Original subtitles

WILLIAM SHATNER: A fabled king who united a nation.

A lost city of gold hidden in the jungles of Peru.

And a bizarre crystal skull

that may possess incredible healing powers.

Throughout history, legends have been used

to teach moral lessons, explain the unknown,

and even serve as a form of entertainment.

But is it possible that some of these stories

are based on actual events?

If so, can we unravel

centuries of fictional embellishment

to find the truth behind these legends?

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

♪ ♪

(cheering)

SHATNER: Every year, thousands of people gather

at the Gulf Coast Renaissance Faire

to experience a taste of medieval life.

The fair is one of many similar events

held around the globe

that are inspired by age-old tales

of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

I don't know what child growing up

doesn't want to be a knight in shining armor.

It's such a romanticized time period

that the stories of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table

and all of their quests and adventures

have branched and become bigger and bigger,

right through today's modern age.

It has such a collective

grab on our imagination and our soul.

DORSEY ARMSTRONG: King Arthur is everywhere today.

You'd be hard pressed to find another legendary figure

that is as popular all over the world

in so many times, and so many places,

whether it's in the 12th century

or the 15th century

or the 21st century.

SHATNER: Since the Middle Ages,

the legend of King Arthur has captured the imagination

of countless people all over the world.

But what are the origins

of this powerful story?

JONATHAN YOUNG: The Arthur story begins with a boy raised by farmers.

One time, his brother is in a sword fighting contest

and his brother's sword breaks.

And Arthur said, "No, don't forfeit.

Hold off for a second. I saw a sword."

And he saw a sword stuck in a stone.

SHATNER: As the story goes, the sword that Arthur saw

was no ordinary blade.

It had been prophesied that

only the future king of England

could draw the sword out of the stone.

Many men had tried to remove it,

but all of them failed.

That is, until Arthur pulled the sword,

and it slid out of the stone.

YOUNG: This is the earliest that Arthur begins to understand

that something is happening in his life beyond his grasp.

Gradually, this unusual young man

does become king of all Britain.

JULIETTE WOOD: The Arthurian legend basically tells

about a young person who discovers their destiny,

and discovers how to achieve this destiny.

He becomes the center of these medieval romances,

where he is the quintessential leader.

He is "Rex Quondam, Rexque Futurus,"

the once and future king.

It's amazing how much of that story

has permeated our culture just sort of by osmosis.

And the image we all have is that King Arthur

lives in Camelot, which is a big stone castle.

He had a wife Guinevere,

and also he is assisted

by a wizard named Merlin.

His knights of the Round Table

looked for the Holy Grail.

And he has a fabulous sword named Excalibur.

It is this wonderful repository

of symbols and themes

and adventures

that are all interlinked,

because they all relate to the court

of this one marvelous figure.

SHATNER: The vast influence

of the Arthurian legend is undeniable.

But for more than a thousand years,

a fascinating question has lingered.

Is it possible that King Arthur

wasn't merely a myth

but, rather, a real man?

GRAHAM PHILLIPS: If we go back to

the original accounts of King Arthur,

written during the Dark Ages

around about 500 AD,

the Roman Empire collapsed,

and the Roman soldiers withdrew from Britain.

And this country turned into

complete anarchy.

There were various separate tribes fighting each other,

and what was needed

was one single warrior

or chieftain or king to unite them all.

And Arthur is said to have been that person

in myth and legend.

TONY McMAHON: There are lots of theories on who King Arthur

might really have been.

And really, there's no clear answer.

The Arthur that we think we know

came from many hands,

many authors, many writers,

who had slightly different takes on the Arthur story.

We know the basic elements of the story,

but the man himself remains a mystery.

SHATNER: According to historians, there are numerous versions of

the King Arthur legend,

many of which have been lost to time.

But the most influential telling of the story

dates to the 12th century,

when a Welsh monk named Geoffrey of Monmouth

claimed he'd discovered a long-lost account

of early British history that recorded King Arthur

as being an actual person

who lived around the year 500 AD.

Monmouth then published a translated version of this text,

which he called The History of the Kings of Britain.

Geoffrey of Monmouth,

in his text in the 12th century,

this is what breaks the Arthurian legend wide open.

What's fascinating is that

so many of the things and places

and events he writes about,

in recent times, have been proven

to be correct in terms of

being the right time, the right place

and the right elements

to be based on, many historians believe,

real events.

SHATNER: Could it be possible

that the tales of King Arthur

are more than mere fantasy?

Perhaps a clue may be found

by examining a castle in southwest England

that Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed to have been

the site where King Arthur was born.

Overlooking the rocky cliffs of Bristol Channel

are the ruins of Tintagel Castle.

Built in the 13th century,

this once-mighty fortress

is now a popular tourist attraction

with a fascinating history.

WIN SCUTT: Well, Tintagel is a really wondrous

and mysterious location

because it hides an enormous amount of knowledge

about our past.

There's this fantastic castle that is 900 years old.

But, below the ground,

there's tons of information

about hundreds of years before this,

in the period when perhaps Arthur existed.

ARMSTRONG: What's really fantastic

and incredible about this spot in particular is that

Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us that

Arthur's born in Tintagel,

and that has now been very conclusively proven

to have very, very strong links.

SHATNER: Excavations beneath Tintagel have revealed

the remains of an earlier castle that dated back to

the sixth century AD.

And a curious inscription

found among the prior castle's remains

offers evidence in support of Geoffrey of Monmouth's claim

that the real King Arthur

had a profound connection to Tintagel.

SCUTT: In 1998,

Glasgow University were excavating here,

and they found a drain cover behind one of the buildings.

And that drain cover, they were amazed to find,

it had an inscription on it.

At the top of the stone is very clearly

Artognou, A-R-T-O-G-N-O-U.

It was securely dated to the sixth century

based on the items around it,

and on that stone was carved a name

that looks very much like "Arthur."

"Artognou."

When you have the site of Tintagel,

that has been associated with Arthur's supposed birthplace

for centuries,

and the discovery of a stone

that has a name on it that begins "A-R-T,"

you have all the elements coming together

at the right time, in the right place.

SHATNER: Explorer Ceslav Cieslar

leads an international team of researchers

on an expedition deep inside the jungle.

Their mission, to find a legendary

Inca city of gold known as...

...Paititi.

SHATNER: For centuries, legends of Paititi

have tempted hundreds of explorers to

risk their lives in the hope of

being the first to locate the lost golden city.

But, in almost 500 years of searching,

no one has found it.

Which begs the question:

Did Paititi even exist?

The lure of a lost gold city called Paititi

has beckoned many explorers and scholars

over centuries now, leading many to their death.

I don't think there's any reason to assume it doesn't exist.

We know that there are many sites

that remain to be discovered,

hidden in this densely forested

and jungled area,

in the vast wilderness

of what was once occupied by this Inca Empire.

SHATNER: If Paititi is, in fact, a real place,

as those who keep searching for it believe,

then where might it be hidden?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by examining how the obsession

with the legendary golden city started.

Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro,

invade the Inca capital city of Cajamarca...

...and capture Atahualpa,

the Inca emperor.

BELLINGER: Atahualpa knew

that all the Spaniards wanted was gold.

He said, "I will give you a roomful of gold and silver

if you will let me go."

The gold came in bits and pieces.

Pizarro was impatient.

He killed Atahualpa

before the entire ransom had been delivered.

And those Inca who were still en route

bringing more of this gold headed for the hills.

With evidence everywhere for abundant gold,

Pizarro and the rest of the conquistadores

concluded that there must be a city somewhere,

what has become known as

this golden city of Paititi.

And it started a quest

that has eluded people,

but has attracted many, many expeditions

over centuries since.

(indistinct chatter)

SHATNER: If anyone understands

the ongoing obsession with Paititi,

it is American explorer Greg Deyermenjian.

Greg has led more than 20 expeditions

into the depths of the Peruvian jungle

in what has become a very personal quest

to locate Paititi.

GREG DEYERMENJIAN: People think I'm a masochist

with the ongoing pain and exhaustion

that, um, I feel on the expeditions

'cause it's just so difficult and far

and remote and uncomfortable.

Even though, you know, this is

the most important thing in my life.

As far as how close we are

to finding Paititi,

that's very difficult to be said

because there's so many unexplored areas still hidden

in the recesses of Peru.

SHATNER: The Peruvian rainforest stretches across

thousands of square miles,

an impenetrable sea of trees

waiting to swallow anyone brave enough, or perhaps

obsessed enough,

to search for Paititi.

But Ceslav Cieslar believes

he finally has the key to finding the hidden city

using images collected by satellites.

SHATNER: Could satellites allow

Ceslav and his team to succeed

where so many others have failed?

Perhaps.

But one thing is certain.

Treasure hunters are not going to stop

looking for Paititi anytime soon.

DEYERMENJIAN: Paititi resonates

within the human psyche for two,

maybe connected but maybe separate, reasons.

One is just simply the age-old fact that

anything associated with gold,

be it in 1532

or 1650 or 2021,

that's always an attraction.

The other is there'll always be

some desire for something that's mysterious,

that's adventurous,

that's out there that's yet to be found,

that's yet to be documented, that's yet to be explained.

SHATNER: While exploring the remains

of an ancient Maya ruin,

English adventurer Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges

and his daughter Anna

find a human skull

carved out of pure quartz.

BILL HOMANN: It was high noon and she was at the top of the pyramid,

and the way the sun came in,

the way the rocks had moved,

in that there was just a small opening,

and the light from the sun went through

and it hit the top of the skull.

And, uh, she ran down and she's all excited.

So they got a small hole big enough

and Anna was chosen, and they tied a rope to her

and put her down into the hole.

And she came up with the top of the skull.

When the natives saw it,

it was like their god had returned.

They all started crying and kissing

the earth and everything. They were just so excited.

And Mitchell-Hedges, seeing this,

he presented it to the high priest.

And they put it in an altar, and for 24 hours a day

they burned flames around the crystal skull.

SHATNER: But even more extraordinary than the skull itself

was the fact that a legend came with it,

one so amazing that

Frederick Mitchell-Hedges and his daughter Anna

didn't know whether they should rejoice in their discovery

or be intimidated by the burden of it.

HOMANN: The legend of the crystal skulls,

this was given to F.A. Mitchell-Hedges

by a medicine woman

back in Lubaantun.

Mayans say

there are 13 skulls,

and 13 skulls have been placed

in various parts of the world,

but possibly on the different energy centers.

And when they're all activated,

all 13 of them,

then they say that it's a time of

peace and harmony in the world.

What I think is all those crystal skulls

have a unique purpose.

So I'm not exactly sure where all the 13 skulls are.

You have to see it to really appreciate

the Mitchell-Hedges skull.

It's a pretty amazing piece of crystal just in itself.

And then the workmanship that went into it.

How it was made is really a mystery.

SHATNER: Weighing approximately 12 pounds,

the crystal skull is remarkably accurate

in its anatomical detail.

CLIFF DUNNING: They've tried to analyze how it was cut,

but they do not know, to this day.

The technology is so sophisticated,

it's almost like from another world.

MARTIN ETTINGTON: The skull in question that we're talking about

is one that they can't find tool marks on it.

So, if any of the crystal skulls

are actual pre-Mayan artifacts,

then the Mitchell-Hedges skull probably is the one.

SHATNER: If modern technology is unable to replicate

the Mitchell-Hedges skull,

then how was it created?

To find out, teams of scientists

were brought in to conduct a number of tests.

DUNNING: At one point in the 1960s,

an IBM engineer named Marcel Vogel

began testing this skull.

What he believed was that it is filled like a microchip

with the history of the world at that time.

So it's a very old, rough computer basically.

SHATNER: A quartz crystal computer

storing history like a hard drive?

It seems impossible

but in 2016,

researchers at the University of Southampton

were able to use a piece of quartz

similar to that found in the skull

to perform just such a function.

AARON CELESTIAN: What they did is they used lasers

to form dots withinside of a quartz crystal,

at different levels within it.

And the pattern that they print is the data.

You know, like zeros and ones

that we use for computers right now.

You could store about 360 terabytes of information.

Even if humanity were to go completely extinct,

this data and this information

would last as long as

the Earth would last.

SHATNER: If it's true that the Mitchell-Hedges skull

could be storing vast amounts of information,

what secrets might it divulge

if, or when, someone figures out

how to decrypt it?

As the caretaker of the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull,

it was my job, carrying on the tradition,

to let it out for people to see

and be around and experience it.

Some people claim

that the crystal skull

has given them premonitions

or visions of the future.

But there are many people who believe

that the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull

was actually made in ancient times

originally as a healing device.

SHATNER: A healing device?

Is it possible that the skull of doom

can actually have the power to save lives?

According to one woman, the answer is yes.

A local singer and costume designer named Phoenix Rising

is going about her workday when, out of the blue,

she's struck with an intense migraine headache.

And although she has a lifelong history of migraines,

for some reason, this one feels different.

PHOENIX RISING: I went to the emergency room, I said to the nurse,

"Something is going on."

She put me in for a scan, and when she came out,

her face was white as a ghost.

And literally, it was three, two, one and...

paramedics, everybody, boom-- IVs, the whole thing--

and I was having a brain hemorrhage.

So I spent the next two weeks in ICU.

They were trying to figure out how in the world I was alive,

breathing, being able to see, being able to walk.

NARRATOR: After hearing about Phoenix's condition,

a Native American Pueblo elder, who claimed to have once

been a keeper of the Mitchell-Hedges skull,

offered to send her a piece of quartz

that had been kept in close proximity

to the crystal skull for some time.

RISING: He got me on the phone-- his name is John Francis--

and he said, I'm gonna send you a quartz crystal

that's been charged from this Mitchell-Hedges skull.

I want you to put it in water,

and in the morning, I want you to drink it,

and you're gonna drink it every morning,

and I want you to see what's gonna happen.

At this point, I'm trying to recover,

so I'm willing, absolutely, to do anything.

NARRATOR: Although skeptical,

Phoenix felt she had nothing to lose

by trying the bizarre remedy.

For two days, she followed the medicine man's instructions,

seemingly without results.

And then, on the third day,

something unexpected happened.

RISING: I drank the water in the morning,

and probably about five, six-ish minutes later,

I literally hear a sound inside that went,

"Voo-ooh..."

like a vibration.

This quartz was healing me, and repairing

my body, my cells, my water, my DNA.

And when I went back to the hospital,

the doctors were absolutely, yes, 100% shocked

that I was able to drain the blood out,

and that I was healing.

SHATNER: Whether Phoenix's shocking recovery

made sense to the doctors or not,

it appeared undeniable that her condition had improved

due to the unique properties of the crystal skull.

For me, I definitely know

that it unlocked something in my brain

that healed me from a life-threatening condition

that then allowed me to move into success in my life,

to be here.

The supposed healing powers of the Mitchell-Hedges skull

suggest that there may be a shred of truth

to the Mayan myths about this crystal artifact.

But not all famous legends involve mystical energy.

Like the story of a heroic railroad worker

from West Virginia

that pitted man against machine.

NARRATOR: For centuries,

mankind has told stories

about people who have the ability to perform feats

that require extraordinary physical strength.

But why are we so fascinated by these superhuman characters?

LYNNE McNEIL: We love stories

about humans that push the boundaries of exceptionalism.

And history is full of this kind of folk hero

who is stronger than any other human.

We have characters like Hercules who are half god;

that's the source of his strength.

There's someone like Samson from the Bible, whose hair

gives him strength beyond what a normal human might have.

And nowadays, we have superheroes--

Batman, Spider-Man-- characters who similarly are human,

but a little bit better than other humans.

All these stories

let us talk about the possibilities

of human endurance and human capability.

How far can we push ourselves?

How much faster and stronger can we be?

NARRATOR: Here, at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains,

lies a decommissioned railroad tunnel

known as the Great Bend Tunnel.

According to folklore, this was the site

of a famous legend from the 1870s

about a superhuman railroad worker

named John Henry.

TEMPLE: The legend is that John Henry was six-six, 280 pounds,

muscular, solid, glistening.

You could see him half a mile away.

The legend has it that he was born in enslavement.

And he had all these goals for his family

coming out of enslavement.

And he says, "I want a good job.

I want to provide for my family."

And he saw the C&O railroad laying track,

and John Henry shows up and says, "I'm your guy."

The fable has it that any man who signed up to work

would get 50 acres of land

if they completed the railroad.

And sometimes this railroad had to be completed

through a mountain, and so, John Henry

not simply laid rail-- the railroad track--

but he had to drive a stake into the rock,

which creates enough space to then load dynamite.

John Henry was the best steel driver,

and then here comes a man with a steam drill.

The legend speaks of this race taking place

between John Henry and the machine.

(steam whistle blows)

NARRATOR: As the story goes,

there was a competition between John Henry and the machine,

to see which of them could drill farthest

into the side of the mountain in a single day.

During the contest, the strength of John Henry

was reportedly so powerful

that the blows from his twin sledgehammers

shook the mountain itself.

The story is that the steam drill only went nine feet.

John Henry went 14.

And so, John Henry is superhuman,

and more supreme than a machine.

John Henry beats the machine in this-this competition.

But he passes away.

He dies of a heart attack.

He dies from overexertion.

And what we have here is

John Henry begins to symbolize

this overpowering physique of a muscle man,

and the ability to achieve in the face of extreme odds.

TEMPLE: The legend of John Henry

represents this Black man,

this hero who did superhuman feats, from the 19th century.

It overshadows the harshness of the Reconstruction period,

but it also shows us how Black men who were able-bodied,

who had that spirit of willing to do anything

they needed to do to provide for their families.

McNEIL: Most of us know about John Henry

from a literary work.

Like so many folk heroes

from the same time period in American history--

Paul Bunyan, Joe Magarac,

Pecos Bill, they are all compatriots

of John Henry in this larger-than-life,

super capable American folk hero model.

And what they capture is the spirit of industry

that our nation so badly wanted to embody

and project to the rest of the world

at this point in history.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The legend of John Henry's battle against the steam drill

was first immortalized in an African American folk ballad,

and since then, the inspirational story

has also been celebrated numerous times

in magazines, plays and books.

Another superhuman feat of John Henry

is that he was able to inspire so many.

And so, whether it's inspiring in terms

of actually working on the railroad

or other industries, John Henry was a beacon of that.

Also, in terms of him losing his life, that's a sacrifice

that those who came after him could appreciate,

as they strive to be as good as John Henry.

NAMA: There also is an overlap,

certainly, with John Henry and superheroes.

In the early 1990s,

Superman passed away, and that set up a situation

for the comic book version of John Henry

to come in and save the day as the character of Steel.

In order to save the citizens of Metropolis,

he builds a suit, encased in steel,

and carries, of all things-- would you believe it--

a sledgehammer.

And that speaks to, kind of, like,

the reinterpretation of John Henry

within the framework of the superhero,

uh, Afrofuturistic sci-fi version.

TEMPLE: The idea that John Henry

is a superhero,

standing firmly in that space of post-enslavement

and Reconstruction is really phenomenal.

The legend of John Henry proves that human strength

is inherent in all of us.

NARRATOR: On a blustery winter afternoon,

military historian Ricky Phillips

is walking his dogs along the misty shoreline of Loch Ness

when he spots a strange disturbance in the murky waters.

I was walking along the line of the River Oich.

The River Oich runs down into Loch Ness.

It was absolutely lovely,

and I went and I stopped and I took a photograph over it.

I was sort of one eye on the phone, one eye on the dog.

There was a strange noise, and my dogs went crazy.

As I looked down, there was something in the photograph.

NARRATOR: The grainy image

appears to show a sinuous figure

rising from the dark gray waters of the loch.

It's unclear what type of animal the photograph reveals.

But many researchers analyzing the photo

believe it could be the latest evidence

that confirms the existence of an infamous creature

from lore and legend

that is known as the Loch Ness Monster.

The Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie, is without a doubt

the most famous or iconic monster

that has been reported around the world.

Stories go back decades,

there have been thousands of eyewitness accounts.

We have compelling photographic evidence,

so it certainly has built a strong reputation

in the world of fabulous monsters and creatures.

Through the years, there have been hundreds of sightings.

For example, on July 15, 1965,

nine eyewitnesses observed the animal moving around

for up to an hour.

This involved a veteran Loch Ness investigator,

as well as a local police sergeant

and the local county surveyor, and six other eyewitnesses.

And what they all described was identical

from different vantage points around the loch.

NARRATOR: Since that mass sighting in 1965,

researchers, scientists and even ordinary people

have journeyed to Loch Ness in search of the famed monster.

NARRATOR: Could there really be a monster

living in the waters of Loch Ness?

Many researchers believe it's possible.

And as evidence, they point to recent sonar scans,

which reveal something enormous

moving beneath the waters of the Loch.

The best evidence we've ever had from Loch Ness

was a sonar contact taken by Ronald McKenzie,

who operates a boat called the Spirit of Loch Ness.

And three years ago, they got a sonar contact,

crystal clear sonar contact

about 600 feet down.

And it's there.

It wasn't there an hour earlier

when he went past it on the boat,

it wasn't there an hour later.

It was there and then it wasn't.

It's one solid object, the size of a transit van.

Photographic experts came back and said,

that is probably an animate object.

SHATNER: If it's true that there's something moving deep

within the waters of Loch Ness, then, what could it be?

Over the years,

researchers have put forward many theories--

from shapeshifting spirits known as kelpie,

found in Scottish folklore,

to a giant, mutated eel,

to a surviving prehistoric snake known as a Basilosaur.

But perhaps what's most fascinating

about the legend of the Loch Ness Monster

is that there are reports of similar creatures

all over the world.

GERHARD: The lake monster phenomenon is not just relegated to Loch Ness.

There are, in fact, similar lake monsters

that have been reported around the world.

Something known as the Lake Monster Belt,

which is lines of latitude between 40 to 60 degrees north

in the northern hemisphere.

And if you plot these across a map of the world,

you'll find the famous lake monsters

all fall within the same lines of latitude.

That is very compelling evidence.

CHAD LEWIS: What we're finding

is these different lakes are very similar.

Many of them are very long, relatively narrow.

You have Champ of Lake Champlain.

The Ogopogo monster of Okanagan Lake

in British Columbia.

You have the Lake Brosno creature of Russia.

So it's led researchers to believe that maybe

there's something with that latitude

that has the perfect conditions for such lake monsters to exist.

SHATNER: Near the rustic town of Chiusdino stands

the haunting ruins of San Galgano Abbey.

Constructed around 1220 AD

to memorialize the Catholic saint Galgano Guidotti,

the abbey's once-proud roof has decayed,

leaving its soaring cathedral exposed to the ravages of time.

But nearby, inside a round mausoleum

originally built to entomb Saint Galgano,

is a sacred artifact so remarkable,

that it has been encased beneath a protective shell--

The sword in the stone.

So many people are aware

of the Arthurian legend, you know, the sword in the stone.

But this is a story that comes much earlier.

You can go to this chapel in Italy

and see this sword that's stuck in the middle of this stone,

and you're thinking, "How did that sword get there?"

SHATNER: For centuries, visitors have struggled

with the same question.

How did a Medieval sword--

which were known to be brittle

and often break easily on the battlefield--

come to be driven nearly up to its hilt in solid rock?

According to local legends,

Saint Galgano had some divine help.

COLLINS: Galgano was said to have been a ruthless character.

He started receiving visions of the Archangel Michael.

And these visions told him to change his ways,

become a more pious character.

And he ignored them

until he was passing this local landmark

known as Montesiepi.

HUSSAIN: In the story, Galgano is on his horse

and the horse takes him up to the top of this hill

and the horse refuses to go any further.

Michael appears to him and tells him

that he is to serve the Church

and to renounce his wealth.

Galgano basically says,

"It's just as easy for me to renounce my wealth

as it is for my sword to go into this stone."

COLLINS: At this point, he got out his sword

and stuck it down into the rock.

And it penetrated through the rock.

It was said, like a knife going through butter.

And thereafter it remained stuck within the rock,

like King Arthur's Excalibur.

SHATNER: The legends of both King Arthur and Saint Galgano

have long been considered myths

illustrating the power of the divine,

rather than actual, historical accounts.

But unlike Excalibur,

this sword in the stone is one that can be seen.

In fact, it's been scientifically proven

to be an authentic Medieval blade.

HUSSAIN: What's interesting is that in the 21st century

they did some testing on the sword and realized that,

"No, this is actually a sword from the 12th century."

That the material is actually 12th century.

So whether the thing actually happened or not,

it's certainly that the pieces are of the time.

SHATNER: Even though it appears

the San Galgano sword is indeed authentic,

there's one question that remains unanswered.

Because despite our advanced technology and understanding,

we still don't know how this simple metal blade

was able to be driven so perfectly into stone.

HUSSAIN: To become a saint

you have to have, uh, miracles that are tested.

In Galgano's case, this is the, the miracle.

The rock opens, it accepts this sword

and so you have the sword in this stone.

Galgano just a few years after his death is made a saint.

I think for religious people, miracles precisely are that.

They're miraculous.

There is no explanation for this that's scientific,

that's rational.

Whether legends speak of divine intervention,

mystical powers or hidden treasures,

these stories spark our curiosity

because we never quite know

which parts of the tale are history,

and which parts are fantasy.

Perhaps the glimmer of truth that we find in legends

is what keeps us searching for the answers

to what remains... unexplained.

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