How to Train Your Dragon
Encyclopedia
How to Train Your Dragon is a series of nine books set in a fictional Viking world. The books were published starting in 2003 as children's
novels written by British author Cressida Cowell
and published by Hodder Children's Books
. In the United States, the series is published by Little, Brown and Company
.
There are currently nine books in the main series, the titles of which all include a reference to dragons with the exception of How to Be a Pirate.
Cowell has also "translated" one of the books into How to Train Your Viking (2006), which was written for World Book Day, supposedly by her dragon character, Toothless.
Cowell cites the Inner Hebrides
of Scotland as an inspiration for the book.
chief, who must capture a dragon
for a rite of passage
. Set on the Isle of Berk, a group of ten youths of the Hooligan tribe are being led by "Gobber the Belch" to perform their first military operation; to catch their own dragon. Those who are not able to catch and train a dragon are exiled
from the tribe. This military operation has to be done by every Hooligan.
At the eastern coast of the Isle of Berk is an area known as "Wild Dragon Cliff" and among the youths is Hiccup himself, his friend Fishlegs, Tuffnut Jr., Speedifist, Wartihog, Clueless, and both of Hiccup's enemies: Snotlout and Dogsbreath the Duhbrain. Since the early morning, Hiccup had felt ill and felt no better in this snowy area, but Gobber placed Hiccup in charge regardless, much to the dismay of Snotlout and Dogsbreath who refer to Hiccup as "Hiccup the Useless". By using their dragon baskets, each enter the cave to catch their dragon.
Hiccup manages to get a Basic Brown Dragon and is forced to rush out of the cave because Fishlegs' allergies caused him to sneeze. His sneeze caused one of the dragons to wake up. However, Hiccup's best friend, Fishlegs, escapes without a dragon. Hiccup does not want his friend to be exiled and thus hands him his dragon and runs back in to get another.
With all the dragons awakening, the Vikings have no other option but to jump off the cliff and into the sea. On returning to the village, Hiccup notices his dragon is incredibly small. Gobber advises the youths to train their dragons by using the How to Train Your Dragon book he stole from the Meathead Library.
However, the book has only a single page saying, "yell at it; the louder the better." This does not help at all for Hiccup, who can barely yell, so he has to find another way to train his dragon. He first tries yelling, which fails. He then puts together a list of supposed characteristics of dragons that can be used in training. The list also fails and, despite the insistence by Fishlegs that it will not work, he resorts to pampering his dragon.
After a run-in with his father's dragons, Hiccup brings Toothless down to the beach to practice hunting with Horrorcow (Fishlegs' dragon). At first Toothless refuses to budge and constantly complains, but Hiccup takes out his list yet again and runs through the drills. After crossing out all the options on the list he resorts to Jokes and Riddling Talk, marked, "Only if I'm desperate!" Toothless agrees to a deal. This includes one joke for every fish caught by Toothless.
Later, on Thor's Thursday, during the final part of the rite of passage, Toothless offends Fireworm (Snotlout's Dragon) and there is a fight between all of the dragons. This means that they have all failed and will be exiled. However, because there is a huge storm coming, Stoick the Vast (the Hooligan Chief, and Hiccup's father) allows them one last night on the island. During the storm, two Sea Dragons are washed up on the shore of the island. A Viking named Badbreath the Gruff discovers them. The bigger one eats the smaller one, and after watching this, Stoick called a meeting.
Finding that the H.T.T.Y.D. Book's advice, along with Gobber's Viking Strength, is useless, the Vikings all look to Hiccup for advice, on the sole condition that the boys are no longer exiles. Hiccup goes to speak with the Dragon, who calls himself the Green Death. The monster states that he is peaceful, but nevertheless intends to kill the Vikings and the Dragons, because since he will be eaten by worms when he dies, a Singing Supper as he puts it, he decides everyone else should be eaten.
When Hiccup tells the Elders, they all squabble and fight with each other over what to do. Hiccup decides to use this time to gather the boys and their dragons together and come up with a plan; the dragons will carry home-made feather bombs and drop them on the Green Death to make him not kill anyone. Toothless, however, decides not to go along with this, as he thinks the plan is suicidal and he dislikes the Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus. The other dragons agree, but they decide to run if they may lose.
The plan seems to be working. A Purple Sea Dragon the boys discovered earlier, and have used the same tactic on, goes to kill the Green Death. The Green Death, however, wins the fight but suffers mortal wounds. In an act of revenge, he swallows Hiccup whole. Hiccup lands on a spear jammed in the monster's throat. When Toothless sees that all the wild and domestic dragons have left, he concludes Hiccup is his only remaining family and saves him by making the Green Death sneeze. Before Hiccup is sneezed out, he jams his helmet into the Green Death's fire-holes.
When the Green Death tries to breathe fire, the pressure builds up and he explodes. A singing sound is then heard.
Two days pass and Hiccup wakes up to find that Toothless has "died" from his wounds. Hiccup correctly guesses he is only in a coma and goes to save him from having a traditional Viking Funeral, which involves being burnt. Once the replica of a Viking ship is set on fire, Toothless wakes up and flies to Hiccup. Because of his bravery, Stoick proudly calls his son "Hiccup the Useful."
The riddle says the treasure is at Death's Head, and the Vikings identify the island the riddle tells of as the Isle of Skullions, an island inhabited by blind flightless deaf dragons. Though Skullions cannot hear, see or fly, they have a delicate sense of smell. The riddle also mentions that the Heir to the Tribe's hunting dragon will sniff out the treasure. While Stoick and Alvin think of a way to avoid attracting the Skullions, Hiccup decides to bring Toothless for sniffing practice. However, Toothless is hopeless at it, only managing to sniff out a broken spoon and other objects that have nothing to with gold or treasure.
Stoick and Alvin finally figure out how to avoid attracting the Skullions: They simply have to bathe thoroughly. The Vikings go to the Isle of the Skullions. Toothless only sniffs out a giant limpet shell. Snotface Snotlout finds the treasure instead: a small chest filled with golden objects and Grimbeard's famous sword, the Stormblade. However, Grimbeard has booby-trapped the chest with a smell that would wake up all of the Skullions on the island. Hiccup is nearly killed by one, but is saved by his father, who uses the Stormblade to save Hiccup. In the chaos Hiccup dislocates his right arm. They all run to the ship with the treasure and sail away happily. As they near Berk, they drop the oars and investigate the treasure. The Vikings begin fighting over the treasure. As they fight, they are boarded by a group of cannibalistic Vikings(known as Outcasts). The Outcasts and Hooligans clash. The ship soon catches on fire and sinks shortly after they board and everyone abandons it, climbing on the Outcasts' ship, continuing the fight;everyone except for Hiccup, Fishlegs, Alvin and Toothless. The ship sinks almost immediately to the bottom of the sea, and hits the bottom. An air pocket is trapped under the capsized ship, and while the air pocket lasts, Hiccup sends Toothless to find a way out.
Toothless comes back, saying that he found an underwater cavern. As the air pocket begins to run out, they swim into the cavern, which is filled with air. They walk around for a little and then Toothless finds a door. The door says "Do not open", and it says only the Heir to Grimbeard the Ghastly can open it. Alvin quickly takes control, threatening Hiccup with death if he does not open the door. Hiccup does, and they enter a cavern filed with gold and jewels. Alvin turns on Hiccup and tries to kill him. Toothless brings Hiccup a battered sword and Hiccup discovers he is left-handed, which is why he was never good at swordfighting. But in the middle of the battle, Alvin steps on a pile of treasure that rears up and grabs him.
Hiccup discovers that there is enormous Monstrous Strangulator hidden under the treasure in the cave, an octopus-like creature . Alvin is quickly eaten and it prepares to eat Hiccup. Hiccup gets the creature to inject him. However, under Hiccup's shirt, Hiccup puts the needle in the tentacle the creature had wrapped around him. The creature's nervous system explodes. They escape the cave, but Hiccup decides that the world was not ready for the treasure, and leaves it. They soon surface with the aid of Toothless, and the book ends with Hiccup and Toothless and Fishlegs all getting back to the village. It turns out that the Hooligans had survived, and while they fought with Outcasts, they steered the boat back to Berk. After winning the fight, they set the Outcasts free. Everything ends well. In the epilogue, Hiccup tells us that he unscrewed a little knob in the sword that he used to fight Alvin and out popped the last will and testament of Grimbeard the Ghastly. It turns out that the sword was Grimbeard's favourite sword.
To save Fishlegs and escape, Hiccup secretly takes a nanodragon from the bowl of nandragons the Fat Consul is eating, and replaces it with an Electrisquirm. The Fat Consul is electrocuted and while all the Romans are distracted by this, Hiccup unlocks the dragons cages, wreaking havoc, and Hiccup and Fishlegs escape. The Thin Prefect tries to grab Hiccup's "How to Speak Dragonese" Book, but it instead rips into two. As the two jump into the boat, Toothless gets captured. Hiccup tries to tell his dad what has happened, and tells him to send a War Party to save Toothless. Stoick does not believe him, and is more worried about Hiccup's grades. The next morning, Hiccup hears someone singing from his coat. He remembers the nanodragon he had rescued. The nanodragon tells Hiccup that it's name is Ziggerastica the Living God. The nanodragon promises to do one thing for Hiccup, in return for what he did for her. During a Frightening Foreigners lesson, the Romans, disguised as (in not a really good disguise) Bog-Burglars kidnap him and Fishlegs during a class and take them to Fort Sinister. There they discover Alvin the Treacherous is the Thin Prefect and is working with the Romans and trying to learn Dragonese. His plan is to create a dragon army that can swim down to get the treasure of Grimbeard the Ghastly(from the previous book) for him. Hiccup tricks the Romans into keeping them alive until the day they are supposed to be killed by gladiators. Until then, they are put in a cell, where they meet Camicazi, the wild female heir to the Bog-Burglars Viking tribe. Hiccup calls on Ziggeristica and his army to form a plan to rescue the three of them and they are taken to the arena. Hiccup, Camicazi and Toothless are surprised to find that there are no gladiators. They realise they have filled the arena with water and find Sharkworms swimming around them. Hiccup launches his plan (Hiccup expected gladiators on the field, so he is not sure if it will work). Hiccup forces Fishlegs and Camicazi to throw him into a barrel, because he has a cut, and Sharkworms are attracted to blood. As the Sharkworms destroy the barrel, Hiccup appears to fly out of the barrel, and makes the spectators believe he is Thor
, and orders the Romans to leave, and to give his book back. However, Alvin attempts to shake out a Venomous Vorpent he had put inside, but fails. Hiccup then appears to break the protection net with a hand gesture, and the Sharkworms attack the audience. Hiccup lands on the boat the three were on. Hiccup reveal there are armies of tiny dragons on his shirt, and can propelling him in the air. Some other armies had chewed on the protection net all night (and the locks of the dragon cages) He and his friends attempt to escape in the boat, but Alvin orders the portcullis to be held down, and the boat is destroyed. They climb the portcullis and enter a Roman observation balloon and escape to find the search parties from both tribes. As they land, the Venomous Vorpent crawls out of the book and appears to sting one of them.
The two Tribes realise that their Heirs are back and call off the fight and celebrate the return of the Heirs.
However, it is said at the end that during the balloon landing, one of the heroes was stung by a venomous dragon, hinting at the book "How To Cheat a Dragon's Curse."
Hiccup brings Camicazi and Toothless (Toothless was supposed to be hibernating like the other hunting dragons, but he did not dig his hibernating hole deep enough, which could cause him to sleep for a long time, so Hiccup dug him up) on the journey to Hysteria, with One-eye pulling them on a sleigh. The two children enter through the roof of a house where the Hyterics are celebrating Freya'sday Friday. They lower Camicazi through the chimney Hiccup accidentally falls into a giant pot of onion soup, and gets discovered by Norbert the Nutjob. Hiccup makes Norbert show him the potato by pretending not to believe in the potato. Norbert finally reveals his father's preserved body, and in Norbert's father's hand is a glass case with ice and has an arrows stuck in it. Hiccup tries to persuade Norbert to give him the potato, but Norbert refuses. Norbert soon gets annoyed with Hiccup, and decides whether Hiccup should or should not die by throwing his double-sided axe into the air. If it lands on the black side, Hiccup will die, if it lands on the white side, he will live. Hiccup cheats by catching the axe just as it is about to land on the black. Norbert is annoyed that Hiccup cheated, and locks him in the cage. After the Hysterics fall asleep, Camicazi picks the lock of Hiccup's cage, freeing him (Toothless took the key to cage from Norbert's pocket, but swallows it, and accidentally sets fire to a carpet). Camicazi lowers herself down with a rope and grabs the potato, but sees something in the glass case that interests her, and it too. Suddenly, the preserved body of Norbert's father falls on a row of Squealers ( a type of dragon that Vikings use as an alarm), who give ear-piercing screams. All the Hysterics suddenly wake up.
Hiccup throws the food on the table at the guards, while Camicazi knocks Norbert out with the frozen potato. Hiccup, Camicazi and Toothless get out of the Hall through the chimney. The two children ride via food tray down the roof and into Hysteria. The three, along with One-eye escape in a boat, but get attacked by the Doomfang, which lives under a frozen river called the "Wrath of Thor". The Doomfang breaks out of the ice and uses its tongue to grab the potato and eats it. Hiccup realises that his mission has failed. Once he gets back, he realises the Fishlegs had only caught a cold, and Old Wrinkly had made a mistake. Stoick (Hiccup had lied to Stoick saying that he was spending the night at Snotlout's house, but instead he went to get the potato) yells at Old Wrinky for making Hiccup go on the quest for nothing and almost get killed by Norbert. Hiccup suddenly falls on the same bed Fishlegs was lying on, and his entire body goes stiff. Old Wrinkly examines Hiccup and says that it is actually Hiccup who has Vorpentitis. Hiccup desperately tries to speak, murmuring "Oot me!", and tries to point at the arrow on the table next to him which had been stuck in the potato for a long time. Fishlegs realises that Hiccup wants him to shoot him with the arrow. Fishlegs shoots Hiccup on the foot, and Hiccup recovers. In the epilogue, Hiccup burries the arrow that saved his life and a seed on the end of it grows another potato which is used to cover the island with potatoes no one dies of Vorpentitis ever again.
After that, Hotshot saves Hiccup from several deadly situations, all of which are later revealed to be his own doing. Later on at night, Hiccup wakes up to Hotshot looming over him with his swords, arguing with himself whether or not to kill Hiccup. He ultimately decides not to, and Hiccup asks him what he's doing. Hotshot begins to tell Hiccup his story, of how he fell in love with a Viking woman, but her father wanted her to marry someone clever. The woman's father sent Hotshot on an Impossible Task to find and bring back the Firestone, and the reward was the woman's hand in marriage. Hotshot travelled to the volcano where the Firestone was hidden, but he was captured soon after by the Lava Louts. After a few weeks, he became friends with a jailkeeper named Terrific Al. He asked Terrific Al to bring a half of the ruby heart to his love because she vowed to save him if she received the ruby heart. Terrific Al told Humongous that he would bring the ruby heart to his ladylove if he promised to do something for him and disappeared for fifteen years and came back to tell Humongous Hotshot that his love threw the heart out of the window and married somebody else who had already brought back the Firestone. Terrific Al (who mysteriously has lost a hand, half a leg, an eye and all of his hair) told Humongous the thing he must promise to do is to kill Hiccup, stating that Hiccup is a Prince of Darkness and a Devil Child, who will send terror across the Archipelago. After Hotshot finishes his story Hiccup figures out that the woman Humungous is talking about is Hiccup's own mother, who had thought he was dead, and that Terrific Al is really Alvin the Treacherous. Hiccup, Fishlegs, Hotshot, Camicazi, the White Dragon and the Windwalker, Hiccup's riding dragon travel to Lava-lout Island to put the fire stone inside the volcano to stop the volcano from exploding and are attacked by Alvin and Exterminators. Hiccup manages to put the stone into the volcano. But on contact with the lava, the fire stone hatches into a fire dragon, revealing that the fire stone is actually an egg. The dragon kills all the Exterminators. Hiccup and his riding dragon, Windwalker, run down the island away from lava and fall into the sea. Hiccup's father and others rescue him and everything works out well. In the epilogue, Hiccup tells us that Windwalker turns out to be his faithful flying dragon.
Hiccup is lost in the Library Labyrinth and the Driller Dragons and Madguts the Murderous are on the prowl, all because of a book!
Hiccup's birthday is not going to be the quiet affair he might have hoped for.
This book contains an open-up map of the Barbaric Archipelago, a Dragonese Dictionary in the back, Dragon Profiles and "Conversations with Toothless".
Hiccup wakes up that morning, wishing for a peaceful birthday. He then tries to persuade Toothless to eat his breakfast, which is spinach and drift wood. Toothless refuses, so Hiccup goes to the Finals of a Burglary Competition between the Bog-Burglars and the Hooligans alone. When Hiccup returns home, he realises Toothless has eaten three quarters of Stoick's throne. Stoick comes in the room, and is in a bad temper because he had made a bet to Big-Boobied Bertha that he could prove that the Hooligans were just as good at Burglary as the Bog-Burglars by the end of the day, and also because Hiccup has been researching about dragons and writing in notebooks about them. He throws a tantrum, but remembers that Gobber has stolen the "How to Train Your Dragon" manual from the Meathead Library under the nose of the Hairy Scary Librarian. Stoick tells Hiccup that if Toothless does one more thing like this, he will banish him, and goes off to find the book.
Toothless guiltily reveals that he also burned the copy of "How To Train Your Dragon". Camicazi suggests that they can go to the Meathead Library, and supposedly there might be another copy of the book, and get back home "in time for tea". Hiccup, Camicazi and Fishlegs go to the Island of Forget Me on a Stealth Dragon Big-Boobied Bertha had stolen from Maduguts the Murderous, the Chief of the Murderous Tribe, for the bet with Stoick, to visit the Meathead Public Library. With the help of Stormfly, Camicazi's dragon, they find the copy of "How to Train Your Dragon", thought it is a second edititon. The Hairy Scary Librarian catches them stealing the book and fights with Camicazi and Hiccup. Fishlegs throws a book at the Hairy Scary Librarian. However, Stormfly is knocked out in the process, and awakens with no memory of who she is, and how did she get in. The Librarian, who falls onto the floor, which is full of Red Hot Ithcyworms (the worms went into his pants, tickling him) runs toward the exit, laughing and screaming. The noise attracts Driller Dragons who are dwelling in the Library.
Hiccup Finds a book that was written by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the II called A Hero's Guide To Deadly Dragons which was exactly the same book that Hiccup the third wrote, which had been taken from him earlier that morning. He pulls the book put and the shelf opens, revealing hole filled with Poisonous Piffleworms, their only exit.
Hiccup takes back the second edition of How to Train Your Dragon to the Isle of Berk. Meanwhile, Madguts tracks down the Stealth Dragon and it leads him to the Isle of Forget Me. They find that it has gone to the Isle of Berk and go there. On the Isle of Berk, both Stoick and Bertha find the stolen things they have got for the bet are missing. The Hairy Scary Librarian arrives and shoots Stoick with a Northbow but Hiccup's handwritten book saves Stoick's life and Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Camicazi come from the sky and squash the Librarian flat with the Stealth Dragon. Madguts and Gumboil arrive for the Stealth Dragon and are about to kill Bertha. Hiccup saves her by lying to Madguts, telling him that the Scary Hairy Librarian had stolen the Stealth Dragon instead, so she squashed the Librarian. Madguts believes him, and takes the Librarian away. Hiccup persuades Stoick that books are useful and books are unbanned by order of the Thing.
The ship happens to have Madguts, Norbert the Nutjob (Chief of the Hysterics) and Gumboil. Norbert has asked Madguts to take Hiccup, Camicazi and Fishlegs to the boat, and in return letting him rest on the boat for a few hours, before he continues the race, being the Last Man Back. After Madguts and Gumboil leave, Hiccup returns the ticking thing, which he had stolen from Norbert in a earlier adventure. Norbert attempts to use the ticking thing to get to America. Norbert is about to kill the Hiccup, Camicazi and Fishlegs with Axe of Doom, but is forced to untie the three because he cannot read the ticking thing. Hiccup and his friends explore the boat, finding many interesting contraptions that have been made by Norbert, for example: a machine that generates a high-pitched noise that will startle giant dragons and a flying Machine that is tested by crew members everyday, only to crash into the ocean. Hiccup discovers there are slaves called the Northern Wanderers on the boat. He falls into the Salve Hatch by accident one day and meets Bearcub and his grandmother. Hiccup pleads that Wanderers not to kill him, and promises to free them, and is rescued by Norbert. The boat reaches the land of Polar-serpents, where dangerous dragons called Polar-serpents roam. Hiccup decides to use Dragon-nip to make the Hysterics fall asleep and escape with the Wanderers. Hiccup pours dragon-nip into the crew's dinner, making them all fall asleep. After all Wanderers are safe on the emergency boats, Hiccup falls off the boat and lands on an ice berg, and is chased into a cave by Polar Serpents. Hiccup accidentally wakes up a gigantic dragon, who also chases Hiccup. Hiccup manages to get back onto the boat, and uses the machine that generates a high pitched noise to keep the monster away, identifying it as a Leviathorgan. America is in sight, but a storm breaks out, and the Leviathorgan from the cave attacks the ship. Norbert and Hiccup fight on the top of the ship. Lightning strikes Norbert's axe, and it enters the sea, killing the Leviathorgan. Hiccup falls of the mast, as he swims up he hits his head on a sinking coldrin which shortly gives him amnesia, and then he passes out. He is rescued by Fishlegs and Camicazi. Back at the Murderous mountains, Madguts is clearly the winner, and demands Stoick and Big-Boobied Bertha to be sacrificed to Sky Dragons. Old Wrinkly announces that Hiccup, Fishlegs and Camicazi have not yet returned, and the race is supposed to be three months, five days and six months, so they still have to wait for three months, before Madguts is declared winner, and the two other Chiefs will be under temporary custody under Madguts.
Camicazi and Fishlegs are rescued by the Wanderers. The two take Hiccup on board too, and after Bearcub's grandmother's medicine, Hiccup awakens. After a long time, the ticking things starts to tick louder, because Old Wrinkly had set an alarm on it. With only six hours left, and thinking that Old Wrinkly really did have a reason to set the alarm, the three fly to Berk on the Norbert's flying machine, which the Wanderers had collected. The machine works well, but as they near Berk, the machine breaks and crashes into the ocean. Hiccup and his friends come just in time for the alarm to set off. Because Hiccup is the last person back, he demands Madguts to sing a love song at the next Thing while dressed up as an "ickle pretty shepherdess".
Meanwhile, the witch makes sure that her son Alvin has no challengers during the competition. Hiccup finds the crown under Flashburn's school, along with a dragon called the Wodensfang, a very old, ancient dragon, as he gets back into the hut and the witch attacks him but he was immune to the vorpnet venom on her claws gets him slef covered in the poisen in the struggle, wins the competition, beating his own father. Alvin is third. Hiccup is declared winner and tells the tribes that he wantd to free all dragons so that there would be no revolt in the first place. He wants to abolish slavery for both humans and dragons. Most tribes agree on this, but then, when all looks so well, Snotlout throws a stone at his heard, knoching Hiccup's helmet off, revealing he has the slavemark. Everyone's shocked. The Slavemark is the ultimate mark of shame. Since he has the Slavemark, Hiccup is automatically a slave, disqualified from the competition, exiled from his tribe, and could never become chief, let alone a king. Stoick, Hiccup's father, is also banished, because he knew Hiccup was a 'runt', and thus should not have been part of their tribe in the first place, but instead abandoned as a baby. Everyone has to turn their backs, excluding Fishlegs, who gives Hiccup his lobster-claw necklace, the only thing Fishlegs has from his parents. Alvin's the new king, and declares war on the dragons. Furious arrives and the war begins. Only Windwalker and Toothless stay faithful, and bring Hiccup to safety. He is followed by the dragons, who think he has the Dragon Jewel, the only thing that could stop the dragon's now. In mid-chase he falls unconsciuos on dragonback and wakes up safe in a cave, Hiccup now all alone, an outcast, an exile, no sword, no helmet, only the Windwalker, Toothless and the Wodensfang by his side, Hiccup's in despair, until he finds he actually has the map to find the Dragon Jewel (Which is revealed by the venom on his hands un covering the secret map on Grimbeard the Ghastly's will), and triumphantly cries:'THIS IS NOT THE END'!
released on 26 March 2010 a computer-animated film adaptation How to Train Your Dragon
, directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
, the directors of Lilo & Stitch
. The film features Gerard Butler
as Stoick the Vast, Hiccup's father, Craig Ferguson
as Gobber the Belch, and Jay Baruchel
as Hiccup. The film proved to be a resounding critical and box office success, and paved the way for a 2014 sequel How to Train Your Dragon 2, with Dean DeBlois
directing it.
The most notable character who appears in the film but not in the book is perhaps Astrid, a fierce Viking girl and Hiccup's love interest. However, Astrid may represent the female character Camicazi, who is present in the series of novels.
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
novels written by British author Cressida Cowell
Cressida Cowell
Cressida Cowell is an English children's author who wrote the Hiccup series of books.- Personal life :Cowell lives in London with her husband Simon, a former director and interim CEO of the International Save the Children Alliance; daughters Maisie and Clementine; and son Alexander...
and published by Hodder Children's Books
Hodder Headline
Headline Publishing Group is a British publishing company. It was founded in 1986 by Tim Hely Hutchinson, and acquired Hodder & Stoughton in 1992 to form Hodder Headline. It was acquired by Hachette Livre, from the WHSmith Group PLC, in 2005....
. In the United States, the series is published by Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. Since 2006 it has been a constituent unit of Hachette Book Group USA.-19th century:...
.
Books
Hiccup the Seasick Viking (2000) a Children's picture book is not considered part of the main series.- How to Train Your Dragon (2003)
- How to Be a Pirate (2004)
- How to Speak Dragonese (2005)
- How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse (2006)
- How to Twist a Dragon's Tale (2007)
- A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (2008)
- How to Ride a Dragon's Storm (2008)
- How to Break a Dragon's Heart (2009)
- How to Steal a Dragon's Sword (2011)
There are currently nine books in the main series, the titles of which all include a reference to dragons with the exception of How to Be a Pirate.
Cowell has also "translated" one of the books into How to Train Your Viking (2006), which was written for World Book Day, supposedly by her dragon character, Toothless.
Cowell cites the Inner Hebrides
Inner Hebrides
The Inner Hebrides is an archipelago off the west coast of Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which enjoy a mild oceanic climate. There are 36 inhabited islands and a further 43 uninhabited Inner Hebrides with an area greater than...
of Scotland as an inspiration for the book.
Characters
- Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is the main character in these books. He is an unusual Viking who thinks before he does anything. He has red hair and is very thin. He is one of the only people ever to understand and be able to speak Dragonese, the language of the dragons. He is abnormally clever for a Viking, and a good left-handed sword fighter. His hunting dragon is Toothless, a small dragon that is a common or garden dragon. Hiccup's best friend, Fishlegs, claims that Hiccup's dragon is a Toothless Daydream, a mythical and rare type of dragon, to fool Hiccup's father Stoick the Vast and those around him.
- Toothless is Hiccup's hunting dragon. He appears to be a Common or Garden Dragon, although Fishlegs spread the (false) story that he is a near extinct, more vicious relative of the Monstrous Nightmare breed called the Toothless Daydream and possibly the offspring of the mighty dragon ruler King Daggerfangs. Toothless is green and red.
- Windwalker is Hiccup's flying dragon. Hiccup adopted him as he knew no one else would choose him, since Windwalker had a limp and appeared to be weak and traumatised. At first the dragon could not speak, so it was hard for Hiccup to communicate with him, but he later turned out to be very helpful and faithful to his rider.
- Fishlegs is Hiccup's best friend who is allergic to carni-dragons, like Monstrous Nightmares. He has a squint and asthma. He's a bit of a wimp but he has shown himself to be quite cunning when he needs to be. He also has Berserk tendencies, meaning that in the midst of battle he is overcome by bloodlust and becomes extremely dangerous. His dragon is a Basic Brown named Horrorcow.
- Horrorcow is a Dragon of the Basic Brown species. She is named 'Horror' for effect, and cow because she is not dangerous and sleeps a lot. Fishlegs suspects she is a vegetarian. She is three times the size of Toothless and is his best dragon friend.
- Stoick the Vast is Hiccup's father and leader of the Hairy Hooligans. He has two dragons: Newtsbreath and Hookfang. Unlike his son, he is incredibly strong but rather unintelligent.
- Snotlout, or "Snotface Snotlout" is Hiccup's much despised cousin. He bullies and bosses the others around, especially Hiccup who he addresses as useless. He is top class at 'bashyball', ' advanced rudery' and 'everything else'. His dragon is a brilliant scarlet Monstrous Nightmare named Fireworm, who because of her breed should technically belong to Hiccup (as son of the chief) according to ancient Viking law.
- Fireworm is Snotlout's completely immodest and temperamental dragon. She is a red Monstrous Nightmare and immensely dislikes Toothless, often jeering in Dragonese, prodding and attacking him.
- Dogsbreath the Duhbrain is Snotlout's friend and sidekick, usually carrying out his dirty work. He is not very intelligent and does not talk much. His dragon, a Gronkle, is named Seaslug.
- Valhallarama is Hiccup's mother. She only appears in a few books in the series, and is often away questing. She once loved Humungously Hotshot the Hero and gave him a ruby heart necklace.
- Mogadon the Meathead is chief of the Meathead Tribe, close neighbours of the Hairy Hooligans. A man with a fake leg and an eyepatch, he shares a sometimes vicious rivalry with Stoick.
- Thuggory is Mogadon's son, and very like Snotlout. Although he is large, muscular, well-respected and has a huge silver Monstrous Nightmare dragon (very similar to Snotlout) called "Killer", he stands up for Hiccup and works with him in the first book.
- Alvin the Treacherous is Hiccup's arch enemy and a long lost relative to him. He used to be chief of the Outcasts. Although he is a fantastic sword fighter, he is always losing parts of his body. So far he has lost all of his hair, a hand, a foot, a nose and an eye. His various evil plots have included using the Hooligans to steal Grimbeard the Ghastly's treasure, using the Romans to burgle all the dragons in the archipelago and controlling the deadly Exterminator dragons.
- Camicazi is a fierce sword fighter from the tribe of female warriors known as the Bog-Burglars. She is a good friend of Hiccup's. She is the heir to Big-Boobied Bertha. Though she is very skilled at escapes and burglary, she does not think deeply. Her dragon is a rare Mood-Dragon named Stormfly.
- Norbert the Nutjob is the chief of the Hysterical tribe, and Hiccup's second arch-enemy. Norbert's father, Bigjob, once went to America and retrieved a potato, but Hiccup took it to cure Fishlegs of Vorpentitis. Norbert later died at the hands of a Leviathorgon dragon on his own expedition to America. As his name suggests, he is insane, and uses his giant axe, one gold side one black, to decide everything.
- Stormfly is a Mood-Dragon, but there is one strange thing about her, which is that, unlike most dragons, she speaks in Norse. Mood-Dragons change colour depending on their moods. For example, if a Mood-Dragon is angry, she will turn blue-black. Stormfly is a pathological liar, but Camicazi can tell when she is lying because she turns violet. Stormfly is usually golden. Toothless develops a crush on Stormfly when he meets her for the first time.
- Humungously Hotshot the Hero is as his name says, a hero who has been trapped on the island of lava-louts for 15 years. He went out on a quest to find the fire stone for Hiccup's grandfather, Old Wrinkly so he could marry Hiccup's mother Valhallarama.
- Big-Boobied Bertha is the leader of the Bog-Burglars and the mother of Camicazi. As her name indicates, she has very large breasts.
- Gobber the Belch is in charge of the Viking Initiation program as well as the Pirate Training Program. He is described as being enormous, extremely loud, and having a wild black beard.
- Madguts the Murderous is the chief of the Murderous tribe. A vicious, frightening, vile smelling man covered in skull tattoos and with "Hate" on both his knuckles, he is considered one of the scariest men in the archipelago. He also never speaks (though in the fifth book he talks to Mogadon the Meathead). He has a stealth dragon stolen from him by Bertha and intends to kill her, and later tries to kill Stoick and Bertha. Both times he is stopped by Hiccup. Camicazi supposedly burgles from him regularly.
- Excellinor is Alvin's Mother. She is pure evil though and wants Hiccup's sword. It is said that she never took any good care of Alvin the Treacherous and never loved him either.
- And Many More
How to Train Your Dragon (2003)
This book, with an almost completely different plot to the film of the same name, is about the adventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the ten-year-old son of a VikingViking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
chief, who must capture a dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
for a rite of passage
Rite of passage
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
. Set on the Isle of Berk, a group of ten youths of the Hooligan tribe are being led by "Gobber the Belch" to perform their first military operation; to catch their own dragon. Those who are not able to catch and train a dragon are exiled
Exiled
Exiled is a 2006 Hong Kong action crime drama film produced and directed by Johnnie To, and starring Anthony Wong, Roy Cheung, Francis Ng, and Simon Yam. The action takes place in contemporary Macau.-Plot:...
from the tribe. This military operation has to be done by every Hooligan.
At the eastern coast of the Isle of Berk is an area known as "Wild Dragon Cliff" and among the youths is Hiccup himself, his friend Fishlegs, Tuffnut Jr., Speedifist, Wartihog, Clueless, and both of Hiccup's enemies: Snotlout and Dogsbreath the Duhbrain. Since the early morning, Hiccup had felt ill and felt no better in this snowy area, but Gobber placed Hiccup in charge regardless, much to the dismay of Snotlout and Dogsbreath who refer to Hiccup as "Hiccup the Useless". By using their dragon baskets, each enter the cave to catch their dragon.
Hiccup manages to get a Basic Brown Dragon and is forced to rush out of the cave because Fishlegs' allergies caused him to sneeze. His sneeze caused one of the dragons to wake up. However, Hiccup's best friend, Fishlegs, escapes without a dragon. Hiccup does not want his friend to be exiled and thus hands him his dragon and runs back in to get another.
With all the dragons awakening, the Vikings have no other option but to jump off the cliff and into the sea. On returning to the village, Hiccup notices his dragon is incredibly small. Gobber advises the youths to train their dragons by using the How to Train Your Dragon book he stole from the Meathead Library.
However, the book has only a single page saying, "yell at it; the louder the better." This does not help at all for Hiccup, who can barely yell, so he has to find another way to train his dragon. He first tries yelling, which fails. He then puts together a list of supposed characteristics of dragons that can be used in training. The list also fails and, despite the insistence by Fishlegs that it will not work, he resorts to pampering his dragon.
After a run-in with his father's dragons, Hiccup brings Toothless down to the beach to practice hunting with Horrorcow (Fishlegs' dragon). At first Toothless refuses to budge and constantly complains, but Hiccup takes out his list yet again and runs through the drills. After crossing out all the options on the list he resorts to Jokes and Riddling Talk, marked, "Only if I'm desperate!" Toothless agrees to a deal. This includes one joke for every fish caught by Toothless.
Later, on Thor's Thursday, during the final part of the rite of passage, Toothless offends Fireworm (Snotlout's Dragon) and there is a fight between all of the dragons. This means that they have all failed and will be exiled. However, because there is a huge storm coming, Stoick the Vast (the Hooligan Chief, and Hiccup's father) allows them one last night on the island. During the storm, two Sea Dragons are washed up on the shore of the island. A Viking named Badbreath the Gruff discovers them. The bigger one eats the smaller one, and after watching this, Stoick called a meeting.
Finding that the H.T.T.Y.D. Book's advice, along with Gobber's Viking Strength, is useless, the Vikings all look to Hiccup for advice, on the sole condition that the boys are no longer exiles. Hiccup goes to speak with the Dragon, who calls himself the Green Death. The monster states that he is peaceful, but nevertheless intends to kill the Vikings and the Dragons, because since he will be eaten by worms when he dies, a Singing Supper as he puts it, he decides everyone else should be eaten.
When Hiccup tells the Elders, they all squabble and fight with each other over what to do. Hiccup decides to use this time to gather the boys and their dragons together and come up with a plan; the dragons will carry home-made feather bombs and drop them on the Green Death to make him not kill anyone. Toothless, however, decides not to go along with this, as he thinks the plan is suicidal and he dislikes the Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus. The other dragons agree, but they decide to run if they may lose.
The plan seems to be working. A Purple Sea Dragon the boys discovered earlier, and have used the same tactic on, goes to kill the Green Death. The Green Death, however, wins the fight but suffers mortal wounds. In an act of revenge, he swallows Hiccup whole. Hiccup lands on a spear jammed in the monster's throat. When Toothless sees that all the wild and domestic dragons have left, he concludes Hiccup is his only remaining family and saves him by making the Green Death sneeze. Before Hiccup is sneezed out, he jams his helmet into the Green Death's fire-holes.
When the Green Death tries to breathe fire, the pressure builds up and he explodes. A singing sound is then heard.
Two days pass and Hiccup wakes up to find that Toothless has "died" from his wounds. Hiccup correctly guesses he is only in a coma and goes to save him from having a traditional Viking Funeral, which involves being burnt. Once the replica of a Viking ship is set on fire, Toothless wakes up and flies to Hiccup. Because of his bravery, Stoick proudly calls his son "Hiccup the Useful."
How to Be a Pirate (2004)
This book is the sequel to How to Train Your Dragon. The story starts during a Sword-fighting-at-Sea lesson during a storm. Hiccup attempts to fight with Dogsbreath the Duhbrian, but ends up losing the fight and is almost killed. But the fight is cut off as the wave tips the boat over and is holed by an object. Hiccup realises it is a coffin and he and Fishlegs ride on it backto the Isle of Berk, where the others, surpirsingly have survived too. It is clearly the property of Grimbeard the Ghastly, the greatest pirate who ever lived and Hiccup's own great-great grandfather, according to the words inscribed on it. Gobber and the boys bring it back to the Great Hall for it to be opened. When it is opened it, they find out that it contains a living man(at first mistaking it to be Grimbeard's corpse), soon to become Hiccup's worst enemy, a man named Alvin the Treacherous. He does not reveal his true name, telling them his name is Alvin the Poor-but-Honest-Farmer, and tells them of how he found the coffin when he was farming, and when he opened it, it snapped his hand off. He shows the Vikings that he has a hook to replace it. He then tells them that he found a riddle that tells where to find the treasure of Grimbeard the Ghastly and a map that shows the island where the treasure is.The riddle says the treasure is at Death's Head, and the Vikings identify the island the riddle tells of as the Isle of Skullions, an island inhabited by blind flightless deaf dragons. Though Skullions cannot hear, see or fly, they have a delicate sense of smell. The riddle also mentions that the Heir to the Tribe's hunting dragon will sniff out the treasure. While Stoick and Alvin think of a way to avoid attracting the Skullions, Hiccup decides to bring Toothless for sniffing practice. However, Toothless is hopeless at it, only managing to sniff out a broken spoon and other objects that have nothing to with gold or treasure.
Stoick and Alvin finally figure out how to avoid attracting the Skullions: They simply have to bathe thoroughly. The Vikings go to the Isle of the Skullions. Toothless only sniffs out a giant limpet shell. Snotface Snotlout finds the treasure instead: a small chest filled with golden objects and Grimbeard's famous sword, the Stormblade. However, Grimbeard has booby-trapped the chest with a smell that would wake up all of the Skullions on the island. Hiccup is nearly killed by one, but is saved by his father, who uses the Stormblade to save Hiccup. In the chaos Hiccup dislocates his right arm. They all run to the ship with the treasure and sail away happily. As they near Berk, they drop the oars and investigate the treasure. The Vikings begin fighting over the treasure. As they fight, they are boarded by a group of cannibalistic Vikings(known as Outcasts). The Outcasts and Hooligans clash. The ship soon catches on fire and sinks shortly after they board and everyone abandons it, climbing on the Outcasts' ship, continuing the fight;everyone except for Hiccup, Fishlegs, Alvin and Toothless. The ship sinks almost immediately to the bottom of the sea, and hits the bottom. An air pocket is trapped under the capsized ship, and while the air pocket lasts, Hiccup sends Toothless to find a way out.
Toothless comes back, saying that he found an underwater cavern. As the air pocket begins to run out, they swim into the cavern, which is filled with air. They walk around for a little and then Toothless finds a door. The door says "Do not open", and it says only the Heir to Grimbeard the Ghastly can open it. Alvin quickly takes control, threatening Hiccup with death if he does not open the door. Hiccup does, and they enter a cavern filed with gold and jewels. Alvin turns on Hiccup and tries to kill him. Toothless brings Hiccup a battered sword and Hiccup discovers he is left-handed, which is why he was never good at swordfighting. But in the middle of the battle, Alvin steps on a pile of treasure that rears up and grabs him.
Hiccup discovers that there is enormous Monstrous Strangulator hidden under the treasure in the cave, an octopus-like creature . Alvin is quickly eaten and it prepares to eat Hiccup. Hiccup gets the creature to inject him. However, under Hiccup's shirt, Hiccup puts the needle in the tentacle the creature had wrapped around him. The creature's nervous system explodes. They escape the cave, but Hiccup decides that the world was not ready for the treasure, and leaves it. They soon surface with the aid of Toothless, and the book ends with Hiccup and Toothless and Fishlegs all getting back to the village. It turns out that the Hooligans had survived, and while they fought with Outcasts, they steered the boat back to Berk. After winning the fight, they set the Outcasts free. Everything ends well. In the epilogue, Hiccup tells us that he unscrewed a little knob in the sword that he used to fight Alvin and out popped the last will and testament of Grimbeard the Ghastly. It turns out that the sword was Grimbeard's favourite sword.
How to Speak Dragonese (2005)
The third book in the series. The story starts during a Boarding-An-Enemy-Ship Lesson. Gobber explains to his students that they will practice on the easy target of a Peaceable fishing boat. Gobber warns his students not to leave the bay, or else they might have an encounter with Sharkworms. Snotlout and Dogsbreath ram their ship at Hiccup and Fishlegs' ship (known as the Hopeful Puffin) and the ship loses course and they get lost. Fishlegs cannot see through the fog, and mistakes a Roman ship for a Peaceable Fishing boat by accident, and is attacked by the Romans. While on board, Hiccup finds two men (known as the Fat Consul and the Thin Prefect) talking about how they will steal all the dragons in the Inner Isle by kidnapping the Heirs of the Bog-Burglar Tribes and the Hooligans, causing both Tribes to fight, letting the Romans steal all the dragons in the Inner Isles.To save Fishlegs and escape, Hiccup secretly takes a nanodragon from the bowl of nandragons the Fat Consul is eating, and replaces it with an Electrisquirm. The Fat Consul is electrocuted and while all the Romans are distracted by this, Hiccup unlocks the dragons cages, wreaking havoc, and Hiccup and Fishlegs escape. The Thin Prefect tries to grab Hiccup's "How to Speak Dragonese" Book, but it instead rips into two. As the two jump into the boat, Toothless gets captured. Hiccup tries to tell his dad what has happened, and tells him to send a War Party to save Toothless. Stoick does not believe him, and is more worried about Hiccup's grades. The next morning, Hiccup hears someone singing from his coat. He remembers the nanodragon he had rescued. The nanodragon tells Hiccup that it's name is Ziggerastica the Living God. The nanodragon promises to do one thing for Hiccup, in return for what he did for her. During a Frightening Foreigners lesson, the Romans, disguised as (in not a really good disguise) Bog-Burglars kidnap him and Fishlegs during a class and take them to Fort Sinister. There they discover Alvin the Treacherous is the Thin Prefect and is working with the Romans and trying to learn Dragonese. His plan is to create a dragon army that can swim down to get the treasure of Grimbeard the Ghastly(from the previous book) for him. Hiccup tricks the Romans into keeping them alive until the day they are supposed to be killed by gladiators. Until then, they are put in a cell, where they meet Camicazi, the wild female heir to the Bog-Burglars Viking tribe. Hiccup calls on Ziggeristica and his army to form a plan to rescue the three of them and they are taken to the arena. Hiccup, Camicazi and Toothless are surprised to find that there are no gladiators. They realise they have filled the arena with water and find Sharkworms swimming around them. Hiccup launches his plan (Hiccup expected gladiators on the field, so he is not sure if it will work). Hiccup forces Fishlegs and Camicazi to throw him into a barrel, because he has a cut, and Sharkworms are attracted to blood. As the Sharkworms destroy the barrel, Hiccup appears to fly out of the barrel, and makes the spectators believe he is Thor
Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
, and orders the Romans to leave, and to give his book back. However, Alvin attempts to shake out a Venomous Vorpent he had put inside, but fails. Hiccup then appears to break the protection net with a hand gesture, and the Sharkworms attack the audience. Hiccup lands on the boat the three were on. Hiccup reveal there are armies of tiny dragons on his shirt, and can propelling him in the air. Some other armies had chewed on the protection net all night (and the locks of the dragon cages) He and his friends attempt to escape in the boat, but Alvin orders the portcullis to be held down, and the boat is destroyed. They climb the portcullis and enter a Roman observation balloon and escape to find the search parties from both tribes. As they land, the Venomous Vorpent crawls out of the book and appears to sting one of them.
The two Tribes realise that their Heirs are back and call off the fight and celebrate the return of the Heirs.
However, it is said at the end that during the balloon landing, one of the heroes was stung by a venomous dragon, hinting at the book "How To Cheat a Dragon's Curse."
How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse (2006)
This book is the fourth in the series. During a hunting-with-bows-and-arrows expedition, Hiccup finds Fishlegs acting strangely when they spot a group of Hysterics, a tribe of scary lunatic Vikings. Fishlegs starts attacking the Hysterics with a ski. Hiccups shoots an arrows at a Hyseric (known as Norbert the Nutjob) who stumbles crazily from side to side, knocking down all of the Hysterics. Hiccup and Fishlegs flee on their skis, with the Hysterics behind in hot pursuit. Hiccup falls off the side of a cliff. One-eye, the Saber-Toothed Dragon Driver which had pulled Hiccup and Fishlegs to the top of the mountain, refuses to rescue Hiccup. Hiccup screams to One-eye that if he does not save him, the Chief of the Tribe will be Snotlout (Snotlout had treated One-eye very badly, and had given him a good whipping). One-eye saves Hiccup and he and Fishlegs return to the village. Hiccup is worried about Fishlegs, and takes him to see Old Wrinkly. Old Wrinkly examines Fishlegs, and tells Hiccup that Fishlegs is suffering from Vorpentitis, a disease caused by the sting of a Venomous Vorpent, and the only cure to this disease is a vegetable called a potato, which can only be found in America. Hiccup does not believe him, because all Viking, except the Hysterics, believed that the world was a flat as a pancake, and there is NO such place as America. Old Wrinkly tells Hiccup that Norbert the Nutjob (the chief of the Hysteric Tribe)'s father, Bigjob, had actually gone to America and made friends with the Americans, which he called "feather people", and brought back the potato to prove he was right about America being true. However, he was attacked by a Doomfang. Old Wrinkly predicts the potato might be in the Hysteric Territories, and tells him that he must bring it back before ten o'clock the next morning, or else Fishlegs will die.Hiccup brings Camicazi and Toothless (Toothless was supposed to be hibernating like the other hunting dragons, but he did not dig his hibernating hole deep enough, which could cause him to sleep for a long time, so Hiccup dug him up) on the journey to Hysteria, with One-eye pulling them on a sleigh. The two children enter through the roof of a house where the Hyterics are celebrating Freya'sday Friday. They lower Camicazi through the chimney Hiccup accidentally falls into a giant pot of onion soup, and gets discovered by Norbert the Nutjob. Hiccup makes Norbert show him the potato by pretending not to believe in the potato. Norbert finally reveals his father's preserved body, and in Norbert's father's hand is a glass case with ice and has an arrows stuck in it. Hiccup tries to persuade Norbert to give him the potato, but Norbert refuses. Norbert soon gets annoyed with Hiccup, and decides whether Hiccup should or should not die by throwing his double-sided axe into the air. If it lands on the black side, Hiccup will die, if it lands on the white side, he will live. Hiccup cheats by catching the axe just as it is about to land on the black. Norbert is annoyed that Hiccup cheated, and locks him in the cage. After the Hysterics fall asleep, Camicazi picks the lock of Hiccup's cage, freeing him (Toothless took the key to cage from Norbert's pocket, but swallows it, and accidentally sets fire to a carpet). Camicazi lowers herself down with a rope and grabs the potato, but sees something in the glass case that interests her, and it too. Suddenly, the preserved body of Norbert's father falls on a row of Squealers ( a type of dragon that Vikings use as an alarm), who give ear-piercing screams. All the Hysterics suddenly wake up.
Hiccup throws the food on the table at the guards, while Camicazi knocks Norbert out with the frozen potato. Hiccup, Camicazi and Toothless get out of the Hall through the chimney. The two children ride via food tray down the roof and into Hysteria. The three, along with One-eye escape in a boat, but get attacked by the Doomfang, which lives under a frozen river called the "Wrath of Thor". The Doomfang breaks out of the ice and uses its tongue to grab the potato and eats it. Hiccup realises that his mission has failed. Once he gets back, he realises the Fishlegs had only caught a cold, and Old Wrinkly had made a mistake. Stoick (Hiccup had lied to Stoick saying that he was spending the night at Snotlout's house, but instead he went to get the potato) yells at Old Wrinky for making Hiccup go on the quest for nothing and almost get killed by Norbert. Hiccup suddenly falls on the same bed Fishlegs was lying on, and his entire body goes stiff. Old Wrinkly examines Hiccup and says that it is actually Hiccup who has Vorpentitis. Hiccup desperately tries to speak, murmuring "Oot me!", and tries to point at the arrow on the table next to him which had been stuck in the potato for a long time. Fishlegs realises that Hiccup wants him to shoot him with the arrow. Fishlegs shoots Hiccup on the foot, and Hiccup recovers. In the epilogue, Hiccup burries the arrow that saved his life and a seed on the end of it grows another potato which is used to cover the island with potatoes no one dies of Vorpentitis ever again.
How to Twist a Dragon's Tale (2007)
The fifth book in the series. The story begins with the children on a herding exercise for their Pirate Training Program. They are distracted by a huge fire rolling down the mountainside. The fire is found to be the doing of the Extermintators, big evil fire dragons. While most of the kids escape on Gobber's riding dragon, Goliath, before he is killed by the Exterminators, Hiccup and Gobber are left to defend themselves. Hiccup and Gobber are saved by a mysterious man in a fireproof suit riding a white dragon, whom they at first believe to be a man from the treacherous Lava-Lout tribe. The man soon reveals himself to be Humungously Hotshot, one of the greatest heroes on the planet. Although Hiccup's father, Stoick, begins to regard Hotshot with jealousy, he hires him as Hiccup's "Bardiguard".After that, Hotshot saves Hiccup from several deadly situations, all of which are later revealed to be his own doing. Later on at night, Hiccup wakes up to Hotshot looming over him with his swords, arguing with himself whether or not to kill Hiccup. He ultimately decides not to, and Hiccup asks him what he's doing. Hotshot begins to tell Hiccup his story, of how he fell in love with a Viking woman, but her father wanted her to marry someone clever. The woman's father sent Hotshot on an Impossible Task to find and bring back the Firestone, and the reward was the woman's hand in marriage. Hotshot travelled to the volcano where the Firestone was hidden, but he was captured soon after by the Lava Louts. After a few weeks, he became friends with a jailkeeper named Terrific Al. He asked Terrific Al to bring a half of the ruby heart to his love because she vowed to save him if she received the ruby heart. Terrific Al told Humongous that he would bring the ruby heart to his ladylove if he promised to do something for him and disappeared for fifteen years and came back to tell Humongous Hotshot that his love threw the heart out of the window and married somebody else who had already brought back the Firestone. Terrific Al (who mysteriously has lost a hand, half a leg, an eye and all of his hair) told Humongous the thing he must promise to do is to kill Hiccup, stating that Hiccup is a Prince of Darkness and a Devil Child, who will send terror across the Archipelago. After Hotshot finishes his story Hiccup figures out that the woman Humungous is talking about is Hiccup's own mother, who had thought he was dead, and that Terrific Al is really Alvin the Treacherous. Hiccup, Fishlegs, Hotshot, Camicazi, the White Dragon and the Windwalker, Hiccup's riding dragon travel to Lava-lout Island to put the fire stone inside the volcano to stop the volcano from exploding and are attacked by Alvin and Exterminators. Hiccup manages to put the stone into the volcano. But on contact with the lava, the fire stone hatches into a fire dragon, revealing that the fire stone is actually an egg. The dragon kills all the Exterminators. Hiccup and his riding dragon, Windwalker, run down the island away from lava and fall into the sea. Hiccup's father and others rescue him and everything works out well. In the epilogue, Hiccup tells us that Windwalker turns out to be his faithful flying dragon.
A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (2008)
The sixth book in the series is the only one not to have How to in its title. But it is also named How not to Celebrate your Birthday. Its cover name is named only A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons after Hiccup's informative book inside this book.Hiccup is lost in the Library Labyrinth and the Driller Dragons and Madguts the Murderous are on the prowl, all because of a book!
Hiccup's birthday is not going to be the quiet affair he might have hoped for.
This book contains an open-up map of the Barbaric Archipelago, a Dragonese Dictionary in the back, Dragon Profiles and "Conversations with Toothless".
Hiccup wakes up that morning, wishing for a peaceful birthday. He then tries to persuade Toothless to eat his breakfast, which is spinach and drift wood. Toothless refuses, so Hiccup goes to the Finals of a Burglary Competition between the Bog-Burglars and the Hooligans alone. When Hiccup returns home, he realises Toothless has eaten three quarters of Stoick's throne. Stoick comes in the room, and is in a bad temper because he had made a bet to Big-Boobied Bertha that he could prove that the Hooligans were just as good at Burglary as the Bog-Burglars by the end of the day, and also because Hiccup has been researching about dragons and writing in notebooks about them. He throws a tantrum, but remembers that Gobber has stolen the "How to Train Your Dragon" manual from the Meathead Library under the nose of the Hairy Scary Librarian. Stoick tells Hiccup that if Toothless does one more thing like this, he will banish him, and goes off to find the book.
Toothless guiltily reveals that he also burned the copy of "How To Train Your Dragon". Camicazi suggests that they can go to the Meathead Library, and supposedly there might be another copy of the book, and get back home "in time for tea". Hiccup, Camicazi and Fishlegs go to the Island of Forget Me on a Stealth Dragon Big-Boobied Bertha had stolen from Maduguts the Murderous, the Chief of the Murderous Tribe, for the bet with Stoick, to visit the Meathead Public Library. With the help of Stormfly, Camicazi's dragon, they find the copy of "How to Train Your Dragon", thought it is a second edititon. The Hairy Scary Librarian catches them stealing the book and fights with Camicazi and Hiccup. Fishlegs throws a book at the Hairy Scary Librarian. However, Stormfly is knocked out in the process, and awakens with no memory of who she is, and how did she get in. The Librarian, who falls onto the floor, which is full of Red Hot Ithcyworms (the worms went into his pants, tickling him) runs toward the exit, laughing and screaming. The noise attracts Driller Dragons who are dwelling in the Library.
Hiccup Finds a book that was written by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the II called A Hero's Guide To Deadly Dragons which was exactly the same book that Hiccup the third wrote, which had been taken from him earlier that morning. He pulls the book put and the shelf opens, revealing hole filled with Poisonous Piffleworms, their only exit.
Hiccup takes back the second edition of How to Train Your Dragon to the Isle of Berk. Meanwhile, Madguts tracks down the Stealth Dragon and it leads him to the Isle of Forget Me. They find that it has gone to the Isle of Berk and go there. On the Isle of Berk, both Stoick and Bertha find the stolen things they have got for the bet are missing. The Hairy Scary Librarian arrives and shoots Stoick with a Northbow but Hiccup's handwritten book saves Stoick's life and Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Camicazi come from the sky and squash the Librarian flat with the Stealth Dragon. Madguts and Gumboil arrive for the Stealth Dragon and are about to kill Bertha. Hiccup saves her by lying to Madguts, telling him that the Scary Hairy Librarian had stolen the Stealth Dragon instead, so she squashed the Librarian. Madguts believes him, and takes the Librarian away. Hiccup persuades Stoick that books are useful and books are unbanned by order of the Thing.
How to Ride a Dragon's Storm (2008)
This is the seventh book in the series. The story starts at the beach at the bottom the Murderous Mountains. Madguts the Murderous, invites two tribes, the Bog-burglars and the Hairy Hooligans to join the Murderous Tribe, over for an Intertribal Friendly Swimming race. The winner may have a single request which will be granted by the three Chiefs of the three tribes. The winner of the swimming race is the one who is the Last Man (or Woman) back. Madguts, Stoick and Big Boobied Bertha set off to the water more slowly than the others, more certain that they will win the race. Gumboil and Madguts laugh at the fact that Bog-burglars and the Hooligans are all wearing Blubberwing fat to keep themselves warm, and show them the Deepest Purple Fleshfang oil they are wearing, and tell them that there is a pot at the edge of the water. Gumobil assures the two Chiefs that they can go back, because the race does not start until you start swimming. The two Chiefs realise the pot is empty, and also realises that they have been tricked into returning to the beach in three minutes and twenty-two seconds, and become the losers of the Race. Hiccup, Camicazi and Fishlegs have difficulty in swimming the farther waters, even though their hunting dragons are trying to help. especially Fishlegs, who has to swim in armbands. They encounter Snotlout and Dogsbreath, who destroy Fishlegs' armbands. Camicazi and Fishlegs are pulled underwater after a while. Hiccup also is pulled down, and is pulled back to the surface, realising that he and his friends have been captured by Raptortongues. They are taken to a ship and tied up. Their hunting dragons are tied up too.The ship happens to have Madguts, Norbert the Nutjob (Chief of the Hysterics) and Gumboil. Norbert has asked Madguts to take Hiccup, Camicazi and Fishlegs to the boat, and in return letting him rest on the boat for a few hours, before he continues the race, being the Last Man Back. After Madguts and Gumboil leave, Hiccup returns the ticking thing, which he had stolen from Norbert in a earlier adventure. Norbert attempts to use the ticking thing to get to America. Norbert is about to kill the Hiccup, Camicazi and Fishlegs with Axe of Doom, but is forced to untie the three because he cannot read the ticking thing. Hiccup and his friends explore the boat, finding many interesting contraptions that have been made by Norbert, for example: a machine that generates a high-pitched noise that will startle giant dragons and a flying Machine that is tested by crew members everyday, only to crash into the ocean. Hiccup discovers there are slaves called the Northern Wanderers on the boat. He falls into the Salve Hatch by accident one day and meets Bearcub and his grandmother. Hiccup pleads that Wanderers not to kill him, and promises to free them, and is rescued by Norbert. The boat reaches the land of Polar-serpents, where dangerous dragons called Polar-serpents roam. Hiccup decides to use Dragon-nip to make the Hysterics fall asleep and escape with the Wanderers. Hiccup pours dragon-nip into the crew's dinner, making them all fall asleep. After all Wanderers are safe on the emergency boats, Hiccup falls off the boat and lands on an ice berg, and is chased into a cave by Polar Serpents. Hiccup accidentally wakes up a gigantic dragon, who also chases Hiccup. Hiccup manages to get back onto the boat, and uses the machine that generates a high pitched noise to keep the monster away, identifying it as a Leviathorgan. America is in sight, but a storm breaks out, and the Leviathorgan from the cave attacks the ship. Norbert and Hiccup fight on the top of the ship. Lightning strikes Norbert's axe, and it enters the sea, killing the Leviathorgan. Hiccup falls of the mast, as he swims up he hits his head on a sinking coldrin which shortly gives him amnesia, and then he passes out. He is rescued by Fishlegs and Camicazi. Back at the Murderous mountains, Madguts is clearly the winner, and demands Stoick and Big-Boobied Bertha to be sacrificed to Sky Dragons. Old Wrinkly announces that Hiccup, Fishlegs and Camicazi have not yet returned, and the race is supposed to be three months, five days and six months, so they still have to wait for three months, before Madguts is declared winner, and the two other Chiefs will be under temporary custody under Madguts.
Camicazi and Fishlegs are rescued by the Wanderers. The two take Hiccup on board too, and after Bearcub's grandmother's medicine, Hiccup awakens. After a long time, the ticking things starts to tick louder, because Old Wrinkly had set an alarm on it. With only six hours left, and thinking that Old Wrinkly really did have a reason to set the alarm, the three fly to Berk on the Norbert's flying machine, which the Wanderers had collected. The machine works well, but as they near Berk, the machine breaks and crashes into the ocean. Hiccup and his friends come just in time for the alarm to set off. Because Hiccup is the last person back, he demands Madguts to sing a love song at the next Thing while dressed up as an "ickle pretty shepherdess".
How to Break a Dragon's Heart (2009)
This is the eighth book in the series. When Fishlegs is caught sending illegal love poems to Tantrum, the daughter of Ug the Uglithug. Hiccup takes the blame to spare Fishlegs life so he, Fishlegs and Camicazi must complete the Impossible Task or else face death at the hands of the Berserks (Or the Uglithugs, If they don't accept the quest at all). Meanwhile, Alvin the Treacherous's mother (Excellinor) has been imprisoned deep in the Berserk forest for years holding a dark secret that reveals the truth about the Lost Throne of the Wilderwest, as well as some shocking truths about Hiccup's past. Hiccup must evade Berserks, outwit Alvin the Treacherous (again), and save Fishlegs and himself from being fed to the dragon, Furious.How to Steal a Dragon's Sword (2011)
This is the ninth book in the series. Bad times come to the Archipelago, and ever since the woods of Berserk burned down it is as if the world is cursed. Hiccup and other young warriors are brought to the island where "Flashburn's school of swordfighting" waits for them. The children have 3 weeks at the school to train their swordfighting, for at New Year's day, there will be a swordfighting competition, in which the winner is declared a new warrior of his tribe. The youngsters have to go up the cliff, "THe Hard Way", and are attacked by a pack of dragons of different species, which is unusual behaviour for dragons. Hiccup's clever plan saves the lot of them. But once at the school, no one is to be found. Worse still, the only person there, the wicked witch Excellinor (Alvin the Treacherous's Mother) has returned as the castle's witch. She tells everyone that the dragon's are revolting in a "Red Rage" and are led by the dragon Furious, who was one year before released by... Hiccup. She tells the tribes that the swordfighting competition must be used to find the next king of the Wilderwest. She tells them a prophecy which is about the next king: he has a dragon with no teeth, an arrow from a land that does not exist, Grimbeard's second-best sword, a ticking-thing, a rectangular shield, a throne, a crown, and the Dragon Jewel. Hiccup has got all of these things, except the dragon jewel.Meanwhile, the witch makes sure that her son Alvin has no challengers during the competition. Hiccup finds the crown under Flashburn's school, along with a dragon called the Wodensfang, a very old, ancient dragon, as he gets back into the hut and the witch attacks him but he was immune to the vorpnet venom on her claws gets him slef covered in the poisen in the struggle, wins the competition, beating his own father. Alvin is third. Hiccup is declared winner and tells the tribes that he wantd to free all dragons so that there would be no revolt in the first place. He wants to abolish slavery for both humans and dragons. Most tribes agree on this, but then, when all looks so well, Snotlout throws a stone at his heard, knoching Hiccup's helmet off, revealing he has the slavemark. Everyone's shocked. The Slavemark is the ultimate mark of shame. Since he has the Slavemark, Hiccup is automatically a slave, disqualified from the competition, exiled from his tribe, and could never become chief, let alone a king. Stoick, Hiccup's father, is also banished, because he knew Hiccup was a 'runt', and thus should not have been part of their tribe in the first place, but instead abandoned as a baby. Everyone has to turn their backs, excluding Fishlegs, who gives Hiccup his lobster-claw necklace, the only thing Fishlegs has from his parents. Alvin's the new king, and declares war on the dragons. Furious arrives and the war begins. Only Windwalker and Toothless stay faithful, and bring Hiccup to safety. He is followed by the dragons, who think he has the Dragon Jewel, the only thing that could stop the dragon's now. In mid-chase he falls unconsciuos on dragonback and wakes up safe in a cave, Hiccup now all alone, an outcast, an exile, no sword, no helmet, only the Windwalker, Toothless and the Wodensfang by his side, Hiccup's in despair, until he finds he actually has the map to find the Dragon Jewel (Which is revealed by the venom on his hands un covering the secret map on Grimbeard the Ghastly's will), and triumphantly cries:'THIS IS NOT THE END'!
Film
DreamWorks AnimationDreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. is an American animation studio based in Glendale, California that creates animated feature films, television program and online virtual worlds...
released on 26 March 2010 a computer-animated film adaptation How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon (film)
How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 3D computer-animated action fantasy film by DreamWorks Animation loosely based on the 2003 book of the same name. The film stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher...
, directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
Dean DeBlois
Dean DeBlois is a Canadian film director, film producer, screenwriter, animator and editor. He is best known for co-writing and co-directing The Oscar-nominated animated films Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon , and for directing the acclaimed Sigur Rós documentary/music film...
, the directors of Lilo & Stitch
Lilo & Stitch
This article is about the movie. For the television series, see Lilo & Stitch: The Series.Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on June 21, 2002...
. The film features Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler
Gerard James Butler is a Scottish actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television. A trained lawyer, Butler turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies , which he followed with steady work on television, most notably in...
as Stoick the Vast, Hiccup's father, Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson is a Scottish American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, and producer. He is the host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning late-night talk show that airs on CBS...
as Gobber the Belch, and Jay Baruchel
Jay Baruchel
Jonathan Adam Saunders "Jay" Baruchel is a Canadian actor. He has had a successful career in comedy films, and has appeared in supporting roles in such box office successes as Million Dollar Baby, Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder, as well as starring in films like She's Out of My League, The Trotsky,...
as Hiccup. The film proved to be a resounding critical and box office success, and paved the way for a 2014 sequel How to Train Your Dragon 2, with Dean DeBlois
Dean DeBlois
Dean DeBlois is a Canadian film director, film producer, screenwriter, animator and editor. He is best known for co-writing and co-directing The Oscar-nominated animated films Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon , and for directing the acclaimed Sigur Rós documentary/music film...
directing it.
Differences from the book
The plot of the film is almost completely different to the first book in the series. The greatest change is that the Vikings in the book have the custom of capturing and training dragons even before the story begins – but in the film, they are fighting a fierce war against the dragons and only switch to training them after Hiccup shows that this can be done. Furthermore, Toothless is completely reimagined as a Night Fury dragon, a rare larger and highly intelligent breed that is capable of carrying human riders on its back as a flying mount. However, Cowell stated in her blog that she felt approvingly that the film remained "true to the spirit and message of the book." Cowell also explained that she felt that the changing of media (novel to film) triggered a necessary change in plot and characters. The Green Death is renamed the Red Death in the film.The most notable character who appears in the film but not in the book is perhaps Astrid, a fierce Viking girl and Hiccup's love interest. However, Astrid may represent the female character Camicazi, who is present in the series of novels.