1 An Odd Way to Spend Your Birthday

1. AN ODD WAY TO SPEND YOUR BIRTHDAY At exactly twelve o'clock a.m. on the morning of his twelfth birthday, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the Hope and Heir to the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, was standing shakily on a windy, narrow window ledge three hundred feet up in the air. Hiccup was a rather ordinary looking boy for someone with such a long and impressive name; a small-ish, thin-ish, runner-bean of a boy with bright red hair that shot straight up as if it was surprised, and a face that nobody ever remembered. His knees were wobbling as he flattened himself against the wall. The window ledge that he was perching on belonged to a Castle of terrifying size and spookiness which sprawled like an ugly black monster on top of the gull-shrieking cliffs of the little Isle of Forget Me. Although this Castle was known as THE MEATHEAD PUBLIC LIBRARY, it was not, in fact, open to the general public. This was back in Viking times, when books were considered a highly dangerous civilising influence, so they were rounded up and kept

1. 以一种奇怪的方式度过你的生日。 十二岁生日那天的早晨，希卡普·可怕的黑线鳕鱼三世，长毛流氓部落的希望和继承人，摇摇晃晃地站在三百英尺高的一个多风的狭窄窗台上。 对于一个有着如此长而令人印象深刻的名字的人来说，小嗝嗝的长相相当普通；一个瘦小、瘦弱、瘦弱的男孩，鲜红的头发笔直地翘起，仿佛受到了惊吓，还有一张谁也不记得的脸。 他把身子贴在墙上，膝盖在颤抖。 他栖息的窗台属于一座大得吓人、阴森森的城堡，它像一只丑陋的黑色怪物，横卧在海鸥尖叫的“勿忘我”小岛的悬崖上。 虽然这座城堡被称为“笨蛋公共图书馆”，但实际上它并不向公众开放。 这要追溯到维京时代，当时书籍被认为是一种非常危险的文明影响，所以它们被收集起来保存起来

locked up in the Library, under heavy armed guard. Entry to the Library was strictly by invitation only. Hiccup had not been invited. Which was why he was three hundred feet up in the air, and about to sneak in through an upstairs window. What he was making here was definitely a surprise visit. He REALLY, REALLY, did not want anyone to know he was there. If Hiccup looked down (and he was trying very, very hard not to) he could see the tiny figures of hundreds of Meathead Warrior Guards moving in the courtyard below, the sun glinting wickedly off their metal-tipped Northbows,

被关在图书馆里，全副武装看守着。 只有得到邀请才能进入图书馆。 小嗝嗝没有被邀请。 这就是为什么他在三百英尺高的空中，正准备从楼上的窗户溜进来。 他这次来绝对是一次意外来访。 他真的，真的，不想让任何人知道他在那里。 如果小嗝嗝往下看（他极力不让自己往下看），他就能看到几百个大头卫士的身影在院子里移动，太阳在他们的金属尖的北弓上邪恶地闪烁着光芒。

their Driller-Dragons on long chains beside them. Hiccup knew that they only had to look up, and they would have no hesitation at all in shooting on sight. Hiccup swallowed hard. He was nerving himself up to climb through the broken window and into the Library–but he didn't really want to do this, either. Who knew WHAT could be hidden in that dark maze of rooms, a labyrinth so huge that you could be lost in there for weeks without a soul ever finding you? Whatever else was in there, Hiccup knew that somewhere in that terrifying book-warren there prowled the Hairy Scary Librarian himself, the half-blind, half-dumb Guardian of the Library. Master Swordsman, Mathematical Genius and an all-round scary individual, the Hairy Scary Librarian showed no mercy to Intruders. Hiccup had heard him at gatherings of the Tribes, boasting of how he finished off foolish Warriors who dared to try and find out the Library's secret with one slash of his swords, which he called his 'Heart-Slicers'. 'I croaks them with me Heart- Slicers,' he would whisper, with the

他们的钻龙被长长的铁链拴在身边。 小嗝嗝知道，他们只要抬头一看，就会毫不犹豫地开枪。 小嗝嗝使劲吞咽。他鼓起勇气，想爬过那扇破窗户进入图书馆——但他也不是真的想这么做。 谁知道那黑暗的迷宫似的房间里会藏着什么呢？那迷宫那么大，你可能在里面迷路好几个星期，也没有一个人找到你。 不管里面还有什么东西，小嗝嗝知道，在这个可怕的书屋的某个地方，潜伏着那个毛茸茸的可怕的图书管理员本人，那个半瞎半哑的图书馆守护者。 剑术大师、数学天才和全能恐怖人物，这位毛茸茸的恐怖图书管理员对入侵者毫不留情。 小嗝嗝曾在部落的聚会上听到他吹嘘自己如何一刀斩杀了那些胆敢试图找出图书馆秘密的愚蠢勇士，他称这把剑为“切心刀”。 “我用我的切心刀把它们磨碎，”他低声说

firelight flickering on his undead eyes. 'I unzips them from their goggle-screams to their grub-washers.' Then he would make a nasty swiping motion from his throat down to his belly button. 'Serves them right– NOBODY borrows books from MY Library and lives to tell the tale.' And if the Hairy Scary Librarian was scary even on a social occasion, when you were sitting down at a cosy campfire with the rest of the Tribe all comfortably settled around you, how much scarier still was he when he was doing his business, lurking like a spider round every corner of his spooky Library, his Heart-Slicers at the ready? Particularly when, like Hiccup, you had come to the Library not just to stroll about, but to actually STEAL one of the precious books and take it home with you. At that moment, a small wild dragon happened to fly past the spot where Hiccup was perching. Hiccup followed it automatically with his eyes. 'Lesser-Spotted Squirrelserpent,' Hiccup said to himself. And as the little dragon soared, free and careless, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, into the bright blue sky, Hiccup thought to himself: What AM I doing? This is my BIRTHDAY, for Thor's sake. I should be

火光在他那双不死的眼睛上闪烁。 “我把他们从尖叫的护目镜里解出来，放到洗蛆器里。”然后他会做一个令人讨厌的动作，从喉咙一直滑到肚脐。 “他们活该——没有人从我的图书馆借书还能活着讲故事。”如果说，即使是在社交场合，当你坐在舒适的篝火旁，部落的其他成员都舒适地围坐在你身边时，恐怖多毛的图书管理员也很可怕，那么，当他像蜘蛛一样潜伏在他那令人毛骨悚然的图书馆的每个角落里，随时准备着切心刀的时候，他就更可怕了。 尤其是当你像小嗝嗝一样，来到图书馆不只是闲逛，而是真的要偷一本珍贵的书带回家的时候。 就在这时，一条凶猛的小龙碰巧飞过嗝嗝栖息的地方。 小嗝嗝的眼睛自动地跟着它。 “小斑点松鼠蛇。”嗝嗝自言自语道。 当小龙自由自在、无忧无虑地飞向明亮的蓝天，无事可做，也无处可去时，小嗝嗝心想：我在做什么？ 看在托尔的份上，今天是我的生日。 我应该是

sitting at home enjoying myself instead of risking my neck three hundred feet up a Library of Doom… What AM I DOING? HOW DID I GET MYSELF INTO THIS MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE? NOTHING could possibly be worse than this. And at that moment, Hiccup was so busy with this thought and with watching the Lesser-Spotted Squirrelserpent wheeling through the air in a lazy arc, that he lost concentration, and his foot slipped on the crumbly edge of the window. And with a smothered shriek, he fell off the ledge. He fell off the ledge entirely, arms and legs scrabbling wildly, and one flailing hand just caught on to the window ledge as he fell… and held–leaving him hanging by one hand, with nothing between him and the hard ground but three hundred feet of pure clear air. Hiccup screamed again. Down below on the battlements, the heads of four hundred Meathead Guards tipped upwards to look. All four hundred reached for their Northbows. And, floating up to Hiccup as he swung from the ledge with one hand, came the ominous sound of the Driller-Dragons setting their drills a-whirring.

坐在家里享受生活，而不是冒着生命危险爬到三百英尺高的毁灭图书馆……我在做什么？ 一开始我是怎么让自己陷入这种困境的？ 没有什么比这更糟糕的了。 这时，小嗝嗝正忙着想这个问题，看着小斑点松鼠蛇懒洋洋地在空中盘旋，他失去了注意力，脚踩在了易碎的窗沿上。 随着一声压抑的尖叫，他从窗台上摔了下来。 他整个人从窗台上掉了下来，胳膊和腿拼命地挣扎着，一只手在他掉下去的时候刚好抓住了窗台……并抓住了——只剩下一只手吊在那里，在他和坚硬的地面之间只有三百英尺的纯净的空气。 嗝嗝又尖叫起来。下面的城垛上，四百名蠢蛋卫士的脑袋向上翘着看。 四百人都向北驶去。 当小嗝嗝用一只手从窗台上晃来晃去的时候，传来了钻龙正在转动钻头的不祥的声音。