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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Artifact,

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Speaker 2: a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing

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Speaker 2: on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. Been a

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Speaker 2: minute since I've done an Artifact episode, and it is

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Speaker 2: Star Trek week, so I decided I'm going to pick

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Speaker 2: a signature artifact from that fictional universe. And it is,

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Speaker 2: of course, going to be the iconic Klingon Batleth, or

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Speaker 2: Sword of Honor. I'm almost positive you've seen one before.

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Speaker 2: But to describe it, well, it's actually quite challenging to describe,

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Speaker 2: as is befitting of a non-human weapon. A weapon of

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Speaker 2: non-human origin, completely removed, or supposed to be completely removed

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Speaker 2: from our culture and history. It's like a curved, double-edged

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Speaker 2: sword with three handholds on the rear side. and with

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Speaker 2: either end of the blade curving in like the horns

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Speaker 2: of a bull. Within the Star Trek universe, it's a

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Speaker 2: highly effective weapon in trained Klingon hands, as well as

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Speaker 2: a sacred weapon for members of this warrior culture. According

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Speaker 2: to Mark Orkland, a linguist and creator of the Klingon language,

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Speaker 2: in his book Klingon for the Galactic Traveler, traditions held,

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Speaker 2: this is within the world of Star Trek, that the

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Speaker 2: first blade of this type was forged by Qualus the Unforgettable,

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Speaker 2: founder of the Klingon Empire, when he dipped one of

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Speaker 2: his own hairs into molten lava and removed it in

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Speaker 2: the form of a batleth. According to Memory Alpha, the

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Speaker 2: origins of the weapon design itself, we can find this

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Speaker 2: in Worf actor Michael Dorn's desire for a more martial

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Speaker 2: arts-centric fighting style for his character, as well as writer

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Speaker 2: Ronald D. Moore's desire to establish the Klingon culture in

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Speaker 2: The Next Generation, Star Trek The Next Generation, as more

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Speaker 2: space samurai than space barbarian. Visual effects producer and supervisor

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Speaker 2: Dan Curry, who is also a martial arts practitioner himself,

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Speaker 2: then designed the weapon to meld exotic flair with practical

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Speaker 2: believable lethality, ultimately developing multiple Klingon weapons and the martial

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Speaker 2: arts to wield them. I find this sort of thing

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Speaker 2: so interesting. In bringing the fantasy weapon to life, a

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Speaker 2: product of pure imagination, to bring it to life on

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Speaker 2: the screen, it also has to take on a physical

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Speaker 2: life of its own, and in many respects becomes a

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Speaker 2: very real weapon and artifact. Most of these Batleths are,

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Speaker 2: of course, unsharpened props, fantasy blades, and replicas, if not

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Speaker 2: outright toys. But fully realized and sharpened Batleths do exist.

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Speaker 2: though they are not always legal, and their practicality compared

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Speaker 2: to weapons with real-world origins seems doubtful when you see

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Speaker 2: people break down the comparisons, which makes sense, right? Because

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Speaker 2: it ultimately still is a weapon born out of fantasy,

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Speaker 2: even if that fantasy is very well designed and well informed.

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Speaker 2: There are, however, similar weapons with real-world origins, with the

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Speaker 2: closest analogs that I could find being some of the

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Speaker 2: more elaborate blades from Chinese traditional martial arts. such as

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Speaker 2: hook swords and crescent moon knives or deer horn knives,

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Speaker 2: with the curved flourishes intended to hook, trap, or catch

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Speaker 2: an opponent's weapon. Be that an opponent like on foot

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Speaker 2: or an opponent on horseback, that sort of thing. So

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Speaker 2: in these cases, there would be some sort of practical

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Speaker 2: reason for these different curves and so forth. Now, as

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Speaker 2: of this recording, as far as I can tell, thankfully,

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Speaker 2: and let's not change this, no human lives have been

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Speaker 2: lost to a sharpened or unsharpened bat lift. Though in

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Speaker 2: February of 2009, as reported by Kieran Nicholson in the

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Speaker 2: Denver Post, a man wielding a bat lift robbed two

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Speaker 2: Colorado Springs convenience stores. These crimes remain unsolved as of

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Speaker 2: this recording, but as far as I can tell, the

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Speaker 2: Klingon empire is completely off the hook. They are not

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Speaker 2: suspected at all. In 2015, a Spokane, Washington garbage can

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Speaker 2: alteration allegedly entailed the brandishing of a batleth. Details seem

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Speaker 2: sketchy here, but I'm pretty sure, based on what I

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Speaker 2: was reading, no contact of any sort was made with

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Speaker 2: the weapon. So thankfully, again, this fantasy weapon that is

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Speaker 2: manifested in the real world has thankfully, on the whole,

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Speaker 2: not brought the violence inherent in the fantasy with it.

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Speaker 2: So let's just try our best to keep it that way.

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Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of The Artifact, The Monster Fact,

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Speaker 2: or Animalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can email

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Speaker 2: us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

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