All language subtitles for Clash of the Gods - S01E08 - Beowulf

He is the mythical
hero of the Norse world.

Locked in an epic battle
of Man against Monster.

Destined to confront not one,
but three terrifying beasts

in a quest for undying glory.

This is the legend of Beowulf.

But could it be more than just legend?

Prepare to experience the oldest
story in the English language

in an entirely new way.

This is the strange truth
behind the fiction...

of Beowulf.

The stench of death permeates
Denmark's royal hall.

Headless bodies.

Bloody entrails.

A savage beast is on the rampage.

He is Grendel.

A monstrous outcast
banished from society

whose rage has turned to violence.

I always compare Grendel to Predator,

you know, sort of hulking and dark
and threatening.

Night after night, the monster's
vicious reign of terror continues.

He's killing warriors.

He's tearing them apart limb from limb.

He's decapitating them.

There are body parts
all over the place.

Denmark desperately needs a hero,

someone strong enough to
face off with the monster,

someone who can take him down.

That hero is Beowulf.

Beowulf is the biggest
possible hero you could imagine.

He can do anything.

He's not afraid to lose his life.

This is exactly what a hero
in his culture has to be like,

willing to lay down his
life for honour, for glory.

Beowulf is no ordinary human being.

He really is a heroic figure.

Like the heroes in Greek mythology,

his powers definitely exceed
those of an ordinary man.

In a dark age when terror was
everywhere and heroes were few,

the myth of Beowulf resonated as the
ultimate clash between good and evil.

Between a valiant warrior and
a myriad of monstrous enemies.

The legend of Beowulf is a
fictional story inspired by fact.

Today experts are still
unsure who created it,

but it's believed to
have originated in England

in the seventh or eighth century AD,

making it the oldest story
in the English language.

The action of the poem takes place
in the sixth century in Scandinavia,

but the poem itself was
written in Anglo-Saxon England

after the conversion of
the Anglo-Saxons in 665.

Christianity had recently
taken root in England

at the time of the writing of Beowulf.

The poem reflects a society
that has a deep pagan background

and that has stories that
come from its pagan past.

What the poem does is, it recasts
these stories in a Christian mold

so that its listeners would be
able to keep touch with their past.

They would reinterpret
it in a Christian way.

In the myth, Beowulf's first
nemesis, the monster Grendel,

has an intriguing link
to the Christian Bible.

The text says that he is
descended from the line of Cain.

According to the Old Testament,
Cain, son of Adam,

was mankind's first murderer.

He slayed his brother
Abel out of jealousy

and came to symbolize
the worst of human passions.

Grendel inherits that vile legacy.

Grendel resents and is
jealous of the humans

who are feasting in the meet halls.

All of the men in the great
hall are having a good time,

and they're telling stories,
and they're all together and united,

and he seems to envy that.

He seems that he'll never be
part of that kind of thing,

and his reaction to that
is to attack and destroy.

In the ancient text, Grendel's physical
appearance is left to the imagination.

The only clue is the phrase,

"... a fiend out of hell".

Grendel is described as
a demon of the dark, if you like.

Wherever he moves,
darkness surrounds him.

In the myth, the monster holds
Denmark under siege for 12 years.

He kills 30 people at a time.

You can't see him coming.

He's bloodthirsty and
likes to crunch on bones.

After he decimates the king's warriors,

Grendel turns his rage
on innocent civilians.

But there is one person he cannot harm,

the Danish king Hrothgar.

Like many real kings of the dark ages,

he is thought to have
the power of god on his side.

Strangely enough, Grendel
doesn't attack King Hrothgar.

The King is seated on a throne
that's protected by god himself,

and so Grendel has to keep his distance.

All of Hrothgar's
warriors have failed him.

But in the nearby kingdom of Geatland,

there is one who will
stand above all others.

Beowulf comes from Scandinavia.

He is a warrior descended
from great warriors,

and he is a man who has
a reputation for his strength,

his courage, and his ambition.

He wants to make
a great name for himself.

At the outset of the poem,
Beowulf is a well-known warrior.

He's a leader of what
seems to be a war band

or a group of men who travel together.

He's not really a mercenary, per se.

It's not as if he is looking for pay.

It's merely along the lines of
him looking for a good fight.

Beowulf is primarily seeking glory,
what the old English called "lof".

It's this kind of glory that
attends a person of high honour

who's lived up to his obligations
under the honour code at the time.

It's the kind of glory and
status that noblemen of his time

aimed for that really
motivates Beowulf.

Beowulf knows there is one way
to achieve everlasting distinction,

to do what no man before him has done.

He must slay Grendel.

Night falls.

The hall comes alive with
the sounds of celebration.

But this time, it is a trick
designed by Beowulf

to lure Grendel from his lair.

He's not going to wait for an attack.

He's going to make sure
that an attack will happen,

and he uses, actually,
surprisingly, the scientific method.

He recreates the circumstances
of the first attack,

and there is singing,
and there is merriment,

and Grendel, sure enough, hears this,
and he comes to get his meat.

The beast is thirsty for blood.

But Beowulf is ready.

In the dead of night,
as the party dies down,

the hero lies in wait.

He will either kill or be killed.

Finally, Grendel makes his move.

Beowulf and his warriors
brace for attack.

All the warriors pull out their swords,

and they start to try and
hack and hew at Grendel.

But Grendel is impervious.

No sword can harm Grendel,
no metal weapon of any kind.

Grendel has put a curse
on all such weapons,

preventing them from affecting him.

He grabs one of Beowulf's warriors,

and he rips him in half,
drinks down his blood,

throws the body down,
and then goes for Beowulf.

This is the myth, but what
is the link to reality?

90 miles north of London, England,
is a place called Sutton Hoo.

This area was once ruled by
powerful Anglo-Saxon kings.

In the 20th century, archaeologists
excavated the ancient burial mounds

and made a startling discovery.

Evidence of bodies mangled and
murdered in a very brutal way.

The died violently...

suddenly...

almost as if killed by a monster.

Many of them buried face down

or with the heads
lopped off, necks broken,

buried in all kinds of strange positions,
so they were buried in a shaming way.

It is shocking evidence of violence
in a once-prosperous kingdom

in the same era when the myth
is thought to have originated.

Experts theorize that these
victims were Anglo-Saxon criminals

sentenced to death for defying the king.

These seem to be criminals who were
executed and buried in this place,

which had apparently gone from being
a place of worship to a place of terror.

And the connection to
Beowulf simply could be

that these kinds of
violent public executions

were a way that a king could
maintain order within his kingdom.

Could these gruesome deaths
have inspired the story of carnage

in the court of King Hrothgar?

The hunt for clues
leads back to the myth.

The monster Grendel is terrorizing
the blood-soaked hall of the King.

No sword can pierce his skin,

but Beowulf refuses to give in.

He has one weapon left:
his bare hands.

It is a classic struggle
between David and Goliath,

monster versus man.

The future of Denmark's
people hangs in the balance,

and Beowulf is their
last line of defence.

It's mayhem in the Danish
court of King Hrothgar.

Beowulf and the monstrous giant
Grendel are locked in a death match.

Suddenly, our hero gains the advantage.

Beowulf grabs Grendel's arm,
and he twists it.

Beowulf, the world's strongest warrior,

pulls at the monster's
arm with all his might.

Grendel howls, and, you know,
his shoulder is dislocated,

and Beowulf twists it again and twists
it again and then pops it right off.

And the bone splits from the sinew.
It springs apart.

The muscle rips away.

Agonized cries flood the hall.

Grendel tears off into the night,
haemorrhaging blood.

There was Grendel, armless,
the life draining out of his arm,

heading back to his marshy home,
knowing he has very little time left.

Deep in the woods, the wounded
monster stumbles to the ground...

and draws his last breath.

Beowulf has slain the beast.

He holds high his prized trophy,
Grendel's bloody arm.

News of Grendel's death
spreads fast across the land,

and Beowulf is
celebrated as a superhero.

He has achieved the glory
and honour he set out to find.

But a grim reality soon sets in.

There are scores of
slain warriors to bury.

The Beowulf text describes how
the warriors were laid to rest.

The description matches
what is now known

about real funerals in
the ancient Norse world.

In a ship burial, the person
who is going to be buried

and his valuables, gold, silver,

will be put in the ship,

and the ship will be sent out
to sea, and it will be burned.

It was a wanton destruction
of valuable goods

in a society that was
not awash in goods,

but it's a sign just of
the seriousness of the loss

and the prestige and importance
of the person who's being buried.

Amazingly, evidence
of these ritual burials

the same ones described in Beowulf,

can be found not
underwater but underground.

Today there are hundreds of mysterious
mounds scattered across northern Europe.

Many are still waiting to be excavated.

At Sutton Hoo in England,

where archaeologists discovered
those mysterious mangled bodies,

the burial mounds have
yielded more stunning evidence

about the world of Beowulf.

In 1939, excavations
turned up a buried ship

dated to the time when the Beowulf myth
is believed to have been written.

The wood had completely decayed away,

but you could still see the shapes
of all the planks and the ribs

running at right angles across it.

It looked like a complete wooden ship.

But closer examination revealed
it was more than just a ship.

It was the tomb of an unknown ruler

teeming with buried treasures.

Sutton Hoo is the richest
grave from England and is, well,

the richest grave from the
Dark Ages from Northern Europe.

It's telling us about the
elite of Dark Age society.

The actual artifacts that
were dug out of Sutton Hoo

look like the things that
are described in Beowulf.

There are helmets with
boar crests on them.

There are swords with decorated,
twisted handles and so forth,

and so there seems to be
some kind of connection

between what's described in Beowulf
and what we've found in Sutton Hoo.

The Sutton Hoo excavation
proved, for the first time,

that the legend of Beowulf is more
than just a fictional thriller,

but it's not the only site yielding
evidence of the truth behind the myth.

In the Danish countryside,

archaeologists have
made an unusual discovery:

evidence of a real ancient hall.

The wooden superstructure
rotted away centuries ago,

but, based on the
location of its post holes,

it once stretched 150 feet long,

making it one of the largest
halls of its kind ever found.

Could this be the mythical
hall of King Hrothgar?

In the story of Beowulf, the scene of
Grendel's attack is called "Heorot",

which means "hall of the stag".

It is both a throne
room and a banquet hall

where the King's warriors
gather to celebrate victory.

Heorot is described as this great hall

which is comparable to
none other in the world.

It's a sign of civilization,
a sign of sophistication,

and becomes kind of a wonder
of the world of this culture.

The hall recently uncovered in Denmark

is in the same area its
ancient kings once called home.

Radio carbon testing dates the
site to the sixth century AD,

the same period when the myth
was said to have taken place,

but there's more.

Excavations in the area
around the ancient hall

have yielded precious artifacts

that could only have
belonged to a powerful king.

Some are for daily life -
knives, needles, and so on -

but there are also rather beautiful
jewelry made of gold and silver,

coins and so on that
give the impression

that this is a site
of some importance.

But who was the king behind this hall,

and could he be connected to the myth?

An intriguing clue can be
found in a series of stories

collectively called the legendary sagas.

They are fact-based accounts
about the Norse world

that were written
between 1100 and 1400 AD.

Many of the Norse sagas are
based on family histories,

and we find this very
engaging combination

of historical material and
mythological traditions.

The sagas tell of a
Danish king named Hrothgar

who lived around the
fifth or sixth century AD.

If Hrothgar was a real king, could
Beowulf have been a real hero?

Deep in the marshes, a mother
mourns the death of her son.

Her son is Grendel.

Her grief becomes rage.

This is the second of Beowulf's
three monstrous enemies.

He's defeated Grendel.

Now he must take on Grendel's mother.

She's quick, cunning,
and out for blood.

Grendel's mother is a very, very
enigmatic figure in the text.

She certainly seems more
bestial than Grendel.

Her emotions are more beast-like.

She's just bent on revenge.

Revenge for the death of her son,

whose severed arm has
become a trophy, a mockery.

Grendel's mother feels a mother's pain

when her son is killed by Beowulf.

So she enters into a feuding
frenzy to attack Heorot,

and she goes without much
regard for her own safety.

As the warriors sleep,

Grendel's mother enters the hall.

She pounces, killing
with brutal efficiency.

Terror grips the King's court again,

but Beowulf is not there to save it.

He is spending the night away from
Heorot, unaware of the unfolding terror.

With her hands stained by the
blood of Denmark's warriors,

Grendel's mother
vanishes into the night.

Beowulf is enraged when
he learns of the carnage.

Just days ago, he heroically saved
the warriors who now lay dead,

but the King is alive.

He sits protected on his
untouchable throne, despondent.

Hrothgar is humiliated by
the fact that so many of his men

have been killed by Grendel
and also now his mother,

and he is not able to be a shield,
and Beowulf says to him,

"It's better to act
than to sit in mourning. "

Once again, Beowulf knows
he must look death in the eye.

He has built his reputation
through heroic deeds.

Now he must maintain it.

With Hrothgar and his men by his side,

Beowulf will hunt down
Grendel's mother.

They follow the blood
trail along a winding path.

Grendel's mother and Grendel live
at the bottom of the haunted mere.

The mere is an icy lake swarming
with poisonous snakes and sea dragons.

The only way to get to Grendel's
mother is to go through them first.

To the early Christian
writers who recorded this myth,

these serpents represented something
equally threatening in the real world:

pagans.

The hunt for Grendel's
mother has led Beowulf

to an icy lake teeming
with venomous serpents.

To get to her,
he'll have to go through them.

This will be a decisive
battle in the fight for Denmark

between a warrior hero
and a wicked mother

who is descended from the Bible's
most infamous murderer, Cain.

Grendel's mother is
never named in the poem.

She just is Grendel's mother,

but she is a very fearsome
creature in her own right,

perhaps in some ways
even more dangerous,

because now that her
son has been killed,

she has the rage of a bereaved mother.

Before Beowulf plunges
beneath the ice,

his men give him a special sword.

Its iron blade is tempered in blood

and has never failed in battle before.

Beowulf's comrades cannot
bring themselves to go further.

The hero must brace for battle alone.

Under the surface, deadly
serpents lie in wait.

Beowulf tries to use
his sword against them.

But no human weapon can harm
these supernatural beasts.

He manages to break away

and find the entrance to
the lair of Grendel's mother.

For a second time,
man will confront monster.

Grendel's mother comes in,
and she attacks him.

He grabs her hair, grabs
her shoulder, throws her down,

and she's up in a shot, and she
snags him with her filthy claws,

and he tumbles back on the floor.

Beowulf is in grave danger,

and his sword again proves useless.

It's supposed to be very
powerful and very strong,

but it actually has no effect
on Grendel's mother at all.

It can't penetrate her scaly hide.

Suddenly, something
catches Beowulf's eye.

He sees on the wall or nearby
an ancient sword forged by giants,

which is not of mortal making.

It's really a magic weapon.

In one resolute arc,

he strikes Grendel's
mother and severs her head.

It is the death of a second evil,
dawn of a new hope.

Beowulf has proven his bravery again,

but this is more than
a mythical triumph.

It is a reflection of the changing world

in which the Norse
people framed the myth,

a world where paganism
had eroded and Christ had risen.

We might see the death of Grendel's
mother as a religious metaphor.

Just as Grendel's mother dies,

so paganism is dying
and Christianity is rising,

and just as Beowulf
frees Hrothgar's kingdom

from the threat of Grendel's mother,

so Christianity is bringing light to
the world of paganism that preceded it.

600 AD, The British Isles:

A religious revolution is under way.

Roman Christians have come north
to convert all nonbelievers.

In the late sixth century, Pope Gregory
sent Augustine to England

to convert these Anglo-Saxon pagans.

Augustine was told by Gregory,

"Go to the pagan temples that
the Anglo-Saxons already use

"and convert them to Christian use. "

Convert the kings so that the people
underneath the king will follow him.

The Anglo-Saxons were
ultimately converted,

but their pre-Christian legends lived
on in the stories they passed down,

including the legend of Beowulf.

Beowulf attempts to update and
bring into the Christian present

some of the old-fashioned
heroic values

of the early Norse era,

people who are brave in adversity,
people who are loyal to comrades.

When the Christians conquered,

they recast the myth of Beowulf
as a metaphor of good versus evil.

The story continues.

At the haunted lake of serpents,

Beowulf surfaces victorious.

He heads for the hall of King Hrothgar.

And arrives triumphant.

Beowulf's return
shocks the King's court.

He had been given up for dead.

Hrothgar hails him as the ultimate
hero and stages a great celebration.

Beowulf has achieved the glory and
honour he came to Denmark to find.

Now he is eager to return to his
own kingdom to the north, Geatland.

There more danger awaits.

In the story of Beowulf,
the Geats were not a mythical tribe.

They were real warriors from
the southern tip of Sweden

well-known to the writers of the myth.

The poem refers to the Geats,
and it refers to Swedes.

What we are looking at are
two different dynasties.

It is a deep-rooted split
that you see actually last

all the way to the end
of the Viking age.

This real-life rivalry between
the Geats and the Swedes

comes to a head in the
next chapter of Beowulf,

and it is up to Beowulf
to lead his people to victory

in one epic battle
on a giant lake of ice.

This is Lake Vanern.

It is the largest body
of water in Sweden,

covering some 2,200 square miles.

In harsh winters, it freezes over,

forming a land bridge between
two distant territories.

Today it is peaceful,

but 15 centuries ago,
according to the myth of Beowulf,

it was the setting of a bloody battle,

the Swedes against the Geats.

On his return to Geatland,
Beowulf discovers

that the Geats are embroiled
in the middle of a Swedish feud.

A civil war between members
of the Swedish royal family

has spilled over into
Beowulf's homeland.

The hero must confront
death once again,

but this time, not against
monsters but against his fellow man.

Beowulf's forces prevail,
and in return for his heroism,

he is granted the throne of Geatland.

His quest for glory is now complete.

It is a decisive moment in the myth,

but could this epic battle
have really happened?

According to old Norse sagas which are
thought to be based on real history,

a violent battle did occur

on a frozen lake
around the year 530 AD.

The battle of Lake Vanern is the decisive
battle between the Geats and the Swedes,

and it happens on the frozen water
of an enormous fresh water lake.

It's one of the first known giant
cavalry battles in the north,

and many, many warriors
are slain on both sides.

This real battle was said to have
happened near Earnaness, Sweden.

Modern scholars believe
Earnaness was a real settlement

right on the shore of Lake Vanern.

Once again, the historical
record seems to match the myth,

a real battle in a real location.

Could there also be
evidence of a real hero?

The search for clues
leads back to the myth.

After the ice battle,

Beowulf rules Geatland
in peace for many decades.

He's no longer that
young hero that he was

when he was fighting Grendel
and then Grendel's mother.

He's much older.
He's no longer in his prime,

but still, he's exemplary.

As a young man, Beowulf had
quenched his thirst for glory.

As an aging king,
he has no desire for more,

but 50 years after his
heroic conquests in Denmark,

the old warrior must face one final
showdown with a terrifying monster,

the Dragon of Earnaness.

It stretches 50 feet long and
guards a gargantuan hoard of gold.

Dragons represent
human greed but really,

you know, amplified, because
this is this monstrous creature

whose only interest is in
gathering gold and keeping it.

The trouble begins after a young
slave escapes from his master

and hides in a cave.

He doesn't realize he's
entering the lair of the dragon.

As the monster sleeps,

the slave spots the hoard of
gold and succumbs to temptation.

He steals the cup from
the dragon's treasure.

Not knowing that this cup is, in fact,

the favourite item of the dragon.

The dragon stirs,
finds the golden cup missing,

and sets off for revenge.

So he starts setting
farms and fields on fire,

creating much destruction
in a very short time.

The dragon wreaks havoc
across the land.

Then, the ultimate insult.

Beowulf's own home is burned,

and he prays for
restoration of his loss

and seeks some kind of redress
and begins to think about revenge.

Once more, the old warrior is
called to defend a nation's honour.

It will be his last stand against evil.

He's the kind of hero who's gonna
be willing to go out and face,

at this point, certain death.

Beowulf leads his men into battle

with his kingdom and honour
hanging in the balance.

This will either be
the hero's final triumph

or his tragic end.

A fire-breathing dragon is
devastating the kingdom of the Geats.

Beowulf the aging hero-king,
dons his battle gear one more time,

and the hunt for a third beast begins.

The bravest soldiers
ride alongside Beowulf.

Among them is the young
son of a fallen warrior.

His name is Wiglaf.

He's immature.

He's inexperienced.

He's the one that
you would probably say

is gonna contribute the least to
the actual fight against a dragon.

The men come upon the dragon's lair
in the middle of a dense forest.

Beowulf steps cautiously inside...

and finds the monster asleep.

But before the hero can strike,
the dragon awakens and attacks.

Beowulf yells to his
other warriors for help.

All of Beowulf's other fellows
have run away to hide in the woods,

'cause they're too
terrified of the dragon.

All except for one, young Wiglaf.

Once mocked for his youth,
he now stands out for his bravery,

risking his life to fight
alongside the hero he idolizes

as Beowulf confronts
his greatest enemy.

So goes the myth, but what
is the connection to reality?

The dragon is mythology's
ultimate monster.

Within a sort of Christian tradition,

dragons often represent
the super serpent,

a gigantic manifestation of Satan.

But if you go back before Christian
tradition, dragons seem to represent

something like an ultimate embodiment

of power and ferocity and mystery.

But the great fear that
people have always had is that,

despite all of the seemingly regular
patterns that you see in nature,

there might also be fantastic,
chaotic unknowns,

the monsters that
could suddenly leap out.

Dragons play a central role
in myths throughout the world.

And despite the thousands of miles and
thousands of years that separate them,

the similarities between the stories
are more striking than the differences.

Most of them have hard scales,

have these long serpentine
bodies with long pointed tails,

long necks ending in a horned head.

Many breathe fire.
Many have wings.

Are these shared traits coincidence,

or did ancient storytellers have
some common real-world inspiration?

Many wonder whether
there were actual dragons.

Given how prevalent the stories
about them are in the world's myths,

it would seem that they must
be based on something real.

My own theory, which is
- other people have it too -

was that at some point, someone
was walking through the Gobi desert

or parts of Central Asia where
dinosaur bones are exposed,

and they saw a T-Rex-rex skeleton and said,

"Wow, if those are the bones, can you
imagine what the thing looked like?"

And from there, you could
imagine the creature.

So they're large.
They're scary. They're fierce.

Dinosaur fossils have been
discovered around the globe

since mankind's earliest days.

In a time before science,

could they have inspired
mythology's ultimate monster?

The myth concludes.

Beowulf charges
the dragon with his sword.

The dragon strikes back,

wounding Beowulf

but there is still one
more chance for victory.

The belly is the beast's Achilles heel.

As Wiglaf looks on, Beowulf manoeuvres
his way underneath the dragon

and thrusts his sword into its stomach.

The monster is defeated,

but Beowulf has paid the ultimate
price for this final moment of glory.

Beowulf is bitten in
the neck by the dragon,

so even as he slays the beast,
he himself knows he's going to die

because the wound begins
to swell and to burst.

He says, "At least bring me
some of the dragon's treasure

"so that I can see what
we fought for and what we've won

"and look once more upon
the glorious treasure. "

Beowulf says,
"I am the last of my line.

"I have no heir.
My fathers before me are all dead,

"so because you were brave, Wiglaf,

"I'm giving you my famous chain
mail and my sword and my helmet. "

An old hero dies,
and a new one is born.

The final stanzas of the epic
describe Beowulf's funeral,

his body placed on a pyre...

and set alight.

Beowulf's death at the end of the poem

represents the idea that all men
and all their works shall die.

A great hero, the icon
of northern warriors,

is dead, but his legend
is just beginning.

Today hundreds of
ancient burial mounds

still dot the landscape
of Scandinavia.

Some have yielded evidence
of truth behind the myth,

but many are still unexcavated.

Could one of them be
the gravesite of a real Beowulf?

Is it possible that
Beowulf was a real person?

Yes, of course it is.

The history surrounding
him fits with history,

and the reason why we tend to say

yes, it's possible that
he was a real person,

is the very simple fact that there
were legends that were kept orally,

that were the basis for this poem,

that tells us there
should be some truth to it.

Whether real man or myth,
Beowulf is bravery personified.

To the ancients, he embodied
the best in Man.

A warrior's life...

and a hero's death.