Original subtitles

[shouts]

>> NARRATOR: A mighty people

worshipping powerful gods.

>> JONATHAN YOUNG: Thor's hammer

was enormously powerful.

It had great accuracy.

It could smash mountains.

>> NARRATOR: A celestial bridge

linking mankind to a divine

realm.

>> DAVID CHILDRESS: Was it

possible that this rainbow

bridge was some kind of wormhole

that would take people literally

to another planet?

>> NARRATOR: And epic journeys

to the far ends of the planet.

>> PHILIP COPPENS: Very few

people would have set sail

across the Atlantic not knowing

that there was something on the

other side.

>> NARRATOR: How were the.

Vikings able to develop such an

advanced civilization?

Were their achievements

technology and exploration their

own?

Or did they receive otherworldly

help?

>> GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Our

ancestors thought they were

visited by gods, when in reality

they were visited by none other

than ancient aliens.

Physical beings.

>> NARRATOR: Millions of people

around the world believe we have

been visited in the past by

extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really help

to shape our history?

If so, might there be evidence

in the history and mythology of

the Vikings?

The Vikings? ♪

♪

[drums beating]

[shouting]

>> NARRATOR: Barbarians.

Marauders.

Bloodthirsty bandits...

whose reputation for brutality

would follow them through the

centuries.

>> TIM TANGHERLINI: When people

think of the Norse or the.

Vikings, they think of crazed

marauders jumping in boats,

where they rape, pillage and

plunder.

And it's, uh, an unfortunate

image because it's

one-dimensional.

A lot of these expeditions that

they went on were not purely,

uh, expeditionary or pirate

raids.

A lot of these were efforts to

open trade routes.

If we got back to the eighth

century, ninth century,

we find that a lot of the Norse

societies were well-functioning.

They had well-established

agricultural economies, and th

agricultural economies, and th had a culture of technology.

Had a culture of technology.

>> NARRATOR: The Vikings, or.

Norse people, flourished from

the late eighth century to the

11th century in what is today

Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

But unlike other ancient

civilizations, like Greece,

Rome or Egypt, relatively little

is known about this mysterious

people, as few written records

or hieroglyphs have survived.

>> KIRSTEN WOLF: People

typically don't think of the.

Norse as particularly

sophisticated, but they were

enormously sophisticated in

terms of technology.

Ship building, bridge building,

fortress building.

And I'm thinking here primarily

of the circular fortresses in

Denmark.

They are absolutely circular.

They consist of ramparts with an

external ditch, gateways at each

external ditch, gateways at each of the compass points.

Of the compass points.

>> NARRATOR: Although their

civilization was divided among

numerous kingdoms, the Norse.

Vikings were united in their

belief in the power of the

individual.

>> YOUNG: They had a kind of

early assembly that was very

advanced for its time before the

other areas of Europe had any

kind of democracy.

So they actually came up with

the idea that power belonged to

the people, not the royalty.

>> SCOTT A. MELLOR: They had

something of a proto-democracy,

and people would come from that

particular region in order to

argue issues of law or other

kinds of cultural issues of

political significance at that

time.

>> NARRATOR: But perhaps most

incredible to historians was

how far the Vikings traveled

from their Scandinavian

homeland.

Hundreds of years before their

European counterparts, the.

Vikings set out from.

Scandinavia to explore and

conquer vast territories in

Europe and even the Middle East.

>> MELLOR: They were the ones

that invented ships, and they

were the ones that traveled

about much more extensively than

the other German tribes further

south.

>> WOLF: The Norse criss-crossed

half the world in their

longships.

In the east, they sailed down

the rivers of Russia to the.

Black and the Caspian Sea.

In the west, they sailed down

the coast of Europe, through the.

Strait of Gibraltar into the.

Mediterranean.

They reached out across the

then-unknown Atlantic ocean.

They went almost everywhere

there was to go.

>> NARRATOR: According to

archeologists, artifacts

discovered in Newfoundland,

Canada during the 1960s proved

that the Vikings were the first

Euros to set foot in North.

America... 500 years before

Christopher Columbus.

Christopher Columbus. ♪

♪

>> ROBERT SCHOCH: I remember a

time when it was very

contentious about the Norse

getting to America when I was

young.

This was a major, major

argument.

Now, we have found their

settlements there from about

1,000 A.D., so it's very, very

clear that they made it to

clear that they made it to northern North America.

Northern North America.

>> WOLF: The main advantage of

the Norse was their excellence

in ship-building.

And, indeed, the ship has become

the symbol of the Viking age.

Those who have sailed replicas

of Viking ships have commented

on just how incredibly seaworthy

and fast these ships were.

>> MELLOR: It's their ship that

allowed them to travel over

these long distances.

They were the ones, uh, that

really sort of perfected the

keel, which meant that the ship

wouldn't flip over when going

across the Atlantic.

>> YOUNG: The development of the

longship was an incredible

innovation.

These were very sleek, very

supple craft that could be

equally effective on rivers and

in the high seas.

They were very light and

extremely strong craft that was

also slightly flexible, so in a

high seas or storm or something,

it could survive.

>> JASON MARTELL: They had a

very solid understanding of

hydrodynamics.

In some of the ships, we also

found advanced signs of

metallurgy, smelting and

different types of alloys that

they were using.

And this is all out of context

from other cultures they seemed

to be interacting with.

>> NARRATOR: But many

researchers remain baffled at

how the Vikings became so

socially, politically and

technologically advanced,

especially while living in the

cold, harsh environment of the

north.

>> WILLIAM HENRY: When we look

at ancient cultures such as the

Maya and Egyptians, they never

wandered very far from their

homeland.

Even the Greeks stayed close.

But the Vikings, they were

everywhere.

And you wonder, were they just

extremely curious people?

What motivated them to go to

these extraordinary lengths to

explore the world?

What was it that they were

looking for?

>> NARRATOR: Just how were the.

Norse Vikings able to manage

such technological and

geographical feats?

Are their fortresses and

journeys to unknown continents

evidence that the Vikings had

access to extraterrestrial

knowledge?

Ancient astronaut theorists say

yes, and believe the proof can

be found by examining the

religious beliefs of this

religious beliefs of this mysterious people.

Mysterious people.

>> NARRATOR: Lindisfarne,

England.

793 A.D.

[men clamoring]

Several hundred Viking raiders

make landfall on this small

tidal island off the coast of.

Northumbria, to plunder a great

monastery of its rumored

treasures.

An account of the attack on.

Lindisfarne says the assault

coincided with extraordinary

whirlwinds...

lightning...

[thunder crashes]

...and fiery dragons

crisscrossing the skies.

Could these strange events be

coincidence?

Or could it be evidence that

otherworldly forces may have

been allied with the Vikings?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe the answer can be found

by examining the divine beings

that form the basis of Norse

that form the basis of Norse religion and mythology.

Religion and mythology.

>> KARL SEIGFRIED: The Norse

gods were worshipped over a very

wide range of time and space

throughout northern Europe, from

the continental German lands

through the British islands, the

far northern islands, such as

Iceland and Greenland, and all

throughout Scandinavia.

>> NARRATOR: Because little

information has survived related

to the origin of the Norse, or.

Viking, gods, modern scholars

depend on a pair of Icelandic

books written several hundred

years after the Viking Age

called the Eddas.

>> TANGHERLINI: And so we find

that there's the god Odin, the

god Frey, the god Thor.

Those are probably the best

known.

But there are a bunch of other

supporting gods who flesh out

this mythology.

The gods live in a world of

their own, but it's closely

connected to the world of men.

>> TSOUKALOS: The Norse had

some of the richest descriptions

and references to the cosmos.

In fact, they referred to the

cosmos as "Yggdrasil," meaning

the tree of life.

That was the symbol of their

idea of the cosmos.

And they were very specific in

stating that their cosmos

contained nine different worlds,

one of which is ours, the Earth.

>> TANGHERLINI: We often hear

about the Nine Worlds of the.

Nordic mythological realm.

There's Asgard... and that's the

home of the gods Thor and Odin.

There's the world of humans.

We call this Middle Earth, or.

Midgard.

If we go step a little bit

further outside of Asgard and.

Midgard, we confront Jotunheimr,

or the land of the giants.

We'll encounter Muspells, which

is an area of fire.

We'll encounter Niflheimr, which

is another world where the frost

ogres live.

We'll encounter Alfheimr, which.

We'll encounter Alfheimr, which is where the elves live.

Is where the elves live.

>> NARRATOR: According to the.

Eddas, Asgard was home to the

most powerful of the gods.

It is described as a beautiful

and peaceful realm, full of

glimmering halls and fertile

fields cut by shimmering rivers.

>> YOUNG: Odin is the chief of

the gods.

He lives in the highest of the

heavens, Asgard.

He had one eye.

He'd given up an eye to drink of

the water of truth.

So he has this depth of wisdom.

So he's a warrior god able to

bring fury and danger to the

enemies.

>> MELLOR: Odin was the god that

gave people written language in

the runes, he was the god that

gave them the poetic mead, he

was the god that gave them many

aspects of what would be

considered a sort of noble way

considered a sort of noble way of life.

Of life.

>> NARRATOR: But was Odin

perhaps something other than a

mythical deity?

Could he have actually existed?

And if so, how?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe clues to Odin's true

identity may lie in the myths

describing his two ravens...

Huginn and Muninn.

>> YOUNG: Odin's Ravens were

his scouts.

They were his research team.

Huginn and Muninn represent

thought and memory.

So Odin had these scouts, these

spy satellites that would go out

and see what he needed to learn

for today's activities.

>> TSOUKALOS: According to Norse

legends, every morning Odin sent

out his two magical ravens,

Huginn and Muninn, and at

night those ravens would return

and he would listen to them, and

they would tell him everything

that they observed throughout

that they observed throughout the entire day.

The entire day.

>> NARRATOR: Scholars believe.

Odin's two ravens... translated

as thought and memory... were

simply mythological creations.

But is it possible that Huginn

and Muninn were actually

something else?

Something perhaps more

technological?

>> CHILDRESS: Whenever he

wanted to observe other worlds,

find out what they were doing,

he would send these two ravens

out, and they would be like

spy drones or something, and

they would go to these other

countries and then come back to

Odin and report to him what was

going on.

And it would seem like what

Odin had was some kind of spy

planes or spy drones that he was

sending out much as we do today.

>> COPPENS: The question is

whether the Norse really stated

that these were ravens, or

whether they were instead

something else, that they were

somehow flying objects.

So we have details here of

something mythical, of rs

being able to speak to the gods,

or the ravens are some kind of

spy drone or some other kind of

spy satellite technology by

which Odin is able

which Odin is able to get information.

To get information.

>> NARRATOR: Could it be that

Odin was actually an

extraterrestrial explorer?

One who sent flying machines...

Like modern-day drones... to

gather intelligence on the

ancient Scandinavians?

And if so, might there be more

evidence of Odin's otherworldly

technology contained within

other Viking myths?

>> TANGHERLINI: When Odin sits

in Asgard, it's almost like he's

got total situational awareness.

He's got these ravens who fly

out every day and come back and

tell him the news of the world.

But he can also sit in this high

seat.

>> SEIGFRIED: Odin's high seat,

which is a name that basically

translates as the "watchtower,"

is a place where he can sit

and look out over all the worlds

of creation and see everything

that's happening in the world.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible that

this high seat, or watchtower,

is yet another example of

advanced extraterrestrial

technology, as ancient astronaut

theorists suggest?

>> MARTELL: Some of these

stories that come out of our

past of the god Odin, and having

the ability to actually sit

above Midgard, or the Earth, and

see everything from a vast

distance, we have to wonder if

this isn't actually mythological

but potentially technological.

It sounds to me as if Odin was

sitting in some type of a

captain's chair in a spaceship

above the Earth, which allowed

him to have this view.

>> TSOUKALOS: So the moment we

have stories of gods needing all

this type of equipment in order

to find out first what is going

on leads me to think that we are

not talking about actual gods,

but we are talking about

space travelers who had access

to technology, and our ancestors

witnessed all of this and they

said, well, obviously these guys

said, well, obviously these guys are gods.

Are gods.

>> NARRATOR: Was Odin's high

seat actually referring to an

orbiting spaceship from which

the chief god could look down on.

Earth, as some ancient astronaut

theorists suggest?

And if so, might this also help

explain the incredible

technologies attributed to other

so-called Viking gods?

[thunder crashes]

As the god of thunder and

lightning...

[thunder crashes]

...Thor was able to summon

storms and battle giants with

his magical hammer.

>> YOUNG: Thor is the son

of Odin.

He is a sky god.

He is in charge of thunder and

lightning.

He has a great hammer.

He is... he's a terrifying

presence, a power god.

Thor was usually seen flying

through the skies in a great

cart pulled by goats.

>> MELLOR: If Odin was the chief

god, Thor was the god

for all of us.

Thor, in a sense, is the

quintessential sky god.

Our word thunder comes from

Thor.

[thunder crackling]

In Swedish, the word for thunder

evokes the idea of driving.

Thor's chariots over the vault

of heaven, and you can sort of

see the crashing and the burning

of that chariot going across

heaven as being the lightning

and the thunder that we

experience in a storm.

>> TANGHERLINI: He's a

remarkable character.

He's very strong, uh, and he's

a protector.

He goes out, and he basically

beats up and kills giants.

[crashing]

Not only to protect the gods,

but as an offshoot, kind of

collateral damage, he

protects us humans, as well.

>> NARRATOR: According to Norse

mythology, Thor derived his

power from several seemingly

magical tools.

One was Menginjoro... a belt that

is said to have magically

doubled Thor's already awesome

strength.

>> TSOUKALOS: It was called.

Thor's power belt.

So the moment I hear stories

about that you put on a belt,

and it doubled your strength?

Then I have to ask myself, well,

is it possible that what we're

talking about here is some type

of a technological device?

>> COPPENS: Today, we have

actually come to the point

whereby these prosthetics are

actually able to listen to brain

commands.

So what we've actually done is

recreate some kind of

exoskeleton, an exterior, an

artificial nervous system,

whereby our brain gives commands

to our limbs.

All of this through technology.

>> MARTELL: Thor's belt of

strength seems to have a very

similar description to modern

technology where we would call

it a bionic exoskeleton.

The ability for a soldier to put

on a device that would increase

their speed and their strength

is possible today.

So when we look at this

in this belt, it's verytrength

possible, this is some type of

an extraterrestrial technology.

>> HENRY: When the ancients are

describing technology, it's

clear that they couldn't have

known exactly what this was, and

it opens the question, is it

possible that what we today

would interpret as bionic

exoskeletons was an actual

advanced technology possessed

by the Vikings or their gods.

>> NARRATOR: Is it really

possible that the Viking gods

Odin and Thor were, in fact,

extraterrestrial visitors?

Alien beings who possessed

advanced technology?

If so, where might this advanced

species have come from?

How did they get here?

And what was their agenda?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe the answers may be found

in the stories of the other,

lesser known, Viking gods.

And in Nordic legends that tell

of cosmic bridges linking planet

of cosmic bridges linking planet Earth to an otherworldly realm.

Earth to an otherworldly realm.

>> NARRATOR: Gamla Uppsala,

Sweden.

This small town, 40 miles north

of Stockholm, is one of the

oldest, continuously-inhabited

sites in Scandinavia.

Beneath this church,

archaeologists have found what

they believe are the remains of

a famous temple called Ubsola.

According to a fourteenth

century text called The Deeds

of Bishops of the Hamburg.

Church, this ornate temple was

built to honor the most powerful.

Viking gods... Odin, Thor and.

Freyr.

>> SEIGFRIED: Freyr is the

main fertility God in Norse

mythology.

The rituals that we do have

evidence of connected to Freyr

seem always to be connected to

peace and prosperity.

So, all of these characteristics

show him in a relationship with

humans that's centered around

prosperity and fertility of

various types.

>> NARRATOR: Freyr was believed

to control the weather, and was

renowned for his diplomatic

skills... quieting the feuds

among the numerous Viking gods

and giants.

And in the Viking pantheon, it

was a deity named Loki who

provoked the most conflict among

these gods.

>> SEIGFRIED: Loki is actually

not a god.

He's a giant who is counted

amongst the gods.

And at the end of time, he

actually leads the dead and the

giants against the gods.

>> TANGHERLINI: He's that

transgressive character who

makes possible all of these

conflicts that the gods then

have to so.

Without Loki, a lot of the

conflicts disappear, and you

don't have a mythology at all.

>> NARRATOR: According to the

stories compiled within the

books of the Eddas, Loki tries

to atone for one of his many

acts of mischief by giving Freyr

a ship called Skidbladnir.

>> YOUNG: Freyr's ship,

Skidbladnir, was the most fine

craft that ever was in the

water.

It could go anywhere at great

speed, and then, if you needed

it to be small, you could put in

a small pouch to carry it

around.

>> TANGHERLINI: Skidbladniris

remarkable, because you can fold

it up and stick it in your

pocket.

But when you unfold it, it's one

of the greatest Viking ships

ever.

It always has a wind.

It always has a fair wind.

So you don't have to tack.

It always gets you where you're

going in a hurry.

And then, once you get it to

shore, you don't have to worry

about where you're going to stow

it.

To be able to fold up your boat

and put it in your pocket really

has to be about the greatest

thing that you can imagine if

you're a Viking shipbuilder.

>> NARRATOR: But could it be

that Skidbladnirwas not the

product of mythic imagination,

but was, in fact, an actual

spacecraft?

One that was witnessed by early.

Scandinavians?

Ancient astronaut theorists say

yes, and believe the proof lies

in the legends of a race of

beings who are believed to have

built the magical tools used by

the gods.

>> CHILDRESS: In Norse

mythology, the Sons of Ivaldi

were these dwarves who made

these special weapons for Thor

and Odin and the other Norse

gods.

And so, here were these dwarves,

these gnomes, these small

people.

They're making these special,

very high-tech weapons.

The Norse gods are using them.

So you have toder just who

these mini people are.

>> YOUNG: The Sons of Ivaldi

were the master craftsmen of the

gods in the Norse system.

And they made each of these

special things that are going to

be needed by these heroic gods

to do their deeds.

>> NARRATOR: Might the Sons of.

Ivaldi actually be the engineers

behind the building of.

Skidbladnir, the magical ship

used by the Norse god Freyr?

If so, who, or what were they?

>> COPPENS: Now the question is,

whether the Sons of Ivaldi are

real dwarves, the way we know

dwarves today, or whether they

are somehow more mythical, or

whether the label "dwarf"

actually stuck to them because

they were somehow smaller.

And of course, today, we quite

often describe the Grey alien

archetype as dwarfish, as well,

simply because they are smaller.

>> CHILDRESS: Is it possible

that these little people who are

making these high-tech weapons

were really Grey aliens,

because they didn't known how to

describe them, they were...

called them dwarves or little

people?

And these little people are the

ones who are making these

high-tech weapons for these.

Norse gods.

It would seem that these weapons

are extraterrestrial in nature.

>> NOORY: Now when you think of

dwarfs, and think of

extraterrestrials, you think of

little Greys, and I think the

dwarfs might have been alien.

Greys.

>> NARRATOR: Might the

dwarflike Sons of Ivaldi

described in the Viking

mythologies really be the

alien visitors we know today as

the Greys?

And is it possible that the.

Viking or Norse gods themselves

were in fact entities from

another planet?

Another planet? If so, how did they get here?

If so, how did they get here?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, the answer lies in a.

Viking legend that speaks of a

rainbow bridge called Bifrost,

a portal that links the realm of

the gods with the world of men.

>> TANGHERLINI: Bifrost is a

bridge that connects Asgard to.

Midgard.

And the Bifrost conceptually is

very interesting.

It allows there to be a very

clear connection between humans

and their gods.

>> YOUNG: The gods would travel

along this rainbow bridge to

their meeting, which was by a

divine well.

The red in the rainbow bridge

was burning hot, so it was quite

a trick to use this effectively

as a place of transportation.

Some scholars have speculated

that possibly this was inspired

that possibly this was inspired by the Milky Way.

By the Milky Way.

>> CHILDRESS: So, here was this

rainbow bridge that-that could

be traveled upon to get to this

home of the gods, land of the

gods.

So, is it possible that this

rainbow bridge, the-the Bifrost,

was some kind of wormhole that

would take people from a

star gate on our planet to the

home of the gods, literally to

another planet?

>> MICHAEL DENNIN: Say you

wanted to get from here all the

way around to China.

It's actually longer to go

around the earth than to cut

through the earth. A straight line is always the

shortest path.

So, you can imagine if you could

make a wormhole, a cut through

space that connects the two

points you want to get to, you

could make the distance

effectively shorter and get

there in a faster time.

>> MARTELL: Ancient man would

not understand a technological

description to describe a

wormhole, but this path of light

sounds very similar.

>> NARRATOR: Might the mythical

bridge of Bifrost really have

been an interstellar wormhole?

A cosmic tunnel in space through

which the so-called Viking gods

could travel to Earth?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe further evidence can be

found by a closer examination of

the Viking gods' incredible

the Viking gods' incredible weaponry.

Weaponry.

>> NARRATOR: Balingsta, Sweden.

Just outside this small town

located 40 miles northwest of

Stockholm is an ancient carved

granite block.

Known as the Boksta Runestone,

it is one of the few remaining

relics that depict the mighty

god Odin holding his magical

spear:

Gungnir.

>> HENRY: The Boksta Runestone

is an extraordinary ancient

relic that has runic

inscriptions which were used by

the Vikings.

It shows Odin riding on

horseback with a spear.

>> TANGHERLINI: So, one of the

things we find with the Norse

gods is they each have

remarkable possessions, and

among those is a spear that Odin

claims for himself called

Gungnir.

And Gungnir is a remarkable

spear in that, whatever you

throw it at, it's going to hit.

>> NARRATOR: According to.

Viking, or Norse, mythology,

Odin's spear was made by the.

Sons of Ivaldi, the very same

creatures who built the ship.

Skidbladnir.

They imbued the spear with

special properties that not only

made it incredibly accurate, but

gave it immense power.

>> CHILDRESS: Gungnir was some

kind of high-tech weapon.

No matter who he threw it at, it

would hit it.

Like some laser-guided cruise

missile or something like that,

that just simply could not miss

its mark once it had been set

to its target.

>> COPPENS: And we know that

when he uses this in war, it

always reaches its target.

This is not something which is

simplistic.

This is something which clearly

is advanced weaponry.

And to find that a deity has

this at his disposal can be read

in two things: One, it is all

made up; Or two, it is actually

factual.

And today, we know that there.

And today, we know that there are such weapons.

Are such weapons.

>> NARRATOR: Precision

weapons, like laser-guided

bombs, cruise missiles and

satellite-guided munitions are

staples in the world's most

sophisticated military arsenals.

Is it possible that Odin

possessed similar technology?

Could Gungnir actually have been

a guided missile created by

otherworldly beings?

>> HENRY: When the ancients are

describing technology, i-it's

clear that they couldn't have

known exactly what this was.

And it opens the question, is

it possible that the weapon

Gungnir was an actual advanced

technology, maybe even possessed

by the Vikings or their gods?

>> NARRATOR: If Gungnir was in

fact acision guided missile

similar to today's so-called

smart bombs, then what might be

the facts behind Thor's mighty

hammer, Mjolnir?

>> YOUNG: Thor's hammer had

interesting origins.

It was made by dwarves under

duress.

So, the handle qui... wasn't

quite as long as a hammer might

be.

But it was enormously powerful

and it had great accuracy.

He could throw it and it would

hit anything that he intended it

to hit, and then it would come

back to him, almost in boomerang

style.

>> CHILDRESS: What Thor's

hammer, like the weapons of many

of the Norse gods, would seem to

be some high-tech real weapon,

perhaps one given to them by

extraterrestrials.

>> COPPENS: And when he uses it,

it is actually said that this

weapon is able to crush

weapon is able to crush mountains.

Mountains.

Now, imagine a weapon which is

able to destroy an entire

mountain.

The hammer does not cause

explosions; It is really the

physical force which destroys

the object.

That is something which today we

describe as a kinetic weapon.

[whirring]

>> NARRATOR: At the NASA Ames.

Research Center in Mountain.

View, California...

>> MAN: ...locked.

>> NARRATOR: ...scientist Peter

Schultz is studying the enormous

power of kinetic energy using a

device called a vertical gun.

[clank]

>> PETER H. SCHULTZ: This is a

giant cannon, essentially.

Then it goes up on a corkscrew

so we can hit things at

different angles.

This gun gets up to very high

speeds, and if you get really up

there, you'll start melting and

vaporizing material.

In a sense, this isa kinetic

weapon, except we're not

pointing at anything except the

target inside the tank.

>> NARRATOR: To study the

effects of high-speed kinetic

impacts, scientists use the

vertical gun range to fire

projectiles into objects placed

in this reinforcedel chamber

at speeds of up to 15,000 miles

per hour.

>> SCHULTZ: Today, we're gonna

take this small ball bearing,

which is about 1/100 of an

ounce, and we're gonna fire it

at three miles per second.

That's almost 11,000 miles per

hour.

And we're gonna send it into

this block.

Now, when you go that fast, with

even an object that small,

that's kinetic energy.

And kinetic energy is the mass

times the velocity squared.

So if you're going fast enough,

you could do some serious

damage.

Let's see what we do.

>> NARRATOR: Using a battery of

high-speed cameras, some

capturing images at 40,000

frames per second, Schultz

investigates how speed and mass

can combine to create

devastating force.

[man speaks indistinctly]

[alarm buzzing]

>> MAN: ...5.53 kilometers.

>> MAN: ...5.53 kilometers. Rolling.

Rolling.

>> NARRATOR: Moving 15 times the

speed of sound, the prtile

slams into the solid stone

block.

>> SCHULTZ: Oh, my gosh!

Look at this thing.

Look at this thing. Blasted to smithereens.

Blasted to smithereens.

>> NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut

theorists believe the

destructive power of this gun

displays uncanny similarities to.

Thor's hammer.

>> TSOUKALOS: The question we

have to ask ourselves is whether

the whole concept of kinetic

energy weapons is something new

or if it already existed in the

ancient past.

And with Thor, we have such a

reference.

What if Thor's hammer was some

type of a kinetic energy weapon

and what we have here in modern

times is nothing else but

history repeating itself?

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible that

what the ancient Vikings

described in their myths were

in fact alien technologies?

And do the various accounts of.

Odin's spear and Thor's hammer

really help to prove that.

Vikings were in contact with

extraterrestrial beings?

If so, then where might these

beings have gone?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe the answers may lie in

the strange and sometimes

violent burial rituals of the

violent burial rituals of the Vikings.

Vikings.

>> NARRATOR: Tonsberg, Norway.

50 miles south of Oslo lie the

ruins of Oseberghaugen, a Viking

burial mound.

During excavations in 1904,

archaeologists unearthed the

remains of two people buried

inside a Viking longship.

Dated to the early ninth

century, the discovery revealed

for the first time some of the.

Vikings' ancient burial rituals.

>> MARTELL: What's very

interesting about the Oseberg

ship is the fact that the.

Vikings actually chose to bury

their dead in these boats.

Now, this seems very similar to

some type of a conveyance,

possibly going into space.

You see similar references in

other cultures, such as the

Egyptians and even the Chinese.

>> NARRATOR: Throughout.

Scandinavia, the British Isles

and Iceland are similar Viking

burial sites, many containing

boats and other ship-like

markers.

Is it possible the Vikings,

like the ancient Egyptians and

Chinese, buried their dead in

boats in an effort to help their

deceased on their journey to the

afterlife?

And if so, why?

According to ancient Norse

mythologies, slain Viking

warriors joined Odin in his

fabled hall, Valhalla.

>> SEIGFRIED: Odin's hall in.

Asgard, the realm of the gods,

is known as Valhalla, which

literally means "the hall of the

slain."

The way that Valhalla itself is

described is that it's a place

where the dead warriors that

Odin has gathered from the

battlefields spend all day

fighting each other and killing

each other and then are brought

back to life to spend the night

in feasting on an endless supply

of meat and pork.

>> YOUNG: The courage of the.

Norse explorers and warriors was

directly related to the

structure of their fables.

Valhalla was this great reward.

If you served well with great

bravery, you found eternal life

in the company of kindred

spirits in a great banquet hall.

>> NARRATOR: Stories and legends

about Odin's enormous palace

describe it as being almost

metallic, with shimmering walls

and a golden roof.

>> TANGHERLINI: During the day

they drink and they eat along

these long tables and with

fires down the center of the

hall.

And then after they've eaten,

they clear the tables and they

all battle.

So this must be tens of

thousands, if not hundreds of

thousands... the imagination

boggles at how big this hall

must be.

>> NARRATOR: But is there

evidence that Valhalla was more

than just a mythic place?

Could it have been an

extraterrestrial spacecraft, as

some ancient astronaut theorists

believe?

>> TSOUKALOS: Valhalla was not a

figment of our ancestors'

imagination, but it might have

been some type of an orbiting

space station.

The reason why I'm saying this

is because whenever we have a

description of Valhalla, it is

an incredible description of

place that has weird attributes.

>> MARTELL: Various descriptions

of Valhalla give it the

reference of being some type of

a large metallic ship, but they

actually bury their dead in the

ships as well.

So is this some type of

reference of them actually

trying to replicate sending

their dead to the heavens or

just like their gods would be

returning to the heavens in some

type of a large metallic ship?

>> NARRATOR: Archaeological

evidence as well as contemporary

accounts also indicate, that in

addition to burying their dead

in boats, the Norse Vikings

also sent many of these burial

boats out to sea and burned

them.

But why?

Was it simply a fiery tribute,

one meant to honor the deceased?

Or did the ancient Vikings

simply replicate something their

ancestors had once witnessed...

Perhaps the launch of an alien

spacecraft?

>> TSOUKALOS: So my question is

whether or not our ancestors

witnessed rockets or spaceships

taking off and landing with all

of this fire and this smoke and

the earth trembling, that they

over time thought that by

burning their dead they would

imitate what they saw in the

past.

>> NARRATOR: Were the Norse.

Vikings really in contact with

extraterrestrial beings?

And were these beings thought of

by the early Vikings not as

alien visitors but as gods?

If so, then where might these

celestial visitors have gone?

>> COPPENS: What we know is that

in the tenth century, the Norse

begin a really extensive

exploration of Europe.

We don't know why they begin to

explore.

It is also clear that we don't

know whether they were helped by

other beings.

In fact, there is another theory

which suggests that they were

going to go in search of the

deities.

It suggests that the Vikings

were absolutely convinced that

the residence of the deities was

physical, somewhere on planet.

Earth.

>> NARRATOR: Did the Norse gods

return to their homeland,

prompting the Vikings to travel

the Earth in search of them?

Or did the so-called gods simply

inspire their earthly hosts to

explore the planet in an effort

to spread their extraterrestrial

influence to other parts of the

globe?

>> TSOUKALOS: All this knowledge

of the universe according to the.

Norse mythologies was given to

them by the shining ones.

And the shining ones were said

to have descended from nowhere

else but the sky.

So is it possible that

extraterrestrials in fact guided

events in our human history?

And the answer of course is yes.

Because we can find stories like

this all around the world.

It was very deliberate in order

to direct our history.

>> NARRATOR: Thor's destructive

hammer, Odin's all-seeing

throne and a mystical bridge

linking Earth to the heavens.

Are the legends of the Viking

gods really evidence that alien

beings visited mankind in the

distant past?

And if so, might these beings

have been instrumental in the

efforts of the Norse to explore

the globe?

Perhaps we will find the answer

deep in a Viking burial mound

or carved on the surface of an

ancient stone.

Or possibly the truth will be

revealed to all mankind on the

day when they return.

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