Original subtitles

WILLIAM SHATNER: An Egyptian dagger with celestial powers,

Viking swords

of unexplainable strength,

and a blazing weapon so fierce

it could set the sea on fire.

For thousands of years, man has been forging weapons

out of bronze, iron, steel.

Over the centuries, an uncountable number of swords,

daggers and other tools of destruction

have been created,

but among them are a few that are truly remarkable.

Weapons that are said to possess magical powers,

metallurgy that has been impossible to reproduce

and technology so advanced,

it's as if it came from the future.

What secrets are yet to be uncovered

about the amazing armaments

considered to be legendary weapons?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

? ?

SHATNER: The Valley of the Kings, Egypt.

February 16, 1923.

A British excavation team

led by archaeologist Howard Carter

enters an underground ancient Egyptian burial chamber.

Once inside, they break a protective seal

that guards the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

CHRIS NAUNTON: Carter lifts up a lamp,

and they look through and see that Tutankhamun is buried

with this fantastic array of more than 5,000 objects.

The room is absolutely full to bursting

with gold and precious stones

and various other precious and valuable items,

more or less exactly in places they'd been left

more than 3,000 years ago.

SHATNER: Of the thousands of wondrous artifacts

found in King Tut's tomb, perhaps the most extraordinary

is an exquisitely forged 13-inch iron dagger.

NAUNTON: The dagger is a really sensational object

with a golden sheath which is decorated

with a chased feather pattern.

It was placed on the thigh of the king,

and of all the 5,000 objects in the tomb,

the vast majority of them were nowhere near

as close as that to the very body of the king.

So this is something very, very important.

RAMY ROMANY: King Tut's reign was about 1330 BC.

At that time, King Tut's dagger was a very important piece,

as a symbol that the gods handed him this power.

That's why the iron dagger was buried with King Tut.

He needed it on his journey to the afterlife.

DOMINIC STEAVU: In the afterlife,

King Tut was charged, uh, with the very important mission

of assisting the sun god, Ra.

Ancient Egyptians believed that when the Sun set every day,

Ra would traverse the underworld,

which was a dark, murky, watery place

fraught with dangers and demons and beasts.

So, King Tut would use this dagger to literally defend

and fight off these hordes of enemies.

And so, there's this belief that the blade of the dagger had...

miraculous and spiritual powers.

SHATNER: The idea that King Tut was buried with a mighty iron dagger

to vanquish foes in the afterlife

is certainly a great story.

But is it possible

that the dagger actually possesses divine power,

as the ancient Egyptians believed?

Perhaps the answer lies in the mysterious origins

of this sacred relic.

NAUNTON: The Egyptians had, essentially, no ability

in smelting iron at the time of Tutankhamun.

And so, the iron, uh, from this dagger

that, uh, Tutankhamun was buried with,

uh, comes from elsewhere.

The Egyptians, of course, thought

that the only reasonable explanation

for the presence of a very exquisitely,

perfectly worked iron dagger

was that the iron itself

was some kind of gift directly from the gods.

We now know, however,

thanks to very recent scientific analysis,

that the iron doesn't come from iron ore in the ground,

it is meteoric iron,

which comes from a meteorite

landing on Earth from space.

For Egyptians, the sky is where the gods were.

So you have to understand,

at that time in ancient Egypt, 3,500 years ago,

a meteorite falling on Earth

with iron in it,

and piece of it looked like a dagger,

symbolically, that piece of iron

was a gift from the gods for the ancient Egyptians.

SHATNER: Did the ancient Egyptians believe that King Tut's dagger

had otherworldly powers

because it literally came from another world?

Perhaps, but some people think that the sacred nature

of this relic was more than just symbolic.

As evidence, they point to a series

of mysterious deaths that took place

after archaeologists removed the dagger from King Tut's tomb.

NAUNTON: There's the moment where

Howard Carter's archaeological team

peers into an undiscovered tomb,

and sees loads of gold and treasure.

And then, shortly after,

Carter's sponsor, the Earl of Carnarvon, dies

relatively suddenly in unusual, surprising circumstances.

SHATNER: The Earl of Carnarvon's cause of death

was reportedly a mysterious form of blood poisoning,

and he died only four months after the tomb had been opened.

All told, seven members of the expedition

unexpectedly died in the years after King Tut's dagger

was removed from his sarcophagus.

Many believed that tampering with the dagger

had unlocked a deadly curse,

and that the untimely deaths were proof

of the weapon's otherworldly power.

If the dagger's there for the king's protection,

and the point at which the dagger is removed

by a clumsy, unsuspecting, unbelieving archaeologist...

...that's the moment at which

some nastiness befalls the archaeologist.

Then, I think, if you believe in the curse,

perhaps the dagger is centrally important to that.

SHATNER: Could moving the legendary dagger of King Tut

have launched a deadly curse on Carter's archaeology team?

Well, it's certainly a possibility,

if the weapon was truly a celestial gift from the gods.

But King Tut's dagger is not the only armament

whose unique strength is attributed to a higher power.

It is said that mysteriously crafted swords

of incredible strength

were imbued with mystical properties

that helped one of the world's greatest conquerors

change the course of human history.

SHATNER: Throughout Europe, there are numerous museums

that house a countless number of ancient Viking artifacts,

some of which are more than 1,000 years old.

Perhaps the most fascinating objects

left behind by the Vikings are their swords.

These extraordinary blades are an iconic symbol

of the Viking Age,

and not only were they formidable in battle

but they also feature detailed and exquisite craftsmanship.

The thing about the Viking swords in particular is,

you'll see, on a lot of these hilts of the Viking era,

repeating geometric symbols.

Oftentimes, these hilts were further decorated

largely with silver

or perhaps copper or gold,

inlaid into the hilt.

And some were incredibly advanced in their techniques,

quite beautiful...

...and hard to produce even today in a modern shop.

SHATNER: The sophistication of Viking swords

shows how important these blades were

to their warrior culture.

And, in fact, powerful weapons feature prominently

in Viking mythology.

The Icelandic sagas are filled with epic tales

about supernatural swords and spears

that were wielded by the gods.

The god Odin is the supreme being of the Norse system.

He had an unusual spear, the Gungnir.

Now, this is an incredible spear.

It can travel.

It's well-balanced, so it can go far

with great accuracy.

Odin has this spear that almost seems to be laser-guided.

It finds its target regardless of how it's thrown.

And then Thor, of course, as we all know,

has his hammer called Mj�lnir.

It creates thunder, but it also can, uh, create

massive devastation.

TOK THOMPSON: Thor's hammer Mj�lnir,

it's associated with the skill of the blacksmith.

Blacksmiths were often considered, just by nature,

somewhat magic, right?

To be able to take this raw material

and produce an incredible steel sword.

SHATNER: While the sagas speak of magical armaments,

in reality, a 170 special Viking swords

have been recovered, which are so unparalleled

in strength and craftsmanship

that they are the real-life embodiment

of mythical weapons celebrated in the sagas.

To this day, no one knows how they were made,

and curiously, many of them bear

the mysterious inscription: "Ulfberht."

FURRER: The Ulfberht swords were made

between about 800 and 1000 AD.

So, right solid in the high Viking period,

when they were trading and raiding.

Some Viking swords seem to be much better than others.

And these were the so-called "Ulfberht swords."

It was assumed, without any evidence,

that it was a swordsmith's name.

But why the name Ulfberht was used is still a mystery.

FURRER: What does "Ulfberht" mean?

It's probably not a person.

It was probably a word of power.

Typically, "ulf" means wolf.

And "berht" is an adjective meaning bright.

So, it might be, "bright wolf."

SHATNER: Even more mysterious

than their enigmatic inscription

is the seemingly-impossible strength of Ulfberht swords.

I've analyzed 40 or 50 Ulfberht swords.

It's certainly interesting to find

that many of them still have a sharp edge,

which is certainly unexpected.

These swords were made of a very high carbon steel.

The chemistry's completely different

to any other weapons found in medieval Europe.

It would be vastly superior to any other weapon in combat.

SHATNER: To forge these extraordinary swords,

the Vikings would have had to generate extreme temperatures

exceeding 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

But incredibly, the technology

to accomplish such a feat is not known

to have existed until the Industrial Revolution,

nearly 800 years after the end of the Viking age.

So how did Viking blacksmiths forge

these marvels of medieval warfare?

The search for answers leads far from Scandinavia...

...to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

Here, in his workshop,

blacksmith Ric Furrer is committed to forging swords

that closely resemble an authentic Ulfberht.

How I reproduce an Ulfberht blade

is prepare the raw materials.

All of that material gets brought up

to about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

So, very hot.

Hotter than a typical blacksmith fire

would be allowed to get.

In the sagas, heat control in the fire was very important.

It was even mentioned as being important

when the two dwarf brothers made Thor's hammer.

And we've got a nice temperature here.

SHATNER: After heating the metal with temperatures

that, as far as we know, were supposedly impossible

to achieve during the Viking Age,

the raw material becomes molten liquid.

And when the liquid cools down,

it hardens into a purified chunk of metal called an "ingot."

FURRER: And you would take this steel ingot

and then start forging it.

So, you'd change its shape,

making it progressively more bar-like as you go.

Ready, ready? Three hits.

One hit.

Hit. Hit.

And that's it.

That looks really good.

So, if you look here,

we have the finished blade.

SHATNER: How did Viking blacksmiths,

working with comparatively-primitive tools,

complete this process

with such precision and expertise?

It's a fascinating question that,

despite his extensive understanding of metallurgy

and years of intense study, even Ric cannot answer.

I don't think anyone has produced an Ulfberht

using completely traditional methods.

Because we don't know what those methods were.

The Vikings had these mythological stories

that involve weapons in the hands of a god.

And it isn't a far stretch to say that some of the swords

that they actually had could also do miraculous things.

There's still a huge mystery in steel.

SHATNER: What strange power lies within the twisted metal

of the Ulfberht swords?

It appears that question may remain a mystery

until we uncover the true origin of these extraordinary blades.

But there's another ancient weapon

that's just as baffling to historians

and experts alike-

a lethal concoction

that harnessed fire into a stream of deadly flames

and massive destruction,

known as...

..."Greek fire."

(people yelling)

SHATNER: For four long years, Arab forces have laid siege

to the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

But then, the Byzantines risk a daring counterattack

and unleash a devastating inferno.

Streams of flame shoot out from Byzantine vessels,

lighting the water on fire

and incinerating the Arab ships.

This fearsome weapon would come to be known as "Greek fire."

GILLAN: Greek fire was one

of the most formidable weapons of its era.

Imagine your ship suddenly being engulfed in flames

that were almost impossible to extinguish.

Not only was there this immense physical danger,

but there was also a massive psychological impact.

The loud roar of the flames,

the sight of it, the sound of it,

was really enough

to put terror into these Arab forces.

STEPHEN BULL: At sea, Greek fire was very useful

because if there's something a mariner really has a fear of,

it's being set light to on a ship,

because there's nowhere to go.

And so, Greek fire had a terrifying aspect to it,

setting light to ships

and burning people.

SHATNER: Throughout the Middle Ages,

the Byzantine Empire used Greek fire to strike fear

into the hearts of fighting men.

(man yelling)

But how did the Byzantines develop such a powerful weapon

of mass destruction?

STEPHEN RESSLER: Greek fire acquired its name

simply because the Byzantines spoke Greek.

It was quite mysterious because

it was very quickly established as a state secret

of the Byzantine Empire.

So we don't have a really good, clear idea

of what its constituents were, or precisely how it operated.

But we do know that it was a very effective weapons system.

SHATNER: While the exact formula

of Greek fire may be lost to history,

experts have proposed several theories

regarding the composition of this fiery concoction.

RESSLER: Most scholars agree

that the basic constituent materials were probably naphtha,

a naturally-occurring hydrocarbon,

mixed with pine resin.

The naphtha provided the flammability,

and the pine resin thickened the substance

and caused it to burn longer once it had been ignited.

MATHAUDHU: The secret to Greek fire

being used on water

is probably the addition of quicklime,

which likely gave it an explosive quality

that allowed it to burn

and have much more damage on water.

In fact, the water played a role

in perpetuating the reaction

and causing the burning to increase.

There is certainly speculation

as to the different recipes for Greek fire.

But it would be very difficult

to say what the classic Greek fire actually is.

And nobody has actually recreated it

with perfect accuracy.

SHATNER: It seems that, just as the Byzantines intended,

the mystery of Greek fire may never be solved.

But there's another enigmatic weapon from antiquity

that experts can examine more closely,

because its secrets are preserved... in steel.

(men yelling)

SHATNER: For eight long months, European Crusader knights

on a quest to conquer the Holy Land

lay siege to this Middle Eastern city.

In the course of the bloody fighting,

the Crusaders encounter numerous Muslim warriors

who wield astonishing, razor-sharp swords

that are forged from steel that seems to be unbreakable.

The European invaders named these fearsome weapons

after a nearby city,

and thus, the blades became known

as "Damascus swords."

For the time, the properties of the Damascus blades

bordered on the edge of magic.

Damascus swords had extraordinary,

legendary performance because of their sharpness,

compared to some of the materials at the time.

They were ten times as hard on the edge.

They were also highly superplastic,

meaning that they could bend extremely

and still spring back into the original shape.

This was something that was observed by the Crusaders.

They saw these blades

that they claim could bend 90 degrees,

that could cut silk in half in the middle of the air.

For anyone who was in a fight against a Damascus blade,

the behavior of that sword would have been mind-blowing.

SHATNER: More than 500 years after the end of the Crusades,

the remarkable properties of Damascus swords continue

to inspire fascination and mystery.

What made these ancient blades so exceptionally strong

and flexible?

And how were they created?

Curiously, the answer can be found

not in the city of Damascus, but rather

3,000 miles away in India.

MATHAUDHU: In southern India,

they developed the steel that was used, eventually,

to make Damascus swords and blades.

The legends of Indian steel go back to ancient times.

Over time, via trade routes around the Arabian Sea,

the Indians were able to move those materials into Persia,

and that became the center of trade from which Indian steel

got distributed to the rest of the world.

SHATNER: It's fascinating to think

that the legendary Damascus swords

trace their origins back to India.

But how did Indian craftsmen create such incredible steel?

What did they know that the rest of the world didn't?

MATHAUDHU: One of the keys to making high quality-steel

is getting the material to be very hot,

typically thousands of degrees,

and that was very difficult in ancient times.

But in India, they had developed technologies

where they were able to use monsoon winds

to fuel these fires

and get them to very high temperatures.

SHATNER: The idea that the strength of Damascus swords

was forged in the intense flames of Indian fires is intriguing,

but it doesn't completely solve the mystery.

Because even with today's powerful furnaces,

experts still cannot precisely recreate Damascus swords.

And according to one theory, the secret may lie

in the raw material

Indian craftsmen used to fashion their steel.

Iron ores vary tremendously from place to place.

No two ores are exactly alike.

One theory is that there just happened to be an iron ore

with just the right chemical properties

that happened to be available in India,

and this was the real basis for the very high-quality steel

that was produced from that material.

MATHAUDHU: The reason that the secret

to Damascus steel was lost is that the ore sources ran out,

and so, we can't know the individual elements

that were in those iron ores.

There is no way for us to go back in

and recreate the magic that they had done

with those original swords.

Greek fire and the Damascus sword are great examples

of advanced technology that have been lost to time.

But there's another legendary weapon-

from the Second World War- that could be considered

the most powerful weapon ever created

that simply disappeared.

SHATNER: At a top-secret military

research and development facility,

Nazi Germany unleashes a terrifying new weapon:

the V-2 rocket.

During the next six months,

the Nazis launch roughly 1,100 V-2 rockets against England,

which decimate buildings throughout London,

and kill approximately 9,000 people.

These missiles belong to a category

of advanced technology

that the Nazis call "Wunderwaffe,"

or "wonder weapons."

Hitler's wonder weapons were

high-technology weapons.

While the Allies were dropping bombs on German cities,

the Germans were launching a ballistic missile,

which could travel from Germany to London in just minutes...

...and unleash hell.

In many respects, the Germans were well ahead of the Allies

in technological advances in a whole range of fields.

And Hitler was promising the party faithful that,

"We have a game-changing addition to the war.

We can turn the tide."

So that confidence must have come from somewhere.

SHATNER: What secret technology were Nazi scientists working on

that convinced Hitler that Germany could win the war?

Well, according to Polish researcher

and author Igor Witkowski,

who has investigated that very question for more than 20 years,

it was a mysterious Nazi weapon

known as "Die Glocke,"

or "The Bell."

SHATNER: In 2007, Igor Witkowski's extraordinary claims

were revealed to the wider world

when he published a book titled,

The Truth About The Wunderwaffe.

SWARTZ: According to Igor Witkowski,

The Bell was described as being about 12 to 15 feet tall,

and shaped like a bell.

It had two counterrotating cylinders

that were filled with a mercury-like substance

that was highly radioactive.

Once it was activated,

it emitted a field that was about

600 feet in diameter.

Anybody that got too close to this field died.

Several of the scientists who were working

on The Bell suffered this fate.

The theory was that when The Bell was activated,

if you create a powerful enough electromagnetic field,

that you could actually warp space-time

in a highly localized area,

creating antigravity

and possibly even time travel.

SHATNER: But if The Bell did exist,

as Igor Witkowski claims,

then where were the Nazis developing

such an extraordinary piece of secret technology?

SHATNER: This densely-forested area hides remnants

of an ultra-clandestine test facility

with secret subterranean chambers,

tunnels and fortifications.

And Igor Witkowski contends that this town was dedicated

to the development of The Bell.

SHATNER: Could this secret facility have been the test site

for The Bell?

Some believe the proof lies with an enigmatic structure

at the center of the complex known as "The Henge."

POPE: The Henge is a name given

to this bizarre structure,

which really does look almost like a concrete Stonehenge.

And some researchers believe

that Die Glocke, or The Bell,

was somehow inserted into this structure.

POPE: We've heard all the theories,

but we don't know, because apparently,

it was not ready for operational use.

But had The Bell been developed

and had it proven to be an effective weapon,

Hitler would have used it.

SHATNER: The possibility of Die Glocke becoming operational

in the hands of the Third Reich is...

frightening, to say the least.

But in addition to creating weapons of war,

the German forces were also on the hunt

for an ancient holy relic,

described in the Old Testament as an object so powerful,

one touch could strike a person dead.

SHATNER: This mountainous region is more

than 500 miles from Rome,

and almost 2,000 miles from Jerusalem.

According to legend,

the Ark of the Covenant was once hidden,

not in these holy cities,

but in a 13th-century French fortress

called the "Ch�teau de Monts�gur."

McGOWAN: Throughout France,

there are legends, from north to south,

about the Ark of the Covenant being

in the land there at different periods of time.

One of the potential resting sites

of the Ark of the Covenant in France

was on the mountaintop of Monts�gur.

And it was a stronghold of the Cathar people.

Now the Cathars were a Christian sect

that lived in France in the Middle Ages,

and they had strong spiritual convictions.

So there is an idea that because these treasures

that were brought back from the Holy Land were spiritual,

and the Cathars were deeply spiritual people,

that the church may have brought these treasures,

including the Ark of the Covenant,

to the Cathar people.

SHATNER: The Ark of the Covenant in southern France?

It's an intriguing possibility,

one that, in 1936, caught the attention

of the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany-

Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler and Hitler were both obsessed with obtaining relics.

During the occupation of France,

there were a number of Nazi brigades

that were actually dispatched

throughout the region of the Pyrenees,

into Monts�gur, in search of the Ark of the Covenant.

There are still tracks in the mountains today

from where the Nazis were mining, essentially,

in the mountains, looking for these potential artifacts.

They truly did believe

that the Ark may have still been there in those mountains.

McMAHON: Heinrich Himmler was obsessed

with occultism, and you have to remember

that the occult had had a massive influence

on Nazi ideology.

And it may seem crazy, but he sent people out

on these quests to find these sacred items.

SHATNER: The Nazis never found the Ark at Monts�gur,

but what compelled them

to invest so much time and effort into finding it?

Were they simply trying to find a magnificent golden chest?

Perhaps.

But there are many who believe

that the Nazis had an ulterior motive.

McMAHON: The Ark of the Covenant

was particularly coveted by Heinrich Himmler

because it possessed enormous power,

and it was carried by the Israelites

in the long exodus to the promised land.

So when they fought their enemies

in order to establish their homeland,

the Ark of the Covenant would be carried before them,

and would emit terrible power,

smiting their enemies.

It brought down the walls of Jericho simply by its presence.

It emitted thunderbolts at the enemy,

and in the eyes of a Nazi, what was not to like?

They believed that this would usher in the 1,000-year Reich.

RABBI BARRY LEFF: If you watch the movie Indiana Jones,

and the end of the Raiders of the Lost Ark,

all that magical stuff the Ark does,

you know, Steven Spielberg didn't make that up.

That's all in the midrash, that's all in Jewish legends.

It's like a nuclear weapon, so,

by legend, the Ark had these tremendous powers,

and that's why people wanted to take it with them into battle,

because it was powerful and dangerous.

According to the story that we have in the Bible,

when the Ark is coming up to Jerusalem,

this cart that it's on hits a bump or something,

and it starts to tip.

And this nice guy named Uzzah reaches out

to keep it from tipping over,

but because he touched the Ark...

...God strikes him dead.

So, everybody's terrified of this thing.

It has so much power, it can just zap people dead.

(thunderclap)

SHATNER: Struck down by the wrath of God?

Perhaps.

But there are some who claim

that there is a more scientific way

to explain this extraordinary account from the Bible.

TRAVIS TAYLOR: The Ark of the Covenant is a fascinating story,

and concept, for that matter.

You have, in the biblical scripture,

a description of a device.

It's got specific dimensions, specific materials,

and specific structures and shapes.

So what the device is for is a whole other question.

But it sounds like a technological device

to store energy, like a modern-day capacitor,

because it is coated with a conductor- gold.

Then, there is another material inside that

that is a non-conductor- wood.

And then, it's got another layer of gold on the inside,

and that's exactly how we build capacitors.

There's a conductor, an insulator, then a conductor.

And then on top of the Ark

are these wing-shaped, pointing structures.

If you look at modern-day Tesla coils

and Van de Graaff generators,

we always put a probe on the top of it,

like a little needle, or a little metal arm,

so that lightning can jump off of that.

It's a point of which the energy is transmitted from.

This sounds a lot like the Ark of the Covenant.

RABBI ARIEL BAR TZADOK: It has long been believed

that the Ark of the Covenant had some type of

electromagnetic energy,

a power that is not supernatural or spiritual in nature,

but very much technological.

So, the powers that it had,

the abilities that it was able to manifest,

to this day is still a mystery.

SHATNER: One of the most iconic stories in medieval literature

is from the tales of King Arthur,

where young Arthur single-handedly

pulls a sword out of a stone.

It was a feat that revealed him

to be the one true king of Britain.

But there's another sword in the Arthur legend

that is no less compelling.

YOUNG: There are two swords in the Arthur story.

One comes out of that stone, and later,

he gets a sword as a gift from the Lady of the Lake.

This is the goddess of the lake.

And her arm comes up out of the water holding a sword.

And that is Excalibur, a sword beyond other swords.

GRAHAM PHILLIPS: Excalibur,

we are told, had a golden hilt and had magical powers.

It's a sword that's supposed to make Arthur invincible.

YOUNG: Arthur's story is the hero's journey,

because it has the magic and the sacred

and all the mystical dimensions.

In the hero's journey,

the protagonist gains a special tool or weapon.

This is the magical thing.

It will be just the thing you needed,

although you might not know it at the time.

And then the moment will arise,

and you see exactly why you have it.

SHATNER: According to legend, King Arthur used Excalibur

to win many battles and unite Britain under his leadership.

But alas,

Arthur finally died on the battlefield

when he was mortally wounded by his son, Mordred.

PHILLIPS: As King Arthur

lies dying on the field of battle,

he asked that his sword, Excalibur,

the source of all his power,

be taken by a knight and thrown into a nearby lake.

When this happens,

the hand of the Lady of the Lake

breaks through the surface of the water,

grabs hold of the sword

and takes it down into the crystal depth

to keep it until some future king may need it

when Britain is again threatened.

SHATNER: Many scholars believe that magic is an important part

of what makes the King Arthur story so powerful.

And curiously,

the supernatural elements of Excalibur

may not have been merely a fantasy.

The story of Excalibur may seem one of the medieval additions,

if you like, to the tale of King Arthur,

that sounds the least likely.

But in fact, the story of Excalibur

and the knight throwing it to the Lady of the Lake

could be based on historical events.

(men screaming)

The Celtic warriors of the time Arthur existed

had a tradition that their soul, if you like, was in their sword.

And at their funerals, their swords were often thrown

into a sacred lake or pool

as an offering to a water goddess.

And in fact, archaeology has discovered many ancient swords

that had been thrown into lakes that have since dried up.

So the story of the Lady of the Lake,

this strange nymph-like woman that takes the sword,

could have originated with the tradition

of casting a warrior's sword

as an offering to a water goddess.

SHATNER: It's intriguing to think that Excalibur,

the sword with mystical powers that would unite a nation,

might really exist.

And if the Arthurian legends are true, maybe one day,

a shining glimmer under the water's surface will reveal

the final resting place

of the heroic king's powerful weapon.

Could the legendary Excalibur still lie

at the bottom of a lake, waiting to be reclaimed?

It would be a profound discovery,

and one that would certainly rewrite the history books.

And while there are many extraordinary weapons

that are perhaps the stuff of tall tales,

it's the remarkable daggers, swords and armaments

that we know exist

that continue to captivate and confound us.

Will we ever learn

how these legendary weapons were made,

or what special powers they may have possessed?

Well, for now, these questions will remain...

...unexplained.

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