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.
Symbols & Motifs
Reading and Writing
Cowell places importance not simply on reading, but on curiosity, the desire to discover, and the need to share that information. These traits are representative of growth, change, and progress. In the novel, reading and writing is a motif that develops the theme of Breaking Tradition: Ingenuity in Leadership.
Hiccup’s major conflict through the first half of the novel comes from knowing the value of reading but not having effective resources. Professor Yobbish’s book, How to Train Your Dragon, offers limited guidance, which frustrates Hiccup as he seeks answers to compensate for his lack of forceful charisma, i.e., his leadership appeal. The book’s single, wordless page symbolizes the Hooligan Tribe’s dedication to remaining static.
However, Hiccup responds to the useless guide by increasing his own literacy skills. He researches and takes notes during his training with Toothless, and he ultimately writes his own guide—evidenced by the novel crediting him as the author. Hiccup demonstrates the process of research as performed by academics in universities. This process helps discover new information and learn things that no one knew before, and it is a vital part of progressing as a society. The Vikings have seemingly ignored literacy, research, and progress until this point, and Hiccup can now teach them something new.
Furthermore, this research directly enables him to confront the Green Death. In trying to appeal to the monster, Hiccup remembers his research with Toothless and skips over methods that didn’t succeed. Instead, he tries the “riddling talk” that gave him results. The insight he holds over dragons gives him an advantage when his size seemingly puts him at a disadvantage, and “the Fiendishly Clever Plan” he devises also stems from this insight.
His literacy practices help him even when dangling from a spear caught in the Green Death’s throat. The curiosity that compels Hiccup to ask questions and learn catches his attention on the fire holes, even through the fog of confusion the dragon’s stomach fumes cause. He continues to ask questions and learn unknown things, and that curiosity inspires an experiment—sticking his helmet in the holes—which pays off by ensuring the Green Death’s demise.
Teeth
Teeth are a natural tool used to consume food. Carnivores have sharp, pointed teeth to aid in meat consumption. Conversely, herbivores have flatter teeth because they eat only plant life. However, teeth have several figurative meanings. For example, “baring your teeth” means to threaten someone, while being “long in the tooth” means someone is getting old. Teeth appear—or don’t—in several contexts in How to Train Your Dragon, each showing the reader some sort of danger or lack of perceived power. In the novel, teeth symbolize dangerous power. Along with talons and fire, dragons use teeth as a weapon.
Hiccup first encounters teeth while fleeing from the dragon’s cave, in which a dragon bites down on his leg and holds tight. The dragon’s bite adds a sense of danger to the escape attempt, showing the reader there are real consequences. The “impressive animal[s]” kept by the Vikings aren’t mere pets and are potentially harmful. However, the dragon nursery scene also portrays Hiccup under pressure; when in immediate danger, he pushes forward, dragging along the dragon. From the outset, Hiccup can act cool and calm in the face of imminent death.
However, when Hiccup discovers his own dragon has no teeth, Snotlout ridicules him, and Fishlegs creates a story to convince Stoick the dragon is a rare breed, more dangerous than the Monstrous Nightmare. In this context, danger is desirable. The Vikings define themselves by the power of their might. Culturally, they live for war and violence, and they keep dragons to make themselves more dangerous. A toothless dragon symbolizes Hiccup’s “uselessness” as a Viking, someone incapable of striking fear into his enemies’ hearts. Toothless does grow a tooth during his training, but the tooth is soon knocked out, signaling a setback along the hero’s path.
Hiccup notices the Green Death’s teeth as he approaches the beast on the beach, recognizing the threat they pose. The Sea Dragon keeps Hiccup, whom he repeatedly calls “Little Supper,” focused on his teeth by making a show of eating sheep in front of him. These teeth take center stage as the Green Death discusses “Supper,” reminding Hiccup that this dragon comes from the primal wilds of nature, a force that he can never tame because living creatures will always need to eat. The teeth come into view once again as the Green Death eats him: “Hiccup fell into the Dragon’s mouth, and its teeth snapped shut behind him like prison doors” (92). The comparison of teeth to “prison doors” signifies that such a danger cannot be escaped. The need to eat or be eaten keeps all living things locked in a quest to devour each other.
Dragons
Examining dragons as a symbol is complicated. The term “dragon” can apply to dozens of different mythological beasts across the world, some of which bear little resemblance to others. In the Western world, dragons breathe fire and rampage like mindless beasts. In Eastern mythologies, dragons are often water spirits, benevolent beings who bestow good fortune. To some, dragons are primeval wonders, connected to ages long past. They are mystic guardians of arcane knowledge lost to time. To others, they are demons, symbolizing rage, greed, and sin, the darkest parts of the soul. In Old English, they were called wyrms, associating them with the earth, and they lived underground, associating them with buried corpses. Also called serpent, they are associated with snakes, feared beasts known for deception.
Even within the context of How to Train Your Dragon, the beasts carry on a variety of meanings. Above all, dragons symbolize power and strength, which make them attractive companions to the Vikings. As fashionable commodities, they become a status symbol. The social elite love to flaunt their wealth and power, and Medieval rulers would commonly issue laws to ensure that no one could out-flaunt them; social status determined which dogs a nobleman could hunt with, which types of falcons they could keep, and even which colors they were allowed to dress in—with purple, one of the most difficult colors to obtain, reserved for rulers. Likewise, in the novel, the Vikings’ status determines which dragons they can possess. For example, Monstrous Nightmares are reserved for the chief’s son.
Beyond a simple fashion trend, dragons symbolize a powerful force. The tribe insists that Viking children exert their will over the beasts to train them, exiling those who fail that test. The Berk tribes see dragons as symbolic of the earth’s strongest natural force, and their mastery of the small, dog-sized beasts pulled from the dragon caves gives them a feeling of invulnerability; once they can master a dragon, they believe that nothing else could possibly overcome them. Cowell positions the relationship between humans and dragons as a double-edged sword, or a disaster waiting to happen. The beasts are amoral and self-serving, kept in line only through fear and food. This creates a sense of dramatic irony as only the readers and Hiccup understand the risk of treachery. While training dragons makes the Vikings feel powerful, their hold over them is tenuous.
After the Green Death disrupts this delicate order of society, some of the dragons even plan to desert the boys, while Toothless seems to abandon Hiccup on his own. The Green Death makes the symbolism of wild, primeval forces of nature obvious even to the Vikings. Because of his immense size, they can no longer pride themselves on being masters over the threats of the natural world, and they are forced to change their worldview. For this reason, the Green Death is symbolic of truth. In addition to bursting the Vikings’ overconfidence in their strength, he imparts the harsh truths of nature to Hiccup.
