Book III, Chapter 18
One of the more serious diplomatic errors that Hiccup made was failing to pay a visit to the King of Francia, Henry of the Capets, until late in AD 1042. He made multiple visits to Normandy, a visit to the Holy Roman Empire, and visits to many other monarchs and high lords, but seemed to avoid a visit to Paris and King Henry until circumstances forced his hand. This apparent snubbing in favor of more powerful and connected nobles, including some who were nominally Henry's vassals, combined with Hiccup's later actions, served to highlight Henry's lack of power and influence, and the king did not take the lack of interest well at all. Simply put, it seemed he wasn't important enough for Hiccup to bother with.
While Hiccup had his reasons for his decisions—setting up the Dragon Mail being one of them, following the coastal route of his merchant contacts—the implicit lack of importance his actions assigned to King Henry soured relations between them before they even had a chance to formally open.
— Corpus Historiae Berkiae, 1396
Tropes That Appear In This Chapter:
- Broken Pedestal: Sigurd has come to realize that service in the imperial army isn't quite what he expected.Before coming south, he'd thought that being a Varangian warrior would have entailed great epic battles and incredible honor. Now that he'd been a soldier for nearly a year, though, it was becoming apparent to him that such tales were rank exaggerations, told to make outsiders jealous of the supposed wonders of Imperial service. In truth, most of his time seemed to involve meetings, boredom, and boring meetings … and the remainder was pants-shitting terror.
- Cassandra Truth: Some of the Romans don't believe Fishwings when she tells them that three to five out of hundred dragon eggs explode.
- Dragons Are Demonic: Henry seems to be of this opinion since he refers to them as Satan's spawn.
- Humanity Is Infectious: Toothless observes that the dragons are learning a degree of compassion from the Vikings, as in the past a maimed dragon such as himself would have been left to die, but thanks to the artificial fin Hiccup created for him he has even been able to find new mates.
- Interspecies Romance: Toothless, Stormfly and Mistletoe are all now officially mates. Time will tell whether it produces offspring.
- Jerkass Realization: After a brief talk about it, Stormfly and Mistletoe understood how mean and hurtful their prank of dropping Toothless into the water was and apologized for it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Clodgall is an absolute asshole to his half-brother Gobber and tries to block him from becoming Jonna's and Reidun's concubine. The pure selfishness he exhibits in this chapter ends up being the last straw for Gobber and he renounces his membership as a Jorgenson, costing the Jorgensons the man who happens to be the Chief's Steward, the best friend of Chief Stoick, the mentor of Heir, Herald and Hero Hiccup, the de facto Head Smith of Berk, and the only Dragon Healer in the village. By being such a jerkass, Clodgall cost his clan one of their most valuable and important members with nothing to show for it.
- Loophole Abuse: When Gobber officially waves his rights as a Jorgenson, Clogdall mentions that while Gobber is Berk's official blacksmith, the forge he works in officially belongs to the clan and Gobber would have to gather his things and leave as soon as possible. As Gobber points out however, while the building itself is Jorgenson property, everything in it - the tools, the weapons, scrap metal and apprentices that work there - all belong to Gobber. With Berk's prosperous economy (and the fact that he's the Chief's best friend and concubine to the head of one of Berk's new clans), Gobber is more than capable of just buying a new, better forge for himself while the old forge is now just an empty building.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Henry calls William (who was born out of wedlock) a bastard to his face.
- Stay in the Kitchen: The Romans have this mindset, if the below quote is anything to go by.She glanced around, and Sigurd followed her eyes, noting that a number of men in the room were giving her skeptical, if not downright hostile looks.
- Take a Third Option: Clogdall tries using his authority as the head of his clan to prevent Gobber from becoming Jonna and Reidun's concubine because he sees no benefits in it for Clan Jorgenson. Without hesitation, Gobber's response is to formally resign as a member of the clan.
