Book III, Chapter 17
With each day, the world we live in is made anew.
I say this not as a religious mystery or philosophical quandary, but as a statement of fact, because each day, we rebuild the world that defines us and that we ourselves define, based on the world that defined us yesterday. All of us, man and dragon alike, are defined by our histories and choices. Consider this conundrum. Suppose that tomorrow, upon rising, I were to state that the ancient laws and duties incumbent upon my station and status did not apply, and that I owed no man my efforts or time.
Well, I would be seen as mad by all of those who had risen that day and expected that those laws and duties would apply to me. How they would react would depend on many things, but what manner of things tells them that such laws and duties should apply? Nothing, except for their own histories and choices, the teachings and expectations passed down by our predecessors. And so, for all that the world is made anew, it resembles the old one quite well in its fidelity.
But now consider: suppose that I taught my own children that the expectations upon them are different than my own? Or suppose I taught such a thing to all of the children? Would I be freeing them from my own history, or freeing myself? Or both? Is such a thing possible? Would the definitions shift? What if I had a particular vision of how the world should be? Or if I saw the world I live in now as an ideal to be cherished and preserved?
As the world is invented anew with each day, we each have a choice whether to accept the world of yesterday or create the world of tomorrow through our choices of what we accept from our predecessors and and what we teach to our inheritors.
I myself choose to try to make a better world, one where I feel that I am fulfilling my responsibilities to my ancestors and to my descendants, and hope that they, in turn, will work to preserve or improve upon what I have given them.
— Fyrir Hiccup House Haddock VI, Collected Public Sermons & Private Contemplations
Tropes That Appear In This Chapter:
- All Lesbians Want Kids: Played With. Jonna and Reidun weren't originally planning on having kids, but getting promoted to clanhead status means they need an heir, and they decide that they want biological kids after some discussion.
- Awesome, but Impractical: When Hiccup creates a new tail-fin that allows Toothless to fly on his own, it robs Toothless of most of his agility because it can only copy what the other fin does- thus limiting the manoeuvres he can pull off- and Toothless is required to adjust his flight method to accommodate the absence of Hiccup's weight on his back.
- Damned by Faint Praise: Explicitly referenced by Stoick when Jonna (a lesbian) thanks him for not even trying to talk her into sleeping with him as a precondition of service. Stoick accepts the compliment in spirit it was given (honestly complimentary), but is a bit irked at being compared with "one of those men." Of course, Jonna brought it up as a lead-in for her next topic—her need for an heir for her clan. After giving Stoick, ahem, right of first refusal, Stoick does a Spit Take, turns her down, and beats a hasty retreat. Gobber finds the whole thing hysterical.
- Hope Spot: Kerr made it to Ivor's village carrying information Berk would want to know. He is told that they get regular visits and Berk is a few hours away by dragon-flight and is relieved. Then Dagur catches up, kills him, and kills or enslaved the rest of the village.
- Hypocrisy Nod: Sigurd realizes he's a hypocrite because he was mad at Hiccup for wanting to give some dragons to Norway, when he did the same thing with the Romans.And, he reminded that inner Snotlout, back in Nidaros, he'd been so pissed about Hiccup giving away dragons.And then he'd given them to the Romans. Because Harald was handsome.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Gunnar walks in just as Sigurd and Heidrun are about to hook up.
- Leave No Witnesses: The fate of the village of Glenfinnan when the Berserkers catch up with Kerr and kill anyone he might have talked to.
- The Reveal: We finally find out why the relationship between Gobber and Clodgall is so strained.Gobber: Aye. Well… it comes to this. Clodgall and me, we have the same father, but different mothers. Mine was our father's wife, his was the concubine.Jonna: But, wait, wouldn't that take him out of the line of succession?Gobber: Well, I would have been first in the line for voting, but our father and his heir—my older sister—died in the same raid. And I was a young'un, years from being an adult, but I was also the only surviving child from my mum. But Clodgall was, is twenty years older than me, and he was already married then, so the clan passed me over in the voting and elected him as heir, and then he immediately became the clanhead. But they picked me as the clan-heir at least. Then, when I got older, and my… preferences got known, and I lost my hand and foot… Since I was maimed, they called a new vote for a new clan-heir, since I 'didn't qualify as heir any longer.' So Spitelout became the new clanheir and I was just the village smith, even if I was friends with the chief's heir.Jonna: They stole your birthright piece by piece!?Gobber: Aye, I suppose. But this was long ago, and I've made my peace with it. But then, my partner and I, before he died, we were courting this one girl to do for us what you asked me to do for you. I was going to marry her and we'd be a triad all together, just to make the inheritance clear, from me to the child, so that there wouldn't be any… issues with who the child's legal father was. That way they'd still have a chance to be elected heir, as the grandchild of the old clanhead. But I didn't have the bride price necessary, and she couldn't afford the mandated dowry.So I asked Clodgall to take her on as a concubine for a year while I got the bride price together. A year later, she decided to stay with him. And Lopsides is their daughter. And then my partner died a few years later. He's in Aegir's hall now.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Kerr, a thrall from the town Mildew controls, spends several chapters on the lam, before finally making it to a town that gets regular dragon visits... only for Dagur to find him, kill him, and slaughter and enslave the entire town to leave no witnesses.
