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[narrator] The tales have been told
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since man first gathered
around the fires of pre-history.
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Tales of the strange and wondrous things
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hidden in the vast unknown shadows
of the world.
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Tales of creatures divine
and beasts demonic,
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of Gods and kings,
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of myths and monsters.
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From dark forests to the lands of ice,
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from desert wastes
to the storm-thrashed seas,
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every corner of the Earth
has its legends to tell.
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Stories of heroes
and the villains they encounter,
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of the wilderness and the dangers within.
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Stories of battles, of love, of order...
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and of chaos.
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But what are the roots
of these fantastic tales,
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and why have they endured so long?
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In this series, we'll explore the history
behind these legends
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and reveal the hidden influences
that shaped them.
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War and disease,
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religious and social upheaval,
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the untamable ferocity
of the natural world...
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and above all,
the monsters lurking within ourselves.
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Today, the significance of the wilderness
and a journey into it
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can be hard for us to appreciate.
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As populations grow,
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and travel and communication
become ever faster,
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we can overlook
how different the world was in the past,
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how vast it must have seemed
and how wild.
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For thousands of years,
most people lived and died
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within a short distance
of the place they were born.
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Their existence was bounded
by the wilderness,
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by the unyielding darkness
of ancient woods,
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by the ice shod peaks
of impenetrable mountains,
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and by the hostile deserts' lonely wastes.
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A journey to the next town
was a perilous undertaking.
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It meant abandoning the safe
and the familiar,
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and entering a realm
that was not their own.
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The wilderness is usually defined
as somewhere that is uncultivated
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uninhabited by humans,
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and it's often a liminal space.
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[Purkiss] Wildernesses are
the places you don't know,
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the places where you don't go,
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the places where
you have no business to be.
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They are the spaces of darkness.
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What counts as wild
and what counts as natural
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is very much a human construct.
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We decide where the wilderness starts
and where it ends.
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So, that question makes it
a very fertile place for stories to happen
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as human cultures work out
where those limits are.
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When you confront difference,
you confront a world that's not your own,
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you confront the unknown.
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[Wood] It's dangerous and it's disordered,
but it's natural and it's free, as well.
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And this is, in many ways,
the perfect setting
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for what's going to happen
in a myth or a legend.
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People will fill the wilderness
that surrounds them
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with what they fear in themselves,
what they fear in their own society.
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The wilderness is the place where we expel
all the stuff we don't like in ourselves,
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in our culture, in our society.
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Such is the contradiction
of the wilderness,
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it is both of us and not of us,
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surrounding us,
yet at once strange and far away.
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For wilderness is as much an idea
as it is a physical place,
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and a great deal can be learned
about a people
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from the way they saw it
and from the stories they told about it.
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As much as people must have feared
what lay beyond their walls,
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they also relied upon it.
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Seas threatened the fisherman
with drowning,
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but they provided his livelihood, too.
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The forest hid all manner of danger,
but that was where the hunter had to roam.
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The trees can hide more than
deadly creatures and lawless men, however.
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As the ancient story of Actaeon tells us,
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magic and madness can lie in wait
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should we ever stray too far
from the path.
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Actaeon had wandered far from home.
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The young huntsman
had long since passed the city gates,
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and the fields where farmers
thumbing sweat from their brows
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had stood to track his progress
towards the darkness of the woods.
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Actaeon did not fear that wilderness,
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he scorned the superstitions of other men.
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The forest, he thought, was as much
his realm as the city street.
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As Actaeon rested in a shady clearing,
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he suddenly heard an unfamiliar sound.
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[mysterious singing]
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Drawn on by the strange music,
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Actaeon pushed deeper and deeper
into the ever thickening forest.
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He parted the last branches
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and stared into the grove beyond.
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The story of Actaeon is a classical myth.
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To the Ancient Greeks,
the young huntsman was courting danger
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the moment he stepped beyond
his city walls,
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the moment he entered the wild.
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For the Greeks,
human life revolved around the city.
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Athens, with its resplendent temples,
was the birthplace of democracy.
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In its Golden Age, it became a flourishing
center of art and philosophy.
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Socrates and Plato called the city home,
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as did the great playwrights
Euripides and Sophocles.
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Their works helped shape
Western literature and thought,
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and they are still read, debated,
and performed to this day.
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Athens was not only a cultural powerhouse,
it had military muscle, too,
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with a navy
which dominated the Aegean Sea.
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This supremacy was not unchallenged,
however,
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for Athens had a rival,
another great city of ancient Greece.
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Renowned for its austere discipline
and the skill of its hoplite warriors,
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Sparta was more than a match for Athens.
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The long war between the two great cities
consumed the ancient Greek world
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and ultimately ended
the Golden Age of Athens.
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Cities such as Athens and Sparta
were the human realm.
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What lay beyond
belonged to something else, however.
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[Purkiss] The Ancient Greeks
just didn't like the wilderness much,
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so, they were profoundly unenthusiastic
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about anything we would see
as wilderness.
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They simply saw it as somewhere
that you didn't want to be.
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[Gloyn] The Greeks have this view
that if you're out in the wilderness,
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there's always this risk
of walking over the boundary,
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of crossing into the divine.
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[Purkiss] The Greeks regarded
the wilderness as so scary,
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that the god they created to inhabit it,
the god Pan,
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is the god from whose name we get
the English word "panic."
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[Gloyn] It's about the crossing
in between the wild and the tame,
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the controlled, the uncontrolled,
so, there's the possibility
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of crossing over that line
and going beyond where you should go.
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It's interesting the Gods always seem
much more comfortable in the wilderness
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than human beings are.
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And it therefore follows
that human beings who are usually out
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doing something like hunting,
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something that's about
conquering the wilderness,
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usually ends badly.
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It's almost a way of saying,
"know your place,"
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which is one of the great Greek sayings.
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Know that you're not a god,
you're just a human being.
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[Gloyn] There's a very real sense
for the Greeks
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that that boundary
between where humans are
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and where the divine is, is very thin.
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And if you're out in the wilderness,
in the wild,
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you can just drop through it
without meaning to.
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[narrator] To the Greeks,
the wilderness was a frightening place
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where the laws of society held no sway.
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It belonged instead to the divine,
to the monstrous, to the mad.
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It was a place of taboos broken
and punishments terrible.
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It was everything a city was not.
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As such, it fulfilled an important role
for the Greeks.
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By exploring what lay
beyond the boundaries of society,
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people defined what lay within them,
as well.
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By telling stories
of the monsters outside,
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they better understood those within.
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Actaeon stared into the grove.
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It was a wooded cave,
wild and beautiful to behold.
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He was enraptured.
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He could not resist. He had to get closer.
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Actaeon crept forward,
down to the water's edge,
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drawn on, ever on by the sight before him.
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His foot broke the stillness
of the crystal waters.
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The ripples spread.
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Suddenly dark eyes turned on the intruder,
for those were no mortal creatures.
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This was the goddess Artemis
and her nymphs.
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Artemis of the wilds,
of the hills, of the moon.
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The goddess stood
cloaked in her wild fury.
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Actaeon ran.
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Actaeon's encounter
with the goddess Artemis
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would not have surprised
the Ancient Greeks.
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For them, the wilderness
was no place for man.
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The Greeks were not alone in seeing
the wilderness as an otherworldly realm.
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Centuries later,
the Celts of Northern Europe
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would also sense in their great forests
and rugged landscape
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the presence of the supernatural.
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The Celts were a pre-Christian people.
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Their origins in central Europe date back
as far as the 9th Century B.C.
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At its height, Celtic culture spread
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as far south as the Iberian Peninsula
and as far east as modern Turkey.
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Celtic religion was a polytheistic one.
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The worship of its many gods
was led by the druids,
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mysterious figures
of great social importance.
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They made prophecies, dispensed justice,
and performed religious rites
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that may even have included
human sacrifice.
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Celtic society and the age of the druids
was threatened, however,
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by the growth of the Roman Empire.
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[Purkiss] Most of our sources
for the Celts are Roman sources,
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rather than surviving Celtic sources.
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The Celts didn't write stuff down.
The Romans did.
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So, we have Julius Caesar's
horrified account
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of Celtic sacrifices in oak groves
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and oak groves with bits
of sacrificed people hanging off them.
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So, that's the first encounter
between the Romans
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and the people they call the "Celts."
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And it's an encounter
fraught with horror and dismay.
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[Wood] Interestingly, the Romans
never called the Celts, Celts.
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They call them Galli, Gauls,
or Britanni.
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Britons, basically, so, they don't
actually use the term "Celt."
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So, clearly they were aware
of this slightly disparate group,
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which was nevertheless pressuring
on their desire
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to establish a huge empire.
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[narrator] The Roman authorities
suppressed the druids,
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who disappeared from the written record
in the 2nd Century.
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Much of the Celts' unique
cultural heritage
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was preserved only as an oral tradition,
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and so, it was lost,
along with the druids.
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[Gloyn] The druids were a challenge
for the Romans
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because they were very secretive.
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They didn't like even writing down
what their beliefs or their rituals were,
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and that was a problem.
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[Purkiss] The Romans found it very hard
to get to understand
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what it was that they were facing.
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Faced with all that secrecy and denial,
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they decided that the easiest thing
would be to get rid of it completely.
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[Wood] The Romans' attitude to the druids
was the same as their attitude
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to any group
that they were to take over.
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If there was a locus of power
in that group, it had to be suppressed.
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[narrator] By 500 A.D.,
the once widespread Celtic people
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are to be found only in northern Europe,
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in parts of Britain, France,
and in Ireland.
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There, some ancient traditions survived
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to be recorded by later Christian writers
of the Medieval Period.
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Stories of the gods they worshiped,
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00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:30,000
of the kings they served,
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and of the wilderness
that surrounded them.
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The Giant's Causeway
on the coast of Northern Ireland
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is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Its 40,000 geometric rock columns
reach heights of over ten meters,
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and they stretch from the cliff edge
to the sea and beyond.
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We now know them to be the result
of ancient volcanic activity,
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but the Celts had another explanation.
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To them, the Causeway was the work
of legendary giant Finn MacCool.
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He was challenged to a fight
by a Scottish rival,
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so, he built a great bridge of stone
over the sea,
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so the two could meet
without wetting their feet.
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Alongside that wilderness
of rocks and trees, however,
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there was another more magical realm
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to be discovered
in the lands of the Celts.
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The Otherworld.
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[Teverson] The Celtic Otherworld was
a supernatural realm,
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a realm that existed alongside of our own
and parallel to our own.
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[Purkiss] It's a world that has
its own laws, inhabitants,
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power structures, and nature.
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It's like something that's always there.
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It doesn't go away.
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So, it's very much located in the outside,
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the beyond, the wild.
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[narrator] A glimpse might be seen
in the clouds or the fleeting mist,
239
00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:23,400
in half light or in the shadows.
240
00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:29,280
It was at once both here...
and somewhere else.
241
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,640
Stories of humans
entering the elusive realm
242
00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:40,360
are found throughout Celtic mythology.
243
00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:44,960
Sometimes heroes were enticed in
by a beautiful fairy maid,
244
00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:47,840
or they stumbled across an entrance
in a cave,
245
00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:50,560
or under the water, or in a dream.
246
00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:53,120
The Otherworld they found beyond
247
00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:56,280
was home to the many pre-Christian gods
of the Celts.
248
00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,280
It was a land of eternal youth and beauty
249
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:03,720
where it was always summer
and there was no hunger and no despair.
250
00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:07,560
The realities of life for most Celts
251
00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:11,360
were sickness and starvation,
war and want.
252
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:13,520
The Otherworld must have offered
253
00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:16,120
an attractive mirror image
of those struggles.
254
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:18,760
However, the price
the Otherworld extracted
255
00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:20,200
could be hefty, too.
256
00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:22,920
Just as in the tales
of the Ancient Greeks,
257
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,840
these human encounters
with the supernatural
258
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:28,000
did not always have a happy ending.
259
00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,360
[Purkiss] The Celts managed the wilderness
260
00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:39,920
by peopling it with entities
that are somewhat like themselves.
261
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,640
On the other hand, those entities
are more often than not
262
00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:45,960
at least potentially very dangerous.
263
00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,520
[Teverson] The realm of the fairies
is superficially attractive.
264
00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:52,040
It seems quite glamorous.
265
00:18:52,120 --> 00:18:56,120
But often, when the hero's in there,
they discovered another side to it.
266
00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:59,400
Initially, the character who stumbles
into the Otherworld
267
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,280
finds it a sort of glorious
and happy place.
268
00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:06,200
But the longer the character stays
in that Otherworld,
269
00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:09,120
they realize that it's sinister,
it's got darker dimensions.
270
00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:16,440
[Purkiss]
Let's take the beautiful fairy lady
271
00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:21,040
who's perhaps the most typical issuer
of an invitation to the Celtic Otherworld.
272
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:25,560
In Irish mythology,
she's usually well-intentioned
273
00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,960
and usually won't do any harm
in and of herself.
274
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:34,840
But if you spend three days with her,
it'll be three years where you came from.
275
00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:37,680
If you spend three years with her,
it'll be 300.
276
00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:41,280
So, when you go back home
everybody you know will be dead.
277
00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:44,720
[Teverson]
The principle of life is change,
278
00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:46,920
and we often regard that
as a frightening thing
279
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,400
because we don't want to grow old,
we don't want to die.
280
00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:53,720
But the idea of the fairy realm suggests
that the opposite is also horrific.
281
00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,400
That if we didn't grow old,
if we stayed static,
282
00:19:56,720 --> 00:19:59,120
um, then there would be
no growth, no life.
283
00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:02,560
[narrator] For the heroes of Celtic myth,
284
00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:06,480
entering this fairy land meant
abandoning home and family.
285
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,200
By their return, though,
the world had changed,
286
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,600
and there was no place left for them
in human society.
287
00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:16,160
The stories seem to recognize
288
00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:21,400
that shared suffering
and ultimately, shared mortality
289
00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:24,480
are necessary for society to function.
290
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:28,560
But where there is suffering,
there is also kindness,
291
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:32,600
and where there is death,
there is a need for new life.
292
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:36,520
Actaeon heeded not the rocks underfoot,
293
00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:42,120
nor the branches clawing at his tunic,
slashing at his face.
294
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,440
But he could not escape
the goddess' rage.
295
00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:49,560
Actaeon had intruded as no mortal should,
296
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:52,040
upon the realm of the divine.
297
00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:55,320
He would have to be punished.
298
00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:01,240
As he ran, the bones of his face
began to split and reform.
299
00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:08,440
Actaeon stumbled,
his whole body taut with pain,
300
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:11,560
antlers burst through his skull.
301
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:13,440
He tried to scream,
302
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:18,000
but a stag's harsh cry
had displaced his human tongue.
303
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,400
The dogs he had left behind stirred
from their rest.
304
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,120
That familiar scent.
305
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:30,240
"It quickened in the mouth of every hound,
306
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,120
excitement quivered through the pack.
307
00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:34,800
A stag.
308
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,000
The hunt had begun."
309
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:44,040
Actaeon is transformed from man into stag.
310
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:49,440
His dogs changed from loyal companions
into fanged predators.
311
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:54,360
The transformation of these dogs
strikes at a very human anxiety.
312
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,120
Our communities are ordered,
313
00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:01,120
laws govern our behavior,
crimes are punished.
314
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:05,680
But in the natural world
it can seem that chaos reigns.
315
00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:08,440
Like Actaeon and his hounds,
316
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:11,480
our grip over the wild
is only ever a tenuous one.
317
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:13,840
Some things are beyond our control.
318
00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:18,360
We are at all times exposed
to the random ferocity of nature.
319
00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:40,920
Oceans cover over 70 percent
of the Earth's surface.
320
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:44,680
Almost every civilization in history
has exploited them
321
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,360
for food, trade, or transport.
322
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:53,440
But if the waters brought opportunities,
they also represented danger.
323
00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:59,720
[Gloyn] You were at the mercy
of wind and the storms.
324
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:02,840
Leaving view of shore
was a very dangerous undertaking
325
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:04,680
that only very experienced sailors took.
326
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,360
[Purkiss] It was normal for sailors
to be scared of the sea.
327
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:12,520
It's not the case that people who crossed
the sea are at home with it.
328
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:16,280
It's normal, the more time you spend
with it, to distrust it.
329
00:23:16,360 --> 00:23:19,240
Even experienced sailors,
even experienced mariners
330
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:24,120
will be caught by surprise by the behavior
of waves, by currents, by weather.
331
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:31,000
[narrator] It was not just the wind
and waves that sailors feared.
332
00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:36,440
Throughout history,
there had been tales of strange creatures
333
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:39,440
living in the cold blackness of the deep.
334
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:44,360
The serpents of the mid-Atlantic
would stalk the ships of the Royal Navy.
335
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:49,520
The vast Devil Whales seen
by early Irish explorers,
336
00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:54,520
and of course, the famous monster
of Loch Ness in Scotland.
337
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:58,960
None, however is more terrifying
than the creature said to dwell
338
00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,040
off the frozen coasts of Norway
and Greenland.
339
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:08,080
The King's Mirror, an old Norwegian
manuscript from the 13th Century,
340
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,320
spoke of a creature
that had never been caught,
341
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:15,360
a beast so large,
sailors mistook it for land.
342
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:20,280
An enormous being which devoured fish,
men, and even ships whole.
343
00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:22,600
They called it the hafgufa.
344
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:29,360
[Butler] The hafgufa is a sea monster
that appears in the saga of Örvar-Odd.
345
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:32,120
The sea monster is enormous
346
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,200
and spends most of its time
below the surface level of the sea,
347
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:40,000
so, all you ever see of it
is its nostrils and its fangs,
348
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:41,640
and when it comes to the surface,
349
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,560
it looks like two big craggy rocks
sticking up out of the sea.
350
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,400
Its name is made up of two elements.
351
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:54,640
The old Norse words for sea, haf,
and gufa, which is steam or vapor.
352
00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:58,360
So, perhaps it's something
about this monster's breath
353
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:01,320
as it comes to the surface,
looking like sea mist.
354
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,920
It's a sort of sea-going nightmare
that illustrates
355
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,600
the way that the ocean's depths
are the ultimate wilderness,
356
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:10,080
the ultimate unknown space.
357
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:16,320
[narrator] The stories circulated
among fishermen
358
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:18,840
and traders of the north for decades.
359
00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:22,480
Some likened the creature to a giant crab.
360
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:26,360
Others said it was more like a squid
with enormous tentacles
361
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:29,040
that ensnared boats and sailors alike.
362
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:30,960
All agreed, though,
363
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:35,000
that not even the greatest ships of war
could resist its attack.
364
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:39,520
Over time, a new name emerged and stuck.
365
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,920
The beast was dubbed the Kraken.
366
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:12,960
In the 18th Century,
new scientific disciplines emerged.
367
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:17,800
Many natural philosophers dismissed
the Kraken as a fisherman's tale.
368
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:20,920
But others were not so sure.
369
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:24,960
Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus
described it
370
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:28,360
as a singular monster
of the Norwegian seas.
371
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,680
Danish bishop Erik Pontoppidan
believed the stories, too,
372
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,960
but claimed the true danger lay not
in the creature
373
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,520
but in the deadly whirlpools
left in its wake.
374
00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:44,080
Modern science gives more credence
to the stories than you might think.
375
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:49,840
The legend of the Kraken may be a result
of sailors encountering a giant squid.
376
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,880
These unearthly-looking creatures
rarely come to the surface,
377
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:57,600
but can grow to enormous lengths
of 13 meters and more,
378
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:02,120
and it is thought even larger squid,
as yet unknown to science,
379
00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:04,200
lurk in the inky depths.
380
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,400
[Purkiss] If you see a giant squid
and you're in a small boat,
381
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:11,920
that's a terrifying experience.
They are unnatural-looking.
382
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:16,480
They have the largest eyes,
in proportion to any other animal,
383
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,000
so, they look incredibly powerful.
384
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:23,040
Also, they can do magical things
like squirting ink out of their bodies.
385
00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:27,320
So, there's a lot of discomfort
associated with that kind of creature,
386
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:32,360
and they therefore figure very often
in horror stories.
387
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,840
There's one
in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
388
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:38,440
there's one in Victor Hugo's book
Workers in the Sea.
389
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:41,920
They often figure as man's opponents,
390
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,160
a kind of personification
of the ocean itself
391
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:48,560
in its unpredictability,
its enormity, and its power.
392
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,400
[narrator] Terror and confusion
at seeing such a creature
393
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:59,120
may have been intensified by the condition
of the sailors themselves.
394
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:04,080
Hunger and malnutrition were commonplace
on ocean going ships of the past.
395
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:06,440
The sailors' work was hard,
396
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:09,280
and they were confined
to the same small space
397
00:28:09,360 --> 00:28:12,240
with the same people for week after week.
398
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:16,640
The combined effect all this could have
on their physical and mental health
399
00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:18,240
was devastating.
400
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:22,440
[Butler] I think if you spend hours
on a ship looking out at sea,
401
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:26,640
as a lookout for land
or for any other vessels approaching,
402
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:31,480
you're going to start seeing things in the
light and the water and their interaction.
403
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:36,360
[Purkiss] It's natural to give a reason
for the odd behavior of the ocean.
404
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:38,640
It's in a way easier to deal with it,
405
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:42,520
with a bunch of superstitious
and mythological interpretations
406
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:46,400
than it is just to say, "We don't know why
it works the way it does,
407
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:48,840
but I'm going sailing again next weekend."
408
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,760
It's much better to think
in terms of sea monsters
409
00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:54,120
that will make a good story.
410
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,880
[narrator] Whatever the roots of
the Kraken, the tales proved enduring,
411
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,200
and we've not lost the taste
for such stories.
412
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:07,200
The ocean retains its power
to frighten and to enthrall.
413
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:12,640
In 1975, director Steven Spielberg scored
box-office success
414
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:15,080
with his killer shark movie Jaws,
415
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:17,600
and the formula remains a popular one,
416
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:23,560
for taking to the seas to sail or to swim
is still to enter the unknown.
417
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:27,200
For who can say
what might be sharing the waters with us?
418
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:30,560
What might be lurking
beyond the boat's hull
419
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:32,680
or beneath our kicking feet?
420
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:41,000
Though today, ships cross our oceans
with satellite precision,
421
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:46,240
the fears provoked by open waters
and the unseen depths below
422
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,400
have not entirely disappeared.
423
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:53,160
The wilderness of the sea
remains a dangerous place,
424
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:59,360
and in modern tales of killer sharks
and the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle,
425
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:05,200
we can still hear the echo
of the Kraken's roar.
426
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:24,680
For thousands of years,
Europe was cloaked in forests.
427
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:27,640
Even the largest
of its settlements and cities
428
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:32,240
were mere pinpricks of light
among a vast wooded darkness.
429
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:38,760
It should be little surprise
that the forest is a common setting
430
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,280
in the continent's myths and legends.
431
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,680
It was both mysterious and familiar,
432
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,840
dangerous
but within touching distance of home.
433
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:51,720
It was a place of magic and adventure.
434
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,240
A wilderness that lurked
all too accessible
435
00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:59,240
at the bottom of the field
or beyond the city gates.
436
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:02,800
The wood is one of those wilderness spaces
437
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:06,480
in which scary things
that you'd never met before
438
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,720
and can only imagine might lurk.
439
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:13,760
Forests do tend to have
a particular value
440
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:16,920
in the profile
of that particular culture.
441
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:19,440
[Purkiss] Forests are the places
442
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:23,200
where the people who haven't succeeded
in the arable lands end up.
443
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:26,360
They end up there
because they can afford to live there.
444
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,560
Because nobody owns the forest,
you can't stop them from living there.
445
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:33,360
They're therefore associated
with the fear of not making it,
446
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:37,880
with the fear of failing your family,
your children, failing to provide.
447
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:46,640
Among the most famous stories
of the forest
448
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:48,600
are the fairy tales collected
449
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,080
by two German academics
in the 19th Century,
450
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:54,160
the Brothers Grimm.
451
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,680
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in Hanau
452
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,720
in central Germany
in the late 18th Century.
453
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:07,200
Their childhood was one
of comfortable affluence
454
00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:12,480
until the death of their father in 1796
plunged the family into poverty.
455
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:17,200
This traumatic upheaval
affected the young brothers deeply.
456
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:21,320
Relying on each other for support,
the two became inseparable.
457
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:26,800
Both excelled at school, and went on
to attend the University of Marburg.
458
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,080
It was here
that their interest in folklore began.
459
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,600
It was an interest
that would become an obsession,
460
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,560
one that would dominate both their lives.
461
00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:39,560
Building on the work of French academics
462
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,840
such as Charles Perrault
and Baroness d'Aulnoy,
463
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:45,720
the brothers began a patriotic project
464
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,320
to collect the folk tales
of their own land.
465
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:51,680
They spoke to German peasants
and aristocrats,
466
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:53,800
farmers and city dwellers,
467
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,360
and documented the stories they heard.
468
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:10,960
[Purkiss] The Grimm tales were collected
from people who lived in Hesse,
469
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:14,240
which though was quite industrialized
by the Grimms' time,
470
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:15,760
had a lot of woods in it.
471
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:18,520
About 10 or 11 percent
of the United Kingdom
472
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,280
is covered by what we would call woodland.
473
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:25,680
In Germany, even today,
it's something like 35 percent.
474
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:28,320
So, forests are everywhere.
475
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:30,800
Now, there's a particular reason for that,
476
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:35,840
which is that the Germans place
a high esteem on unspoiled nature.
477
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:40,280
That's simply a cultural given,
and that means that in some ways
478
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:46,280
Germans value a radical encounter
with otherness
479
00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:50,480
represented by the forest
in their renditions of fairy tales.
480
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:57,640
They're stories handed down by families
who lived among those woods
481
00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:01,160
and who often lived very difficult
and impoverished lives.
482
00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:06,520
[Teverson] The Grimms collected stories
from a range of sources.
483
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:11,239
In the main, from middle-class
bourgeois friends and neighbors
484
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:13,480
and people in their own social circle.
485
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:16,400
They'd often take several
different versions of the same story,
486
00:34:17,199 --> 00:34:19,880
take the bits they liked,
cannibalize them in effect,
487
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:21,880
and combine them into a new story.
488
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:28,920
[Saul] They were adapting the tales
of course for an educated literate public,
489
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,679
a middle-class and aristocratic public,
490
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:35,320
and they were adapting the content
of those tales, of course,
491
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,400
to the expectations of that public.
492
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,239
[narrator] In 1812, the Grimms published
the first volume
493
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,080
of their Children's and Household Tales.
494
00:34:47,639 --> 00:34:50,960
Three years later,
the brothers added a second volume,
495
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,719
forming what we now know
as Grimm's Fairy Tales.
496
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:09,760
After its initial publication,
497
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:14,440
the brothers spent the next four decades
revising and expanding their collection.
498
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:20,960
The seventh and final edition of 1857
contained more than 200 stories.
499
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:24,960
Many of those tales
are now familiar to us all.
500
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:28,040
Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty,
501
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:31,080
Hansel and Gretel, and many more.
502
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:35,680
The Grimms' enterprise was not simply
an act of scholarly record, however.
503
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,640
Over the years, the brothers re-wrote
many of the stories themselves.
504
00:35:39,720 --> 00:35:43,680
They minimized sexual elements
and softened other darker themes.
505
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:46,080
In earlier versions,
506
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:50,040
Little Red Riding Hood
was eaten by the Big Bad Wolf.
507
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,720
Sleeping Beauty was raped, not kissed,
508
00:35:54,240 --> 00:35:56,640
and Hansel and Gretel were neglected,
509
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:01,680
not by their evil stepmother,
but by their own parents.
510
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:10,600
[Purkiss] I suspect that that violent and
abusive culture directed towards children
511
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:16,200
may unfortunately have reflected
not a social reality but a social fear.
512
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:18,840
We tend to credit other people
513
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:23,240
with abusive and violent tendencies
towards children
514
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,720
rather than regarding ourselves
as having those tendencies.
515
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:32,040
We're getting with the parents
in Hansel and Gretel who are hungry
516
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:34,360
and abandon their children in the woods
517
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:37,840
because they can't work hard enough
to provide for them.
518
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:42,840
The reason we need to tell ourselves
these stories
519
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:46,080
is because we need to be sure
that we're not those people.
520
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:48,680
We need to differentiate ourselves
from those people
521
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:53,120
and make out that we are much more loving
and careful as parents.
522
00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,840
[narrator] Some have interpreted
these stories as cautionary tales.
523
00:36:59,920 --> 00:37:03,080
Little Red Riding Hood tells us
to obey our elders,
524
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:08,120
beware the woods, and be cautious
of strangers from beyond our homes.
525
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,080
Others have taken
a more psychoanalytic approach.
526
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:14,880
Employing the concepts of Sigmund Freud,
527
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:19,280
these interpretations re-cast the story
as one of sexual awakening.
528
00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:22,920
The dark woods are a symbol
of the unconscious mind.
529
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:27,280
Obedient and innocent,
she is the archetypal female.
530
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:31,680
The wolf on the other hand,
hungry and aggressive, is the male.
531
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,520
When they meet later
at the grandmother's house,
532
00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:38,800
Little Red Riding Hood
recognizes the wolf in his disguise
533
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:40,160
but does not flee.
534
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:43,200
Instead, she climbs into bed with him.
535
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:45,280
The scene is a seduction,
536
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:48,280
and Little Red Riding Hood
is a willing participant.
537
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:53,280
[Teverson] Fairy tales, like all stories,
have an element of content
538
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:55,480
which is not explicit on the surface.
539
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:57,040
Psychoanalysts have also argued
540
00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:00,480
that fairy tales communicate to us
at the level of the unconscious.
541
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:03,280
In particular, they communicate
to children at the unconscious level.
542
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:07,160
[Purkiss] In real life,
wolves very rarely attack human beings.
543
00:38:07,240 --> 00:38:09,200
They're actually sensible animals.
544
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:12,240
So, it follows therefore
that wolves must be symbolic
545
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:14,560
rather than representing an actual threat.
546
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:17,600
What they seem to represent,
547
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:21,600
it's the fear
that human beings who live in woods
548
00:38:21,680 --> 00:38:24,840
might become wild and wood-like.
549
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:29,120
They represent
this sort of savage interior
550
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:34,920
that has to be carefully contained,
controlled, and muzzled by civilization.
551
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,840
[narrator] If the wolf is a symbol
of the wildness lurking within us all,
552
00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:44,320
then its frequent presence
in these stories is a reminder
553
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:47,160
that however grandly
we build our monuments,
554
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:50,320
however elegantly we draft our laws,
555
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,240
civilization is ultimately a fiction,
556
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:56,640
a veneer far thinner
than we would like to admit.
557
00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:01,960
The smallest of slips can see it crack
and set loose that savage interior,
558
00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:05,120
that wolf in terrifying fashion.
559
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:12,840
Hurtling through bush and trees,
560
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:16,240
Actaeon's hounds streamed after him
as never before.
561
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:21,000
The transformed huntsman
urged his unfamiliar limbs on.
562
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:25,480
Close behind was Blackfoot Melampus,
swift as the wind.
563
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:28,120
Beside him, Snatcher, fiercest of all,
564
00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:31,600
and Shepherd, his favorite,
who knew not his master's call.
565
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:38,600
Actaeon crashed on through the woods,
but the trees closed tight around him.
566
00:39:39,240 --> 00:39:41,000
There was nowhere left to run.
567
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:46,320
On every side, the ravenous dogs
surrounded their deer master.
568
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:58,920
"Teeth sank into flesh,
tearing and slicing, ripping and biting.
569
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:05,400
So, they ended the life of Actaeon
and slate the goddess' rage."
570
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:11,160
Actaeon's grisly death comes
a long way from home,
571
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:15,120
deep in the wilderness
that was the untamed forest.
572
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:20,200
His story is one of the most famous
and enduring in all Greek mythology.
573
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:25,680
It has inspired writers, sculptors, and
artists in generation after generation.
574
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:29,960
But though the age of the Ancient Greeks
is long past,
575
00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:34,960
our fascination with the wild unknown
remains undimmed.
576
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,880
Throughout history,
societies have used the wilderness
577
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:43,720
to explore what frightens us
about the world and about ourselves.
578
00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:47,560
To help us understand what it means
to be part of a family,
579
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:49,160
part of a community,
580
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:52,560
and what it means to lose those things.
581
00:40:56,760 --> 00:41:00,680
[Teverson] The wilderness is in some
respects the opposite of civilization,
582
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:05,280
but also there's a sense in which we carry
a bit of wildness in ourselves as well.
583
00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:09,840
[Gloyn]
The wilderness also becomes a place
584
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:13,440
for exploring what happens
when humans get too civilized.
585
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:15,600
What does it mean when we go too far
586
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:19,000
where we start sort of becoming
too artificial and too false?
587
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:23,200
[Purkiss] It might be the mountains,
it might be the heath.
588
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:28,640
It's the place where, because you
haven't got a big rational take on it,
589
00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:30,760
you can fill it with the irrational,
590
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:35,080
the parts of yourself
that you normally repress or crush.
591
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:38,480
It continually calls to us
as being untamed,
592
00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:41,040
and we are drawn by the lure of taming it.
593
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:44,600
But it will never actually give in
to our control.
594
00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:55,800
[narrator] Today, perhaps we like to think
we've pushed the wilderness back,
595
00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:59,120
but though our cities may now stretch
to the horizon,
596
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:02,240
we can never banish the wilderness
entirely.
597
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:08,160
We can sense it in the silence
of a deserted wood,
598
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:13,120
or in the roar of the storm
breaking over a distant mountainside,
599
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:16,600
but it is with us always.
600
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:20,200
Our maps may grow ever more detailed,
601
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:24,520
but the wild unknown
will always lurk at the edges.
53973
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