23 EPILOGUE by Hiccup

So that is the story of how I went to the New World. I crossed thousands and thousands of miles of ocean, starving and baking on the deck of the ship, slew monsters and fought battles with my life hanging on the thinnest of threads… I cheated death so many times on that journey… and then finally, FINALLY, I saw with my very own eyes, the dream land, the imaginary place, that was no dream after all… it WAS true! Despite what it may look like, the world is not really as flat as a pancake. There is no waterfall at the corners. There are no edges to the globe on which we live and struggle and laugh and die. The world is a circle that has no end. I know that, I have been out to the West and seen with my very own eyes the white beaches and lush green trees of America… and yet I never quite landed. I was so CLOSE to landing, that if I swam just a few hundred metres more, I could have put my foot on American sand. But I did not. What Glory it would have been to have discovered America! To have founded an empire there!

这就是我去新大陆的故事。 我穿越了千百万里的海洋，在甲板上忍饥挨饿，出生入死……在这段旅途中，我无数次地躲过死神……终于，终于，我亲眼看到了梦中的土地，想象中的地方，那根本不是梦……这是真的！不管它看起来像什么，世界并不是真的像煎饼一样平。 拐弯处没有瀑布。 我们赖以生存、奋斗、欢笑和死亡的地球是没有边界的。 世界是一个没有尽头的圆。 我知道，我曾到过西部，亲眼看到美国白色的沙滩和郁郁葱葱的树木，但我从未真正登陆过。 我是如此接近着陆，如果我再游几百米，我的脚就可以踩在美国的沙滩上了。 但我没有。要是发现了美洲该有多光荣啊！在那里建立了一个帝国！

To have your name live for ever in the history books… to have little schoolchildren chant your name, saying 'America was discovered by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third…' But within touching distance of the Ultimate Quest, I turned back. I went home. I took the quiet way, back into the shadows, to be forgotten by future generations. It may seem to you, perhaps, dear reader, that my Quest was not a success. To have travelled so far… such a very long, long, long way… and at the last minute, within sniffing distance of the prize… to have not discovered America after all. What a failure! But this is not how it seems to me. Again and again I have been on Quests that I thought were for one thing, and turned out to be something quite different. For it was on that Quest that I first truly discovered MYSELF, and my destiny. We were not ready to build a New World. How can you make a fresh start in a New World when you are carrying with you on your boat all the same problems, the same frustrations and inequalities

为了让你的名字永远留在历史书上，为了让小学生们高呼你的名字，说“美洲是由Hiccup Horrendous Haddock三世发现的”，但就在距离终极探索不远的时候，我转身回去了。 我回家了。我选择了安静的方式，回到阴影中，被后人遗忘。 亲爱的读者，也许在你看来，我的探索并不成功。 走了这么远，走了这么长，这么长，这么长的路，在最后一刻，离获奖只有一步之遥，却没有发现美洲。 多么失败啊！但在我看来不是这样的。 我一次又一次地完成任务，我以为是为了一件事，结果却发现完全不同。 因为正是在那次探索中，我第一次真正地发现了我自己和我的命运。 我们还没有准备好建立一个新世界。 当你的船上带着同样的问题、同样的挫折和不平等时，你怎么能在新世界重新开始呢

of the Old World? Let's face it, any country ruled by Norbert called 'The Land of the Nutjobs' would have turned out to have the same problems as the Barbaric Archipelago quicker than you can say the words 'half crazed lunatic carrying a double-headed axe'. What that trip taught me was just how very many things were wrong with that Old World of ours. And I returned the long, long, way back to the Inner Isles with a new determination. The boy that went into the Atlantic Ocean that day was a very different boy than the one who came out three months, five days and six hours later. I had been immersed in the waters of the Western Seas, and came out a different person. I had always known that I had, one day, to take over my father's job. I had always felt reluctant, even cross, about this. Always felt that it was something I didn't really want to do. Now, for the first time in my life I really wanted to be a Chief. And not just a Chief, but a KING. I knew for the first time that I was Grimbeard the Ghastly's True Heir… and I would be such an Heir that he had never dreamed of. I wanted to be a King who would found a New World, not in some misty country far across the seas,

旧大陆的？让我们面对现实吧，任何一个被诺伯特称为“疯子之地”的国家，在你说出“拿着双头斧头的半疯子”这几个字之前，就会出现和野蛮群岛一样的问题。 那次旅行教会我的是，我们的旧世界有多少东西是错的。 于是，我怀着新的决心，踏上了漫长而又漫长的旅程，回到了内岛。 那天进入大西洋的那个男孩与三个月零五天零六个小时后出来的那个男孩是一个完全不同的男孩。 我在西海的海水中沉了下去，出来时变成了另外一个人。 我一直都知道，总有一天我会接替父亲的工作。 我一直对此感到不情愿，甚至生气。 总觉得这不是我真正想做的事。 现在，这是我人生中第一次真正想成为警长。 不仅是酋长，还是国王。 我第一次知道我是格林胡子的真正继承人……我将成为他做梦也没想到的继承人。 我想成为一个找到新世界的国王，而不是在遥远的海洋彼岸某个雾蒙蒙的国家，

but right here, right now, at home. I would make the Barbaric Archipelago a place in which Might was no longer Right. Where the weaker Tribes could have their say and their vote at the Thing. Where small children would not live in daily fear of death by wolves, by dragons roaming wild, by starvation and by war. Where the rule of Law would apply to bully boys like Snotlout and Nutjob himself. And, the first thing I would do as a King, would be to abolish slavery for ever from the Viking Lands… The Slavemark has been a great burden to bear, and made my task so much the harder. But Thor was right to give me the Slavemark. I could never rub it away, never forget the promise that I made, because there it was, in indelible purple on the side of my head. Maybe all Kings should bear the Slavemark, to remind them that they should be slaves to their people, rather than the other way around. And to help them never to forget what it feels to be a child… to be small and weak and helpless. Perhaps my vision does not seem so revolutionary to readers of the Future. But you have to remember the savage wildness of the world in which I grew up. It is quite extraordinary for one small boy with red hair and nothing very remarkable about him to think that

但就在此时此地，在家里。 我要把野蛮群岛变成一个强权不再正确的地方。 在那里弱小的部落可以有发言权和投票权。 在那里，小孩子们不会每天生活在被狼、被游荡的龙、被饥饿和战争所威胁的恐惧中。 在那里，法律将适用于像鼻涕虫和疯子这样的恶霸。 作为国王，我要做的第一件事就是在维京人的土地上永远废除奴隶制……奴隶标志是一个沉重的负担，使我的任务更加艰巨。 但托尔把奴隶标记给我是对的。 我永远无法抹去它，永远无法忘记我许下的诺言，因为它就在那里，用不可磨灭的紫色印在我的脑边。 也许所有的国王都应该佩戴奴隶标志，以提醒他们应该成为人民的奴隶，而不是相反。 帮助他们永远不要忘记孩提时代的感觉——渺小、脆弱和无助。 也许对于《未来》的读者来说，我的观点似乎并不那么具有革命性。 但你必须记住我成长的那个野蛮的世界。 一个红头发的小男孩，没有什么特别之处，居然会这样想，真是太不寻常了

he can change the world to that extent. I did not realise at that time what a gigantic task I was setting myself, what a huge enterprise, so much larger than merely crossing the Western Ocean and back again… How much easier it would have been to have rubbed along as my father had, shrugging at the injustices, closing an eye to the Bad Things… But that way is not my way. My story is all about being a Hero the Hard Way. We are all not so very different from Norbert the Nutjob. We need a vision of a New World to help us carry on. And in all that I have done, I have been dreaming of those white beaches. All my life I have struggled to found a New World, a better world, for us to live in. I have struggled to make us ready, to make us good enough, to return once again to that country that I saw, long ago, across the sea. We are still not ready. Maybe we will never be ready. But we are a bit closer now than when I was young. Now I am an old, old man, the world that I created has no need for dragons. They have retreated from the civilisation that I brought, along with the wolves, and the Berserks, and the monsters of my childhood.

他可以在这个程度上改变世界。 那时，我没有意识到我给自己布置了多么艰巨的任务，多么庞大的事业，比仅仅穿越西大洋然后返回要大得多……如果能像我父亲那样，对不公耸耸肩，对坏事视而不见，勉强生活下去，会容易得多……但那不是我的方式。 我的故事都是关于如何艰难地成为英雄。 我们都和疯子诺伯特没有太大的不同。 我们需要一个新世界的愿景来帮助我们继续前进。 在我所做的一切中，我一直梦想着那些白色的海滩。 我一生都在为创造一个新世界，一个更美好的世界而奋斗。 我一直在努力让我们做好准备，让我们变得足够优秀，重新回到那个我很久以前隔着海看到的国家。 我们还没有准备好。也许我们永远不会准备好。 但是我们现在比我年轻的时候更亲密了。 现在我老了，我创造的世界不需要龙。 他们已经从我带来的文明中撤退了，还有狼人，狂暴者，还有我童年的怪物。