Book 4, Chapter 28: Death In The Mourning
Reformed Norse mourning practices also show influence from Jewish practices, with several periods of delineated grieving attached to specific requirements. While there are significant differences between the two, both begin with the formal funeral and interment of the body, have a short period of intensive grieving for the lost (seven days for Judaism, nine days for the Norse) by first degree relations such as spouse, parent and children, followed by a period lasting to a full month after the funeral where the mourners slowly emerge from their grieving, and then eleven months of official but low level mourning practices.
For the Norse, at the end of the first month of official mourning, the mourners can resume official duties and responsibilities, including elections...
—The Second Flowering Of Yggdrasil: An Analysis Of The Norse Resurgence, 1710
Tropes that appear in this chapter:
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Mahir, the last of the rebellious Pecheneg chiefs, is swiftly defeated by Drago's forces who outnumber Mahir's thirty riders to one.
- Declining Promotion: Stoick offers his newfound cousins to be accepted as part of the Royal House of Berk, but Lowrans declines the offer, citing he is a simple woodcutter and he cannot handle the aristocratic life.
- The Fellowship Has Ended: Clan Jorgenson irreversibly splinters into several groups. One group rallies around Serena and accepts Empress Theodora's invitation to the Byzantine empire, one group rallies around Vexwit and them claiming Dubh Linn as their area of responsibility, which they were already doing, Rolf's family of six forms their own small clan of artists, and so on. Only a little over twenty members out of the original couple hundred or so remains in the original clan.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Clodgall went from the Clanhead of a major clan of over two-hundred to the Clanhead of a minor clan of barely over twenty as enough of his clan members had enough of his tyranny and after Serena got the ball rolling, they left to form their own clans.
- The Last Straw: Clodgall's jerkassery and tyranny has been depicted throughout the story, but it was a fit of petty tyranny, refusing to let Serena join her son to mourn the death of Spitelout together, that prompts Serena to formally leave the clan, and get the ball rolling for others to also leave the clan to get out from under his thumb.
- Jews Love to Argue: Eshter's family argue over the details of dragon-riding and overall dragon-handling to be compliant with the tenets of their faith, and Eshter treats it as a great and relaxing past time. They even argue over how handling and collecting dragon scales is forbidden on the Shabbos even though there is no dispute that it is forbidden.
- Humiliation Conga: Clodgall has to deal with all of his children being rejected as the next Clan-Heir, then sees his clan shatter, going from over two-hundred to barely over twenty, and his brother Gobber whose life he shat on gains a triumph when he announces that his biological child is born and is now heir-apparent to Clan Joms. Adding insult to injury, his son Hoark whom he first put forward to take the position of Clan Heir, while he manages to get elected as heir, does not even manage a large majority in the vastly reduced clan.
- Literal Metaphor: When Harald and Makris deliver Theodora's offer to Serena for her and any other willing relative to join her son in the Byzantines to be together in grief over Spitelout's death, the present Clan Jorgenson members are so silent Harald literally heard a pin drop.
- Rules Lawyer: Picknose's family gets away with starting a small clan of six, and only four of them are adults, with Fishlegs' help by claiming responsibility as artists because Fishlegs says they're needed to keep their cities beautiful, and the clan can recruit more later on.
- Start My Own: Many members of Clan Jorgenson leave to start their own new clans since they couldn't stomach being under Clodgall's thumb any longer.
- Voluntary Vassal: Conchobar ua Mael Sechlainn, the rí ruírech of Mide, approaches Stoick to petition for annexation, as his kingdom had a poor harvest, prompting Conchobar, after consulting his vassals, to swallow his pride and ask Stoick for help.
