Original subtitles

[music playing]

NARRATOR: He is the mythical hero of the Norse world, locked

in an epic battle of man against monster,

destined to confront not one but three terrifying beasts

in a quest for undying glory.

This is the legend of Beowulf.

Yeah!

[soldiers cheering]

NARRATOR: But could it be more than just legend?

[water gurgling]

[shrieking]

Prepare to experience the oldest story in the English language

in an entirely new way.

[music playing]

This is the strange truth behind the fiction of "Beowulf."

[rumbling]

[music playing]

The stench of death permeates Denmark's Royal Hall.

Headless bodies, bloody entrails, a savage beast

is on the rampage.

[women screaming]

[monster growling]

He is Grendel, a monstrous outcast banished from society

whose rage has turned to violence.

[music playing]

I always compare Grendel to Predator, you know,

sort of hulking and dark and threatening.

[monster growling]

NARRATOR: Night after night, the monster's vicious reign

of terror continues.

[monster growling]

He's killing warriors.

He's tearing them apart, limb from limb.

He's decapitating them.

There are body parts all over the place.

NARRATOR: Denmark desperately needs a hero, someone

strong enough to face off with the monster, someone who

can take him down.

That hero is Beowulf.

[music playing]

Beowulf is the biggest possible hero

you could imagine.

He can do anything.

JOHN DAVENPORT: He's not afraid to lose his life.

This is exactly what a hero in his culture

has to be like, willing to lay down his life for honor,

for glory.

Beowulf is no ordinary human being.

He really is a heroic figure.

Like the heroes in Greek mythology,

his powers definitely exceed those of an ordinary man.

[rumbling]

[soldiers yelling]

NARRATOR: In a dark age, when terror was everywhere

and heroes were few, the myth of Beowulf

resonated as the ultimate clash between good and evil,

between a valiant warrior and a myriad of monstrous enemies.

[music playing]

The legend of Beowulf is a fictional story

inspired by fact.

Today, experts are still unsure who created it,

but it's believed to have originated in England

in the seventh or eighth century AD,

making it the oldest story in the English language.

The action of the poem takes place in the sixth century

in Scandinavia, but the poem itself was written

in Anglo-Saxon England after the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons

in 665.

BARRY STRAUSS: Christianity had recently taken root in England

at the time of the writing of "Beowulf."

The poem reflects a society that has a deep pagan background,

and it has stories that come from its pagan past.

What the poem does is it recasts these stories

in a Christian mold so that its listeners would be able to keep

touch with their past.

They would reinterpret it in a Christian way.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In the myth, Beowulf's first nemesis, the monster

Grendel, has an intriguing link to the Christian Bible.

The text says that he is descended

from the line of Cain.

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

was mankind's first murderer.

He slayed his brother Abel out of jealousy

and came to symbolize the worst of human passions.

[grendel growling]

Grendel inherits that vile legacy.

SCOTT LEONARD: Grendel resents and is

jealous of the humans who are feasting in the meat halls.

DIMITRA FIMI: All of the men in the Great Hall

are having a good time and they're telling stories.

And, you know, they're all together and united.

And he seems to envy that.

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

And his reaction to that is to attack and destroy.

[grendel growling]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In the ancient text, Grendel's physical appearance

is left to the imagination.

The only clue is the phrase, "a fiend out of Hell."

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

Wherever he moves, darkness surrounds him.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In the myth, the monster holds Denmark

under siege for 12 years.

CHARLIE BETHEL: He kills 30 people at a time.

You can't see him coming.

He's bloodthirsty and likes to crunch on bones.

NARRATOR: After he decimates the King's warriors,

Grendel turns his rage on innocent civilians.

[static hissing]

But there is one person he cannot harm, the Danish king,

Hrothgar.

Like many real kings of the Dark Ages,

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

BARRY STRAUSS: Strangely enough, Grendel

doesn't attack King Hrothgar.

The King is seated on a throne that's protected by God

himself, and so Grendel has to keep his distance.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: All of Hrothgar's warriors have failed him.

But in the nearby Kingdom of Geatland,

there is one who will stand above all others.

[static hissing]

BARRY STRAUSS: Beowulf comes from Scandinavia.

He is a warrior descended from great warriors,

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

his courage, and his ambition.

He wants to make a great name for himself.

[music playing]

THOMAS FINAN: At the outset of the poem,

Beowulf is a well-known warrior.

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

or a group of men who traveled together.

He's not really a mercenary, per se.

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

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

JOHN DAVENPORT: Beowulf is primarily seeking glory, what

the Old English called "lof."

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

who's lived up to his obligations

under the honor code at the time.

It's a kind of glory and status that nobleman of his time

aimed for that really motivates Beowulf.

NARRATOR: Beowulf knows there is one way to achieve

everlasting distinction, to do what no man before him

has done.

He must slay Grendel.

[music playing]

Night falls.

[crowd chattering]

The hall comes alive with the sounds of celebration.

But, this time, it is a trick designed by Beowulf

to lure Grendel from his lair.

HELGA LUTHERS: He's not going to wait for an attack.

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

and he's uses actually a surprisingly the

scientific method.

He recreates the circumstances of the first attack.

And there is singing and there is merriment.

And Grendel, sure enough, hears this,

and he comes to get his meat.

NARRATOR: The beast is thirsty for blood.

[grendel growling]

But Beowulf is ready.

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

the hero lies in wait.

He will either kill or be killed.

Finally, Grendel makes his move.

[guests screaming]

Beowulf and his warriors brace for attack.

[grendel growling]

All the warriors pull out their swords,

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

NARRATOR: But Grendel is impervious.

No sword can harm Grendel.

No metal weapon of any kind.

Grendel has put a curse on all such weapons,

preventing them from affecting him.

[grendel growling]

CHARLIE BETHEL: He grabs one of Beowulf's warriors,

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

throws the body down, and then goes for Beowulf.

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

[thunder]

[wind howling]

90 miles north of London, England, is a place called

Sutton Hoo.

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

[music playing]

In the 20th century, archaeologists

excavated the ancient burial mounds

and made a startling discovery--

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

They died violently, suddenly.

[screaming]

Almost as if killed by a monster.

ANGUS WAINWRIGHT: Many of them buried face-down

or with their heads lopped off, necks broken,

buried in all kinds of strange positions.

So they were buried in a shaming way.

NARRATOR: It is shocking evidence of violence

in a once-prosperous kingdom in the same era

when the is thought to have originated.

Experts theorize that these victims

were Anglo-Saxon criminals sentenced to death for defying

the King.

MICHAEL DROUT: These seemed to be criminals who were executed

and buried in this place, which had apparently gone from being

a place of worship to a place of terror.

Now, the connection to Beowulf simply

could be that these kinds of violent public executions

were a way that a king could maintain order

within his kingdom.

NARRATOR: Could these gruesome deaths

have inspired the story of carnage

in the court of King Hrothgar?

The hunt for clues leads back to the myth.

[music playing]

Ya! Hey!

[grendel growling]

NARRATOR: The monster Grendel is terrorizing

the blood-soaked hall of the King.

No sword can pierce his skin.

But Beowulf refuses to give in.

He has one weapon left, his bare hands.

It is a classic struggle between David and Goliath,

monster versus man.

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

and Beowulf is their last line of defense.

[music playing]

[grendel growling]

[women shrieking]

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

[music playing]

Beowulf and the monstrous giant Grendel

are locked in a death match.

Suddenly, our hero gains the advantage.

CHARLIE BETHEL: Beowulf grabs Grendel's arm,

and he twists it. [crunching]

[grendel growling]

NARRATOR: Beowulf, the world's strongest warrior,

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

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

And Beowulf twists it again and twists it again,

and then pops it right off.

[grendel howling]

And the bone splits from the sinew.

It springs apart.

The muscle rips away.

NARRATOR: Agonized cries flood the hall.

[music playing]

Grendel tears off into the night, hemorrhaging blood.

[grendel growling]

SCOTT LEONARD: There was Grendel, armless, and the life

draining out of his arm, heading back to his marshy home,

knowing he has very little time left.

NARRATOR: Deep in the woods, the wounded monster

stumbles to the ground and draws his last breath.

[music playing]

Beowulf has slain the beast.

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

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

and Beowulf is celebrated as a superhero.

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

[eerie music playing]

But a grim reality soon sets in.

There are scores of slain warriors to bury.

The "Beowulf" text describes how the Warriors were laid to rest.

The description matches what is now known about real funerals

in the ancient Norse world.

BARRY STRAUSS: In a ship burial, the person who

is going to be buried and his valuables and gold and silver

will be put in the ship, and the ship will be sent out to sea

and it will be burned.

It was a wanton destruction of valuable goods in a society

that was not awash in goods, but it's

a sign just of the seriousness of the loss

and the prestige and importance of the person

who's being buried.

[flames crackling]

NARRATOR: Amazingly, evidence of these ritual burials,

the same ones described in "Beowulf,"

can be found not underwater, but underground.

[music playing]

Today, there are hundreds of mysterious mounds scattered

across northern Europe.

Many are still waiting to be excavated.

At Sutton Hoo, in England, where archaeologists discovered

those mysterious mangled bodies, the burial mounds

have yielded more stunning evidence

about the world of "Beowulf."

In 1939, excavations turned up a buried ship

dated to the time when the "Beowulf" myth is believed

to have been written.

That wood had completely decayed away,

but you could still see the shapes of all the planks

and the ribs running at right angles across it.

It looked like a complete wooden ship.

NARRATOR: But closer examination revealed

it was more than just a ship.

It was the tomb of an unknown ruler,

teeming with buried treasures.

ANGUS WAINWRIGHT: Sutton Hoo is the richest grave from England

and is, well, the richest grave from the Dark Ages

from Northern Europe.

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

[music playing]

MICHAEL DROUT: The actual artifacts that were dug out

of Sutton Hoo looked like the things that

are described in "Beowulf."

There are helmets with boar crests on them.

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

And so there seems to be some kind of connection

between what's described in "Beowulf"

and what we found in Sutton Hoo.

NARRATOR: The Sutton Hoo excavation

proved, for the first time, that the legend of Beowulf

is more than just a fictional thriller.

But it's not the only site yielding evidence

of the truth behind the myth.

[music playing]

In the Danish countryside, archaeologists

have made an unusual discovery, evidence

of a real ancient hall.

The wooden superstructure rotted away centuries ago.

But, based on the location of its post holes,

it once stretched 150 feet long, making it one of the largest

halls of its kind ever found.

Could this be the mythical hall of King Hrothgar?

In the story of Beowulf, the scene of Grendel's attack

is called Heorot, which means Hall of the Stag.

It is both a throne room and a banquet hall,

where the King's warriors gathered to celebrate victory.

DIMITRA FIMI: Heorot is described as this great hall

which is comparable to none other in the world.

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

and becomes kind of a Wonder of the World, this culture.

NARRATOR: The hall recently uncovered in Denmark

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

Radiocarbon testing dates the site to the sixth century AD,

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

But there's more.

Excavations in the area around the ancient hall

have yielded precious artifacts that could only have belonged

to a powerful king.

TOM CHRISTENSEN: Some are for daily life,

knives, needles, and so on.

But they are also rather beautiful jewelry made of gold

and silver, coins, and so on, that give the impression

that this is a site of some importance.

NARRATOR: But who was the king behind this hall?

And could he be connected to the myth?

[music playing]

[wind howling]

An intriguing clue can be found in a series of stories

collectively called "The Legendary Sagas."

They are fact-based accounts about the Norse world

that were written between 1100 and 1400 AD.

DIMITRA FIMI: Many of the Norse sagas

are based on family histories, and we find this very

engaging combination of historical material

and mythological traditions.

[music playing]

[horse whinnying]

NARRATOR: The sagas tell of a Danish King named Hrothgar, who

lived around the fifth or sixth century AD.

If Hrothgar was a real king, could Beowulf

have been a real hero?

[music playing]

[soldiers yelling]

[wind howling]

[music playing]

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

Her son is Grendel.

Her grief becomes rage.

[woman shrieking]

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

He's defeated Grendel.

Now, he must take on Grendel's mother.

[music playing]

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

TRACEY-ANNE COOPER: Grendel's mother

is a very, very enigmatic figure in the texts.

She certainly seems more bestial than Grendel.

Her emotions are more beast-like.

She's just bent on revenge.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Revenge for the death of her son, whose severed arm

has become a trophy, a mockery.

[woman shrieking]

TRACEY-ANNE COOPER: Grendel's mother feels a mother's pain

when her son is killed by Beowulf.

So she enters into a feuding frenzy to attack Heorot,

and she goes without much regard for her own safety.

NARRATOR: As the warriors sleep, Grendel's mother

enters the hall.

[music playing]

[woman shrieking]

She pounces, killing with brutal efficiency.

Terror grips the King's court again,

but Beowulf is not there to save it.

He is spending the night away from Heorot,

unaware of the unfolding terror.

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

Grendel's mother vanishes into the night.

Beowulf is enraged when he learns of the carnage.

Just days ago, he heroically saved the warriors

who now lay dead.

But the King is alive.

He sits protected on his untouchable throne, despondent.

SCOTT LEONARD: Hrothgar is humiliated by the fact that so

many of his men have been killed by Grendel

and also, now, his mother.

And he is not able to be a shield.

And Beowulf says to him, "It's better

to act than to sit in mourning."

NARRATOR: Once again, Beowulf knows

he must look death in the eye.

He has built his reputation through heroic deeds.

Now, he must maintain it.

With Hrothgar and his men by his side,

Beowulf will hunt down Grendel's mother.

They follow the blood trail along a winding path.

[music playing]

Grendel's mother and Grendel live at the bottom

of the Haunted Mere.

[beasts growling]

NARRATOR: The Mere is an icy lake

swarming with poisonous snakes and sea dragons.

[beasts growling]

The only way to get to Grendel's mother

is to go through them first.

To the early Christian writers who recorded this myth,

these serpents represented something equally threatening

in the real world, pagans.

[beasts howling]

[music playing]

The hunt for Grendel's mother has led Beowulf to an icy lake

teeming with venomous serpents.

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

[beasts growling]

This will be a decisive battle in the fight for Denmark,

between a warrior hero and a wicked mother who was descended

from the Bible's most infamous murderer, Cain.

Grendel's mother is never named in the poem.

She just is Grendel's mother.

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

perhaps in some ways even more dangerous because,

now that her son has been killed,

she has the rage of a bereaved mother.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Before Beowulf plunges beneath the ice,

his men give him a special sword.

Its iron blade is tempered in blood

and has never failed in battle before.

Beowulf's comrades cannot bring themselves to go further.

The hero must brace for battle alone.

[music playing]

Under the surface, deadly serpents lie in wait.

[beasts growling]

Beowulf tries to use his sword against them,

but no human weapon can harm these supernatural beasts.

He manages to break away and find the entrance to the lair

of Grendel's mother.

[music playing]

For a second time, man will confront monster.

Grendel's mother comes in and she attacks him.

(YELLING) Ah!

CHARLIE BETHEL: He grabs her hair, grabs her shoulder,

throws her down.

And she's up in a shot and she snags him

with her filthy claws, and he tumbles back on the floor.

NARRATOR: Beowulf is in grave danger,

and his sword again proves useless.

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

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

It can't penetrate her scaly hide.

NARRATOR: Suddenly, something catches Beowulf's eye.

He sees, on the wall or nearby,

an ancient sword forged by giants, which is not

a mortal making.

It's really a magic weapon.

NARRATOR: In one resolute arc, he strikes Grendel's mother

and severs her head.

[music playing]

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

Beowulf has proven his bravery again.

But this is more than a mythical triumph.

It is a reflection of the changing world in which

the Norse people framed the myth, a world where paganism

had eroded and Christ had risen.

BARRY STRAUSS: We might see the death of Grendel's mother

as a religious metaphor.

Just as Grendel's mother dies, so paganism is dying

and Christianity is rising.

And just as Beowulf frees Hrothgar's kingdom

from the threat of Grendel's mother,

so Christianity is bringing light to the world of paganism

that preceded it.

[church bell ringing]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: 600 AD, the British Isles, a religious revolution

is underway.

Roman Christians have come North to convert all nonbelievers.

THOMAS FINAN: In the late sixth century,

Pope Gregory sent Augustine to England

to convert these Anglo-Saxon pagans.

Augustine was told by Gregory, go to the pagan temples

that the Anglo-Saxons already used

and convert them to Christian use.

Convert the kings so that the people underneath the King

will follow the King.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: The Anglo-Saxons were ultimately converted,

but their pre-Christian legends lived

on in the stories they passed down,

including the legend of Beowulf.

SCOTT LEONARD: Beowulf attempts to update and bring

into the Christian present some of the old-fashioned heroic

values of the early Norse-era people

who are brave in adversity, people

who are loyal to comrades.

NARRATOR: When the Christians conquered,

they recast the myth of Beowulf as a metaphor

of good versus evil.

[music playing]

[wind howling]

[music playing]

The story continues.

At the haunted lake of serpents, Beowulf surfaces victorious.

He heads for the hall of King Hrothgar

and arrives triumphant.

[crowd cheering]

Beowulf's return shocks the King's court.

He had been given up for dead.

Hrothgar hails him as the ultimate hero

and stages a great celebration.

Beowulf has achieved the glory and honor

he came to Denmark to find.

Now, he is eager to return to his own kingdom

to the north, Geatland.

There, more danger awaits.

[beast growling]

[wind howling]

In the story of Beowulf, the Geats

were not a mythical tribe.

They were real warriors from the southern tip of Sweden,

well-known to the writers of the myth.

HELGA LUTHERS: The poem refers to the gates

and it refers to Swedes.

What we're looking at are two different dynasties.

It is a deep-rooted split that you see actually

last all the way to the end of the Viking Age.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: This real-life rivalry between the Geats

and the Swedes comes to a head in the next chapter

of "Beowulf," and it is up to Beowulf

to lead his people to victory in one epic battle on a giant lake

of ice.

[music playing]

This is Lake Vanern.

It is the largest body of water in Sweden,

covering some 2,200 square miles.

In harsh winters, it freezes over,

forming a land bridge between two distant territories.

Today it is peaceful, but 15 centuries ago,

according to the myth of Beowulf,

it was the setting of a bloody battle, the Swedes

against the Geats.

TRACEY-ANNE COOPER: On his return to Geatland,

Beowulf discovers that the Geats are embroiled in the middle

of a Swedish feud.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: A civil war between members of the Swedish royal

family has spilled over into Beowulf's homeland.

The hero must confront death once again.

But, this time, not against monsters,

but against his fellow man.

[soldiers yelling]

Yeah!

[soldiers yelling]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Beowulf's forces prevail

and, in return for his heroism, he is

granted the throne of Geatland.

His quest for glory is now complete.

It is a decisive moment in the myth.

But could this epic battle have really happened?

According to old Norse sagas, which are thought to be based

on real history, a violent battle

did occur on a frozen lake around the year 530 AD.

MICHAEL DROUT: The Battle of Lake Vanern

is the decisive battle between the Geats and the Swedes,

and it happens on the frozen water of an enormous freshwater

lake.

It's one of the first known giant cavalry battles

in the North, and many, many warriors

are slain on both sides.

NARRATOR: This real battle was said to have happened

near Earnaness, Sweden.

Modern scholars believe Earnaness was a real settlement

right on the shore of Lake Vanern.

Once again, the historical record

seems to match the myth, a real battle in a real location.

Could there also be evidence of a real hero?

The search for clues leads back to the myth.

[music playing]

[wind howling]

[music playing]

After the ice battle, Beowulf rules Geatland in peace

for many decades.

JOHN DAVENPORT: He's no longer that young hero

that he was when he was fighting Grendel and then Grendel's

mother.

He's much older.

He's no longer in his prime.

But, still, he's exemplary.

NARRATOR: As a young man, Beowulf had quenched his thirst

for glory.

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

[music playing]

But 50 years after his heroic conquests in Denmark,

the old warrior must face one final showdown

with a terrifying monster.

[beast growling]

The dragon of Earnaness, it stretches 50 feet long

and guards a gargantuan hoard of gold.

DIMITRA FIMI: Dragons represent human greed,

but really amplified because this is this monstrous creature

whose only interest is in gathering gold and keeping it.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: The trouble begins after a young slave escapes

from his master and hides in a cave.

He doesn't realize he is entering

the lair of the dragon.

[dragon snoring]

As the monster sleeps, the slave spots the hoard of gold

and succumbs to temptation.

[music playing]

THOMAS FINAN: He steals the cup from the dragon's treasure,

not knowing that this cup is, in fact, the favorite item

of the dragon.

NARRATOR: The dragon stirs, finds the golden cup missing,

and sets off for revenge.

[flames hissing]

[music playing]

[dragon growling]

SCOTT LEONARD: So he starts setting farms and fields

on fire, creating much destruction

in a very short time.

NARRATOR: The dragon wreaks havoc across the land.

Then, the ultimate insult.

Beowulf's own home is burned, and he prays for restoration

of his loss and seeks some kind of redress

and begins to think about revenge.

NARRATOR: Once more, the old warrior

is called to defend a nation's honor.

It will be his last stand against evil.

He's the kind of hero who's going

to be willing to go out and face,

at this point, certain death.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Beowulf leads his men into battle,

with his kingdom and honor hanging in the balance.

This will either be the hero's final triumph

or his tragic end.

[music playing]

A fire-breathing dragon is devastating the kingdom

of the Geats.

[villagers screaming]

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

time, and the hunt for a third beast begins.

[music playing]

The bravest soldiers ride alongside Beowulf.

Ha!

NARRATOR: Among them is the young son of a fallen warrior.

His name is Wiglaf.

He's immature.

He's inexperienced.

He's the one that you would probably

say is going to contribute the least to the actual fight

against a dragon.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: The men come upon the dragon's lair in the middle

of a dense forest.

Beowulf steps cautiously inside and finds the monster asleep.

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

[dragon growling]

[music playing]

Beowulf yells to his other warriors for help.

All of Beowulf's other fellows have run away

to hide in the woods because they're

too terrified of the dragon.

NARRATOR: All except for one, young Wiglaf.

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

risking his life to fight alongside the hero he idolizes

as Beowulf confronts his greatest enemy.

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

[music playing]

The dragon is mythology's ultimate monster.

JOHN RENNIE: Within a sort of Christian tradition,

dragons often represent the super serpent,

a gigantic manifestation of Satan.

But if you go back before Christian tradition,

dragons seemed to represent something

like an ultimate embodiment of power and ferocity and mystery.

[music playing]

But the great fear that people have always had

is that, despite all of the seemingly regular patterns

that you see in nature, there might also be fantastic,

chaotic unknowns, the monsters that could suddenly leap out.

NARRATOR: Dragons play a central role

in myths throughout the world.

And despite the thousands of miles and thousands of years

that separate them, the similarities

between the stories are more striking than the differences.

Most of them have hard scales, have

these long serpentine bodies with long pointed tails,

long necks ending in a horned head.

Many breathe fire.

Many have wings.

NARRATOR: Are these shared traits coincidence?

Or did ancient storytellers have some common real-world

inspiration?

Many wonder whether there were actual dragons.

Given how prevalent the stories about them

are in the world's myths, it would seem that they must

be based on something real.

My own theory, which is--

other people have it, too--

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

Desert or parts of Central Asia where dinosaur bones are

exposed, and they saw a T-Rex skeleton

and said, "Wow, if those are the bones, can

you imagine what the thing looked like?"

And, from there, you could imagine the creature.

So they're large.

They're scary.

They're fierce.

NARRATOR: Dinosaur fossils have been discovered

around the globe since mankind's earliest days.

In a time before science, could they

have inspired mythology's ultimate monster?

[music playing]

[dragon roaring]

The myth concludes.

Beowulf charges the dragon with his sword.

The dragon strikes back, wounding Beowulf.

But there is still one more chance for victory.

The belly is the beast's Achilles heel.

As Wiglaf looks on, Beowulf maneuvers his way

underneath the dragon and thrusts his sword

into its stomach.

[music playing]

[screaming]

The monster is defeated, but Beowulf

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

MICHAEL DROUT: Beowulf is bitten in the neck by the dragon.

So even as he slays the beast, he himself

knows he's going to die because the wound begins

to swell and to burst.

[music playing]

JOHN DAVENPORT: He says, at least bring me

some of the dragon's treasures so that I can see what we

fought for, what we've won, and look once more

upon the glorious treasure.

SCOTT LEONARD: Beowulf says, I am the last of my line.

I have no heir.

My fathers before me are all dead.

So because you were brave, Wiglaf, I'm

giving you my famous chainmail and my sword and my helmet.

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

[music playing]

[thunder]

[winds howling]

[music playing]

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

his body placed on a pyre and set alight.

Beowulf's death at the end of the poem

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

NARRATOR: A great hero, the icon of Northern warriors, is dead.

But his legend is just beginning.

[wind howling]

[music playing]

Today, hundreds of ancient burial mounds

still dot the landscape of Scandinavia.

Some have yielded evidence of truth behind the myth,

but many are still unexcavated.

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

HELGA LUTHERS: Is it possible that Beowulf was a real person?

Yes, of course, it is.

The history surrounding him fits with history.

And the reason why we tend to say,

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

is the very simple fact that there

were legends that were kept orally that were

the basis for this poem.

That tells us there should be some truth to it.

[music playing]

Whether real man or myth, Beowulf is bravery personified.

To the ancients, he embodied the best in man.

[sword ringing]

A warrior's life and a hero's death.

[music playing]