This is what happens when you steal someone's life...

After Martin Guerre, a 16th-century French soldier, was severely wounded and lost a leg in battle, he became deeply depressed and believed his family and village would never accept him back due to his past shame of stealing grain. Unbeknownst to him, his friend Arnaud, who looked remarkably similar and knew intimate details of Martin's life, took advantage of Martin's presumed death to impersonate him. Arnaud lived as Martin for years in his village of Artigat, even fathering two children with Martin's wife, Bertrande.

Martin Guerre was laying in a bed in a makeshift military hospital in Saint Quentin, France, writhing around in pain... he had lost his leg. [00:01:14] ...he had completely messed up his life when he stole some grain from his father and had to literally flee town. [00:03:11] ...Arnaud was on trial. Arnaud did not just look like he could be Martin's brother. He looked exactly like Martin. [00:11:32] ...Arnaud had waltzed into Artigat and told everyone there that he was Martin Guerre. [00:12:15] ...even Bertrande had believed Arnaud was her husband, and she had gone on to have two additional children with him believing this was Martin. [00:12:31]

Martin's uncle, Pierre, suspected Arnaud was an impostor and initiated a fraud trial. The real Martin Guerre, having miraculously recovered and been outfitted with a prosthetic leg, was tracked down by a man sent by his family to testify. His dramatic appearance in court immediately exposed Arnaud as a fake, leading to Arnaud's conviction and execution by hanging. Martin's wife, Bertrande, was horrified by her deception and begged for forgiveness, but Martin never forgave her for not recognizing him.

However, one person, Martin's uncle, Pierre, he just didn't buy it. He thought this guy was a fake... and he took him to court for fraud. [00:12:41] ...when Martin stepped into that courtroom and his own family laid eyes on him, the actual Martin Guerre, they realized right away that Arnaud truly was a fake. [00:13:06] Arnaud was ultimately sentenced to death and hanged in front of Martin's house in Artigat... [00:13:14] She begged Martin to forgive her, but he never did. [00:13:32]

In 1940, 84-year-old Alaskan prospector Erwin Robertson was caught in a severe winter storm during a 100-mile trek, with wolves tracking him. After becoming hypothermic and realizing his fire-starting tinder was wet from his sweat, he faced certain death. Rather than being consumed by the approaching wolves, Erwin made the conscious decision to lie down in a partially frozen creek, allowing the trickling water to gradually freeze over him, creating an icy cocoon that shielded his body from the predators.

One morning in November of 1940, an 84-year-old prospector named Erwin Robertson hiked down a snowy ridge in the Alaskan wilderness. [00:14:27] ...this pack of wolves that was following him. [00:16:53] ...the tinder was wet. We can assume the reason it was wet is because he kept his fire kit inside of his parka and he was working so hard with that sled. He was sweating so much that he sweat on the tinder and he soaked it. [00:28:09] ...he thought to himself, 'I certainly don't want to die by being eaten alive.' And so, he made a choice. [00:28:51] ...Erwin had at some point walked into the middle of the creek, laid down on his back... and he had just laid there and the water kept spilling out onto him and gradually froze in layers over his whole body, essentially freezing himself into this cocoon in the creek. [00:29:25]