1 THE HERDING-REINDEER-ONDRAGONBACK LESSON

PROLOGUE

序言

BY HICCUP HORRENDOUS HADDOCK III THE LAST OF THE GREAT VIKING HEROES There were Heroes when I was a boy. Now that I am an old, old man, with white in my hair and wrinkles on my cheeks, it seems a long time ago. So I shall tell this story as if it happened to somebody else, because the boy I once was is so distant to me now, that he might as well be a stranger. Here is the story of a Hero I met when I was eleven years old and about to embark on one of the most dangerous Quests of my Life, the Quest to Stop the Volcano from Exploding. He was a very great man, but he didn't want to be a Hero anymore...

可怕的黑线鳕最后一位伟大的维京英雄我小的时候就有英雄。 现在我已经是一个很老很老的人了，满头白发，脸颊上布满皱纹，这一切似乎都是很久以前的事了。 所以我要把这个故事当作发生在别人身上的故事来讲，因为曾经的那个男孩现在离我太远了，他就像一个陌生人一样。 这是我11岁时遇到的一个英雄的故事，当时我正准备开始我生命中最危险的任务之一，即阻止火山爆炸。 他是一个非常伟大的人，但他不想再当英雄了……

1. THE HERDING-REINDEER-ON-DRAGONBACK LESSON Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third never forgot the day he met an Exterminator Dragon for the very first time. How could he? It was one of the most terrifying experiences of his short, adventurous life. There he was, sitting in the middle of a circle of fire which was getting smaller and smaller, with no way out, and prowling through the flames, getting closer and closer, were these sinister leopard-like shapes, the slinking silhouettes of Exterminator Dragons sharpening their talons and getting ready to leap— Hang on a second. I had better start at the beginning.

1. 可怕的黑线鳕三世永远不会忘记他第一次见到灭虫龙的那一天。 他怎么可能呢？这是他短暂而冒险的一生中最可怕的经历之一。 他坐在一圈越来越小、没有退路的火堆中间，在火焰中潜行，越来越近的是那些阴险的豹子形状的东西，是灭魔龙的倩影，它们锋利着爪子，准备跳跃——等一下。 我最好从头说起。

It all took place during a heat wave in August, which was surprising, for Augusts in the Viking territories were normally rather cool, wet affairs. But it had been growing hotter and hotter over the course of the summer, and as the temperatures rose, Hiccup's grandfather Old Wrinkly had been babbling on about how the unexpected warmth was a terrible Omen of Doom, and a new kind of Terror-Dragon had awoken in the West, and would descend upon them all with Fire and Destruction... But unfortunately nobody really took Old Wrinkly seriously, because he wasn't very good at looking into the future. On this particular day, the sun was beating down relentlessly on the usually soggy Isle of Berk as if it had lost its way and thought it was in Africa. There was not a cloud (let alone an Exterminator Dragon) in the sky. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, only son of Chief Stoick the Vast, was in the Hooligan Pirate Training Program on the Isle of Berk. His teacher, Gobber the Belch, had decided that on this particularly still, stuffy summer's day, when all you really wanted to do was to find a nice tree and lie gasping underneath it, downing lots of drinking- horns of nice cool water, it would, in fact, be an EXCELLENT idea to hold a Herding-Reindeer-on-

这一切都发生在8月的热浪中，这令人惊讶，因为在维京人的领地，8月通常是凉爽潮湿的。 但是整个夏天，天气变得越来越热，随着气温的升高，小嗝嗝的祖父老皱纹一直在喋喋不休地说，这种意外的温暖是一个可怕的末日预兆，一种新型的恐怖巨龙已经在西方苏醒，它将带着火焰和毁灭降临到他们身上…… 但不幸的是，没有人真的把老皱纹当回事，因为他不擅长展望未来。 在这个特殊的日子里，太阳无情地照射在通常潮湿的伯克岛上，仿佛迷失了方向，以为自己在非洲。 天空中没有一片云（更不用说灭虫龙了）。 希卡普·可怕的阿道克三世，大酋长斯托伊克的独子，曾在伯克岛参加流氓海盗训练计划。 他的老师，打嗝的戈贝尔，决定在这个特别安静、特别闷热的夏天，当你真正想做的就是找到一棵好树，躺在它下面喘气，喝下许多可口的凉水时，事实上，这将是一个极好的主意——放牧驯鹿