1 The Hunting-with-Bows-and-Arrows-on-Skis Expedition

1. THE HUNTING-WITH- BOWS-AND-ARROWS-ON-SKIS EXPEDITION Winters were always cold in the Viking Lands. But this winter was the coldest in a hundred years. It was so cold that the Sullen Sea had frozen over, and all the islands in the Inner Isles were now joined together by a great flat desert of solid ice, two metres thick in places. On this particularly cold morning several hours before breakfast, it was as if the whole

1. 在维京人的土地上，冬天总是很冷。 但是这个冬天是一百年来最冷的。 天气太冷了，阴沉的海都结了冰，内群岛的所有岛屿现在都被一片巨大的平坦的沙漠连接在一起，这些沙漠由坚实的冰组成，有些地方有两米厚。 在这个特别冷的早晨，离早饭还有几个小时，一切似乎都很冷

world was holding its breath, frozen in time. The air was as sharp as broken glass, no sound disturbed the pure snowy silence. No sound, that is, apart from an appalling, mad screaming coming from somewhere out in the middle of the ice. For a small party of young boys and their teacher from the Hooligan Tribe had set out from the little Isle of Berk where they lived to the Island of Villainy to the south. Not in a boat, of course, for you cannot sail across a frozen sea.

世界屏住呼吸，冻结在时间里。 空气像破碎的玻璃一样尖锐，没有任何声音能打破雪白的寂静。 也就是说，除了从冰中间某个地方传来的可怕的、疯狂的尖叫声外，什么声音也没有。 因为流氓部落的一小群小男孩和他们的老师从他们居住的伯克小岛出发，来到了南边的恶棍岛。 当然不是用船，因为你不能在结冰的海面上航行。

They were speeding far too fast across the ice in an enormous wooden Viking SLEIGH, pulled by six pure white Sabre-Tooth Driver Dragons larger than lions and faster than cheetahs. The dreadful mad yelling was coming from the man driving the sleigh, Gobber the Belch. Gobber was the teacher in charge of the Pirate Training Programme on Berk, and he was an enormous monster of a man wrapped up in furs who could easily have been mistaken for a grizzly bear with a dirty red beard and an attitude problem. 'GEDDONWITHIT YOU MISERABLE WHITE WORMS!' roared Gobber at the Sabre-Tooth Dragons, cracking his whip above their heads. 'I'VE HAD SNAILS THAT HAVE MOVED QUICKER THAN YOU LOT! MY GRANNY COULD SKIP FASTER THAN THIS AND SHE'S A HUNDRED AND FOUR! YEEEEEEHAAH!!' One gigantic furry arm lashed out with a whip that curled through the air like a great black serpent, the other shook the reins in a lunatic frenzy that sent the Driver Dragons bounding forwards in terrible uncontrolled leaps. Behind Gobber on the sleigh sat twelve of his pupils.

他们坐着一辆巨大的木制维京雪橇，在冰面上飞驰，雪橇由六只比狮子还大、比猎豹还快的纯白色剑齿龙拉着。 那可怕而疯狂的叫声来自那个驾着雪橇的人——嗝哥伯。 戈伯是博克岛上负责海盗训练计划的老师，他是一个身形巨大的怪物，浑身裹着毛皮，很容易被误认为是一头留着脏红胡子、态度有问题的灰熊。 “见鬼去吧，你们这些可怜的白虫子！”戈伯冲着剑齿龙吼道，在它们头顶上挥着鞭子。 “我碰到过比你们还快的蜗牛！”我奶奶跳得都比这快，她都104岁了！YEEEEEEHAAH ! !”一只毛茸茸的巨臂挥出一根鞭子，像一条大黑蛇一样在空中盘旋，另一只手疯狂地挥动着缰绳，驱使着龙司机向前跳来跳去，无法控制。 戈伯后面坐着他的十二个学生。

Ten of these boys were ugly young thugs yelling as loudly in crazy excitement as their teacher. 'YEEEEEEEHAAAAH!' they whooped, as the sleigh hit a snowbank and sailed ten metres through the air and then slammed back down on the ice with stomach-churning violence. 'YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAH!!' The last two boys were smaller than the rest and a lot less excited. 'I'm glad,' gasped Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, as the sleigh tipped over wildly on one runner with an awful screech and spray of ice, 'I'm glad I didn't have breakfast because I think it would have come up again…' Hiccup is, in fact, the Hero of this story, although you would never have guessed it to look at him. He was small, and red-haired, and very, very ordinary. Hiccup's best friend Fishlegs, a skinny runner- bean of a boy with asthma and a squint, wasn't really listening. He was praying to Thor with his eyes squeezed tight shut. 'Please, Thor,' begged Fishlegs, 'please make it stop…' Fishlegs's prayer was about to be answered. The sleigh was approaching the great black cliffs

这些男孩中有十个是丑陋的年轻暴徒，他们像老师一样疯狂地大声喊叫。 “YEEEEEEEHAAAAH !雪橇撞上了雪堆，在空中飞了十米，然后猛烈地摔在冰上，令人反胃。 “YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAH ! !”最后两个男孩比其他的小，也没那么兴奋。 “我很高兴，”可怕的黑线鳕鱼三世嗝嗝喘着气说，雪橇在一个人身上疯狂地翻倒，发出可怕的尖叫，溅起了冰，“我很高兴我没有吃早餐，因为我想它会再次出现……”嗝嗝实际上是这个故事的英雄，尽管你看着他永远猜不到这一点。 他身材矮小，红头发，非常非常普通。 小嗝嗝最好的朋友鱼腿，一个瘦骨嶙峋的小男孩，患有哮喘和斜视，并没有真正听进去。 他紧闭双眼向托尔祈祷。 “求求你，托尔，”鱼腿恳求道，“请让它停止吧……”鱼腿的祈祷就要得到回应了。 雪橇正驶近黑色的大悬崖