How to Train Your Dragon

For the film loosely based on the book series, see How to Train Your Dragon (film). For the franchise based on the film, see How to Train Your Dragon (franchise). For the video game, see How to Train Your Dragon (video game).
How to Train Your Dragon

Cover of the first edition of How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon
How to Be a Pirate
How to Speak Dragonese
How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse
How to Twist a Dragon's Tale
A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons
How to Ride a Dragon's Storm
How to Break a Dragon's Heart
How to Steal a Dragon's Sword
How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel
How to Betray a Dragon's Hero
How to Fight a Dragon's Fury
Author Cressida Cowell
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Fantasy, young adult fiction, coming of age
Publisher Hodder Children's Books (UK)
Little, Brown and Company (US)
Published 2003–2015
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Audiobook

How to Train Your Dragon is a series of twelve children's books written by British author Cressida Cowell. The books are set in a fictional Viking world and focus on the experiences of protagonist Hiccup as he overcomes great obstacles on his journey of Becoming a Hero the Hard Way. The books were published by Hodder Children's Books in the UK and by Little, Brown and Company in the US. The first book was published in 2003 and the last one in 2015.

The books have subsequently been made into a franchise consisting of two feature films of the same name, several short stories and a animated television series produced by DreamWorks Animation. A third movie is due to be released around 2018.

Books

Cowell has published twelve full novels, based around the adventures of Hiccup. The first book was published in 2003, and the last in 2015. Almost all the books have titles based around an instruction guide:

Main series

  1. How to Train Your Dragon (2003)
  2. How to Be A Pirate (2004)
  3. How to Speak Dragonese (2005)
  4. How to Cheat A Dragon's Curse (2006)
  5. How to Twist A Dragon's Tale (2007)
  6. A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (2008)
  7. How to Ride A Dragon's Storm (2009)
  8. How to Break A Dragon's Heart (2010)
  9. How to Steal A Dragon's Sword (2011)
  10. How to Seize A Dragon's Jewel (2012)
  11. How to Betray A Dragon's Hero (2013)
  12. How to Fight a Dragon's Fury (2015)

Related books

  1. How To Train Your Viking, by Toothless the Dragon (2006)
  2. The Day of the Dreader (2012)
  3. The Incomplete Book of Dragons: A Guide to Dragon Species (2014, UK) / The Complete Book of Dragons: A Guide to Dragon Species (2014, US)

Related picture book

  1. Hiccup – The Seasick Viking (2000) / Hiccup: The Viking Who Was Seasick (2001)

Cowell published the supplementary spin-off stories as part of the series: The Day of the Dreader is a short story published in 2012[1] and the novella How To Train Your Viking was published as part of World Book Day 2006 and is claimed to be written by the dragon Toothless and translated by Cowell. Both of these titles were published in the USA as part of the May 2014 How to Train Your Dragon Special Edition: With Brand New Short Stories![2] paperback movie tie-in edition. A picture book, Hiccup the Seasick Viking published in 2000, is not considered a part of the series despite featuring the same character of Hiccup. An illustrative guide to the dragon world, titled The Incomplete Book of Dragons, was released in June 2014 (in the US it is titled The Complete Book of Dragons).[3][4][5]

Cowell cites the Scottish Inner Hebrides islands and stories of Scandinavian Scotland as inspirations for the book.[6][7]

Characters

Main

Vikings

Dragons

Plot synopsis

Hiccup: The Seasick Viking / Hiccup: The Viking Who Was Seasick (2000)

Poor little Hiccup is spooked by the sea, and he's to make his first voyage soon—next Tuesday. His dad, Stoick the Vast, says there's no such thing as a frightened Viking. But Hiccup's about to find out otherwise. Hiccup's hilarious tale shows the true meaning of bravery, and the delights that await when one faces one's fear.[8]

This book was the first appearance of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The Third and his father, Stoick the Vast.

How to Train Your Dragon (2004)

The first book in the series, following Hiccup as he captures a dragon as a rite of passage and attempts to train him so that he will not be exiled from Berk, as its tradition. Led by Gobber the Belch, Hiccup manages to catch a small dragon, whom he names Toothless, and attempts to train it through his own methods, when the How To Train Your Dragon book was found to have only one page and therefore unhelpful. During the final part of the rite of passage Toothless offends another dragon and a fight ensues between all the dragons. As this is seen as failure to train the dragons correctly, the boys are exiled, allowed to stay one night while a storm rages. During the storm, three Sea Dragons are washed up on the shore of the island and one seems a threat to the Vikings. Hiccup is chosen to negotiate with the dragon, who has now eaten one of the other dragons. However, the dragon, who calls himself the Green Death, says he is going to kill all the Vikings. While the village elders argue over how to attack the Green Death, Hiccup, the boys and their dragons start a fight between the Green Death and the other sea dragon, the Purple Death, resulting in Hiccup nearly being swallowed and having to be rescued by Toothless, killing both sea dragons in the process. Hiccup and Toothless become heroes because of their bravery.

Hiccup doesn't know it yet, but he has found the first of the King's Lost Things...

How to Be a Pirate (2004)

The sequel to How to Train Your Dragon starts during a Sword-Fighting-at-Sea lesson during a storm, but Hiccup is quite bad at sword-fighting. The fight is cut off as the boat tips over and is holed by an object, a coffin, upon which Hiccup rides back to the Isle of Berk. On the beach, it is discovered that it is the coffin of Grimbeard the Ghastly, the greatest pirate of all times and Hiccup's great great grandfather. Soon the coffin is opened and they find out that it contains a living man, named Alvin the Treacherous, who hides his true identity under the name Alvin the Poor-but-Honest-Farmer.

Alvin tells the Hooligans that he was locked in the coffin and sent out to sea by "some very rude people". He claims that he discovered the coffin buried in the Peaceable country, and upon opening it, a booby-trap was set off, which cut off his right hand. He also tells the Hooligans that in the coffin, he found a riddle that tells how to find the treasure of Grimbeard the Ghastly and a map that depicts the island where the treasure is buried.

They figure that the treasure is in the Isle of Skullions, an island inhabited by dragons called Skullions, that while being blind, deaf, and flightless, have a keen sense of smell. According to the riddle, the hunting dragon of the heir to the Hairy Hooligan's tribe will sniff out the treasure. The Hooligans travel to the Isle of the Skullions, where a small treasure chest is found by Snotlout, along with 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, and a brief, desperate fight with the Skullions ensues, during which Hiccup dislocates his right arm. A few of the Skullions are killed, and the Vikings escape with the treasure. Upon nearing Berk, the Hooligans begin fighting over the treasure, and as they fight, they are ambushed by a group of cannibalistic Vikings known as the Outcasts. Alvin reveals himself to be the Outcast's chief, and another battle starts. The ship soon catches fire and sinks. Everyone abandons it, climbing on the Outcasts' ship to continue the battle, but Hiccup, Toothless, Fishlegs, and Alvin are trapped underneath the capsized ship, kept alive with an air pocket.

As the air pocket is finally destroyed by the weight of the capsized ship, Toothless finds an underwater cavern filled with air. As the party begins to explore the cavern they come to a door and upon opening it, they find it filled with mountains of gold and jewels, the real treasure of Grimbeard the Ghastly. Alvin turns on Hiccup to kill him. In the sword-fight that follows, Hiccup discovers that he is actually left-handed and hence why he was never good at sword-fighting. In the fight Alvin steps on a pile of treasure under which is hidden a Monstrous Strangulator, an octopus-like creature that was placed there by Grimbeard to guard his treasure. It consumes Alvin, and as it comes next for Hiccup, Hiccup tricks the creature into injecting itself with its own poison. The creature's nervous system is destroyed and they escape, but Hiccup decides that the world is not ready for the treasure, and leaves it behind.

They soon surface with the aid of Toothless, and the book ends with Hiccup, Toothless and Fishlegs all getting back to the village and finding that the Hooligans had survived and won the battle with the Outcasts but had set them free.

In the epilogue, Hiccup tells us that in a secret compartment in the handle of the sword that he used to fight Alvin, he found the last will and testament of Grimbeard the Ghastly. It turns out that the sword was Grimbeard's second-best sword. It is revealed in How to Steal a Dragon's Sword that the sword's name is the Dragonsword, but Old Wrinkly names it the Endeavor.

Hiccup has found TWO of The King's Lost Things...

How to Speak Dragonese (2005)

The third in the series 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 (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, and the two are attacked by the Romans. While on board, Hiccup listens in on two men (the Fat Consul and the Thin Prefect) discussing their plan to steal all the dragons in the Inner Isles. Their plan was to kidnap the heirs to Bog-Burglars and Hairy Hooligans, with each kidnapping squad disguised as the other tribe, so each tribe would accuse the other of kidnapping, and while they were arguing, the Romans would be free to capture all the dragons in the Inner Isles.

To save Fishlegs and escape, Hiccup secretly takes a nanodragon from the bowl of nanodragons the Fat Consul is eating, and replaces it with an Electricsquirm. The Fat Consul is electrocuted, and while all the Romans are distracted by this, Hiccup unlocks the dragon's 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. Toothless gets captured. When back at Berk, 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 remembers the nanodragon he had rescued. The nanodragon tells Hiccup that his name is Ziggerastica the Living God. The nanodragon promises to do one thing for Hiccup, in return for what he did for him. During a Frightening Foreigners lesson, the Romans, poorly disguised as Bog-Burglars, kidnap Hiccup and Fishlegs and take them to Fort Sinister. There they discover Alvin the Treacherous is the Thin Prefect, who cut his way out of the dead Strangulator's stomach, but lost his position as Chief of the Outcasts due to his hair falling out from its stomach juices. He 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-Burglar tribe. Hiccup calls on Ziggerastica 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 realize 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. 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 they are propelling him into the air. Nanodragon armies had chewed on the protection net and the locks of the dragon cages all night.

Hiccup and his friends attempt to escape in the boat, but Alvin orders the portcullis to be brought down, and the boat is destroyed. They climb into a Roman observation balloon and escape to find the search parties from both tribes. Alvin chases them but falls into the Sharkworm-infested water. After the threesome (foursome after Toothless is rescued) return, the two Tribes realize that their respective heirs (and Hiccup and Camicazi) are back, 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 nanodragon called the Venomous Vorpent that Alvin had inserted into Hiccup's book, foreshadowing events in "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-on-skis expedition, Hiccup finds Fishlegs acting strangely when they spot a group of Hysterics, a tribe of scary lunatic Vikings, who chase Fishlegs. Hiccup shoots an arrow at the chief Hysteric (known as Norbert the Nutjob). Hiccup and Fishlegs flee on their skis, with the Hysterics behind in hot pursuit. Hiccup falls off the side of a cliff. At first One-eye, the Saber-Toothed Driver dragon which had pulled Hiccup and Fishlegs to the top of the mountain, refuses to rescue Hiccup; but when Hiccup points out that if he does not save him, Snotface Snotlout (who had previously treated One-eye very badly, and given him a good whipping) will become Chief of the Tribe, One-eye saves Hiccup after all, 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 Vikings, except the Hysterics, believe that the world is as flat as a pancake, and there is NO such place as America. Old Wrinkly tells Hiccup that Norbert the Nutjob'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 the great hall where the Hysterics are celebrating Freya'sday Friday. They lower Camicazi through the chimney, but 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 the frozen potato which has an arrow 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 golden 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 Norbert's ticking-thing in the glass case and takes that 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, Camicazi and Toothless get out of the Hall through the chimney. The three, along with One-eye, escape in Hiccup's boat, but get attacked by the Doomfang, which lives under a frozen sea 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 and guesses that the Doomfang had Vorpentitis, as it showed the symptoms. Once he gets back, he realises that 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, which is soaked in the juices of the potato. Fishlegs shoots Hiccup on the foot, and Hiccup recovers. In the epilogue, Hiccup buries 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 so no one dies of Vorpentitis ever again. In the epilogue, Hiccup explains that the Doomfang that ate the potato thanked Hiccup by following his boat and assisting in keeping Hiccup safe in impossible situations.

Now Hiccup has SIX lost things (Toothless, Endeavor, Roman Shield, Key-that-unlocks-all-more-or-less, arrow-from-a-land-that-doesn't-exist, and the ticking-thing)

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 Exterminators, 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 "bodyguard".

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 riding an Exterminator. Alvin reveals the first Sharkworm he met tore out his eye, but he killed it and hid inside. However, after he got out on shore the dead Sharkworm's mouth shut on his leg, but he carved a new one from its teeth. The volcano erupts and the Exterminators hatch. 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 eats all the Exterminators, including the one Alvin is riding,swallowing Alvin. 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", though it is a second edition. 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 Itchyworms (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 out and the shelf opens, revealing a hole filled with Poisonous Piffleworms. There only exit would be to go through the hole.

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. At the end of the book, there is Hiccup's finished A Hero's Guide To Deadly Dragons, as well as a Dragonese dictionary and conversation starters with Toothless.

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,which is so hot, in fact, that a steam is billowing off Madgut's chest. And then they 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 an earlier adventure. Norbert attempts to use the ticking thing to get to America. Norbert is about to kill Hiccup, Camicazi and Fishlegs with the 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 every day, 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, which 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 hours, 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 start 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. The Hooligans, while searching for Camicazi (who had been shipwrecked during a storm)in the Eastern Archipelago(a dangerous section in the Barbaric Archipelago), accidentally crash their ship into a rock, and the ship sinks in the shallow waters of the Beach of the Broken Heart, a haunted beach belonging to wicked pirates called Uglithugs, forcing the Hooligans to camp there. While on the beach, they find a mysterious object, and they discover it is a throne belonging to Hooligans, as the Hooligan coat of arms is on it.

In the middle of the night, the leader of the Uglithugs, UG, and his men, discover the Hooligans, waking them up. UG tells them that he doesn't want to kill them, but wants to talk to them about a strange event: a Hooligan has been sending love letters to UG's daughter, Tantrum O'Ugerly, and explains that if the person is of royal blood, the person can ask for Tantrum's hand in marriage after the person finishes an Impossible Task, and if not, the person will be killed. Hiccup realizes that Fishlegs is the one who sent the letters, and spares Fishlegs life by telling UG that he himself wrote the letters. UG then tells him the Impossible Task: to give them a barrel of mead made from the honey made by the bees on the Island of Berserk, an island inhabited by crazy lunatics who enjoy feeding people alive to a dragon known as "the Beast" in wicker baskets. UG then tells Hiccup that he should be back at UG's castle on Midsummer's day at five o'clock in the morning with five pots of Berserk honey.

Back on Berk, Stoick convinces the other Hooligans to help Hiccup collect the honey. Meanwhile, Fishlegs realizes that he himself is a Berserk,after going berserk himself. And that he had been thrown into the sea in a lobster pot and had been adopted by Hooligans, and goes off to Berserk on his Chickenpoxer dragon. Hiccup and Toothless follow him on the Windwalker.

On Berserk, Fishlegs successfully collect five pots of honey, but gets captured by Berserks. So is Hiccup. At the Berserk Village, Hiccup and Fishlegs meet the other fiancés of Tantrum, one of them being Humongously Hotshot the Hero. All of them are to be fed to "the Beast" later in the evening. Hiccup realizes that the chef of the Berserk Chief is actually Alvin the Treacherous (who is in chains). Alvin explains that when he was in the Fire Dragon in Book 5, he had used his sword to pop open the stomach of the Exterminator Dragon he was riding (because there is lots of laughing gas in the stomach of dragons). The Fire dragon burst out in laughter, and Alvin floated out in a bubble, which was later shot down by a Berserk. Alvin then fell from the sky onto the Berserk Chief's chef, and spared his own life by agreeing to become the Chief's new chef. Hiccup tells Alvin that he can help him escape if he shows him where Camicazi is imprisoned (Hiccup had already knew that she was imprisoned in Berserk). Alvin agrees but while they are in the woods, he pushed Hiccup into a tree cell, where he meets a witch who introduces herself as Hogtrude(and Hiccup introducing himself as Fishlegs), who helps get some nasty things from Toothless's tummy. The witch then finds Hiccup suspicious and decides to tell him a story and at the end of the story, they will both guess each other's names and whoever guesses right will get to kill the other.

The witch then tells Hiccup how Grimbeard the Ghastly had three kids, Thugheart, Chucklehead and Hiccup Horrendous Haddock II. Grimbeard tried to kill the second Hiccup by leaving him in the mountainside, upsetting his wife who left to look for the second Hiccup. Meanwhile, the second Hiccup was adopted by Grimler dragons and learned to speak Dragonese, but was found by Hooligans, and he and his adopted step dragon brother, a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus named Furious, lived with Grimbeard. One day, Hiccup wanted to hold a petition for the dragons to demand freedom. However, Thugheart tricked Grimbeard into thinking that it was an attack and Grimbeard killed Hiccup, but soon he realizes that Hiccup just wanted a peaceful petition, and regrets his actions and buried his treasures and left in his boat(Furious took the second Hiccup's corpse away). The witch guesses Hiccup's correct name, and Hiccup guesses that the witch is Alvin the Treacherous's mother, both being correct. Hiccup then escapes by using a key that had been in Toothless' belly to unlock the door to the cell and rescues Camicazi and they return to the Berserk village. Hiccup goes back into his cage just as the feeding of "the Beast" begins. Alvin, surprised that Hiccup has returned, chooses Hiccup to be fed to "the Beast" first. Hiccup realizes that "the Beast" is actually Furious. After realizing that Hiccup is a descendant of a boy he loved, he swears a "cross my heart and hope to die" oath (this is an oath that a dragon CANNOT BREAK) if Hiccup sets him free. The oath was that Furious will help free the prisoners on the island and never harm humans. Hiccup realizes that the key he has can free Furious and they free the fiancés and cause chaos in the village. Furious, however, then reveals that he only has HALF A HEART; therefore he can obey a part of the oath and ignore the other (Furious picked the first part, obviously). He sets fire to the Berserk woods and tells Hiccup that a year after he leaves the Archipelago, he shall return to destroy the humans along with a dragon army (Furious really hates humans). Hiccup, Camicazi, Fishlegs, Toothless, the Windwalker and the Chickenpoxer return to Berk with the honey.

Meanwhile, Humongous bring his five pots of honey to UG's room and goes on his honeymoon with Tantrum (because Humongous had been the one she had loved).

In the epilogue, Hiccup tells us that sometimes he dreams he is the father of the second Hiccup, and sees him riding on a dragon, promising he will return.

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 sword fighting, for New Year's Day; there will be a sword fighting 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 dragons 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 sword fighting 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 throne, though he knows where it is, the crown, and 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 that was told to guard the crown by Grimbeard the Ghastly. The Wodensfang tells him he was the one who gave the first Hiccup the Dragon Jewel. He gets back into the hut and the witch attacks him but he was immune to the vorpent venom on her claws gets himself covered in the poison in the struggle, wins the competition, beating his own father. Alvin is third. Hiccup is declared winner and tells the tribes that he wanted 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 head, knocking 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 dragons now. In mid-chase he falls unconscious 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 uncovering the secret map on Grimbeard the Ghastly's will), and triumphantly cries: This is not the end I will be back!

How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel (2012)

This is the tenth book in the series. The Dragon Rebellion has begun. Snotlout is the new Chief of the Hooligan Tribe. Stoick has been banished and given the Slavemark. And Alvin the Treacherous has EIGHT of the King's Lost Things, and has been proclaimed the new King of the Wilderwest... But what can Hiccup do, now all alone and in exile, hunted by both humans and dragons? Can he find the Dragon Jewel, mankind's last and only hope? And if he does, what will he do with it?

The book starts with Hiccup in exile. He is nearly killed by his mother, Vallhallarama while he deactivates dragon traps, and loses the map to her. He travels to a slave jail under Alvin the Treacherous’s control to spy on Alvin. There, he finds and befriends many slaves, including his father that comb the beaches during low tide, looking for the Dragon Jewel. Alvin discovers Hiccup and makes him look for the Dragon Jewel by himself, with a deadly armed guard. A Deadly Shadow swoops down and snatches Hiccup before he has a chance to look for the Jewel. The dragon brings him to a hill to kill him, but notices that he has the lobster claw necklace. They (the dragon has three heads, Arrogance, Patience and Innocence) tell him that they had promised to care for a Berserker woman’s baby who was supposed to be killed by drifting through the ocean. They lost sight of the baby however, and it drifted to Berk and grew up to be Fishlegs. Hiccup admits he is not this child, and tells them of Fishleg’s fate (which was to be sucked into a hole in the ground). He goes to this hole and gets pulled in to it by its inhabitant, a large dragon with an eye on each finger. His dragon instincts tell him that this dragon can't be reasoned with, so Hiccup plays dead long enough for the dragon to eat him up to the waist, which is when Hiccup stabs the dragon in a major vulnerable spot. He ventures off into the creature’s maze of glass walls because of a mysterious voice and finds Fishlegs. He also finds the Dragon Jewel. Then they swim to shore through and exit, and the Deadly Shadow picks them up, all flying triumphantly into the distance. Cressida Cowell tells readers to stop reading there if they want a happy story. However Valhallarama finds Hiccup and takes him to the slave jail. There she convinces the slaves and others to join Hiccup against Alvin.By making the slavemark the dragon mark.The Dragons finally break into the jail and the humans flee. However, when Hiccup frees Toothless and the Wodensfang he loses the Dragon Jewel to Alvin. The story ends with Hiccup happily being reunited with his human companions.

How to Betray a Dragon's Hero (2013)

This is the eleventh and penultimate book in the series. While waiting for Valhallarama (she was going to retrieve the rest of the things from the Alvinsmen – Alvin's team – so Hiccup would become king), the ten companions of the Dragonmark (Hiccup, Fishlegs, Camicazi, Toothless, Wodensfang, Stormfly, Windwalker, Innocence, Arrogance and Patience) hear a human calling for help then abruptly stopping. Soon they find Wolf-fangs in the river, showing them why he was screaming. Then they see why he stopped. Thousands of Dragon Rebellion dragons were sleeping on the riverbank. Then they see who the human is… Snotlout. Everyone except Hiccup decides to leave him, but Hiccup persuades them to save him, accidentally waking up Snotlout's Hogfly. The Hogfly, in turn, accidentally wakes up the nearby Rebellion dragons. They all flee from the Rebellion dragons (joined by the dragon Furious) to their secret hideout, hiding as Furious and the dragons search for them. However, Alvin's Spydragons kidnap Camicazi so Snotlout brings them on a rescue mission to save her. When escaping from the Alvinsmen, Snotlout changes clothes with Hiccup to provide a diversion. Snotlout is shot down, and killed. Therefore, Camicazi and Fishlegs think Hiccup is Dead...

How To Fight A Dragon's Fury (2015)

The twelfth and final book in the How to Train Your Dragon series. Hiccup wakes up on the beach at Hero's End with the Wodensfang, Hogfly... and amnesia sustained when he hit his head on the mast of the boat at the end of the previous book. The Wodensfang tries to explain who Hiccup is, but before they can they are attacked by Sharkworms and the Vampire Spydragon from the previous book. After defeating the dragons, Hiccup takes a boat which has washed up on the beach and sails towards Tomorrow. Fishlegs, Camicazi, and the Triple-Headed Deadly Shadow Dragon try and rescue Hiccup, but he attacks them because he doesn't know who they are and the Wodensfang is asleep from a poison dart. Once Hiccup reaches Tomorrow, he is captured by the Dragon Guardians of Tomorrow who attempt to kill by performing Death by Airy Oblivion, but halfway up realize that they have made a mistake and Hiccup should not be killed, and so drop him in the swamp. Hiccup crawls out of the swamp and enters Grimbeard the Ghastly's castle just as Alvin is about to be crowned king by the Druid Guardian. At this point, Hiccup regains his memory and gives a speech convincing the Druid Guardian to crown him king instead. Hiccup is crowned and prepares to engage the Dragon Furious in single combat. The Druid Guardian tells Hiccup the secret of the Dragon Jewel: that it contains two tiny dragons which are carrying a deadly virus that can wipe out dragonkind if the jewel is cracked. However, Hiccup's jewel doesn't have the dragons, meaning that it is a fake. This means that Hiccup will have to defeat the Dragon Furious with might alone. Hiccup rides the Windwalker, accompanied by Toothless and the Wodensfang, into battle and is knocked off the Windwalker's back by Furious. As Furious prepares to kill Hiccup, Hiccup remembers a speech Furious gave at the beginning of battle, where he talks about how Hiccup was the new Grimbeard and would be a cruel king. Furious cites how Hiccup has the king's things and the lobster necklace, which Fishlegs gave him for luck. Hiccup deduces that the necklace was also Grimbeards, and so gets Toothless to crack open the necklace with his jaws, revealing the real Dragon Jewel. Hiccup threatens Furious with the jewel and talks to him, reaching a peace agreement. Once the agreement has been reached, Hiccup throws the jewel into the sea. However, before the agreement can be made, Alvin and the Witch attack Furious, thus violating the laws of single combat. Furious gets the dragon army to attack and so soon there is an all-out Vikings vs. Dragons battle. Meanwhile, Camicazi and Fishlegs capture and detain Alvin, who reveals that he found the necklace in Grimbeard's tomb and gave it to a princess as a present while masquerading as a fisherman, which means that Alvin is Fishlegs' father. After telling this, Alvin prepares to kill Fishlegs before the Dragon Guardians intervene and kill him. Hiccup convinces Furious to call off the attack once more and are once again about to reach a peace agreement when the Witch attacks Hiccup with the Stormblade. Furious intervenes and kills the Witch, then completes the treaty and makes himself and Hiccup blood brothers. However, the Stormblade was poisoned and so Furious leaves his command of the dragons to Luna, his second-in-command, and goes out to sea to die. The epilogue shows how Hiccup built a new kingdom of harmony on Tomorrow where humans and dragons could live in peace, but also had humans domesticate horses and hawks so that he can fulfill his promise which stated that if humans didn't change by the time he died, dragons would have to go into hibernation. Hiccup also instructed Fishlegs to perpetuate that the whole story was just a myth.

Films

DreamWorks Animation 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 became a major media franchise for DreamWorks Animation including a 2014 feature film sequel How to Train Your Dragon 2, with Dean DeBlois directing it.[9]

Differences from the book

The plot of the film is almost completely different from the first book in the series. The greatest change is how the Vikings in the book have the custom of capturing and training in combat against 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 re-imagined as an injured Night Fury dragon, a rare, large and highly intelligent breed that is capable of carrying human riders on its back as a flying mount. In the books Toothless is an exceptionally small and exceptionally common dragon who is extremely disobedient and cheeky to Hiccup in an intentionally amusing way to the reader. 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. And at the end of the movie, Hiccup loses his foot.[10]

The character who appears in the films but not in the books is 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 despite the fact that Camicazi is never portrayed as being attractive to Hiccup and is merely just a friend. Just like Camicazi, Astrid is a highly skilled warrior and fighter who is a close friend of Hiccup's. Also, in Gift of the Night Fury, it is revealed that Astrid's Deadly Nadder dragon is named Stormfly, which is the name of Camicazi's dragon in the book. However, Camicazi in the books is from a different tribe, whereas in the films Astrid is a Hooligan like Hiccup.

Fishlegs, who is portrayed as Hiccup's best friend in the series of novels, is merely acknowledged as a friend in the films. His appearance is also described very differently. In the books he is portrayed as a skinny, often cowardly and sickly boy who gets scared around even the most harmless of dragons. In the films he is beefy, highly knowledgeable (especially about dragons), and gets excited about dragons - especially if they are a new species. Like Camicazi, in the books Fishlegs is technically from a different tribe (the Murderous) but was adopted by the Hooligan tribe when he was abandoned as an infant, but the films have no reference to this.

Snotlout in the books, though very similar in personality, would never dream of becoming friends with Hiccup and actually bullies him. In the films he is Hiccup's friend, but not his best one. He is rude and always competing with Hiccup and the others but he knows and respects that Hiccup one day will be chief. In the books, he is Hiccup's cousin and possible heir to the Hooligan tribe, so part of his non-friendship with Hiccup is his fight to prove he'd make a better chief.

Audio CDs

Audio CDs, have also been made to accompany How To Train Your Dragon, made by Cressida Cowell and narrated by local Scottish actor David Tennant.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Day of the Dreader". How to Train Your Dragon. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  2. ↑ "How to Train Your Dragon Special Edition: With Brand New Short Stories!". Amazon. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  3. ↑ Parker, Olivia (16 May 2014). "Cressida Cowell: feeling guilty is part of parenthood". The Telegraph. Retrieved 5 July 2014. The Incomplete Book of Dragons publishes on June 5.
  4. ↑ Cowell, Cressida (7 February 2014). "Hi all, I've had a lot of queries about when book 12 will be coming out...". Cressida Cowell. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Cowell, Cressida (2 May 2014). "How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Book of Dragons". Cressida Cowell. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "Film based on little island" (5 April 2010) Press and Journal. Aberdeen.
  7. ↑ "High lands & Scotland", News, UK: BBC.
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ "DreamWorks Animation Announces Feature Film Release Slate Through 2014" (Press release). DreamWorks Animation SKG. 8 March 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
  10. ↑ "Hiccup goes to Hollywood". Cressida Cowell. UK. 10 April 2010.

External links

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