[00:00.62]Macbeth, Chapter One.
[00:03.90]A bloody battle and a dangerous prophecy.
[00:10.78]This is a story of ambition, blood, and vile, vile weather.
[00:18.74]Its setting is the bare and bitter heaths of Scotland, and its villains, well, you'll hear about them soon enough.
[00:29.41]As for me, never mind my name.
[00:34.93]I am, I think, 15 years old.
[00:40.73]I was born with marks upon me, which some called signs of witchcraft.
[00:49.31]When sickness came to the village, I was blamed, tormented, and sentenced to death.
[00:57.69]I escaped and fled to the wild heath, to live on berries and to spend my life watching.
[01:07.47]Most of all, I watch those women they call the weird sisters because, like me, they are called witches.
[01:18.94]The sisters have the knowledge I seek.
[01:23.61]They can conjure up storms, cast curses on their enemies, and greatest of all, foretell the future.
[01:36.03]It was from the sisters that I first heard the name Macbeth.
[01:42.89]What a foul day that was.
[01:46.44]Thunder rattled the heavens and fog smothered the heath like a shroud.
[01:55.36]The sisters danced wildly, screaming about a bloody battle and showing off a hacked off thumb.
[02:06.61]Again and again they shrieked the name Macbeth.
[02:14.99]As the sisters melted into the fog, I crept forward to view their glass.
[02:23.60]Within this sacred object, all things on earth could be seen, or at least, all things the sisters wish to see.
[02:36.00]With heart beating hard, I steadied my eye.
[02:42.70]First, I saw the fluttering flags of the king of Norway.
[02:48.16]Then the face of Cor, the traitor lord, in arms against the Scots king Duncan.
[03:00.25]Suddenly, confusion filled the glass, then horror.
[03:06.73]Screams, curses, and blasting cannons outroared the thunder.
[03:13.73]I saw horsemen with axes hacking.
[03:18.00]I saw limbs chopped from bodies.
[03:21.55]I watched living people dropping like dumb puppets.
[03:28.41]Then, in the midst of it all, I spied a superman.
[03:37.74]He stood like a rock in a heaving sea, slashing and hacking with awesome power.
[03:46.69]Alone it seemed, he turned the tide.
[03:51.30]The flags of Norway turned and fled, and the day was Scotland's.
[03:58.53]Soon, I was to crouch within a few yards of the hero of this battle.
[04:09.36]One dark evening, the weird sisters gathered at their appointed place.
[04:17.29]By and by, a tired army arrived, creaking and clanking across the rain swept heath.
[04:27.48]Out of their number rode two men, one our hero.
[04:34.96]Seeing the sisters, they came to a halt.
[04:40.53]They had seen many horrors that day, but nothing quite like these wild and bearded women.
[04:52.87]All hail, Macbeth, cried the first sister.
[04:58.36]Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.
[05:05.74]So this was Macbeth.
[05:09.68]I felt awe and a sense of foreboding.
[05:17.40]All hail Macbeth, cried the second sister, Hail to thee, Thane of Cor.
[05:27.18]Macbeth's brow furrowed.
[05:30.54]What were the sisters saying?
[05:34.22]He was not the Thane of Cordor.
[05:39.88]All hail Macbeth, cried the third sister, that shall be king hereafter.
[05:48.63]King, Macbeth?
[05:53.12]What kind of prophecy was this?
[05:56.82]Thought Macbeth.
[06:00.76]And what of me?
[06:03.77]Asked Macbeth's companion.
[06:08.50]Hail Banquo, cried the first sister, lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
[06:21.45]Not so happy, chimed the second, yet much happier.
[06:29.77]Thou shalt make kings, intoned the third, though thou shalt not rule.
[06:40.36]With that the weird sisters melted into the fog, leaving the two men baffled.
[06:50.00]Were the women real or just a dream?
[06:54.82]What was the meaning of their prophecies?
[07:03.77]The Thane of Cordor was alive and so was Duncan the king.
[07:12.72]We must have been drugged, said Banquo.
[07:18.39]Or mad to believe that nonsense, replied Macbeth.
[07:27.39]But the truth was, he liked what the sisters had told him.
[07:32.70]The idea of being king tempted him greatly.