Book 3, Chapter 35
The ancient Hooligan tradition of absurdist or otherwise unconventional personal names that was in place during the time of Hiccup Haddock III (himself a prime example of the tradition) originated, according to tribal legend, with Hiccup III's ancestor, Hiccup I. According to the sagas, his parents named him when the baby had nonstop hiccups prior to his formal naming—and then a plague broke out which decimated the other infants of his cohort, and young Hiccup I not only survived, he never contracted the disease at all, a pattern which persisted through the next two years of plague outbreaks. Then, according to the saga, another toddler who had contracted the plague and was in danger of dying from it had his name changed from Varg to Catbrains in desperation by his parents, and was healthy within a week.
This resulted in absurdist names for nearly all of the tribe's children over the next generations, a situation apparently enhanced as a result of the difficulty which the tribe had in bringing pregnancies to term due to Nadder venom-induced miscarriages. With the birthing of children being so hard to achieve during this period, children were prized and even coddled as much as the harsh environment allowed them to be. The prizing of any child, no matter how sickly or bastard-born, reached the point where the tradition of exposing sickly infants which was the norm in other Norse cultures was rejected emphatically by the Hooligans.
Further reinforcement of the naming tradition came from the extinction of several other clans during this time, as well as Clan Hofferson's near extinction in the late-900s AD all of which were seen as being the natural consequence of failing to heed the tribal wisdoms of unconventional names. Over time, this tradition eventually grew to encompass a protective aura against other childhood threats to life and limb, both real and mythical.
— To Label The Stars: The Cultural Impact Of Names, Kyoto University Press, Ltd.
Tropes that appear in this chapter:
- Abandon the Disabled: Defied. The Hooligans have long rejected the tradition of leaving sickly infants to die due to how little of them they could bring to term in the first place.
- Ambiguously Bi: Conclusively defied; previous chapters discussed Astrid and Wulfhild 'servicing' each other as well as Hiccup, this marks the first occasion when the two women have clearly been seen enjoying an intimate moment while Hiccup is elsewhere.
- Babies Ever After: Dogsbreath and Inga's daughter is born this chapter, and Astrid and Wulfhild contemplate having more children themselves.
- Content Warnings:Chapter Trigger Warnings: Explicit Mention of Non-Con, Explicit Description of Murder, Explicit Discussion of Abortion, Explicit Act of Murder, Explicit Depiction of Severe Illness
- Decadent Court: The cutthroat politics of the Byzantine Empire rears its ugly head again with Sigurd's servants catching a spy sent by an unknown party. When the spy refuses to give up his master, Dogsbreath gives him a quick execution, which is noted to be restrained and merciful by the standards of the Byzantines.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: In Greece, men aren't allowed to be in the room with their wives for the birth of their children as opposed to the traditions of the Norse which requires the presence of the father.Dogsbreath He should have been in there. By all rights and traditions, he should have been inside the room to witness the birth of his child… but the Greek midwife had literally chased him out, saying that it was no place for men. And so now he waited. Outside. Instead of at his wife's side, as tradition and law demanded.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Lopsides is disgusted that Fishwings aborted her child.
- Unexpected Virgin: Toireasa is surprised that in a group full of rapists, Dagur managed to stay a virgin. Dagur managed it by killing the first person to mock his virginity and threatening to do the same to anyone else who'd mock him.
- Virgin-Shaming: Dagur says that one of the other Berserkers was mocking him for his refusal to lose his virginity by committing rape. Dagur killed him and threatened to do the same for anyone else who'd mock him for it as well.
- We Used to Be Friends: Fishwings and Lopsides used to be close friends, but they drifted apart. Fishwings thought it was because she wasn't there for Lopsides when the latter was a pariah for having a child out of wedlock. Lopsides sets the record straight by telling her that it was because she was willing to abort her own child which disgusted Lopsides.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The Hooligan Tribe's tradition of absurdist names gained enough attention for there to be an academic journal discussing it centuries in the future from when the story ended.
