Original subtitles

- Every culture has epic tales

of big battles between good and evil.

Tales where the right weapon

makes all the difference.

And when it comes to swords,

few are more iconic than

the one known as Excalibur.

[dramatic music]

- Excalibur, the very name of the mighty sword

evokes a sense of sacred mythical powers

and is forever linked to the man who wields it:

King Arthur.

[dramatic music]

- The legend of King Arthur originates from Welsh poetry

written around the late 6th century AD.

Arthur was said to have ruled

after the fall of the Roman Empire,

and he was the leader of what was

a knightly fellowship of the Round Table.

His stories, of course, involve his famous sword,

which protects the king and his knights in battle.

[dramatic music]

- In 1136, an English cleric, Geoffrey of Monmouth,

compiles the Arthurian tales in a book called,

"The History of the Kings of Britain".

In Latin he calls the sword "Caliburnus".

It just means "cut steel."

- Eventually, this sort of gets transmuted into

what we now have as a name for it: Excalibur.

So, here it is obviously clearly presented

as a miraculous, magical sword.

- [Dennis] The blade is believed to be

forged on the mystical isle of Avalon.

[metal clanging]

- One of the most famous stories of how Arthur

gets Excalibur is from "The Sword in the Stone".

And in this story Merlin the Wizard

proclaims that whoever can extract the sword

from the stone will be the rightful King of England.

- So naturally everybody wants to take a crack at it

and become the King of England,

and many people try, but the sword just won't budge.

Until a boy named Arthur pulls it free

[dramatic music]

claiming his right to the throne.

- [Dennis] Once it's in Arthur's hands,

Excalibur displays astonishing powers.

- The sword can only be used by those it deems worthy.

Anybody else who takes it

will be destroyed by the sword's magic.

And for those who are worthy,

it seemingly enhances their physical abilities

to super human levels.

With Excalibur, King Arthur once single-handedly defeats

960 Saxons in battle.

- The sword is said to be so bright

that it can blind enemies.

Even the scabbard of the sword is said to be magical.

It prevents its owner from losing blood in combat,

so that no wound can be fatal.

- The sword's greatest power is the fact

that it grants you the right to rule.

So, if you have Excalibur,

you are the true king.

[dramatic music]

- With Excalibur at his side,

Arthur marries Queen Guinevere,

and then he and his knights embark on a series of quests.

- Most famously, he and his knights seek the Holy Grail,

Jesus' cup from the Last Supper,

trying to keep Christianity's

most sacred object out of the hands of the wicked.

[dramatic music]

- [Dennis] As the legend endures,

many start to wonder could the sword be real?

- The thing about Excalibur is that

whether or not its origins are mythological,

it has had a definite impact on history.

So many rulers have wanted to get their hands on it.

[tense music]

- In the late 12th century,

the English King, Henry II,

wants to prove once and for all,

that the Excalibur legend is true.

Now Henry probably has an ulterior motive,

because remember in the story,

Excalibur isn't just an incredible weapon,

it's also a symbol of legitimacy,

the divine right to the British throne.

So, if Henry has it, that's pretty good for him,

especially since his son Richard is trying to usurp him.

- Henry fully believes that King Arthur was a real person,

and he hears from an old Welsh bard

that the mighty Arthur is buried at Glastonbury Abbey.

- [Dennis] Unfortunately, Henry doesn't live long enough

to get to Glastonbury.

[suspenseful music]

- So, Henry II dies actually fighting

the battle with his son Richard,

who then becomes known as Richard the Lionheart.

Now Richard continues this quest for Excalibur,

and he orders the excavation of what is held

to be King Arthur's tomb at Glastonbury Abbey in 1191.

- The tombs at Glastonbury Abbey

hold King Arthur and Guinevere's bodies,

and a historian named Gerald of Wales,

who's present for this,

gives an eyewitness account of what happens.

- According to Gerald,

what they unearth is pretty thrilling:

an inscribed cross

that bears Arthur's and Guinevere's names,

and large bones believed to be Arthur's,

and even a long lock of blonde hair

that crumbles to dust when a greedy monk grabs it.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dennis] And that's not all they find.

- It's unclear if King Richard is actually at Glastonbury

for the discovery, but later that same year,

he heads off to join the Third Crusade.

And when he does, he claims to have Excalibur at his side.

He believes the legendary sword has been found,

and that he can wield its power.

- On the way to the Holy Land, Richard stops in Sicily

where he's got some political business to do.

His sister Joan was the Queen of Sicily by marriage

and after her husband died, the new King Tancred,

seized her lands and is keeping her in seclusion.

[dramatic music]

- Richard demands that Tancred release Joan

and every penny of her dowry.

And after some back and forth, Tancred agrees.

As part of their new alliance,

Richard gives Tancred the Excalibur,

so in the span of a few months,

he's found the most famous

and powerful sword in history,

and then he just gives it away.

- [Dennis] But there's a practical reason

Richard does this.

[dramatic music]

- Richard and Tancred plan to continue their alliance

into a new generation

by marrying one of Tancred's daughters

to Richard's only nephew, the heir to his crown,

and that nephew's name is Arthur.

[dramatic music]

- This is wild.

This is the Arthurian legend come to life.

You have a king actually named Arthur

with Excalibur by his side.

Richard knows how powerfully this will play across Europe.

- [Dennis] Unfortunately, Tancred dies in 1194,

and Richard himself falls in battle five years later.

- His nephew Arthur is still too young to rule,

so the throne passes on to his brother John.

We don't quite know what happened to Arthur,

but the rumor is that John had him executed

for fear that he would grow up and take back the kingship.

[dramatic music]

And in the middle of this entire power struggle,

Excalibur disappears from the historical record.

- We also don't know if this was

the real Excalibur to begin with.

The legends are so popular by Richard's time,

that it's possible that Glastonbury Abbey, or Richard,

or both just fakes the story to increase their fame.

- [Dennis] While some speculate

that this was the actual Excalibur,

other researchers point to a different possibility.

- There are tons of parallels between Excalibur

and other swords that predate the Arthurian legends.

Maybe Excalibur was inspired by

some other famous real swords from history.

- One solid candidate is an 8th century French sword

named Durandal.

[dramatic music]

The blade is described as indestructible,

and it becomes famous thanks to an epic French poem

of unknown authorship called "La Chanson de Roland"

or "The Song of Roland".

[dramatic music]

- Just like Excalibur,

parts of the story sound a little too magical to be true.

Durandal is said to be a gift from God,

and it's so powerful that King Charlemagne

wants his military leader Roland to destroy it

rather than let it fall into the wrong hands.

[dramatic music] [soldiers shouting]

Roland dies fighting in a battle in 778,

and with his dying breath,

he hurls the sword so hard

that it flies for a hundred miles before piercing a rock.

- Now in the southwestern region of France,

there's a small village Rocamadour

that claims to have had Durandal there.

There is a sword that has been embedded

into a stone in this village

for hundreds of years.

Locally this is referred to as Durandal.

- You could have gone to Rocamadour

and seen it for yourself.

It's been photographed by countless tourists.

But, in June 2024,

Durandal is taken from the stone,

and it hasn't been recovered.

- [Dennis] Meanwhile, those inspired by the legend

of King Arthur haven't given up hope of finding Excalibur.

[suspenseful music]

- People are still out there

all over the UK using a combination

of old literature and new technology

to try to find the fabled sword.

If nothing else,

this certainly proves that the legend lives on.

[suspenseful music]

- While Excalibur is a powerful sword

believed to grant its wielder the right to rule,

sometimes a more modest weapon

provides that same right.

[dramatic music]

- One of the most famous stories in the Bible

is the tale of David and Goliath.

It's been immortalized in the iconic statue

Michelangelo's David and countless other works of art.

- In fact, the David and Goliath story has become

the official metaphor for any unexpected victory

of a seemingly weaker side over a stronger opponent.

It's a proper underdog story.

On any given Sunday,

you're guaranteed to hear a sportscaster bring it up

because it a story that everyone's familiar with.

[suspenseful music]

- In the book of First Samuel,

the Israelites are facing off against the Philistines.

They're located in the Valley of Elah.

They have a champion, a giant,

a man named Goliath of Gath.

[tense dramatic music]

Twice a day for 40 days he comes out and challenges

the Israelites to one on one combat,

the idea being whoever wins between him

and the champion of the Israelites wins the battle.

[tense dramatic music]

- Everyone is terrified to face Goliath,

because, first of all, he's massive.

It is believed that Goliath is four cubits and a span,

which in modern equivalent is 6 feet 9 inches tall.

- Goliath has this incredible suit of armor.

It includes a breastplate,

a bronze helmet, greaves,

a coat of bronze mail,

as well as the lance, and a scimitar,

which a curved sword with a convex cutting edge.

- [Dennis] Many soldiers are too frightened

to challenge Goliath,

but a young shepherd named David isn't fazed.

[dramatic music]

- David, who's said to be about 15-years-old,

is in the crowd bringing food to his older brothers

who are warriors.

He gets riled up by Goliath's insults,

and tells his brother Eliab

that he's ready to fight Goliath himself.

He believes that God will give him the strength to win.

The Israelite King Saul decides to let David give it a shot.

- David has no armor, no sword, no lance, no fancy weaponry.

[suspenseful music]

All he has is a sling.

So he gathers five smooth stones in a pouch,

and he heads out into the field of battle.

[dramatic music]

- So, when Goliath sees David, he's offended.

He's like, "Is the best you can do?

"Am a dog that you come out to me with like sticks."

And none of that dissuades David.

[suspenseful music]

- With God on his side, David takes a stone,

sets it in the sling and flings it.

[suspenseful music]

[helmet clanging]

Goliath is hit square in the forehead.

He falls down stunned.

And David takes Goliath's own sword

[suspenseful music]

and cuts off his head.

- This turns the tide in the battle for the Israelites.

Seeing their champion fallen, the Philistines flee.

The Israelites chase them and win the battle.

[crowd cheering]

- This victory really sets David up.

No one could do what David did.

Everyone recognizes that David

is truly the one that can defend Israel.

Although he's young,

he's shown himself to be more kingly

and more ready in battle than any of the other warriors.

And eventually, he does become King of Israel.

[dramatic music]

- [Dennis] It's undoubtedly a powerful tale,

but is there any truth to this story?

To find out, experts begin with the sling.

- You might think that a sling sounds like a kid's toy,

but it's actually a really serious part of ancient warfare.

And slings are surprisingly effective and dangerous weapons.

- A skilled slinger can be incredibly accurate.

Medieval tapestries show slingers

that are able to hit birds in flight.

- Not only can slings be sharply accurate,

they're also quite deadly.

In 1995, a ballistics expert

with the Israeli Defense Forces,

performs calculations showing

that a stone hurled by an expert slinger

from 35 meters away would hit Goliath's head

at a velocity of nearly 80 miles per hour.

That's more than enough to penetrate his skull.

- So the historical use of slings as deadly weapons

in David's time is pretty well established.

- [Dennis] Since the odds of David's actual sling surviving

are slim, amateur archaeologist Ron Wyatt

sets out to find the story's other famous weapon:

Goliath's sword.

To Wyatt, there's an obvious place to start looking:

Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

- Wyatt believes that any spoils of war

the Israelites gathered

as well as any objects of great power

would've been kept in the most secure building,

the center of all power and wealth in ancient Jerusalem,

and that is a temple.

After all, this was the building where

they allegedly housed their greatest weapon,

the Ark of the Covenant, at least until the building

was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587-BC.

- [Dennis] Wyatt begins his search in 1979.

- The ruins within the Temple Mount are crisscrossed

with underground rooms and passages dating back

well over 2,000 years,

and many of them haven't been fully explored.

So Wyatt spends several months working his way through,

during which time he claims to find a chamber

packed with furnishings, wood, and stones.

- There's so much inside,

it's difficult for him to move around.

But according to his account,

Wyatt spots an ephod,

which is a priestly garment from ancient Israel.

He also sees a menorah and a large sword

measuring more than five feet in length.

- In the book of Samuel,

we read that Goliath's sword was wrapped in cloth

and kept behind the ephod.

That fact, plus the size of the sword,

convinces Wyatt that he's looking at the sword of Goliath.

[suspenseful music]

- After the discovery,

Wyatt claims that God instructs him

to leave all the items in place.

So, he doesn't attempt to remove them,

but he does later make a replica of the sword

matching what he saw in Jerusalem.

- Wyatt dies in 1999,

and the exact whereabouts of his finds

remain unknown to this day.

[dramatic music]

- And who knows, remains of weapons or inscriptions

that prove that Goliath was a real person

defeated by a future king, named David,

may one day actually be found.

- In 1922, a newly discovered site in Egypt

forever changes the study of archaeology.

King Tut's tomb, its contents are dazzling,

and among the many treasures found inside

is a sacred weapon with a mysterious past.

[dramatic music]

- Around 1914,

an English Egyptologist named Howard Carter

sets out to find the tomb of a mysterious king

named Tutankhamun.

- King Tut is believed to be

the son of the Pharaoh Akhenaten,

and he inherits the throne at the young age of nine.

He rules between 1334 and 1325-BC,

during Egypt's New Kingdom period.

And he died as a young man,

between 18 and 19-years-old.

- But despite his short life,

King Tut actually has a pretty important impact

on the Egyptian religion.

Akhenaten had forced the Egyptians

to stop worshiping their lead god, Amun,

in favor of a new god called Aten.

- Tutankhamun undoes all of this.

He restores the temples and shrines of Amun

and returns the original Egyptian religion to his people.

- [Dennis] Carter spends many years searching

for the young Pharaoh's tomb to no avail.

Then one day he has a breakthrough.

- In November of 1922,

a step is discovered cutting into the bedrock.

Carter's team excavates the staircase leading

down below the dirt, and on Sunday November 26th,

he makes a hole in a door at the bottom of that staircase,

and he finds the tomb.

- [Dennis] The discovery makes international headlines.

Launching a worldwide fascination with King Tut

that endures to this day.

- You've probably seen a bunch

of King Tut artifacts and pictures,

or maybe even in person at a museum.

Statues, furnishings, jewelry,

and his famous death mask,

which is made of 24 pounds of solid gold.

In total, there are nearly 5400 objects in his tomb.

[dramatic music]

- [Dennis] But the most mysterious artifact

and perhaps the most powerful

is one of the smallest.

- In 1925, Carter unwraps the Pharaoh's mummy,

and in doing so he discovers two daggers.

One of the daggers is made of gold.

The other is made of a metal

that shouldn't have existed at the time: iron.

- It doesn't make sense that Tut would

or even could have a dagger like this.

The Iron Age, which is when people began making tools

from ire ore through a process called smelting,

is generally thought to have begun no earlier than 1200-BC,

which is some 150 years after King Tut's death.

- [Dennis] It takes another 91 years

to prove this dagger's incredible origins.

- In 2016, a team of researchers

from Italy and the Egyptian museum

used x-ray fluorescent spectrometry

to analyze the dagger's composition for the first time,

and what they find is pretty surprising.

[dramatic music]

- While earth-based iron has a 4% nickel content,

[dramatic music] [metal clanking]

the dagger has an almost 11%.

Proving that the weapon didn't come from Earth.

In fact, Tut's dagger came from outer space

in the form of a meteorite.

- Of course, now it all makes sense.

Because before the development of high temperature furnaces,

meteorites would've been the only source of iron

available to the Egyptians.

- The authors of the study

believed the people in Tut's day may have known

about this dagger's otherworldly origin,

and because of this,

the ancient Egyptians associated it

with a great deal of sacred power.

[dramatic music]

- The study cites a hieroglyph that appears

for the first time in the 13th century BC.

It literally translates to "iron of the sky,"

which sounds a lot like a meteor, doesn't it?

[dramatic music]

- "Iron of the sky"

is described as a gift from the gods,

holding very potent ritual magic.

Tut's dagger would've been a physical symbol

of his divinity and royalty.

Almost like how holding Excalibur

proves King Arthur's divine right to rule.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dennis] It also could've served another purpose.

- It's believed that King Tut's iron dagger was used

in an important Egyptian funeral ritual

known as the opening of the mouth.

- After a Pharaoh died,

a priest would recite an incantation

while touching a sacred instrument to the face

of a statue of the Pharaoh or to a sarcophagus.

This is done to symbolically reopen

the eyes, mouth, nose, etcetera,

so that the Pharaoh can breathe,

eat, see, hear, and smell in the afterlife.

For Tut they might have used his special dagger

to perform this ritual.

- This dagger was held to be,

essentially, from the heavens,

from the place of the afterlife.

So, this dagger would've been perfect for this ritual.

[dramatic music]

- King Tut is actually going to need the dagger

for protection in the afterlife.

Of the thousands of artifacts found within his tomb,

this one's actually placed on his thigh,

so that it's easy to reach.

[dramatic music]

- So much has been made of Tut's mask,

but this iron dagger

would've been the real prized possession.

As a god king on Earth,

Tut would've held the metal of the gods at his side.

That would've made his dagger a weapon of incredible power.

[tense dramatic music]

- During World War II,

the Nazi regime didn't just fight their battles

with tanks, planes, and machine guns,

they also turned to a more surprising source: the Bible.

[tense ominous music]

- Hitler has a known contempt for religion,

but he's not above using it to his own ends

to inspire the large percentage of European public

who are religious, especially Christian.

[crowd cheering] [dramatic music]

- Adolf Hitler calls his government the Third Reich,

by declaring it the Third Reich,

it associates his government with the Second Reich,

which was Germany under the Imperial system,

and then the First Reich, which was

the Holy Roman Empire that existed until 1806.

He is drawing a line of continuity

that connects him to the kaisers

and then connects him all the way

back in time to Charlemagne.

[dramatic music]

- The Nazi's actually released

one particularly famous piece of propaganda,

which shows Hitler with the light breaking through

the clouds and forming a halo effect around him.

He's holding a Nazi flag with a "Long Live Germany" caption.

And he also has his Germany Army Forces wear belt buckles

with the inscription, "God is with us."

[dramatic music]

- [Dennis] In the early 1930s,

Hitler even hunts down an iconic holy relic.

- The Holy Lance, or Spear of Destiny,

is an artifact that the Bible says was used

to pierce Christ's side as he hung on the cross.

It, therefore, literally touched Jesus' blood.

It's believed that the spear can make

whoever wields it divinely invincible.

[dramatic music]

- Long before Hitler's rise to power,

an artifact claiming to be the Spear of Destiny

has been on display in Vienna's Hofburg Palace.

That's where Hitler sees it.

- He saw the way that Austrian people

would visit simply to see that relic,

and in that I believe he recognized

something that he could use toward his benefit.

- So when the Nazis take over Austria,

Hitler seizes the spear,

not just because he thinks

it grants him the divine right to rule,

but because he knows that such a powerful religious symbol

will help galvanize the public behind him.

[dramatic music]

- [Dennis] While gaining power,

Hitler continues his manipulation.

- Hitler will do whatever it takes to motivates Germans

and instill fear in the rest of the world,

whatever it takes to win the war.

- This philosophy finds its way into the development

of one of the largest Nazi super weapons

ever used in battle.

- By the mid-1930s,

Adolf Hitler knows that if Germany is to realize

the greatness that it's destined to realize,

he will have to make war with those old enemies

from The Great War.

As it turns out, one of those enemies is France.

And during the years that followed

the Versailles Treaty in 1919,

France spent a great amount of its national wealth

in the construction of a series of a fortifications

stretching from Dunkirk in the north,

to Nice in the south,

650 miles of fortifications called the Maginot Line.

- Thousands of elite French troops

man heavy guns on the Maginot Line,

and it's believed to be pretty much impregnable.

- For them to even have a chance

at taking on the Maginot Line,

German command needs a massive siege weapon

that can penetrate concrete bunkers.

[tense music]

- [Dennis] In March of 1936,

the German corporation Rheinmetall

began developing such a weapon.

- The weapon is massive,

and it's extremely heavy.

The barrel length itself is 20 feet.

The projectiles weigh nearly 5,000 pounds.

The weapon itself weighs as much as a blue whale.

- And its lightest shell has a range of more than six miles,

making it a truly

[gunfire blasting]

devastating death machine.

[dramatic music]

As you can imagine,

development of something like this takes several years,

but the Nazis eventually manage to build

seven of these weapons between 1940 and 1942.

The first is a test model,

and the other six are all planned

to be deployed in battle.

- After they're completed,

the six super weapons get names

that clearly demonstrate Hitler's habit

of using religion to motivate and incite fear.

Each holy moniker is a tribute to the machine's

awe-inspiring destructive power.

[dramatic music]

- They're called "Adam and Eve" from the Bible,

"Thor, Odin, and Loki"

Norse gods now famous from the Marvel movies,

and "Ziu" an old Germanic god

from whom we get the name for Tuesday.

- Adolf attempted to cover all the bases,

and it's a great example of the way

that they harnessed and mobilized folklore

in the effort to make Germany look

like an unstoppable fighting force.

[cannonfire blasting]

- Adam and Eve and these other cannons

play a significant part in the war.

They're involved in Operation Barbarossa,

the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union,

and we have records that they were used

in the attempt to capture the bridge at Ludendorff

during the Battle of Remagen.

[dramatic music]

- [Dennis] As the Germans advance,

these unholy weapons of war

prove to be more trouble than they're worth.

- Each gun had to be accompanied by a crane,

a heavy transport set of rail cars,

and several modified tanks just to carry the shells.

- So their immense size means that

they can't be used in that many situations,

and it makes them prone to malfunction,

especially on softer terrain.

[tense dramatic music]

- By the end of the war,

the six machines had been either captured or destroyed.

Eve and Loki are demolished by the United States.

Odin and Ziu are destroyed or taken by the Soviets.

- As far as we know,

only one example survives to this day.

Russia's Kubinka Tank Museum currently

has one on display with the name "Adam"

prominently painted across the side.

It's a stunning example of the lengths the Nazis

were willing to go to achieve their nefarious goals.

- The Nazis aren't the only ones who turn to scripture

for inspiration during World War II,

the Allies also go to great lengths to create a super weapon

on a biblical scale.

[dramatic music]

- In the early years of World War II,

German U-boats are nearly undetectable and impenetrable.

[thunderous explosion]

They sink many British Navy vessels and civilian ships.

[dramatic music]

- The German U-boat is the one and only strategic weapon

that the Third Reich has during World War II

that, in and of itself, can win a war.

- So how do we deal with these U-boats?

Well, in order to spot them, we need planes,

and in order to fly planes we need some kind

of sea base to launch, land, and refuel from.

[dramatic music] [plane engine humming]

- These aircraft carriers are so critical to the war,

that we simply could not risk sending one

into the Mid-Atlantic gap

where they would be very vulnerable.

The thing that we needed was one

massive unsinkable aircraft carrier.

[dramatic music]

- [Dennis] This leads to the development of one of the most

ambitious fortified warships of all time.

- [J.W.] Winston Churchill muses about

taking massive existing icebergs

and smoothing them out to make landing strips for convoys.

- And, yeah, it definitely sounds like a pretty crazy idea,

but that same year in 1942,

an eccentric British inventor named Geoffrey Pyke,

comes up with a way to do just that.

[dramatic music]

- Pyke starts working with a molecular biologist

to create a stronger and more durable manmade form of ice.

It's made of wood pulp and ice, and they name it Pykrete.

- [Dennis] Using his new substance,

Pyke creates plans for an indestructible aircraft carrier.

- It's nearly half a mile long and weighs 2.2 million tons.

Churchill is blown away by the idea.

The vessel would supposedly be

impervious to shells and torpedoes

and able to withstand massive North Atlantic waves

that can reach 50 feet high.

- But most importantly,

it would act as an aircraft carrier,

allowing the Allies to combat Nazi U-boats

and close that Mid-Atlantic gap.

[engine humming] [dramatic music]

- [Dennis] Churchill green lights

a prototype of the weapon,

which is given the code name Project Habukkuk.

- Much like the Nazi's religious propaganda,

this name uses a biblical reference

to inspire the workers.

It's a book of the Old Testament,

and its message is that even while God

may seem silent and uninvolved in the world,

he has a plan to deal with evil.

[dramatic music]

- It's an inspiring idea

for those working on the super weapon.

If it works, it can defeat evil: the Nazis.

- In August of 1943,

Chief of Staff of the British Army,

Lord Louis Mountbatten presents the project

to key Allied military officials.

He brings out two square chunks of ice,

one regular and the other Pykrete.

He fires his pistol into each chunk.

[gun firing] [ice shattering]

The untreated block of ice shatters,

but when Mountbatten shoots at the Pykrete block,

[gun fires] [bullet ricochets]

the bullet actually ricochets off.

[dramatic music]

So with their concept proven,

the design is finalized and ready to be built in 1943.

Churchill and Mountbatten both approve it.

Resources are gathered,

which include 300,000 tons of wood pulp,

25,000 tons of insulation,

and 10,000 tons of steel.

[dramatic music]

- Building the iceberg aircraft carrier

is a lot harder than it sounds,

because the flight deck needs to be

at least 50 feet above the surface of the water,

so that it can deal with heavy seas.

And you have 50 feet above the surface of the water,

you have to have 10 times that

below the surface of the water.

- The project would require 8,000 men

working for eight months in arctic temperatures,

and the cost for the venture

becomes as extraordinary as its mission,

about 10 million British pounds.

That's equivalent to $750 million today.

- [Dennis] Unfortunately,

Project Habukkuk never sets sail.

- Another invention comes out

that renders the project all but obsolete:

the long-range fuel tanker for aircraft.

[engine humming]

- When the threat of vampires sweeps across Europe

in the 18th century,

God-fearing townspeople turn to a simple set of weapons

to combat evil.

[dramatic music]

- Let's be honest,

vampires fascinate us, right?

There are hundreds, maybe even thousands,

of incarnations in books, movies, TV shows,

and they can be creepy, sexy,

or just downright terrifying.

[suspenseful music]

- Of course we can thank Bram Stoker for this.

[tense music]

His 1897 novel

"Dracula" kicked off a wave

of fictional vampire stories.

- [Dennis] Belief in this folklore,

actually dates back thousands of years

to ancient cultures around the world.

- We had evil people who refused to die,

that could rise from their graves.

These were labeled as "idimu"

for the ancient Sumerians.

In ancient Rome we have this spirit that can suck blood

and life out of people

called the "strix".

- Some scholars believe

the Christian fear of vampires

may tie into the story of Jesus.

At the Last Supper,

Jesus tells his disciples

that symbolically eating his flesh

and drinking his blood will grant eternal life in Heaven.

- Vampires drain the blood and the life force from others

to selfishly feed their own hunger and eternal life.

So, a vampire is kind of the antithesis to Jesus

and meant to be feared.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dennis] This fear crystallizes

when one Serbian town believes they've come

face to face with an actual vampire.

- In July 1725,

the local residents of Kisiljevo, Serbia

summon a health and safety official to their village

to help deal with an unusual problem.

[tense dramatic music]

- They believed that a man named Petar Blagojevic

who died 10 weeks earlier is regularly getting up

out of his grave and killing their families

and loved ones.

Blagojevic's widow tells the official, Provisor Frombald

that her husband knocked on her door after the funeral

demanding his shoes before attempting to strangle her.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dennis] Blagojevic attacks nine more villagers

over the course of nine nights.

[suspenseful music]

Each incident is more terrifying than the last.

- The village elders believe Blagojevic is "vampyri"

the Serbian word for back from the dead.

- So Frombald gets a priest,

and they exhume Blagojevic's body.

They record that the appearance

and smell of the corpse is fresh.

The body hasn't decomposed at all.

The hair and beard seem to have continued growing,

and there's new skin and fingernails

where the old ones had peeled away.

- There seems to be fresh blood around the mouth

believed to be sucked from his victims.

[tense dramatic music]

- Frombald reports to the authorities

that everything indicates Blagojevic

is indeed a vampire.

The villagers are ready to take action.

[tense ominous music]

- [Dennis] And there's one weapon

they're confident can do the trick.

[suspenseful music]

[air whooshing]

[suspenseful bass music]

- The townspeople drive a sharpened stake

through Blagojevic's chest,

and Frombald witnesses blood gushing

from the ears and mouth.

Further proof of his undead status.

[suspenseful music]

- Frombald's official report

makes sensational newspaper copy.

Leading to the first printed use of the word "vampyri",

which quickly makes its way into other European languages,

creating a full-blown vampire panic.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dennis] As terror spreads, one holy man in France

has an idea on how to combat the problem.

- In 1746, a Benedictine monk named Augustin Calmet

publishes a book about angels, demons, and vampires.

A vampire needs to be impaled,

so they use a wooden stake through the heart.

But the type of wood varies.

White oak wood is popular,

but some prefer aspen,

because there's a legend

that Christ's cross was made of aspen.

- It was a very pragmatic solution.

It was a stake to stake them to the ground,

so they didn't get up and start walking around again undead.

[tense suspenseful music]

- [Dennis] Soon the arsenal of weapons

used to fight the undead expands.

- Vampires are seen as unholy creatures.

And despite the fact that

no official church doctrine says this,

the vampire hunters out there are quick to decide

that the best way to combat an unholy beast

is with a holy weapon.

- [J.W.] By the late 1800s and early 1900s,

vampire killing kits include several religious items.

They include rosary beads, Bibles, crucifixes,

holy water all because Christians believe

they can fend off evil through the power of God.

- We see stories where simply holding up a wood crucifix,

the symbol of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross,

is supposed to incapacitate a vampire.

Holy water, a symbol of the Christian rite of baptism,

will burn a vampire's skin or poison it if it's ingested.

[dramatic music]

- [Dennis] Though the fear of vampires

has waned over the years,

interest in these weapons has never been stronger.

- Today, vampire killing kits

pretty hot item on the auction block.

In 2022, a kit from the late 1800s,

sold for nearly $20,000 by Hansons Auctioneers in England,

with the claim that it has been "authenticated".

Who knows, for that anonymous buyer,

maybe those weapons will come in handy.

- Even Bram Stoker seemed to wonder if vampires were real.

His novel "Dracula" originally included a preference,

saying he was, "Quite convinced

"that the events here described

"really took place however unbelievable

"and incomprehensible they might appear at first sight."

[tense suspenseful music]

- Whether they're used to gain thrones,

secure victories, or end unholy threats,

sacred weapons continue to wield real power in history

and in our imaginations.

I'm Dennis Quaid.

Thanks for watching "Holy Marvels".