All language subtitles for Myths.and.Monsters.S01E05.1080p.WEB.h264-VOYAGES_track3_[eng]

(dramatic music)

- The tales have been told

since man first gathered
around the fires of prehistory,

tales of the strange and wondrous things

hidden in the vast unknown
shadows of the world.

Tales of creatures divine
and beasts demonic,

of gods and kings,

of myths and monsters.

From dark forests to the lands of ice,

from desert wastes to
the storm-thrashed seas,

every corner of the Earth
has its legends to tell,

stories of heroes and the
villains they encounter,

of the wilderness and the dangers within,

stories of battles, of love, of order,

and of chaos.

(dramatic music)

But what are the roots
of these fantastic tales

and why have they endured so long?

In this series, we'll explore the history

behind these legends

and reveal the hidden
influences that shaped them.

War and disease, religious
and social upheavals,

the un-tameable ferocity
of the natural world,

and above all, the monsters
lurking within ourselves.

(dramatic music)

(tense music)

For most of our existence on Earth,

humans were hunter-gatherers.

We foraged for survival,

living on what we could scavenge,

always on the move.

(tense music)

All this changed around 10,000 years ago,

when mankind formed its
first permanent settlements,

when we started growing crops
and domesticating animals.

The agricultural revolution had begun.

(dramatic music)

The settlements grew.

Towns formed, then cities,

nations, and empires.

(dramatic music)

But it took more than living side by side

to form a community.

Shared traditions and beliefs were needed,

and shared stories.

It's through stories that the boundaries

of a community were set,

that their rules were tested,

that they coped with change.

- All society is going through
periods of rapid change,

desperately needing myths to hang on to.

Sometimes myths seem to
exist to question social laws

and to ask us to question them.

That's a much better way
of enforcing social norms

than the kind of story which just says,

"This is the social norm, this
is what you're going to do."

- I think if one sees
it as a kind of vehicle

in narrative form,

for things which are important in society,

that's probably the best
way of thinking of it.

- So a lot of myths involved
characters, heroes, heroines,

debating what they should
do and in that way,

a norm gets defined.

- Myths, of course, can only
become myths if we share them.

We're a community of readers of the Bible,

we share faith in those stories.

So myths create community,
they bond us together.

(dramatic music)

- Societies exist in a state of tension.

The needs and wants of all

can never be satisfied at the same time.

A balance must be found.

It's in the stories we tell each other

that we debate what that balance is.

(dramatic music)

(pages rustling)

The laws of the kingdom were clear

(dramatic music)

and Prince Roswall had broken them.

He'd disobeyed his father, the King.

(dramatic music)

The three nobleman had been
in the dungeon for years.

They were blamed by the King

for a crime they did not commit.

Roswall was not his father, however.

The injustice done to
the three men shamed him.

He had to do something.

Roswall led the nobles out of the dungeon,

past the guards,

and through the secret,
silent passages of the castle

to freedom.

(dramatic music)

But Roswall's father soon discovered

who was responsible for
the prisoners' escape.

Roswall would pay a
price for his kindness.

The King banished his son,
sending him forever into exile.

The law, after all, was the law.

It is a comforting thought
that we have control

over our destiny.

The random cruelty of the
world can seem at times

too much to bear.

Stories offer a haven.

Good is rewarded, evil punished,

and everyone gets their just desserts.

In a story, even catastrophe has a reason.

(dramatic music)

The rivers of Central Germany
carve through field and hill

on their journey to the distant sea.

For centuries, these waterways
have borne goods and people

up and down the country.

Riverside towns grew rich
on the back of this trade.

One of those settlements
was the town of Hamelin.

- Hamelin was an important
center for the shipping of grain.

It was on the Weser River.

It got lots of grain coming in.

It milled it and it shipped it out.

So it was one of the relatively new towns,

which are becoming very, very important.

- Much like all German towns of that age,

it would have had a social structure.

It would have had a class of Burger,

what we would call bourgeoisie,

that is the qualified
citizens of the town.

- [Dr. Wood] It would have
been dominated by guilds

rather than aristocrats,

so one would begin to
see the sort of structure

that would eventually
evolve into the modern city.

- [Narrator] Hamelin is
most famous, however,

for the story of the Pied Piper.

It's one of the best known
tales of the Brothers Grimm.

In their telling, Hamelin
was wealthy and thriving.

Its citizens lived happily in
their fine, gray stone houses

until an infestation of rats
inflicted misery on the town.

This black swarm of vermin attacked barns

and storehouses.

They gnawed on wood and
chewed through cloth.

Try as they might,

the people could not rid
themselves of the plague.

Salvation seemed to come in the figure

of a mysterious piper.

He lured the rats into the
river with a magical song.

But when the town refused to
pay him what was promised,

the piper swore revenge.

Returning to the town, he
played his song once more.

But this time it was the
town's children he entranced.

He marched them out of Hamelin
and into a mountain cave.

Neither piper nor children
were ever seen again.

(eerie music)

There's more to it,
however, than mere legend.

In 1384, the Hamelin Chronicle recorded

that a century had passed

since the children had left the town.

Something did happen in Hamelin.

But what?

(dramatic music)

- Because there's a specific date,

there's a suggestion that,

"Well, maybe this
started as a real story."

And then you get the kind of speculation

of what is going on.

- I think we can say, deductively,
within all probability,

it will have had its
origin in some kind of

social and cultural crisis.

That's what the stories are there for.

They're there to resolve that crisis.

What kind of crisis might that have been?

Well, we don't know.

We can speculate.

(dramatic music)

- Some suggest that a disease or famine

must've struck Hamelin.

The Piper was symbolic of the death

which carried the town's children away.

(dramatic music)

Others have linked the
story to the dancing plagues

of medieval Europe.

This bizarre trend saw thousands
of people dance together

in a state of frenzy

until collapsing from exhaustion.

A more convincing theory

is that the legend of the Pied Piper

is a story of migration.

The town's children were in fact citizens

who left Hamelin en masse
in the late 13th century.

This was a time when recruiters traveled

across Central Europe,

seeking settlers for land further east.

They offered rewards for
those willing to move.

Thousands took up the offer.

(dramatic music)

- In Eastern Europe, you had
these huge empty tracks of land

and landowners would actually hire agents

to go find people to
come and farm the land.

So, this may actually be
a story of immigration.

- There are some names which contain

the etymology of Hamelin
and it is possible

that perhaps a hundred or
150 of the youth of Hamelin

wandered away and that
the tale, therefore,

has its origins in that great
division of the population.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] The Grimms recorded
their version of the story

in the 1800s.

But the tale had been
told and retold in Europe

since the Middle Ages

and it evolved along the way.

- Once you get people living
in cities and they're crowded,

you begin to see a change
in the kind of stories

they tell themselves,
or they tell each other.

There are no rats in the original story.

The idea of the bargain
comes in even slightly later.

Then, by the time the
19th Century comes along,

you begin to get a much
more sentimental thing.

The little lame boy or
the little blind boy,

depending on the version,

who can't keep up with his
fellows and therefore, you know,

the mountain closes
before he can get there.

So it's a wonderful example
of how myths will change

as society changes.

(dramatic music)

- The story of the Pied Piper
is one of social norms broken.

Hamelin loses its children,

not to the random cruelty
of sickness or war,

but because of its own people's actions.

They broke their agreement with the piper.

Their greed and dishonesty are responsible

for the disappearance of the children.

In times scarred by war,
starvation, and disease,

the sense of control the story implies

must've been comforting.

Avoid Hamelin's mistake.

Obey the rules of society and
catastrophe can be prevented.

(dramatic music)

- Prince Roswall did not
go into his exile alone.

He was accompanied by a steward

who'd served the family
loyally for many years.

After a long ride through
punishing terrain,

Roswall suggested they rest
awhile at a cooling stream.

(dramatic music)

A sharp blow sent Roswall crashing

unconscious to the ground.

The steward sneered over him.

Long had this man nursed
resentment for his masters.

Long had he cloaked his ambitions.

Roswall's parents had
given him gold enough

to live in princely fashion.

The wicked steward took it all.

Donning Roswall's fine
garments, the steward rode away

with a prince's fortune
and a prince's name.

Poor Roswall was left for dead.

Not all lawbreakers are as unpleasant

as Roswall's treacherous steward.

The good thief is an archetype found

in cultures around the world.

This rogue may break the laws of the land,

but only to follow a higher code.

In rebellion against the
existing social order,

with all its flaws and inequalities,

the good thief holds out the
promise of something better.

(dramatic music)

Amid the trees and woodland
streams of the English forest,

there once lurked a fugitive from the law.

(dramatic music)

He was known by kings in their castles.

He was beloved by peasants in the fields.

He was a man of many identities.

He was a trickster, a
soldier, a rebel, a lord.

His name was Robin Hood.

(dramatic music)

Since emerging in the 14th Century,

Robin has become one of
the world's most famous

and enduring legends.

Today, his story seems familiar to us all.

Robin lives in the woods
with his Merry Men.

He challenges the wrongful authority

of the sheriff of Nottingham,

and he robs from the
rich to give to the poor.

Yet, this familiarity disguises

the evolution of this legend.

For, as society has
changed down the centuries,

so has Robin Hood.

For, what defines wrongful authority?

What principles justify
rebellion against it?

Our answers are always shifting.

In the earliest ballads
and plays about him,

Robin is no knight fallen on hard times,

nor a nobleman denied his birthright.

Instead, he is a man of
the people, a yeoman,

little more than a peasant.

(dramatic music)

- The Robin Hood story
is very much a story

of ordinary people against authority

and Robin Hood is the nexus

that allows authority to be challenged.

(dramatic music)

- He's saying something
about the ordinary person,

the ordinary yeoman bowman,

having capabilities that aren't
well understood by toffs.

Robin Hood is smarter
and better at shooting

and better at defending himself

than the people who
think they're very smart

because they've got account books

and because they're good with abacuses.

And that, in a way, is the point of him.

That's what he's for.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Stories
about Robin were spread

by word of mouth among ordinary people.

And it was a time when
they could do with a hero.

The Black Death and other plagues

had ravaged 14th Century England.

Civil war followed.

Millions were killed or displaced.

The stories of the defiant
and clever Robin Hood

offered rare victories for the common man.

But he would not be theirs alone for long.

In 1510, King Henry VIII himself

played the outlaw at a court pageant.

Even the high and mighty could
not resist Robin's appeal.

In the 16th Century, England
became a Protestant nation.

As the country changed, so
did the stories of Robin Hood.

Soon it was not only the
Sheriff of Nottingham he fought,

but corrupt Catholic priests as well.

Under Elizabeth I, however,
authorities grew concerned.

This legendary man of the
people was becoming too popular.

Robin Hood, they decided,
was a threat to their power.

Efforts were made to suppress the stories.

If Robin Hood was to survive,

he would have to change yet again.

(dramatic music)

His savior was Elizabethan
playwright Anthony Munday.

He transformed the outlaw from a yeoman

into the Earl of Huntington,

a fallen member of the aristocracy.

(dramatic music)

This changed the target
of Robin Hood's rebellion.

In Munday's telling, the outlaw's conflict

was only with corrupt authority.

Now a member of the aristocracy himself

and a loyal servant of the true King,

Robin became a representative
of legitimate authority.

And every time he defied the
rulers of his fictional world,

he reinforced the social
structures of the Elizabethan.

(dramatic music)

The next great shift
came in the 19th Century.

- [Professor Purkiss] The
19th century gets really keen

on the medieval past.

It's called medievalism.

And this takes lots of different forms,

like William Morris goes around

trying to replicate medieval interiors

and the look of medieval
books, for example.

You've got Tennyson writing
poems about King Arthur,

"Idylls of the King"
and the "Maud Arthur."

And Robin Hood's sort of part of that.

People like Walter
Scott rewrote the legend

to bring it into line with
the 19th Century's idea

of what the Middle Ages were.

- [Dr. Wood] Robin
becomes a literary figure,

a popular figure,

and once that happens, you
get this romantic Robin Hood,

who is very much loved by all.

He's loved by women,
he's very, very charming.

He's loved by good men.

He's a true monarchist,
which is very important

in the expanding English empire.

- It was a time of urbanization,

industry, and empire building

Yet, Robin Hood stories mingled nostalgia

for a simpler medieval age

with a muscular Victorian nationalism.

The 19th Century saw the
popularity of the Robin Hood legend

spread far beyond England.

And in the 20th century,
he would reach Hollywood.

(dramatic music)

Since his early
appearances in silent film,

there've been dozens of screen
adventures for Robin Hood.

These depictions varied decade by decade,

but they always question
pressing issues of the day.

In the 1920s, it was
American isolationism.

In the '30s, the Depression
and Roosevelt's New Deal.

In the 1950s, Britain's
Post-War reconstruction

was the unspoken backdrop.

It the 1970s, its tired decline.

The 90s saw a new, more
international Robin Hood,

with allies of different races and creeds.

And we continue year after
year to revisit the story

and re-craft it for our own age.

For the appeal of Robin
Hood seems undimmed by time.

(dramatic music)

- There's something
immensely attractive about

being an outlaw in connection with trees.

I think it's just the
idea of living in a world

where you don't have to work,

but where you have all
kinds of important skills

and you're living in this
kind of almost Edenic nature.

- We like bad boys and I think this is

what the Robin Hood legend
sort of attracts us to.

In that he's a bad boy
with a heart of gold.

So, there's something very,
very attractive about him.

(dramatic music)

- His identity, his enemies,
and the questions he asks of us

continue to evolve with
every new screen adventure.

Robin Hood is both a figure of

comforting permanent tradition

and a relentlessly
contemporary rule-breaker.

This dual identity is at
the heart of his endurance.

It is through constant evolution

that Robin Hood maintains his
foothold in our imagination.

(dramatic music)

After weeks of wandering,

the exhausted Roswall came to a city.

Behind walls high and true
stood great houses of stone

and beyond them, in the heart of the city,

the towers of a mighty
fortress dazzled in the sun.

Roswall marveled at its wide
streets and busy markets.

But the greatest wonder was still to come.

It was in the palace yard he saw her.

He was transfixed.

She was the most beautiful
creature he had ever seen.

Roswall summoned up his
courage to speak with her.

But before they had exchanged
more than a few words,

a harsh cry came from the palace.

"Princess Lillian, come at once!

"Your father wishes to speak with you."

Reluctantly, the Princess obeyed.

Roswall stared longingly after her.

"She's not meant for
the likes of us, lad,"

a passerby mocked.

"She's to marry some fine prince, I hear."

Sure enough, just days later,

the prince promised to
Lillian arrived at the castle.

Roswall joined the crowds at the gate,

but when he saw the
prince, he was stunned.

It was none other than
the treacherous steward

who had stolen his fortune
and his princely name.

He was the man dear Lillian was to wed.

Sudden reversals in fortune,
like those of poor Roswall

are difficult for individuals to bear.

Whole societies can fare a little better.

Balancing people's competing demands

is difficult at the best of times.

A sudden shock can make it impossible.

(dramatic music)

One such shock came in the 16th Century.

In 1517, German monk Martin Luther

defied the teachings
of the Catholic Church.

He ignited a religious revolution.

The Reformation had begun.

(tense music)

Soon, Europe was divided as never before.

Families, communities,
and nations were split,

Catholic and Protestant.

Wars of religion scarred the continent

and the bloodiest of all
was the 30 Years' War.

With almost 8 million casualties,

the conflict was one of the longest

and most destructive in European history.

It began in the Holy Roman Empire,

a fragmented land of tiny
kingdoms and principalities.

- All of these little
kingdoms were caught up

in a stupendous war about
whether Catholics or Protestants

should succeed to one of
these little kingdoms.

But all of them ended up getting involved,

and it started in 1618 and it
just banged on and on and on.

- This was the epoch of the war which

proverbially laid waste to Germany.

Germany was the theater
of war for all of Europe.

- [Professor Purkiss] The
pretty normal experience

was for the other side
to ride into your village

and just kill everybody.

And I really mean everybody.

That kind of nightmare experience
became quite commonplace

and must have altered
people's sense of the world.

(bell tolling)

- [Narrator] Caught up in this conflict

was the north Bavarian town of Bamberg.

It was a town built at
the meeting of two rivers,

40 miles downstream from Nuremberg.

It had grown in the shadow
of a mountain fortress,

but at its heart was the church,

a four-towered cathedral
loomed over the rooftops

and Catholicism dominated everyday life.

- Bamberg in the early 17th Century was

a typically South German,
typically Bavarian place.

It would have had a strongly established

Roman Catholic culture.

- [Professor Purkiss] Bamberg
was a Prince-Bishopric,

presided over by successive archbishops

who strongly wanted to oppose
the spread of Protestantism.

- [Professor Saul] It defined itself over

against the newly
established and threatening

Protestant culture just a
few leagues up the road.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] In 1623,
Johann Georg von Dornheim

became the city's Prince-Bishop.

Von Dornheim was a Jesuit

He was utterly committed
to the Catholic Church

and obsessed with pushing
back Protestantism.

- The Bishop was a
rather extreme character,

even by the standards of his day.

He appears to have exploited his office

as Prince-Bishop of Bamberg to apply

the most rigoristic form of witch-hunting.

- Witch hunts were not new in Bamberg.

They'd taken place under

several of von Dornheim's predecessors,

But von Dornheim took
the practice to extremes.

Not for nothing was he
dubbed "The Hexenbrenner,"

the witch burner.

(dramatic music)

Hundreds were accused, put
on trial, and executed.

In 1627, von Dornheim
ordered the construction

of the witch-house.

This special prison had 28
cells and torture chambers.

It was here he secured his confessions.

(dramatic music)

- [Professor Purkiss] There
was quite lavish torture

used to force a confession from witches.

And we know this because
one of the suspects

actually smuggled a letter
out to his daughter,

it's incredibly sad,

explaining what had been done to him,

explaining why he'd had to
name names and betray people,

even though he knew what
he was saying wasn't true.

And it was the standard
array of medieval tortures:

thumbscrews, the boots, and the strappado,

which mostly rely not only on pain,

but on creating
disfigurement and disability.

- Neither age nor rank proved
a defense against accusation.

Among those executed were
the mayor and his wife.

Georg Haan, a prominent
doctor in the town,

opposed the trials,

but that only made him
a target for the Bishop.

(dramatic music)

Haan, his wife, his son, and two daughters

were all burned at the stake.

Witches have featured in
European mythology and folklore

for thousands of years,

but there were never confined

to the safe world of the story.

Many believed in sorcery

and blamed it for misfortune
in their everyday life.

(tense music)

- There's never been a society

that didn't have at least a
residual belief in witchcraft.

It's not a recent thing.

It doesn't suddenly bound into existence

in the 17th Century.

What happens though,
and this is important,

in the 15th, 16th, 17th Centuries,

people started trying to prosecute

everyone who they thought
was guilty of witchcraft.

And by the time of the Bamberg trials,

it was a serious matter
for the secular courts

with capital punishment to follow.

- [Narrator] The theological
and legal foundation

for witch trials was
found in a book published

in the late 15th Century,

"The Malleus Maleficarum"
or "Hammer of the Witches,"

defined witchcraft as
a pact with the Devil

and laid down ways to
combat this alleged evil.

The prosecution of
witches was not restricted

to Germany, however.

Similar trials took
place throughout Europe.

Both Protestant and Catholic
communities took part.

In a tiny village in Sweden,

more than 70 people were
beheaded in a single day.

Hundreds were killed in Scotland

and the Spanish Inquisition
accused thousands.

A moral panic was gripping Europe.

(tense music)

But what could drive whole
societies to such inhuman acts?

(dramatic music)

For hundreds of years in the Middle Ages,

Europe benefited from long
summers and mild winters.

Crops were plentiful and
the seas free of ice.

But this medieval warm
period did not last forever.

By the 16th Century,
Europe had become colder.

Rivers froze, snows
lingered long into spring,

and crops failed again and again.

- [Professor Saul] There
was widespread famine.

Months of rain ruined crops and

there were no charitable
agencies, of course,

to prevent people starving
in their villages.

- What people thought they knew

about the weather was constantly violated

and that upset them terribly

and made them feel that
something was causing all this.

People are very reluctant to believe

that nature is as changeable
as it actually is.

- If your harvest fails for one year,

but then another year
and then another year,

these things appear to be
against the course of nature.

Because they appear to
be unnatural, of course,

it's natural for the collective mind

to seek a supernatural reason for it.

It's that kind of collective thinking,

which surely would have
played a significant role

in the collective fury of the witch hunts.

(tense music)

- The Bamberg trials finally ended

after the Swedish intervention
in the 30 Years' War.

King Gustavus Adolphus invaded Germany

in defense of Protestantism.

In February of 1632, his
forces neared Bamberg.

The Bishop von Dornheim fled.

The remaining prisoners in
the witch-house were released.

They were told never to speak of

the torture inflicted upon them.

(dramatic music)

The trials in Bamberg
are a frightening example

of what can happen when
society turns on itself,

when it seeks out the saboteurs
and the enemies within,

when it embarks on a witch hunt.

(dramatic music)

In the 19th Century,
Britain was transformed.

A steam-powered revolution was underway.

Railways cut through the countryside,

chimneys pierced the sky.

The roar of metal toothed
machinery filled the air

and black smoke veiled the heavens.

The Industrial Revolution made
Britain a global superpower.

It reshaped the landscape of the country

and it altered the lives
of its people forever.

Although creating great wealth

and beginning to improve living standards

of even the poorest,

this new age of industry was also

disrupting established ways of life.

Old jobs were disappearing

and towns were swallowing up
people in their thousands.

- The cities were transformed
by factories and mills.

They became dark and dirty.

People started doing what
we would now think of

as a really long workday, actually.

They're typically were
roused by the factory siren.

So, at seven in the morning,

and didn't stagger home
again till six at night.

- When you get new communities,

you really have to
create myths and legends

that allow people to deal
with that environment

and allow people to identify
themself with that environment.

- [Professor Purkiss] Once
you've got people living

in new areas,

they're going to start
trying to make up stories

about where they are

and they're going to start
trying to incorporate

this nightmare landscape
of thick smoke and fog

and blackened buildings
and hungry children

into their mythology as
a way of coping with it.

- [Dr. Wood] There aren't the certainties

of the old small communities
where everybody knew everybody.

So the Industrial Revolution
was a great sort of upset

to old communities.

But it also created new communities.

And it's the transition between
the old and new communities

where you get a lot of
new legends and myths

starting to emerge.

(eerie music)

- The first rumors began circulating

in the autumn of 1837.

In the villages south of
London, a monstrous fiend

was on the loose.

Described as a great white bull or bear,

something had attacked several people

and women were its favorite target.

As the rumors spread closer
to the heart of the city,

the strange creature's form shifted.

It became more human and
all the more frightening.

It was an unearthly visitant,

clad in armor and long clawed gloves,

who struck at night

before escaping with great
leaps over the city rooftops.

(tense music)

By early 1838, authorities could no longer

ignore the phenomenon.

On the 8th of January, Sir John Cowan,

Lord Mayor of the city of London,

publicized a letter he'd received

from a resident of South London.

The letter warned of
the strange apparition

and the terror growing among the people.

The Lord Mayor, however, was dismissive.

These attacks were either made up

or the work of malicious pranksters.

The Times printed the mayor's
announcement the next day.

The monster made another
leap, this time into

the imaginations of
people around the country.

He soon had a name, as well:

Spring-heeled Jack.

- This is where you really see the media

beginning to take the legend
and feed back into the legend.

Terrible event in somewhere.

Great outrage in, I mean,
you know, the usual things.

But you also had a lot of chapbooks,

which are sort of little,
almost like little paperbacks,

little sort of paper books,

which were sold by peddlers
all over the country.

- It comes from the kind of literature

that usually gets characterized
as the penny dreadful,

which is a literature
deliberately produced for and

to some extent also by the ordinary kids

who were just about literate,
who loved a good story,

who loved to be scared.

- And the idea of something
or somebody jumping at you,

it's like a popcorn moment
in a horror film, basically.

And this is part of the thing
that appealed to people.

They liked to be scared.

(eerie music)

- Spring-heeled Jack was a
blend of the old and new.

He was a figure reminiscent
of ancient superstition,

yet was strikingly
modern in his appearance.

Whether the attacks
were real or fabricated

in many ways doesn't matter.

The fact that the
stories spread so quickly

and were believed by so many

reveals an anxiety at
work in Victorian society.

For, with his metal
claws and furnace mouth,

Spring-heeled Jack was
the dark personification

of this new industrial urban world,

a new demon hidden among the
anonymous masses of the city.

(tense music)

- [Professor Purkiss] It
must've seemed to people

that they were living in Hell.

At night, you could see the
fires from the potteries

for miles and miles and
the smoke belching out.

Why would you not think
that this was part of

a kind of modern demonology?

- This notion of a character

who can jump quickly,
looks like the Devil,

sometimes he's skeletal,
sometimes he's got fiery eyes,

but he also begins to take on
characters of a Gothic hero

in that he can be dressed as a gentleman

and he has a long cloak.

So you can see this figure being created

about all of the
fascinations and anxieties

of the Victorian world.

- [Professor Purkiss] I
suspect Spring-heeled Jack

struck people as a kind of emanation

of the Industrial Revolution itself.

The darkness, the terrible smog and fog

that overtook the country.

The fact that even the trees turned black.

(tense music)

- [Dr. Wood] He is the
perfect urban legend

for the Victorian era.

He's a criminal, he's supernatural.

You never know when he's going to appear.

He attacks the vulnerable.

But of course, if you read
about him in a chapbook

or a newspaper or see him on stage,

somehow you are safe.

(tense music)

(page rustles)

- Three days of jousting were announced

to celebrate the nuptials
of Princess Lillian.

The crowd roared as the joust began.

But sitting in the royal box
beside her husband-to-be,

Lillian could not muster even a smile.

Across the tourney field,
the miserable Roswall

paid little heed to the spectacle either.

When the jousting came to an end,

the victors paraded down the ground.

The custom was for them to
stop and bow at the royal box.

But not this day.

Instead, the three knights
ignored the imposter prince

and rode on toward the
other side of the ground.

There, among the common
people, they found Roswall.

It was to him they bowed.

Roswall was stunned until the
knights removed their helmets.

They were the nobleman he had freed

from his father's dungeon.

They denounced the
imposter in the royal box

and proclaimed Roswall the true prince.

"Arrest them," the steward cried.

But nobody moved.

"Arrest them!"

The more he shouted, the
less princely he looked.

Instead of the royal bride he'd hoped for,

the steward received a traitor's death.

His head was left to rot
above the city gates.

Reclaiming his royal title,
Roswall married Lillian.

The happy kingdom they inherited
lived in peace and justice

all the rest of their days.

With roots in earlier folklore,

the story of Roswall was a popular one

in 16th Century England and Scotland.

It was a tale of social order uprooted

and then restored,

an attractive proposition for many

in what was a time of religious upheaval

and national uncertainty.

For change is often frightening,

too much can tear society apart,

but too little and society withers.

In times of change,

stories can be a comfort to cling to,

or a tool to probe with.

They can be a reminder of shared history

or a vision of a possible future.

The best of them have lingered
in our memory for centuries.

The tensions in society
reflected by those tales have not

disappeared completely, however.

We remain a jumble of contradictions
just about muddling by.

But as was ever the case it
is in the stories we cherish,

in the legends we believe,

and in the myths we retell

that those contradictions are debated

and our values are tested.

(dramatic music)