(gentle music)
- Tonight, be careful what you wish for.
- At the heart of every curse,
someone believes that they can protect themselves
or harm their enemies with a magic spell.
- [Dennis] From a powerful ring with lethal consequences.
- This ring will be the death of whoever owns it.
- To a sinister tablet that can take out a rival.
- The Romans and the Greeks had this propensity
for appealing to dark magic
in order to get what they wanted.
- Or how about a blessed stone with a dark side?
- Anyone who removes a stone from the property
will suffer endless misfortune and misery
until it's returned.
- [Dennis] Did these infamous cursed relics
truly change lives?
- We do have some historical accounts
where the named victims of curses
do in fact meet with unfortunate fates.
- Sacred objects that have inspired awe
for thousands of years.
Now the remarkable stories behind history's
most compelling "Holy Marvels."
(epic music)
- When you think of a ring with extraordinary powers,
it's hard not to imagine "The Lord of the Rings."
But the real inspiration behind the iconic series
is much darker and rooted in the Norse religion.
- Norse mythology is full of epic, fantastical sagas
involving many Gods and their divine powers.
You might be familiar with some of them
like Thor, the God of Thunder,
or his mischievous brother, Loki,
or his father, Odin.
- The Norse legends start in Scandinavia,
but as those people migrate south,
the stories begin to spread.
They show up in the Netherlands, France, Germany, England,
all over the place.
- [Dennis] One of the most famous
is a story from the 5th century about a dwarf named Andvari.
- Andvari is a bitter and stingy dwarf
who lives under a waterfall,
but he's also a highly-skilled blacksmith
and master craftsman.
He also has the incredible ability to shape-shift
and he can turn from a land-dwelling dwarf
into a seafaring fish.
- One day he decides to swim out further
than he swam before,
and he encounters some water nymphs who have gold.
The water nymphs mock Andvari's fish-like appearance,
so Andvari decides to take vengeance on the nymphs for this
and steal their gold.
- [Dennis] With the stolen gold,
Andvari crafts a magical ring.
- The legend describes the ring
as glittering solid gold designed with two serpents.
It's also inscribed with magical writing,
much like Tolkien's famous ring.
- The magic of the ring, according to the legend,
is that Andvari is able to use it to find gold
and also to turn objects into gold.
So with this ring he's able to amass a huge amount of money
in a very short time.
- But it comes with a terrible curse as well.
Enter Loki, the God of mischief.
He steals Andvari's money and the ring
in order to pay a debt
that he owes to a king named Hreidmar.
Andvari declares that, quote,
"This ring, along with all of the gold and treasures,
will be the death of whoever owns it."
- But Loki isn't phased.
Technically, he's not the owner of the ring.
He's gonna give it to King Hreidmar to pay off the debt,
and that's exactly what he does.
- King Hreidmar has sons named Regin and Fáfnir,
but he wants to keep the gold and the ring for himself.
Fáfnir is appalled
that the king won't share his wealth with him.
- As the legend goes,
greed takes hold and Fáfnir kills King Hreidmar,
his own father,
and so he gets the money and the ring.
- [Dennis] Once Fáfnir has the ring,
his brother Regin sets his sights on stealing it.
- Regin is a blacksmith who enlists the help
of his young apprentice, Sigurd.
Regin crafts a powerful sword
and convinces Sigurd to try to kill his brother
in exchange for some of the riches.
- [Dennis] With the sword in tow,
Sigurd and Regin track Fáfnir down in a forest.
- When they arrive at the forest,
Regin and Sigurd separate.
Sigurd finds Fáfnir
and he draws this incredibly sharp sword
and he drives it through his stomach and his heart.
But before he dies,
Fáfnir warns Sigurd that Regin is planning to turn on him.
- Almost immediately, Regin betrays Sigurd
and attempts to kill him while he's not looking.
But Sigurd was warned,
so Sigurd kills Regin instead
and leaves with the gold and the ring in hand.
On Sigurd's journey back from the wilderness,
he comes across a warrior Goddess named Brunhilde.
He falls in love and he gives her the ring,
promising to marry her when he returns.
But years pass
and Sigurd completely forgets about Brunhilde.
- Years later, Sigurd and Brunhilde cross paths again.
He's completely forgotten
that he'd already been betrothed to her,
that she was waiting for him,
and Brunhilde is extremely mad about this,
so she kills Sigurd.
and then Brunhilde kills herself
and they both are burned together on a pyre.
- And this ends the legend of the cursed ring,
with every single owner having died
and the ring nowhere to be found
upon the death of Brunhilde.
Clearly the shape-shifting and magical elements of the story
are strictly folklore,
but as it turns out,
there is a real Brunhilde in history.
- [Dennis] This Brunhilde lives in the 6th century.
- She's a beautiful, highly-educated princess,
the daughter of one of the wealthiest kings in Spain.
- In 567, Brunhilde is summoned by Sigebert I,
the Merovingian king of Austrasia
who rules the eastern part of the Frankish realm,
a territory encompassing
present day Western Germany and France,
Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
- King Sigebert I is looking for a wife
and has set his sights on Princess Brunhilde.
Now the name Sigebert is not exactly Sigurd,
but it's pretty darn close,
and so many historians believe
that the story of these two royals
partly inspires the legend.
- [Dennis] When Brunhilde arrives in Austrasia,
she brings a caravan of treasure from her wealthy family.
- Now, where did all that wealth come from?
Some claim that a magical ring
might have something to do with it.
- [Dennis] The parallels don't end there.
- While Brunhilde enjoys a prosperous reign for a while,
she dies a horrible, horrible death.
On the shores of Switzerland's Lake Neuchatel
she's tortured on the racks for three days
and then she's drawn and quartered,
which means she's tied down
and a horse on a rope is tied to every one of her limbs
and then they charge in different directions
and pull a person apart.
It is a horrific death.
- [Dennis] Brunhilde's remains are then burned,
just like her namesake in the legend of the ring.
- If Brunhilde is real,
you gotta wonder if the ring might somehow be real too,
or at least some version of it.
- [Dennis] In 1995, Canadian geology professor David Mossman
points to a place that might offer proof.
- Within Brunhilde and Sigebert's
territory of Austrasia
runs the Rhine River,
and there's a phenomenon that happens here
that's known as the Rhine gold.
Along this river,
particularly in a stretch between
Rheinau and Philippsburg,
little flakes of gold are often visible floating downstream.
It's as if the river is generating gold all on its own.
- We have evidence from at least as early as 667 AD
that gold was flowing through this part of the river.
That year we have records of the Duke of Alsace
distributing the rights to extract the Rhine gold,
and this is only about 50 years after Brunhilde's death.
- If Brunhilde had the ring
when she died on the shore of Lake Neuchatel,
it's interesting to note that there's a series of waterways
that could have carried the ring from the lake
down the Aare River connected to the Rhine
and ended up right here.
- [Dennis] In 2014, a major archeological find
suggests even more evidence.
- In the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate,
a hobbyist with a metal detector
finds a massive treasure trove of gold and silver artifacts
worth upwards of a million dollars.
This treasure dates back
to somewhere around the 5th century.
- State Archeologist Axel von Berg,
in announcing the find to the media,
immediately brings up the legend of the ring.
He says that in terms of the timing and the geography,
it all fits with the folklore of Sigurd
and a race of mythic dwarves.
- While the treasure is discovered on land
due to the fact that
the Rhine has naturally shifted its course
many times over the centuries,
Von Berg believes that this treasure
could have once been underwater.
- And the gold that's still flowing through the river
ever since the 600s,
perhaps that's because the ring itself
is still down there somewhere,
though it hasn't turned up yet.
- For ancient Greeks and Romans,
the power of the written word is evident
in their poetry, literature, and codes of law.
But their most sinister desires are documented
on curse tablets.
- A curse tablet is exactly what the name implies.
It's an object inscribed with a message to the Gods
asking them to carry out an act
or influence someone's behavior against their will.
Most often, the curses are used to bring disaster
to the intended victim.
- The Romans and the Greeks we think of as these
massively evolved societies of engineers
and philosophers and scientists,
and they were,
but they also had this propensity
for appealing to dark magic
in order to get what they wanted.
- They may have been
some of the most widespread practitioners
of curses in history.
To date, more than 2,000 curse tablets have been found.
Along with coins,
it's one of the most common objects we have
from that time period.
- Archeologists often find curse tablets in batches.
In 1979, more than 100 tablets from the Roman era
are discovered in a thermal spring
in the English city of Bath.
In 2020, 30 of them are found at the bottom
of a 2,500-year-old well in Athens.
- Some of the earliest curse tablets that we found
go back 2,600 years to Western Sicily
in the late 6th century BC,
and their use continues through to the 8th century AD
across the entire Roman Empire.
- The curse tablets are a prime example
of how people try to manage situations
like conflict, loss and rivalry.
- It starts with a visit to your local curse writer.
This was apparently a fairly lucrative career to have,
judging by how many curses are floating around.
You pay the curse writer a fee
and then they get to work writing you up a tablet.
- [Dennis] The text inscribed on a curse tablet
generally follows a basic formula.
- It typically includes the identity of the victim
and why they're the target of the curse.
It also invokes the names of the Gods
and of course lists the desired punishment or spell.
- The tablets are fairly consistent
in their construction and their appearance.
While the sizes and the shapes of the curse tablets
could vary slightly,
most are small and rectangular.
- The tablets are typically made from thin sheets of lead,
which is one of the most commonly used metals at the time
for other basic items like pipes and pots or even currency.
Lead is strong enough to withstand heat and corrosion,
but at the same time it's malleable enough
for inscription and molding.
- Curse writers use a stylus or other sharp object
made from bronze or iron for the inscription.
Once the text is completed,
the lead is heated slightly and folded up
to hide the writing.
- From an aesthetic perspective,
lead has a dull, metallic color.
It's heavy and has a coldness
that's symbolic of the curses themselves.
And then of course there's the interesting irony
that lead can be poisonous,
which in some respects makes it the perfect metal
for a curse tablet.
- [Dennis] Lead is also the go-to material
for another more practical reason.
- Lead is durable,
it can survive underground for a long time,
and the belief is that in order for a cursed tablet to work,
it needs to be buried somewhere
specifically relevant to the victim
or placed in a tomb so that the souls of the dead
could carry the tablets to the Gods.
- Many curse tablets are found in places like springs,
rivers, wells, and other groundwater sources.
We suspect this gives the curse closer access
to the Gods of the underworld,
and it also keeps the tablets hidden from the victims.
- [Dennis] There are also special ways
to strengthen the curses.
- A common practice in creating the curse tablets
is to include personal items for extra potency,
things like strands of hair or fingernail clippings
of the intended victim.
- One example is a 3rd century AD curse tablet
that's found with several strands of hair on it.
Presumably, the hair belonged to the woman Tyche
who's named as the victim of the tablet.
The curse asks the Gods of the underworld
to destroy her body so thoroughly
that everything turns against her,
including her hair, her chin, her cheeks, her brain.
The list goes on and on.
- [Dennis] The curses themselves vary widely.
- One of the most popular types of curse is a binding curse.
This is meant to restrain the victim
or bring them under the control
of whoever is casting the spell.
- During the Roman Empire,
a really popular binding curse is used
during legal proceedings.
These often wish for the opponent in a court case
to lose their ability to think or speak.
- [Dennis] Another common curse
deals with matters of the heart.
- Curse tablets inscribed with love spells
are very popular with the ancient Greeks,
making up about 25% of the tablets discovered so far.
They typically boil down to one of two things.
Either they increase the desire
of someone who's not currently showing any interest,
or they inflict harm on a romantic rival
or a lover embroiled in a quarrel.
- What's unique about these curse tablets
containing love spells
is that they're incredibly specific
and intentional about who's named.
Most curse tablets briefly mention the intended victim,
but when it comes to love and sex,
we see extra details because there's no room for mistakes.
- One tablet from 270 AD says, quote,
"May the mind and heart of Sextilius, son of Dionysia,
burn with love and longing for me, Septima,
daughter of Amoena."
She clearly wants to make sure
the curse works on exactly the right people.
So for added insurance, she adds the names of their parents.
- [Dennis] Sometimes, one unlucky person
could be the victim of multiple curses.
- In the early 1960s, in Morgantina, Sicily,
they found a set of 10 curse tablets.
Four of these were all aimed at the same person,
Venusta.
- One tablet says, quote,
"Gaia, Hermes, Gods of the underworld
received Venusta, slave of Rufus,"
essentially wishing for her to go to hell.
We don't know what exactly this Venusta woman did
or who wants her dead,
but to cast the curse four times
implies that she could have angered multiple people
or perhaps one person quadrupled down
on their wish for her to die the most terrible death.
- [Dennis] Despite the popularity of curse tablets,
not everyone's a believer.
- In both Rome and Greece,
these practices often face public criticism
and they're discouraged by local authorities.
They're also sometimes called out as scams
and warnings are issued not to waste your money
on such things.
- Greek philosopher Socrates
writes that he disapproves of magic
because it deprives people of the truth.
And his student, Plato,
writes that sorcerers and curse writers can be pretty shady
and often deceive their clients.
- [Dennis] But could there be proof
that the curses actually work?
- [Dennis] For centuries, ancient Greeks and Romans
employed curse tablets to bewitch lovers
and settle scores with enemies.
Is it possible that any of these curses pan out?
- We do have some historical accounts
where the named victims of curses
do in fact meet with unfortunate fates.
- [Dennis] One such story involves
a high-ranking official in Greece.
- In Athens, a noble named Alcibiades
is born into a rich politically powerful family in 450 BC.
He's raised by his uncle,
the famous statesman Pericles,
and he's a friend and a student of Socrates.
- He's handsome, smart, flamboyant, hedonistic,
and unapologetically ambitious.
As a result, he attracts a lot of admirers,
but he also makes some serious enemies.
- With his confidence and connections,
Alcibiades easily rises through the ranks
to become a general and a member of the military council
at the young age of 30,
and he starts to prove his worth
by negotiating strategic alliances.
- [Dennis] Until an incident in 415 BC
derails Alcibiades' promising future.
- Alcibiades persuades the Greek assembly
to take part in a military expedition in Sicily
as part of the Peloponnesian War.
But right before he's about to leave for Sicily,
a bunch of sacred statues of the God Hermes
are vandalized throughout Athens.
Their phalluses are removed.
- The Greeks are pretty superstitious
and this is seen as a bad omen,
especially in the middle of a military campaign.
- The public is outraged
and the crime is pinned on Alcibiades.
He's accused of defacing the statues in a drunken stupor.
Now we can't be sure whether he did it or not,
but historians believe he may have been set up
by his political rivals.
- Alcibiades is not only charged with this crime,
but they also pile on another more serious charge
of drunkenly defiling a ritual ceremony.
Alcibiades is found guilty of sacrilege.
His possessions are confiscated.
- [Dennis] He's also issued an unusual curse.
- It turns out curses aren't just for individuals
with a grudge.
Even governments would order curses.
In this case, the Athenian authorities get the holy priests
to draw up a curse against Alcibiades,
for him to die a horrible death.
This curse is then read aloud in public.
- It's essentially the death penalty but in curse form.
Afraid for his life and thinking he can outrun a curse,
Alcibiades flees to Sparta where he turns traitor
by revealing Athens' military secrets.
He's kinda like a ancient version of Benedict Arnold.
As in Athens, he makes both friends and enemies in Sparta.
- Alcibiades' curse finally catches up with him
when his Spartan enemies convince the Persians
to take him out.
They light his hut on fire,
and when he comes running out, sword in hand,
he's viciously murdered with javelins and arrows.
If you wanna believe in such things,
it seems like this curse did its job.
- [Dennis] There's also proof that at least one curse
seems to have worked in ancient Rome as well,
and it may have changed the course of history.
- In the early 1st century AD,
successful and popular general named Germanicus
is well on his way to becoming emperor.
- He is the adopted son of the Emperor Tiberius,
he's grand-nephew to Augustus, the first emperor.
But Germanicus has one real rival, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso.
- In 19 AD, Germanicus takes a trip to Egypt,
but when he returns back to Rome,
he gets a sudden unexplained illness.
Germanicus is pretty sure he knows what happened.
He believes his rival Piso must have cursed him
by placing objects of black magic in his house.
He tells anyone who will listen
that he thinks he's been cursed,
but not too many people take him seriously.
However, a few months later, Germanicus dies.
- They searched Germanicus' room
and they found curse tablets with his name on 'em
in the floors, in the walls,
along with other dark magic materials,
blood-smeared ashes, human remains.
His room was covered in curses.
- Instead of Germanicus,
the next emperor is the infamous little boot, Caligula,
known as the insane and cruel tyrant
who spends a fortune of the empire's money
on indulgent properties
and other construction projects for himself.
It definitely set Rome on a very different path.
- To many believers,
this is proof positive that the curse tablets work
and it's why they keep being used for several centuries
after Germanicus' death.
- [Dennis] But by the 4th century AD,
the use of curse tablets starts to fall out of favor
due in part to the rise of Christianity.
- In 313 AD, the Emperor Constantine
issues the Edict of Milan,
which kicks off the process of making Christianity
the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Under Christianity, magic is prohibited
by both secular and religious law.
- One would assume that this would be the end
of curse tablets,
but in late 2023
archeologists working at a construction site
in Rostock, Germany,
discover a thin piece of rolled-up lead
at the bottom of a latrine.
It's a curse tablet that dates back to the 15th century.
- It's inscribed with a message you could just barely read
and it summons the the demon Beelzebub and the demon Berith
as well as a curse directed at a man and a woman
named Heinrich and Taleke.
Researchers examining the tablet
wonder if the writer hoped to break up the couple
maybe in a fit of jealousy.
- [Dennis] Today, scientists have a different view
on what could be behind the power of curse tablets.
- Some archeologists believe
there could be a psychosomatic effect.
So a victim's belief in curses,
combined with a guilty conscience,
could actually manifest the curse's symptoms.
But is it all in their head,
or was it really the curse at work?
We might never truly know.
[dramatic music]
- March 29th, 1974,
just outside the city of Xi'an, China,
a group of seven farmers are digging a well during a drought
when they make a stunning discovery,
one with an alarming backstory.
- One of the farmers, named Yang Zhifa,
is excavating the hole.
Rather than reaching the water he's hoping for,
he hits a hard object instead.
As the crew keeps digging,
they realize they've hit what appears to be
some sort of red clay pottery.
Turns out it's the head of a statue.
- A local archeologist named Zhao Kangmin
gets word of this and he rushes to the site.
He gathers up the clay shards
and he pieces them together in his lab.
And when he's done, he's built two life-sized statues
of ancient Chinese warriors.
- Based on the location of where the farmers were digging,
Zhao suspects that the statues are from the Qin dynasty,
which is the first dynasty of Imperial China.
It dates all the way back to 200 BC.
And this is such a significant find
in the archeological world
that Zhao's team launches an excavation of the site.
- What the archeologists found
was an amazing army of terracotta figures.
They found the army in three pits.
Most of that army was in pit one, 6,000 of them were there.
These figures were six feet tall, 600 pounds each.
These were massive, massive works.
- Pit number two is an L shape
just northeast of pit number one.
It's nearly four square miles
and the terracotta figures here
are positioned like they're in combat
with kneeling archers at the front for extra protection.
Pit number three is the smallest,
but it's believed to represent the army headquarters.
There's one chariot at the center
surrounded by 68-foot soldiers standing at attention.
- What's absolutely amazing is the artistry of these
because no two statues are the same.
They each have unique facial expressions,
they each have unique hairstyles.
The uniforms also vary,
meaning some of them represent different ranks.
- [Dennis] But the Terracotta Army statues
are just one of many elements in this massive complex.
- The whole entire burial site
covers nearly 38 square miles.
- About a mile away from the pits with the Terracotta Army
is a tomb complex secured by walls as high as 33 feet,
and at the center
is the mastermind of this entire complex.
- [Dennis] This is the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
- Qin Shi Huang actually translates to first emperor,
and that's exactly what he is.
He is the first person to conquer and to unify
seven Chinese territories
that had been at war for centuries.
- During his reign,
he creates a standard system for writing and currency
amongst all the territories.
He also unites
a bunch of the region's existing wall structures
into a wonder that's still standing today,
the Great Wall of China.
- [Dennis] But Qin Shi Huang
has an even more ambitious goal.
To live and reign forever.
- Despite Qin's accomplishments,
it isn't exactly a smooth ride to the top.
He survives at least three assassination attempts
and grows increasingly more wary of his closest confidants.
So he's seeking protection by any means possible.
- Qin is the type who believes in magicians and mythology,
so to protect himself he'll go to any lengths,
and this applies to his death as well.
Since day one as king, Qin starts planning his burial.
He calls for the construction of the massive tomb complex
which archeologists believe takes nearly 40 years to build
and 700,000 workers.
- [Dennis] And to make sure it remains secure,
some believe Qin places a curse on the site.
- If anyone ever disturbs his final resting place,
Qin wants to make sure they die or suffer horribly.
He orders craftsman to rig up crossbows and arrows
as booby traps primed and ready to shoot
at whoever enters the tomb.
- And according to the villagers in the surrounding area,
as a final protection,
he also gets a magical spell cast on the tomb
to bring horrible misfortune to anyone who enters.
It's been said that since then, for hundreds of years,
people who live in the village believe the land was sacred,
any tampering of the land could bring misfortune,
so they've been leaving it alone all this time.
- Until 2,200 years later
in the midst of this terrible 1974 drought
when these seven farmers do what they have to do to survive
and try to dig a well on this sacred
and potentially cursed land.
- [Dennis] Soon after disturbing the ground,
strange things start happening to the farmers.
- First, all their farmland is claimed by the government
and their homes are demolished to make room for a museum
and a whole bunch of tourist facilities.
In 1997, one of the farmers, Wang Puzhi, dies by suicide.
And just three years after that,
two of the youngest die suddenly in their 50s
of a mysterious, painful illness,
and at the time of their deaths,
they're jobless and penniless.
- The remaining four farmers have their own tragic fate.
They're unable to earn a living anymore
and they're forced to take these menial jobs
in the gift shop of the museum
earning just a really meager wage.
According to the wife of farmer Yang Quanyi,
he worried that the group did something wrong
by disturbing the warriors
and that they may have brought
all this misfortune upon themselves.
- [Dennis] While the excavation
of Qin Shi Huang's burial complex is ongoing,
there are no set plans to open his actual inner tomb.
- It seems archeologists are rightfully scared
to get too close to the Qin emperor.
With the rumors of a curse, of booby traps,
so far nobody has decided it's worth the risk.
So, real or not,
maybe the threat of his curse actually worked.
[dramatic music]
- One of Ireland's most famous landmarks is Blarney Castle,
which welcomes over 400,000 tourists per year.
Many of them come for a magical blessing,
but instead receive something much darker.
- If you've heard of Blarney Castle,
it's probably thanks to one particular piece
of Carboniferous limestone,
which has become one of the most famous rocks in the world.
The Blarney Stone.
- The Blarney Stone is a stone set into the battlements
near the top of the castle wall, about 85 feet up.
It runs along the bottom of an opening
that back in the old days would've been used
to pour boiling oil or quicklime on attackers below.
It's about four feet wide, one foot tall,
and otherwise looks like any other slab of limestone.
No one knows the exact origin of the Blarney Stone itself,
but several theories exist,
including one linking it to the Bible.
One explanation is that the Blarney Stone is the same one
used by the biblical figure Jacob in Bethel.
It's said to be the stone that Jacob uses as a pillow
while he has his famous dream of a ladder reaching heaven.
It's eventually brought from the Holy Land
during the Crusades.
It's taken and placed on a sacred hill in Ireland
and named the Lia Fail, or Speaking Stone.
- [Dennis] While the source of the stone
is shrouded in mystery,
the castle itself dates back to about 950 AD.
- The original castle on this site
is just a wooden structure,
but it's ultimately replaced by a stone building
in about 1200.
After this one is destroyed,
a third and final castle is built in 1446 AD
by Dermot MacCarthy, King of Munster.
And according to one version of the legend,
it's during this 1446 construction
that the Blarney Stone is added.
- The legend is that by kissing the stone
you'll be granted incredible eloquence,
the ability to flatter and persuade anyone of anything.
It's also known as the gift of gab.
- [Dennis] If the stone does have magical powers,
they're soon put to the test.
- According to legend,
Queen Elizabeth I,
who rules England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603,
wants to seize this castle.
She tries several times to make legal arguments
that would allow her to take it over,
but each time MacCarthy's descendant, Cormac MacCarthy,
shows off an incredible way with words
and talks his way out of having to give it up.
- The other kind of key part of this legend
is that Elizabeth herself says of this kind of tricky speech
that he's able to use in court is blarney,
and that's kind of where it gets connected.
- Ultimately, the blarney term sticks
and it becomes the name of the castle,
and word of this famous stone spreads throughout Ireland
and eventually to the rest of the world.
- [Dennis] Thanks to the famous stone,
the castle has been a tourist attraction for over 200 years.
- All you have to do to reach the Blarney Stone
is pay the admission
and you too can try to receive the gift of gab,
but it does require a bit of effort.
You have to climb over 100 narrow spiral steps
to the top of Blarney Castle,
then lie on your back while hanging out over a ledge,
arch your back
and extend your head and neck backwards as far as it can go,
then plant a kiss on the stone.
- Several famous people have tried
to receive the stone's magical blessing,
including Mick Jagger and Ronald Reagan.
- In 1912, Winston Churchill comes to visit
a town close to Blarney Castle
and he's invited to go up and kiss the stone, which he does,
and it is claimed that this may be behind his oratory gifts.
- [Dennis] But the lucky Stone has another unexpected power.
[dramatic music]
- [Dennis] A visit to Blarney Castle in Ireland
sits at the top of many tourists' to-do lists,
but some believe it might actually be dangerous.
- Through the years there have been multiple accounts
of people who go to Blarney Castle
and instead of getting any magical blessings
of the gift of gab,
instead they come home and suffer terrible misfortunes.
- [Dennis] According to some castle historians,
the reason why goes back to the late 16th century.
- After MacCarthy is able to keep his castle
out of the hands of Queen Elizabeth,
he gets himself a little bit of insurance
to make sure nobody else can ever get a piece
of his beloved home or his beloved Blarney Stone.
He orders a curse placed on the castle.
Anyone who removes a stone from the property
will suffer endless misfortune and misery
until it's returned.
- [Dennis] Curse stones in Ireland are an old tradition
dating back to prehistoric times.
- The Irish have many myths
about the supernatural power of rocks.
Their collection of stories about cursed stones
and wishing stones
is more extensive than any other belief system
that we know of.
- Ireland was once ruled by the Celts
whose religious devotion to stones is well known.
It also figured prominently in the beliefs and rituals
of the famous sacred Celtic order known as the Druids.
On the Blarney Castle grounds,
there's actually a Druid circle,
and some attribute the curse to this particular feature.
- [Dennis] In 2010, one woman from South Carolina
claims she is a victim of the cursed stone.
- Linda Kelly is an estate agent,
and while organizing a sale of items
from the home of a retired priest,
she buys a rock from Blarney Castle for a buck.
- Linda doesn't initially know
about the Blarney Stone curse.
All she knows is that she bought a rock from a man
who had an unfortunate life.
But within three weeks,
Linda's own circumstances take a turn for the worse.
She loses her job and she enters a deep depression.
- It takes her a while to figure it all out.
But once she hears of the Blarney Stone curse,
she drives her rock straight to the post office
and mails it back to the castle.
She feels immediate relief
and her life quickly gets back on track.
- [Dennis] Kelly is far from the first to experience this.
In 2009, Canadian tourist Liam Sareman tries his luck
and takes a rock from the castle.
- Sareman hears about the curse
while on site visiting the castle,
but he ignores it and takes a piece of the wall
as a special souvenir.
- A few months later,
Blarney Castle gets a stone in the mail from him.
He explains that he has suffered, quote,
"months of misfortune,"
so he apologizes and sends it back.
Sareman also asks the castle staff
to please put the stone back in the exact same position
to make sure his streak of bad luck comes to an end.
- [Dennis] The current owner of Blarney Castle,
Sir Charles Colthurst,
says this is par for the course.
- Charles Colthurst reports
that he gets several stones each year being returned
with stories of curses
and that these are often coming with instructions
to put them back from the place
in which they were taken from.
- This, of course, isn't proof
that the Blarney Stone is cursed,
but it is proof that a whole bunch of people
believe in the curse,
and that's really what matters.
- At the heart of every curse is belief,
like the legendary Andvari,
the ancient Romans or Greeks or the Qin Emperor.
Someone believes that they can protect themselves
or harm their enemies with a magic spell.
- Or like the Blarney Stone,
a victim of bad circumstances believes
they have a dark supernatural origin.
Are curses legit?
Depends on who you ask, really.
But if you've ever been on the business end of a curse,
it can feel very, very real.
- Many people believe these cursed objects
and the fears they invoke
have done more than just destroy lives.
Is it possible some actually altered the course of history?
I'll leave that to you to decide.
I'm Dennis Quaid.
Thanks for watching "Holy Marvels."