Heartwarming / A Thing of Vikings

• Chapter 16: Gobber's – and Berk's as a whole – attitude toward the former thralls they'd just freed, finding just about any excuse they can think of to pay, give discounts, or otherwise just give them a leg up on their new leases on life.
  He might not be as passionate about it as Stoick… but he'd charge a new freedman full price on the day that Hel claimed him.
• Hiccup proposing to Astrid; it's not just that he turns down politically advantageous marriage alliances for her, the woman he loves, the one who "will throw him into ice water" when he needs it, he also gives a literal King's Ransom and a captured city for her bride price – just to show the world how much she means to him.
• Fishlegs and Heather managing to reconnect, forgive, and rekindle their relationship after the month of estrangement after the Battle.
• Fintan reuniting with his lover Roisin and his daughter Bláthnat.
• Rabbi Dovid answering a late-night knock at the door of his synagogue to find a trio of Norse. It starts with him afraid of harassment from the city guard, his congregation hiding themselves as best they can, before he even opens the door – only to find that they're the fabled dragon-riders of Berk. Asking why they're there, the man Dovid assumes is a bodyguard goes over to a table, proceeds to write something and presents it to Dovid. In Hebrew, it reads that his great-grandfather was Jewish and taught the tribe how to read and write. And so now they're here to connect with long-lost relatives.
  • Later on, the topic of Jewish culinary taboos comes up, where Dovid witnesses the Berk Vikings admonishing themselves over having forgotten that detail of Dror ben Ezra's life. Even though it's been decades since the man himself passed on, he is still remembered fondly and respectfully for his adherence to his beliefs.
• Hiccup and Astrid accepting and forgiving Wulfhild over her not telling them about the secretive Christian marriage, culminating in a synod being drawn up that makes Hiccup, Astrid and Wulfhild's three-way marriage fully legal from all relevant perspectives.
  • Also finally it's said out loud that Wulfhild is in love with both of them, and they love her as well.
• Magnus and Ruffnut's relationship. The fic makes it perfectly clear that their marriage sprung as much from love as from politics.
• Chapter 63: Rabbi Dovid ben Eliezer meets the descendants of Dror ben Ezra from Berk who prospered from the man's teachings and because of how beloved he was among the Hooligan tribe, go on to invite and pay for the Jewish population living in fear and oppression in Normandy to come live and teach in Vedrarfjord instead. The idea that a single person from a victimized community can spread kindness and have that same kindness paid back to their people generations later is a pretty beautiful notion.
• Chapter 75: Bladewit meeting the Jewish community as it arrives in Vedrafjord. As the last living daughter of Dror ben Ezra, she gets to hear his language for the first time in decades and the familiarity is enough to reduce the usually stoic, stern old battleaxe to tears.
• After Tuffnut has spent time wondering what he's going to do with himself when confronted by the fact that he doesn't actually have any long-term ambitions of his own, he is touched when Princess Mór assures him that she appreciates him as a person as much as she appreciates that he has status as the last single member of the original Dragon Riders.
• When Astrid gives birth to her and Hiccup's first daughter, even Stoick is overcome at the news that they named the girl after Valka (although it would later be revealed to the reader that Valka is still alive).
• In Chapter 105, even with the depressing atmosphere of The Plague having infected Hiccup's daughters, Magnus' daughter Ragnhild has provided an uplifting event to contrast with all that. She was making fast friends with the other Thorston children, and has even befriended a yellow-colored Terror. Which she named Rand, after Magnus' golden-colored Nightmare Brand.
• In Chapter 106, Toothless is reunited with his long-lost sister and even though she is very distrustful of humans, she trusts Toothless' judgement to allow Hiccup to remove the muzzles off of her captured nestmates. In the next chapter, she gradually warms up to her brother's human allies, to the extent that she accepts Astrid's name of 'Fearless' and expresses a desire to see her brother's nest.
• Chapter 108:
  • Fearless' last remaining egg is alive! And under the care of Hiccup!
  • Hiccup tells everyone about Fearless' sacrifice, ensuring that even though she is dead, she will never be forgotten.
  • Markus is reunited with his daughters and learns one of them is going to get married to one of her fellow ex-thralls.
• In Chapter 110, it's revealed that Vedrarfjord's Christian priest has created a monument for Fearless; regardless of whether or not dragons have souls in the same sense as humans, he recognizes that Fearless's sacrifice deserves to be commemorated, which marks the first time that a lone dragon has been given such an honor.
  • A few chapters later, it's revealed that a silversmith is making elaborate pendants based on Night Furies explicitly to honour Fearless. Toothless is shown to be particularly touched at the effort, reflecting that honouring and commemorating the dead is one human trait that he wishes 'flyers' had developed on their own, as he finds himself realising how few memories he has of his own parents but he now sees so much effort going towards remembering his sister's efforts on their behalf.
• In Chapter 115, Hiccup finally succeeds at his challenge that Astrid had set for him, over two years before. Yet when faced with the decision of what to have as his forfeit, he admits that he'd never really thought about it – he was only interested in pursuing the challenge for Astrid's sake.
• The epigram for Chapter 115 indicates that, years after the main story, Hiccup has a close relationship with his son Magni. In the epigram, Hiccup takes time out from his duties to spend time with Magni, and is amazed that his son had just discovered the moon's craters by viewing the moon (which the Vikings called Magni) through his synlengra (telescope), as well as the moons of Jupiter (which the Vikings called Odin). At the end of the epigram, Hiccup is planning to construct a larger synlengra for his son.
  My son opened my eyes, and I didn't even know they were closed.
  I'm going to give him even better ones.
• Chapter 119 sees the dragon eggs start to hatch, which includes Toothless's eggs with Stormfly and Mistletoe and Fearless's surviving egg; Stormfly's child is basically a blue-tinted Night Fury, Mistletoe's is a Razorwhip with black-edged armour, and Fearless's child is a Skrill. Even before the eggs hatched, Toothless is shown wondering if his children will bond with any of Hiccup's, and is pleased at the idea of such a family bond being formed.
• Chapter 139 ends with some of the rescued Jewish refugees naming their son after Dror in honour of how his actions a hundred years past helped save them now.
• In Chapter 146, Elinor and Fergus introduce Stoick to Lowrans and Sunach, Stoick's cousins.

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