Legends and Legendary People Videos

Meet some of the world's most-colorful characters in this collection. From Roman times to the Spanish Main, these individuals were famous in their own lifetimes and later, when their stories became the "stuff of legends."

During November, 1558, Queen Mary (the eldest child of Henry VIII) acknowledged her half-sister, Princess Elizabeth, as her heir.

How did Beowulf, a story based on Scandinavian characters, become Britain's national epic?

How did Anglo-Saxons live, once they settled in Britain?

Anglo-Saxons came to Britain from other countries on the European continent.

Beowulf, an epic tale written in the Anglo-Saxon dialect, is a story about life in the Dark Ages.

Jesse James was a legend during his own lifetime.

The Huns had no written language, but there is a written description of Attila by Priscus, a Greek-speaking Roman historian who met him.

After they've been called into battle by the warlord Ordgar, Tofi and his friend Leofric receive frightening news.  Now their country is being ...

  What would it have been like for Britain's foot soldiers to fight in the Battle of Hastings, during 1066?  Before we can answer that que...

What was it like for Sir Anthony Hopkins to play the role of Hrothgar in the film "Beowulf?

Historians today rely on Beowulf to reconstruct long halls in ancient Anglo-Saxon villages.

The sole surviving manuscript of Britains national epic, about a Dark Ages hero, is now maintained at the British Library.

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