A few historical notes: Vikings, in truth, did not actually wear horned helmets. However, I am too much in love with the idea of helmets, especially since Toothless retrieved Hiccup's. Helmets stay.
The (unfortunately) fictional island of Berk is (was) probably near Denmark, and most of the tribes raided English towns and took back prisoners for slaves. All of the tribes had important people, normal people, and slaves, which anyone could sell themselves into if they needed money. However, I did not actually see any 'slaves' on Berk, and so I have respect for the Vikings of Berk that they did not have slaves. But they're in quite a tight spot usually, so any extra fighters would most likely be welcomed.
There actually was a meeting between tribes every two years or so called the Thing (which I thought was fictional, but apparently it is truthful) where they made descisions and everything. It was a very early form of democracy.
Hmn...I think that's everything... oh, wait. If you possibly think I might even be plaigarising, you don't have any idea of my character from my stories. If I was to plaigarise, I would make sure to take the content from someone who can spell the darned word, unlike myself. And one last bit: if I owned How To Train Your Dragon or even ancient England, I think I would have better things to do than while away my life writing about them. Salin and Piper, dears, however, are mine.
Feel free to PM me since I love this history stuff...and Berk. If you have an idea or suggestion, I'll try to work it in, along with Vikingish names. [Wow, I can't beleive I'm actually saying this]. Names are my weakness. Okay... I'm wrapping it up... enjoy. Reviews are love. PMs are better. Read on!
We'd hardly begun to hear of the Viking raids before we were raided ourselves.
I was taken in by a Catholic woman by the name of Mary when my mother died of fever. I was eight. The sister of a priest, she was a kind lady who cared for I and my youngest sister Piper. My eldest, Sarah, had left to try to support us, although since women were often disrespected she was only able to send a few coins every year. My father had left when Peter, my youngest brother died of an earlier illness. And the oldest of all of us, Trey, had disappeared. He had gone, unable to bear the responsibility of everyone needing him to survive.
It wasn't uncommon, only unusual. We were alone.
The prayers had faded from help me protect Piper from losing everyone like I did to a nightly ritual pleading to be spared by God. We lived nearer the north in what they call England now than most, and in result increasingly common names in our parish were mentioned, and we would pray for their strength as they recovered from grievous physical wounds, and the far more scarring internal wounds of the heart as they adopted to life without loved ones.
I never imagined how my simple life would take a drastic turn: that my small family would be ripped apart, strewn over Scandinavia, and pieced together once again a thousand times stronger by the feared Northmen in my fevered prayers.
Berk was such a small town that hardly any social heigherarchy existed. Basically, there was the Chief, the craftsmen, and the warriors. Basically they were all equal.
It was too small to have slaves, although other tribes would sometimes raid and capture places like small English towns for sport and bring back laborers for those of too pseudo import. By order of the Thing Berk didn't have slaves: its small economy would suffer if they had. Everyone did their own work, and in need were helped – it was a smooth society and functioned honestly.
Fighters were the most important, but only because they protected the slim amount of others. Killing a dragon was the way to win glory from eliminating another threat. It was work, a way of life, no more.
Berk village didn't tolerate slaves because they tried to be fair and true. Sometimes if there were some that another tribe didn't want, because of sickness or spunk, they would adopt them, take them in, infusing their culture and eagerly accepting anyone who was tough enough to make it there as a fighter.
That's what happened to me.