2 million square miles.

The gladius is what
gives the Romans their edge
on the battlefield.

It allows their tactics
to be effective

and ultimately
allows them to become

the military superpower
over the Mediterranean

that they are still
remembered as to this day.

Now, the gladius
was just a small sword.

But throughout history,
that gladius had become

one of the most devastating
weapons to mankind.

It has taken more human lives

than any other weapon
until production of the gun.

Once Rome achieves its
superiority on the battlefield,

it achieves superiority
in politics, and economics,

and so many ways across
the Mediterranean.

It's the Roman sea
as far as they're concerned.

And all of this goes back
to the gladius,

and its capabilities
as a weapon of war.

The Roman concept of warfare
was not about attrition.

It was not about
wearing out the enemy.

It was not about coming to
agreements afterwards.

Warfare was about
wiping your enemies off
the face of the earth.

You could live happily
because you were
the only one left alive.

The gladius itself
represents punishment.

It is the embodiment
of Roman power.

By the time we get to
the imperial period in Rome,

we see individuals
who are sentenced to
capital punishment

being sentenced "ad gladium."

In other words,
those who have violated
the laws of the state

are punished by the gladius.

The gladius is itself death.

Narrator:
The deadly sword is so iconic

that it will become synonymous

with the most legendary
bloodsport in history.

Kelly Devries:
The gladius will change

when it becomes the weapon
of the gladiators.

Joyce Salisbury: And in fact,
the term "gladiator"

comes from the gladius,

which is Rome's
favorite weapon.

Kelly Devries: Gladiator games
are there for one purpose,

to fulfill the bloodlust
of a crowd.

What are all these
50,000 people showing up to
the Colosseum to see?

It's not somebody get poked.
It's somebody get slashed.

Something to get cut.
Bloodshed all over the place.

And the more gruesome,
the more violent, the better.

They're there to show men
hacking other men to bits.

Shane Adams:
These gladiators
wielding the gladius,

though they
were trained killers,

they were also trained
to keep each other alive.

They were trained to be able
to just show blood,

to be able to cut flesh
in such a way

that the person would be able
to continue to fighting

and would be able to survive
for future fights to come.

But you can just
imagine the gallons upon
gallons of blood

that was spilled
in that sand.

It's entertainment,

and entertainment
will change the gladius.

It's become a weapon
for the Romans' pleasure.

Narrator:
The blades of the Romans,
samurai, and Vikings

each transformed history.

But there's another
that literally dwarfs
the competition.

Narrator:
In the 15th century,

a deadly new sword
is gaining traction

amongst mercenaries
across western Europe,

leaving behind bodies
and bloodshed.

Shane Adams: A Zweihander
is a two-handed sword.

A great, big,
long two-handed sword.

Michael Livingston:
In fact, that's basically
where it gets its name.

"Two-hander" is what
Zweihander means.

Narrator: The sword consists
of a long steel blade

averaging about
five feet in length

and weighing upwards
of ten pounds.

They were impressive to see.
Some of them have wavy blades.

They are double-edged,
and they can be wicked sharp.

So, it has some usability
as a weapon

because of its size,
but that's also its downfall.

Aaron Irvin:
You're not carrying this
thing around one-handed.

You're not using this like
a traditional sword anymore.

It's sort of almost
a cross between a spear

and a longsword simultaneously.

Larissa Tracy:
Now, carrying one of these
swords into battle

might be somewhat unwieldy.

And, of course,
wielding a Zweihander

for too long can get tiring.

But when you train
with a Zweihander,

you are learning
specific moves,

specific parries
that are designed

to essentially use the momentum
of that blade itself.

Kelly Devries:
A baseball player,
you can think about

the same way
you hold the bat.

You're holding
this weapon back.

But it really is nothing more
than a big blunt club.

So what it's doing
is it's hitting somebody,

and killing them with
a percussive blow

rather than chopping them
in two.

And if you hit
with enough force,

and you hit the different
quadrants of the body,

you can slice through,

or you can crush,
or you can break bones.

But you also have enough agility
with the Zweihander

to stab and thrust
with both hands,

and actually pierce
and run your opponent through.

Narrator:
The warriors bold enough

to wield this weapon
are known as the landsknecht.

Larissa Tracy:
Landsknecht emerge
in the 15th century,

and they are both Swiss
and German mercenaries,
essentially soldiers for hire.

Kelly Devries:
They're paid to go in
and just kill people.

And they do it
with the Zweihander
because it's there

and it can kill very,
very effectively.

Narrator: The sheer size of
this two-handed monstrosity

has a psychological effect
as well.

Kelly Devries:
And we have to think of this
as an imposing symbol.

If you can imagine
a mercenary going
into a village,

he wants everybody to run
because he's carrying
one of these Zweihanders.

He wants that weapon
to be feared.

Narrator: But the most
notorious Zweihander

belongs to a man
named Grutte Pier,

and it's believed to be
the largest European sword

ever used in battle.

Greg Jackson: Grutte Pier
lives in northern Europe,

and he's also
extremely large.

The man stands
at seven-foot-tall.

This man is quite
literally a giant,

but he's a gentle giant.

Aaron Irvin: He is reported
to be an excellent swordsman

with the Zweihander.

In fact, his own Zweihander

measured somewhere upwards
of 15 pounds.

Greg Jackson:
He's a peaceful guy.
He's a farmer.

He's happy with his wife,
his two kids.

Then the Black Band
comes through.

Shane Adams:
The Black Band were a group

of landsknecht mercenaries
hired by the Saxons

who would basically
carry out the dirty work

that the Saxons
didn't want to be really
recognized for doing.

What they would do
as part of any campaign

is loot and rob
and rape and steal

from the surrounding
countryside.

As a result, the Black Band

is incredibly notorious
across northern Europe.

Greg Jackson: They come
through Grutte's area.

They wipe out his farm.
They rape and murder his wife.

They level his church.

Basically, they destroy
everything he cares about.

Aaron Irvin: He is left
homeless, property-less.

He has nothing whatsoever.

And so Pier takes it
upon himself to put together

what becomes known
as the Black Hope of Arum,

his own mercenary band
who is not looking
to get hired,

they're not looking
to really get paid.

They're really
just looking to get revenge
against the Germans,

the mercenaries,
the outsiders,

who are within
their territory.

And the gentle giant
turns into a war machine,

and raises his own force

and takes the fight
to the Black Band.

Shane Adams: Grutte Pier,
meaning "Big Peter,"

with having a frame
the size he had,

he was easily able
to wield that Zweihander.

Where most people would
not choose to use that weapon
because of its length,

Big Peter could twirl it
around like a normal sword.

In Pier's hands,
the Zweihander becomes
an incredibly deadly weapon.

His sword is like
a weed-whacker,

just ripping
through the countryside,

leveling everything
in its path.

He's able to take out
multiple enemies

with a single swing
of the blade.

And the blade itself,
his blade is heavy enough

to cut through arms,
cut through armor,

cut through shields.

Nobody is able
to stand against him.

Greg Jackson:
Basically, become a David
and Goliath in one.

He is little David taking on
this much larger evil band,

and yet he is
physically Goliath.

He is himself a massive giant.

Now, the rampage
does not last forever.

This is basically
a four-year period,

and Pier dies
right after that.

So he has a pretty short life,
and frankly so does

his beloved weapon of choice,
the Zweihander.

It's just too big to be
wielded in a practical way
on the battlefield.

And by the 16th century,
you're really only gonna
find it in a museum.

Aaron Irvin:
Now the Zweihander was still
a very intimidating,

very showy weapon,

and continued to be used
in ceremonial circumstances,

continued to be put
on display all the way, really,
up to the present day,

even though its effectiveness
on the battlefield
was ultimately very limited.

Like its famous wielder,
the Zweihander legend lives on,

just as Pier's does.

Narrator: Whatever their size,
shape, or body count,

blades like the Viking axe,
katana, gladius,

and Zweihander made
legends of the warriors
who wielded them,

inspiring fear
and fascination,

and forging
a lasting legacy in blood.