49 pages • 1 hour read
Cressida CowellHow to Train Your Dragon
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue and Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary: “A Note from the Author”
In the first person, Hiccup reflects on his childhood. He recalls the diversity of dragons—from small brown dragons to gargantuan Sea Dragons—and explains that dragon populations are now declining. In fact, dragons are headed toward extinction. To preserve the memory of them, Hiccup wishes to tell readers about his childhood adventures, including the difficulties he had training a dragon and becoming a hero.
Chapter 1 Summary: “First Catch Your Dragon Summary”
Gobber the Belch, who leads the Dragon Initiation Program, briefs Hiccup and the nine other Hairy Hooligan boys about their initiation mission. Completion of initiation will let the Novices become Viking warriors and official members of the tribe. Gobber begins by placing Hiccup in charge, which the other children protest because they feel he’s “useless.” However, Gobber maintains that only Hiccup, as the son of Chief Stoick the Vast, can lead the task of dragon catching.
Their mission requires them to bring back a young dragon from the caves where the dragons are hibernating for just a few more weeks. Hiccup, a self-proclaimed dragon nerd, knows how dangerous this mission is but wonders why no one else around him appears to be scared. Gobber emphasizes the importance of the dragon selection process and advises the boys to carefully choose the “biggest,” most “impressive” dragon as their own.
Hiccup inserts a passage from Viking Dragons and Their Eggs to give the reader some background on the species of dragons, specifically the Basic Brown and Common or Garden Dragons. He describes them as “lethargic hunters” who only excel at swift retreat. Gobber sends the boys off to the nursery caves.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Inside the Dragon Nursery”
Immediately out of sight, Hiccup’s cousin Snotlout knocks over Hiccup and takes over command. Snotlout enforces his lead with the help of his toady sidekick, Dogsbreath. Snotlout devises a plan where they tie themselves together to climb the cliff, sneak down the tunnel to the dragon lair, and then send Hiccup in. He emphasizes that since Hiccup is the chief’s son, he should naturally enter the lair first.
In the caves, Snotlout selects a Monstrous Nightmare, the breed of dragon reserved for the chiefs. He plans to eventually get rid of Hiccup, which would put him in line to be chief since his own father, Baggybum the Beerbelly, is the chief’s younger brother. Hiccup, on the other hand, chooses a Basic Brown.
Wartihog and Dogsbreath fight over a Gronckle, and Hiccup includes statistics and information about Gronckle Dragons. He describes them as ugly, slow, and heavily armored. Their lack of intelligence is countered by their supreme battle skills.
Fishlegs, Hiccup’s best friend and another boy deemed useless by the others, decides he’s had enough of being bullied. He tries to pull the most impressive dragon from the bottom of a large pile, which immediately comes crashing down. Most of the dragons immediately go back to sleep, but Fishlegs sneezes loudly, alerting one nearby to their presence.
The boys run, but Fishlegs is worried that he doesn’t have a dragon, so Hiccup gives him the Basic Brown. A dragon bites Hiccup’s leg, but they manage to escape, jumping off a cliff into the water. Although the dragons swarm out of the cave, it’s too cold for them, and most soon give up.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Heroes or Exile”
The boys get back to Gobber, still chased by some dragons, but Gobber scares them off by killing the biggest one with an axe. They get to safety and Gobber reprimands them. When he asks which of them woke the dragon, Hiccup takes responsibility, even though it isn’t true. Gobber chastises Hiccup and criticizes his leadership skills.
Gobber assumes they all return with a dragon and announces the second part of the Dragon Test. The boys have four months to train their dragons for initiation day at the Thor’sday Thursday Celebration. The penalty for failure means exile for the boys. Gobber recommends the boys refer to Professor Yobbish’s book How to Train Your Dragon for assistance. The book is located in the Great Hall’s fireplace. When Wartihog offers that he can’t read, Gobber tells him to stop “boasting” and suggests he find “an idiot” to help him. The Novices head back to the village.
Fishlegs tries to give his dragon back to Hiccup, who confesses that when he disappeared into the tunnel, he instinctively knew his dragon was there in the dark. He hurriedly put it in his basket. Hiccup starts to imagine himself a true “Viking Hero” but knows that helping Fishlegs went against his tribe’s values. For a moment, Hiccup believes that his dragon could be magnificent. However, when he looks at his dragon, he sees a small Common or Garden Dragon, which may or may not be dead. Hiccup assures Fishlegs that the dragon is merely sleeping, and he recognizes that the only extraordinary aspect of the dragon is its underwhelming size.
Prologue and Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The story begins with a “Note from the Author” written in Hiccup’s voice. The note is in the first person, whereas the rest of the book is in the third person. Although brief, this note accomplishes several things. On the surface, it serves as a bridge from the fantasy world to the real world. Fiction readers often can accept that an author is real even if the story is not. Cowell forgoes the standard credit to make Hiccup stand out as a real person. Furthermore, if Cowell wants the reader to accept the fictional Vikings as historical, the biggest obstacle in the way is the presence of dragons. By explaining that dragons are becoming extinct in Hiccup’s time, the readers have an explanation for why dragons don’t exist in the present day. This makes it easier for the reader to suspend disbelief and accept the story as true.
Setting is central to the narrative. One of the most important aspects in fantasy is world-building since the genre often gives characters personal conflicts that reflect larger conflicts in nations or nature. These early chapters provide a great deal of detail about the world these Vikings inhabit. The Hooligans come off as rowdy “barbarians,” although Hiccup himself does not. Dragons are kept as personal pets even while providing a threat to humans. Cultural values are explained along with the penalties for violating them. All these conflicts will later affect Hiccup himself as well as his entire tribe.
The introduction also serves a more thematic function, establishing the role that literacy plays in the narrative. A key motif is reading and writing, and literacy develops the theme of Breaking Tradition: Ingenuity in Leadership. Hiccup becomes an author in the reader’s mind before anything else. He establishes that this book is a solution to a problem: the preservation of a dying species. With this explanation, Cowell (via Hiccup) primes the reader to spot reading and writing as a solution to the problems in the book. Cowell establishes themes of leadership and bravery and immediately imbues Hiccup with the qualities important to both. Alone among the boys, Hiccup has a strong understanding of dragons, which frightens him about the prospect of entering the cave. Courage requires fear; the other boys cannot be courageous if they don’t believe that robbing a dragons’ den poses any threat. To punctuate this point, Snotlout’s moment of fear at the mouth of the cave shows his reaction to fear, and the act of sending in Hiccup first highlights Hiccup’s bravery over Snotlout’s.
In the novel, dragons are a symbol of power. Hiccup offers Fishlegs his own dragon to ensure his friend’s safety and maintain their chance of escape. In taking responsibility for the disastrous mission, he accepts the burdens of leadership even as Snotlout attempts to hoard the privilege. These actions set the tone and suggest that violence, brute strength, and competition don’t serve the Vikings as well as they believe the traits do.
Through Hiccup and his struggles, Cowell introduces the theme of A Hero’s Coming-of-Age Journey. How to Train Your Dragon aligns with the traditional hero’s journey narrative structure. The hero’s journey, or the monomyth, is comprised of three main stages: (1) the departure, or call to adventure, in which the story and journey begin; (2) the initiation, in which the hero must face a number of challenges; and (3) the return, in which after successfully surviving said trials, the hero returns home transformed.
