20 Epilogue

Epilogue by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the last of the Great Viking Heroes The story doesn't end there, of course. The nineteen boys who entered Initiation with me those many years ago were all allowed into the Hooligan and Meathead Tribes as a result of their Heroic Actions in defeating two Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus in one day. The Battle at Death's Head Headland has passed into Viking legend and will be sung about by the bards while there are still bards to sing. Of course, there are very few bards left nowadays. What is more, few have seen a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus since, and people are already starting to disbelieve that such a creature could have lived. Learned articles have been written, suggesting that something that large simply could not have sustained its own weight. The dragons that would be my evidence have crawled back into the sea where men

希卡普的尾声可怕的黑道克三世，最后一个伟大的维京英雄当然，故事并没有结束。 许多年前和我一起参加入会的十九个男孩都被允许加入流氓和笨蛋部落，因为他们在一天内英勇地打败了两只巨海龙。 死亡之角之战已经成为维京人的传奇，吟游诗人们将在还有吟游诗人可以唱的时候歌颂它。 当然，现在的吟游诗人已经很少了。 更重要的是，从那以后，很少有人见过巨型海龙，人们已经开始怀疑这种生物可能存在过。 有学术文章指出，这么大的东西根本无法维持自身的重量。 作为我证据的龙已经爬回了海里，在那里人类

cannot follow and, what with Heroism being so unfashionable nowadays, nobody is going to believe the mere word of a Hero like myself. But the thing about dragons– and I am a person who knows about dragons– is that it could very well be that they are merely sleeping down there in the black, black depths. There could be numberless numbers of them, all frozen in a Sleep Coma, with the unknowing fishes swimming in and out of their tentacles and hiding in their talons and laying eggs in their ears. There may yet come a time when Heroes are needed once more. There may yet come a time when the dragons will come back. When that time comes, men will need to know something about how to train them and how to fight them, and I hope that this book will be more helpful to the Heroes of the Future than a certain book of the same name was to ME all those many years ago. It is easy to forget that there were such things as these Monsters. I forget myself sometimes, but then I look up, as I am looking up now, and I see in my mind's eye a

我听不懂，而且在英雄主义如此不流行的今天，没有人会相信像我这样的英雄的话。 但是关于龙的事情——我是一个了解龙的人——很有可能它们只是睡在黑暗的深处。 它们可能有无数条，全都处于昏睡状态，不知道的鱼在它们的触手里游进游出，躲在它们的爪子里，在它们的耳朵里产卵。 也许会有那么一天，我们再次需要英雄。 也许有一天龙会回来。 当那个时代到来的时候，人们需要知道一些如何训练他们和如何与他们战斗的知识，我希望这本书对未来的英雄们会比多年前一本同名的书对我更有帮助。 人们很容易忘记曾经有过像这些怪物这样的东西。 我有时会忘记自己，但当我抬起头来，就像我现在正在抬头一样，我就会在我的脑海里看到

shield, strangely changed by a rich encrusting of jewellike barnacles and cold-water coral, with an eight-foot tooth sticking right out of the middle of it. I reach out and the edge of that tooth is still so bitingly sharp after all these years that just a gentle brush with the fingers might send a rain of blood down on these pages. And I bend my head, not too close, and I am sure I can just hear very, very faintly: 'Once I set the sea alight with a single fiery breath… Once I was so mighty that I thought my name was Death… Sing out loud until you're eaten, song of melancholy bliss, For the mighty and the middling all shall come to THIS…' The Supper is still singing.

盾牌，奇怪地变成了一层宝石般的藤壶和冷水珊瑚，中间露出一颗八英尺长的牙齿。 我伸手一看，这么多年过去了，那颗牙的边缘还是那么锋利，只要用手指轻轻刷一下，就会把血滴在书页上。 我低下头，不要靠得太近，我确信我能非常非常微弱地听到：“曾经，我用一股炽热的气息点燃了大海……曾经，我是如此强大，以至于我认为我的名字是死亡……大声歌唱，直到你被吃掉，忧郁的幸福之歌，因为强大和中等的人都将来到这里……”晚餐还在唱歌。