Book I, Chapter 9
Berk (Island) —Largest island of the four Small Isles of the Alban Hebrides archipelago, and noted for its extreme geography, possessing glacier-carved high mountain peaks and an extensive array of sea caves and wave-carved coastal features. The island is the ancestral homeland of House Haddock and the other Houses descended from the ancient Hooligan tribe. Settled by the Hooligan Norse tribe in the early 700s CE as a longphort, to use as a base for further Viking raids against the Irish, Welsh, Alban and Saxon coastlines, the island was one of the focal points of the Dragon War, due to the tenacity and self-admitted stubbornness of the Hooligans.
— Encyclopedia Norlandia, 7th Edition, 1642, Edinburgh, Scotland
Tropes That Appear In This Chapter:
- Dragons Are Demonic: The Christians of Glenfinnan seem to think that the Hooligans slew a "Prince of Hell" to "claim dominion over its spawn."Hiccup sighed. "They're not devils. Or demons. They're very smart animals, and are very kind and nurturing."He pointed towards where Barf and Belch were playing with the village's children, who had gotten over their fear of the dragons quickly, and were treating the Zippleback as a climbing toy, much to the dragon's dual amusement.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Astrid gives two points on this.
- In the case of Glenfinnan, they think that the Hooligans have claimed their village as a vassal when Hiccup offered their help.
- In the case of Hiccup, he did not realize how horrifying it was for parents to see children being taken up for dragon-rides, the parents only complying for fear of what they would do if they did not play along.
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Downplayed in the "if man where meant to fly, God would have given them wings" sort of way when an older woman calls dragon-riding "unnatural." Hiccup counters by pointing out that by that logic, God would have given humans sheep wool and cow hides to walk around in winter, which the woman concedes to.
