– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

NARRATOR: It is less than three months since the start of World War I,

and the front page of The New York Times

is dominated by headlines about the global conflict.

But on page nine, a sensational article

documents the incredible discoveries

recently made in South America

by Australian explorer Captain James Besley,

which include the bones of an eight-foot-tall man.

VIEIRA: In 1914, Captain Besley led an expedition in Peru

where he unearthed a giant skeleton

with a huge, elongated skull.

He wrote about it. He discovered it.

He reported it.

You know, what's interesting is, in the historical record,

there's many accounts of giant skeletons

being unearthed in the Lake Titicaca region.

Some were enormous-- eight-, nine-, ten-foot-tall skeletons.

Now, sometimes these are animal bones

that at the time were, uh, misunderstood.

But oftentimes, they are human burials

with human artifacts, elongated skulls,

but a lot of it seems to be lost to history.

So it's still open-ended as to what happened to the bones.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that skeletons of giants

standing as much as ten feet tall

were discovered near Lake Titicaca?

While the finds were well-documented,

what happened to these allegedly giant,

humanlike bones remains unknown.

But researchers point out

that when Spanish conquistadors first arrived

in Peru in the 1500s,

the Native people told them stories

of giants that once inhabited the entire region.

TSOUKALOS: In 1553, the Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León

wrote in his chronicles of Peru

that the Native people told him about giants

who arrived in the area long ago.

And according to local traditions,

their ancestors encountered people so tall

that an ordinary human

would only come up to their knees.

And Pedro Cieza de León also claimed

that some of the Spaniards found a giant shin bone

and a giant tooth.

NEWMAN: There are accounts of giants existing

around the area of Lake Titicaca in the Peru, Bolivia,

Altiplano area.

The Inca said that there was a tradition

of these giants called Huaris

building sites like Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku

long before the Inca or any other cultures existed there.

We also have stories, even at Tiahuanaco itself,

that the great founder god Viracocha,

who emerged from Lake Titicaca,

created a race of giants from the earth, from the mud,

and controlled them

so they would build the megalithic sites

in the area, like Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku,

before they were then vanquished by a great flood.

The historical record and the legends

seem to be telling us about giant humanoids

existing in the past and being associated

with megalithic building.

NARRATOR: For ancient astronaut theorists,

the stories of giants and alleged discoveries

of giant bones in Peru are compelling.

But even more intriguing is the fact

that some of history's greatest explorers

claimed to have actually seen giants in South America

with their own eyes.

Sanlúcar, Spain.

September 8, 1522.

After more than three years at sea, the Victoria,

a ship launched by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan,

sails into the harbor.

Its arrival completes the first circumnavigation of the globe.

As recorded in the ship's log,

Magellan and his crew faced dangerous storms,

fierce battles and grand receptions.

But for many, the most intriguing account

detailed an unusual encounter near the tip of South America.

TSOUKALOS: Ferdinand Magellan and his crew were approaching land

near the southernmost point of South America when,

according to the expedition's official chronicles,

they encountered these towering giants

who apparently stood twice as tall as a normal human.

ANTONIO PIGAFETTA (dramatized): We saw a giant,

who was on the shore of the sea,

quite naked, and was dancing and leaping and singing.

He was so tall that the tallest of us only came up to his waist.

However, he was well-built.

The captain named this kind of people Patagon.

NEWMAN: They witnessed these extremely tall

human Natives of the area,

and he actually named the area Patagonia

because it translates as "Land of the Big Feet."

And these clearly had very big feet, as these were giants.

VIEIRA: According to the logs of the Victoria,

Magellan took back two of these giants on his voyage home

with the goal of presenting them to the court in Spain.

But they became so sick and died,

they had to be thrown overboard.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
explorer /ɪkˈsplɔːrər/ A2	noun - a person who explores new places or things
discover /dɪˈskʌvər/ A2	verb - to find or learn something for the first time
skeleton /ˈskɛlɪtən/ B1	noun - the structure of bones in a body
expedition /ˌɛkspəˈdɪʃən/ B1	noun - a journey or voyage undertaken by a group for a specific purpose
unearthed /ˌʌnˈɜːrθd/ B2	verb - to dig something out of the ground
giant /ˈdʒaɪənt/ A1	noun - an extremely large person or thing adjective - extremely large in size
artifact /ˈɑːrtɪfækt/ B2	noun - an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest
conquistador /ˌkɒŋkɪstəˈdɔːr/ C1	noun - a Spanish conqueror of the 15th and 16th centuries
megalithic /ˌmɛɡəˈlɪθɪk/ C1	adjective - relating to large prehistoric structures built with large stones
circumnavigation /ˌsɜːrkəmˌnævɪˈɡeɪʃən/ C1	noun - the act of traveling around the world
encounter /ɪnˈkaʊntər/ B1	verb - to meet or come across someone or something noun - a meeting, especially one that is unexpected
towering /ˈtaʊərɪŋ/ B2	adjective - very tall or high
tradition /trəˈdɪʃən/ A2	noun - a long-established custom or belief
vanquished /ˈvæŋkwɪʃt/ B2	verb - to defeat or conquer
compelling /kəmˈpɛlɪŋ/ B2	adjective - evoking interest, attention, or admiration in a powerfully irresistible way