Contradictory Anniversary? (RTTE)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to a new article! Today’s topic is on this perplexing issue surrounding Berk’s anniversary.
Now I’m sure many of you were as perplexed by the seemingly obvious error in the HTTYD lore. I mean, we’ve all seen the first film, and it’s only said “300 years”. But Stoick and Gobber CLEARLY SAY “400 years”.
(Race to the Edge, Season 4, Episode 3 “Midnight Scrum”)
So, which is it? Is it an error or is this actually truth disguised as misinformation? We’ll find out, right after this! *Cues 5 minutes of commercials*
Just kidding! We’re finding out NOW. Duh. XD
Anyway, so the film AND the show (not to mention the short films) clearly states by both Stoick, Hiccup, and other characters that it’s been 300 years.
However, there’s a VERY important detail in the film that the Wiki probably missed. What was it?
The Wiki says, as stated in the first snip above, that it’s been 300 years since Vikings first arrived on Berk. But in the film, Hiccup adds an important detail that the Wiki didn’t have.
Hiccup: “300 years, and I’m the first Viking who has never killed a dragon!”
While this may be something unrelated at first, it seems to imply that Vikings have been fighting dragons for 300 years, not living on Berk for 300 years. (That being said, he could be talking about Vikings archipelago-wide, not just on Berk.) Which means that Berkians could’ve been living here for 400 years, but have been fighting dragons for 300 years.
However, just as I say this, Astrid says an interesting quote to Hiccup after they find the Red Death:
Astrid: “Hiccup we’ve just discovered the Dragons’ Nest! The thing we’ve been after since Vikings first sailed here! And you wanna keep it a secret?!”
So which is it, Noctus? Is it 300 years or 400 years?
Well, what the Wiki said about Vikings having arrived on Berk 300 years prior could’ve been assumed from Astrid’s quote here. Which, when you think about it, is a logical one to make.
That being said though, it’s never stated whether she, like Hiccup, was talking about the Berkian Vikings, or about Vikings in general throughout the archipelago. We also can’t be sure what “here” means, whether it implies Berk or the Archipelago.
So... how can we be sure, then?
Well, I have found that when all else fails, turn to math! ^_^
So in the film, Hiccup states in his narration at the very beginning of the film that the settlement of Berk has been here “for seven generations.”
If you look at the portraits of Berk’s line of chieftains, there’s about 7 generations of them (sans Hamish the Second’s and Stoick’s Father’s portraits for unknown reasons, which I’ll get to in another article), and Hiccup’s portrait with Stoick makes it the 8th, meaning that Hiccup and the others are the 8th generation.
A generation is factually accepted to be around 20-40 years. And since Hiccup’s generation has been around for 20 or less, I’ll add that into consideration.
So seven generations would give us about 280 years, which makes sense. When we add the 8th generations 15-20 years, it gives us 295-300 years, exactly. So it all checks out.
So, at face value, it has been 300 years since the Berkian Vikings have lived on the Isle of Berk.
Since RTTE, having been produced by Netflix and not Cartoon Network like the Riders of Berk and Defenders of Berk seasons have been, it was inevitable that there’d be several errors in the lore (don’t even get me STARTED on the many plot holes and plot teasers they’ve never followed through with).
But what if the Berkians weren’t celebrating the 400-Year Anniversary of Berk as a village, but as an island? Then things would make a little more sense.
After all, what if Berk had been an island that was claimed by their ancestors well before they themselves actually settled there? Granted, it’s a pretty big stretch, until you consider the BOOKS!
The story of Hiccup the Third and Toothless isn’t an old one. In fact, the plot of HTTYD 1 is greatly inspired and influenced by Hiccup the First and Wodensfang’s story in the books. In it (Book 9 specifically), Wodensfang talks of Hiccup the First’s saga, where not long after his birth, the Vikings of the Mainland (later to be known as the Vikings of Berk) were driven out of their fertile lands by the Uglithugs, a Viking horde who’ll control the Mainland up to current times (aside from the period where Grimbeard the Ghastly reclaimed it from UG’s ancestor for a time until after his death). From the Mainland, they sailed to Berk and made their colony there. During this time, they were also in a bloody war with the dragons, where the King of the Dragons, Merciless (also known as the Green Death [Red Death in the film]), once he hears that a Viking named Hiccup will kill him, seeks to kill everyone on the island to prevent the prophecy from coming true. He sends Wodensfang, who, at the time, was the most dangerous dragon in Merciless’s army, to complete this task. Unfortunately, a storm hits and leaves him entangled in the tree, and grows weak from his wounds. Fortunately, Hiccup the First, a child at the time, came to his aid and healed him, and they became fast friends. Wodensfang would end up helping Hiccup steal the Dragon Jewel from Merciless, forcing the latter to capitulate before Hiccup, who has the Jewel now, forcing him to disband his forces, and be exiled from the Archipelago.
Anyway, I’m digressing, hehe.
Long-story short, the Berkians are forced from their original lands and they sail to Berk and settle there. This could’ve very well been what happened in the HTTYD film lore: the Berkians claimed Berk as a territory belonging to the Kingdom 400 years prior as an outpost for both exploration and wartime purposes, but then 100 years later, a fierce war against another Viking faction broke out, ending in their defeat, and forcing the Vikings of the Mainland (or wherever) to sail to Berk, later becoming the Vikings of Berk. And it isn’t long after they settled that they had to deal with the dragons, many of which had made their nests on the island long before. Then came the dragon raids from Dragon Island, which wouldn’t end until Hiccup the Third defeated the Red Death 300 years later.
Another option is that Berk has just purely existed for 400 years and that they’ve been fighting dragons for 300 once the Red Death came along.
So that’s my hypothesis explaining the 400-Year Anniversary despite the 300 years of settlement. Because the Berkians had the island for 400 years, but didn’t settle it until a hundred years later.
What do you think? Plausible? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter! Do you think this could be the case, or is this another thing RTTE goofed up in lore-wise?
Thank you for reading, my fellow Furians! See you in the next article! ^_^
