Prodigal Son 10
Late in the afternoon, Hiccup and Shahira were touring the Agora. Soapboxes had been placed every few yards, each one supporting a speaker. The lecturers ranged in tone from religious piety to deranged ranting. They stood in the hot sun, waving their arms and shrieking to the heavens whatever inane idea happened to pass through their brains. Each one had a crowd of devoted listeners, whether seeking entertainment or enlightenment.
"So… these free lectures…" he grinned at her, "is it going to be one of those guys?"
Shahira giggled. "No!"
"How about him?" Hiccup pointed at a tall, frazzled lunatic who was pressing his hands into a box of hot coals, and screaming up at his god to save him.
"Take a guess!"
"Alright." Hiccup said slyly, eyeing his options, "Well if it's not him, it's definitely that guy!" he pointed at another idiot who was embroiled in a heated philosophical debate with a sheep he had tethered to his soapbox.
"Shut. Up. It's none of these loons!"
"What, you don't want to seek eternal enlightenment through snake venom and hashish?" They stood aside as a guard cart trundled past, filled with prisoners peeking out through iron bars.
"That is not what hashish does."
"Oh you know, do you?"
"I've… experimented. On occasion."
"Little Miss Debauchery."
"Quiet, you. And don't tell my dad."
"I won't…" he grinned. "For a price."
Shahira whirled around, her expression caught between bemusement and outrage. "What price, exactly?"
"A bucket of fish."
Her jaw dropped, and she began to laugh. "Wow. I totally thought you were going somewhere else with that. What is it with you and fish?"
Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck. "I uh… have a debt to pay. Let's leave it at that."
She gave him an incredulous, searching look, and then shook her head. "Alright, mystery man." She led him down an alleyway to a rather unremarkable wooden door, set in an arched sandstone wall. On the other side, he could hear a woman's voice speaking loudly though he couldn't make out the words.
Shahira flashed him a brilliant smile as she opened the door. "You're going to love this!"
The room inside was a small U-shaped amphitheatre several rows high. Light streamed in from lattice windows high above their heads, illuminating the sand-covered floor. At the centre of the oval room was a low stone table with several objects including a cone which had been sliced into very careful sections, and a strange device which looked rather like a tree, with each of the six thin branches ending in a small sphere, and a larger orb atop the central spire. Several of the smaller orbs had their own small branch with its own sphere. It was one of the stranger contraptions Hiccup had seen in his travels, and he wondered what on earth it was.
The room was populated. Two-dozen inquisitive faces had turned towards the open door, examining the classroom's visitors. Young people from every walk of life were seated on the semi-circle of benches. An older woman, perhaps in her fourth decade, was standing behind the table. Her hair was tied in an elegant knot atop her head, and she was wearing the silk robes and jewellery of a noblewoman. However her most striking feature was her welcoming smile. "Shahira! Welcome back! How was your fishing expedition?" her voice was sharp, and surprisingly clear. Her accent and clear elocution betrayed a classical education.
"We ran into some trouble, thanks Ma'am." The young woman said. "But father and I made it out."
"No damage, I hope." The noblewoman replied.
"Broken rigging which this man fixed." Shahira said. To Hiccup's amazement, she produced one of his pulleys and tossed it across the room. The noblewoman caught it with an unerring hand and held it up, examining his workmanship.
"How did you…?" Hiccup hissed.
Shahira shrugged. "Quick fingers."
The Noblewoman gave his creation and experimental spin, watching the bearings as they turned in their housing. "What is this?"
"A new type of pulley." Hiccup supplied nervously. "I put a set of wheels in it to reduce friction and help deal with load distribution. That way next time Shahira gets caught by pirates, her pulleys won't jam, and her rigging won't snap." He rubbed the back of his neck. "They asked me to just repair the pulleys, but I wanted to do better. It was just a thought…"
The woman raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "My pupils and I discussed the mechanical attributes of circles not two weeks ago" she addressed the seated crowd. "Is that not correct?"
"Yes Artemisia." Her students replied dutifully.
She handed the pulley to her nearest student, and it was passed around the classroom. "Take careful note! What you're witnessing is the principles of geometry and natural philosophy applied on a practical level to improve and perhaps save lives, as it did your classmate, Miss Pandev. This is why we learn. Tonight I want you all to go home, find a problem like this man did, and a solution for it. When we next convene you will present your findings to your fellow students."
She looked up at Hiccup. "And you. Who taught you?"
"No one." He said awkwardly. "I just kinda… you know… well I mean I work in a forge, but I haven't been…taught…really. I just thought of it. Sorry."
"Sorry?" the teacher raised an eyebrow. "Never be sorry for a new idea! It's something to be proud of! What is your name?"
Despite his elation that someone so heartily approved of one of his insane ideas, Hiccup gritted his teeth. He'd been dreading this part. "Hiccup Haddock."
Sure enough, a few of the students tittered, but the teacher herself did not bat an eye. "You're not from around here. Why did you come to this city, Hiccup?"
"Because I… want to learn about the world." He answered. It was as honest an answer as he had ever given. "Maybe… find my place in it." It wasn't why he left Berk, but when he'd landed atop the Pharos Lighthouse, he'd sensed something in the sprawling coastal city. He was at the heart of civilisation, and as far from Berk's stubbornness as he could get. It was a place of fluidity. A place of change. A place of learning.
Artemisia nodded understandingly. "In the local languages, this city is called Eskendereyya. Or Iskenderun. But when I was young, I learned of it as Alexandria. Founded by Alexander the Great, student of the philosopher Aristotle, and conqueror of the known world. He built this city to house the greatest, and most inquisitive minds in his empire, and he gave us the Great Library to house, protect, and build upon all human knowledge. This city was built for the research, investigation, and application of natural philosophy." Artemisia spread her arms. "To someone with your ingenuity, there is only one thing I can say: Alexandria was built for you. Welcome home. Have a seat."
Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Hiccup glanced at Shahira, but she had already plopped herself down on one of the benches. She gave him an encouraging smile and shuffled over to make room for him. A few of the students gave him nods and smiles, and he settled down beside her.
Artemisia stepped forward. "I have two rules in my classroom, Hiccup. One: Keep an Open Mind, and two: Make an Effort. My lessons are of no use to the lazy, or the wilfully ignorant."
"I will." Hiccup promised.
Satisfied, she addressed the class at large, "Today we're going to be discussing the world. Its size and shape, specifically. What shape is the world?"
"Flat." One dark-haired student piped up immediately. "The Bible says so."
"Does it, Linus?" Artemisia asked, bemused. "And on whose authority does it make such a claim?"
Her student gawked at her. "God's authority. He built it."
"Did he now? Alright." The teacher rubbed her chin. "If the earth is flat and the sun, moon and stars circle it, then does it stand to reason that the night sky is the same anywhere upon it?"
"It does." Linus agreed carefully, edging his way forward in the manner of an animal caught in a field full of bear traps.
Artemisia smiled. "Has anyone here done extensive traveling?"
"Hiccup has." Shahira said immediately.
"Thanks." He mumbled as all eyes turned to him.
"How far, Hiccup?" the Teacher asked.
"Scandinavia to here, and a lot in between…" he told them. A murmur passed through the crowd. It was an enormous distance even the most avid travellers in the area rarely left the shores of the Mediterranean. He was receiving even more curious looks than he had been before.
Artemisia, however, looked unfazed. "And in your travels, did you at all happen to observe the stars?"
Hiccup nodded. He and Toothless had travelled by night, especially in the more densely populated areas. The night sky and its mysteries were a sight he was all too familiar with. He addressed Linus. The young man was glaring at him, his lips forming a very thin white line as he kept himself restrained.
Hiccup said, "They change. Sometimes you'll look up and you'll realize there are new ones up in the south, and the ones in the north have vanished. Some change location, or they're upside down." He frowned. "None of the constellations seem to get any smaller though. You'd think they would if you were getting further away from them…"
"So they would… unless they were of immense size, and a fair distance away. After all, mountains often do not appear to change in size unless an extraordinary expedition is undertaken." She addressed the class at large. "But there is more evidence which contradicts the commoners' flat-earth theory: no matter the vantage point, the shadow of the earth during a solar eclipse is always circular. This fact has been recorded by Astrologists throughout the civilised world."
"But the earth is flat and round. During an eclipse, the sun is below the earth, and the moon above." Linus argued. "That the shadow appears round makes sense."
"Yet when an eclipse occurs nears the horizon, at dawn or dusk, would it not appear elliptical?" Artemisia asked. "Flat cylinders make all manner of shapes, Linus. A perfect sphere makes only one."
"Then why do we not fall from the sides if it is a sphere?" Linus argued, "Why do we not slide away?"
"If it is large enough, a curved surface could act as a flat one for all intents and purposes." Another student piped up.
Hiccup raised a hesitant hand.
Artemisia pointed to him. "Yes?"
"Whether it's flat or not, all objects seek the ground, right?" He asked. "We know that. Whatever the Gods did to make that happen, whatever they put underneath the world, could they not put that inside a sphere and have us walk around the outside of it?" It was an intriguing thought, and one which excited him more and more. He could fly all around the world. He could start at Eskendereyya, fly all the way past Berk, and end up in southern Egypt! How insane was the universe? And what of Yggdrasil, the world tree? Did the earth hang from it like a fruit? Hiccup had always thought that the realm of Midgard was supported by its branches, but perhaps it hung instead.
Perhaps the stem of the world wasn't too far from Berk- he shut his eyes, pushing the island from his thoughts.
Artemisia was in a discussion with Linus. "One of the rules of natural philosophy: Nothing should be viewed as infallible. Not even the bible."
"Well then the round-earthers you're quoting might well be." Linus argued.
"Perhaps." Artemisia agreed, "But observation supports their position more than God's. How you choose to account for this discrepancy is entirely up to you, but in this classroom, observable facts matter more than rhetoric. The fact is that not only has it been proven that the earth is round, but we actually know how big it is." This pronouncement was greeted with silence. Even Linus had gone quiet. It was a lofty declaration, to know exactly how large the world was. It was… knowing the limits of the Gods' powers.
"Is that right?" a sceptical student asked.
Artemisia nodded. "The circumference of the earth is forty thousand kilometres. Its diameter is about thirteen thousand kilometres. I ask you all, how is this possible? How can we know this?"
"You had someone pace it?"
The classroom rang with laughter. Hiccup and Shahira both joined in.
"Try again." Artemisia challenged.
Silence grew as everyone paused to consider an answer.
"Geometry." One young woman suggested.
"Geometry." Artemisia agreed, smiling. "Mathematics is the language of the gods, and with due respect to Linus here, the rules of geometry are their laws." From behind the table, the teacher pulled out a walking stick. She began to pace the length of the amphitheatre, and as she walked, she spoke. "Any human can kill, against the wishes of Gods. We can steal, we can threaten, and we can break all of our oaths…" She stopped and traced out a near-perfect circle in the sandy floor of the amphitheatre, "But on a flat plane, a triangle whose angles add up to anything other than one hundred and eighty degrees is impossible. A sphere cannot cast a shadow other than a circle. The whole is greater than the part. Things that are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. Any line drawn in a direct path from one point to another will always be straight. Euclid, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Archimedes-" she planted her staff in the ground at the centre of the circle, "-Through their studies of mathematics, these men conversed with God. As did another named Eratosthenes. He was the head librarian of Alexandria and it is he who calculated the size of the earth."
"That doesn't answer how." One red-haired student said impatiently.
"Alexius, I am getting there. I promise." Artemisia replied. The student named Alexius saw back and crossed his arms. He grew red-faced as he was serenaded by his chuckling classmates.
Artemisia addressed the class. "As I have said many times before, Knowledge, when acquired through the application of the principles of natural philosophy, is a pyramid. Eratosthenes paid great heed to the Philosophers who came before him, and the observations of Astrologists. He took particular note of a report from the city of Cyrene. A well has been dug there, the bottom of which lies in darkness every day of the year with the exception of noon on the summer solstice, during which time the sun is directly overhead, and light strikes its waters."
Artemisia added a line to the circle she had drawn, leading from its edge a few inches towards its centre, obviously representing the well at Cyrene.
"This is important, because here in Alexandria, at noon of the summer solstice, the bottoms of our wells are in shadow. Yet an hour later, they are alight and the well of Cyrene is in darkness." She added a second line, representing the well at Eskendereyya.
"The sun had moved position in the sky." Linus said. "That is not proof of a spherical Earth! When a candle is moved across a flat table, the shadows of objects on that table change."
"True. But the candle is close to the table. The sun is not close to the earth. Archimedes reckoned the distance between us and the sun to be ten thousand times the earth's radius. Aristarchus of Samos reckoned it to be twice that. By Eratosthenes calculations it is one hundred and fifty million kilometres away."
"That's insane!" Hiccup blurted out, unable to contain himself. Linus looked relieved at finally having found an ally.
Artemisia didn't miss a beat. "It is geometry, Master Haddock. It is calculated with mathematics, the language of Gods."
"But… after a few meters we can't feel the heat of a candle. From a few blocks away, one can barely see its light." Hiccup argued. "Yet the heat and light of the sun is still felt here. How can it be so far away?"
"Distance and size alone should not be impressive." the teacher smirked. "But yes. The sun is an extraordinary thing! How bright it must be up close! Enough to instantly blind us! And how hot it must feel! A heat beyond reason or imagination! I wonder how large it is. After all, while we may lose sight of a candle, the great furnace of our city's lighthouse can be seen several kilometres into the open sea. The torches and candles of this city are collectively bright enough to wipe the stars from the skies. Is the Sun perhaps as large as a city? As concentrated a light as Pharos' furnace? If it is such a beacon, I wonder who stokes its fire."
"The gods." Alexius said. There was a murmur of agreement.
"Regardless, Eratosthenes drew these same lines that I have on the floor. He connected them at the circle's centre-" as she did "-And that gave him an angle which he used a sundial and basic rules of geometry to find. That angle turned out to be one fiftieth of a circle's circumference. From various surveying trips between Cyrene and Alexandria, he already knew length of the curve between his two cities. From here the steps to calculate the earth's circumference were all too easy. Easy enough, in fact, that we're going to calculate them again today."
She crossed back behind her table and produced handfuls of chalk tablets and abacuses, which were handed out amongst the class. Charts full of surveyor data were laid upon the table alongside diagrams which showed the same sundial reading Eratosthenes had taken.
Artemisia continued speaking as the various devices were handed out. She said, "No conclusion in Natural Philosophy should be taken as fact unless it can be proven and reproven repeatedly by anyone who wishes to do so. Faith can teach you many things, but here in this classroom, we deal with what we can observe and understand with our own eyes."
Hours had gone by. Hiccup had followed the math as best he could. Early in life he had learned Sums, as his father called them. Basic arithmetic. Enough to calculate what food they would need to survive Berk's harsh winters. If it took five pounds of wheat to make a small loaf of bread, how many people could seven hundred pounds feed? If it took a family of five two days to eat a loaf, how long would those seven hundred pounds last? Basic, practical calculations needed every day to see that the town's stores were full, and its citizens satisfied.
Yet this Geometry was something different. As Artemisia said, it was divining the rules of the gods. These perfect shapes; lines, circles, triangles, and squares… the way they interacted with one another opened the universe to him! Artemisia had taken him aside for a small private lesson on Trigonometry, or the calculation of angles. Hiccup was proud to say that within minutes he was able to re-join the class. He even lent Shahira a hand as she was struggling with the angle calculations.
All too quickly the lesson ended, and the class filed out, each student wishing their teacher a fond farewell. Lessons took place three times a week, at midday. Hiccup found himself planning ways to escape the forge so that he could attend.
Midgard was but one world on the branches of Yggdrasil. Its magic and laws ruled what happened upon and between each realm. But being able to calculate and extrapolate and predict facts of the natural world with certainty… the possibilities it opened up were vast. Even if it had all been caused by magic, and was perhaps held together by it, how much of the world, and human suffering therein could be explained with Natural Philosophy? How much which before had been attributed simply to the will of the gods, could now be explained and understood as a natural occurrence? If everything in reality could be predicted with Mathematics, then perhaps what was before left to chance could be predicted and planned for. Things such as illness and death had always been explained away by demons, curses, and the whims of higher beings. Was there, like the strange observations which had caused philosophers to question the shape of the planet, some other explanation? Natural disasters, the tides, the migrations of animals, the movements of the planets... Why did the sun rise? Why was the sky blue? What were rainbows, and how were they caused?
The thought that these and other questions might have explainable answers was a way of thinking which gave him a feeling of power over, and synchronicity with what Artemisia would have termed 'The Observable World'. After eight years of traveling, he had finally found a place and a purpose: learn. Learn for the sake of understanding the world. Learn because the Truth was something important, even if it did contradict religious and cultural preconceptions.
But he already knew that. It was why he had put a saddle on Toothless instead of killing him. It was why he had left – No! Don't think about it. In that direction lay only bitterness and guilt. He was here now. He was in Alexandria among some of the greatest minds in the world. He was here to learn!
He and Shahira attached themselves to the end of a short line of students which had gathered in front of Artemisia's table. Alexius the skeptic was among them. He was having trouble sorting out an error in his calculations. Within seconds Artemisia had spotted it. She pointed it out to him and, after a few encouraging words, sent him on his way.
A young woman followed, with a question pertaining to a previous class which Hiccup had not attended.
After that came Linus, and he looked quite angry.
"Artemisia!"
"Hello Linus." She said in a bored voice. "Are we going to do this yet again?"
"What you've said in this lesson was blasphemy."
Hiccup raised his eyebrows, surprised at the bluntness of the statement. Artemisia looked considerably less shaken. "As it appears to be with every lesson you attend. And a blasphemy according to whom?"
"My Pastor. He said that disturbers are to be rebuked, objectors confuted, the treacherous guarded against, the contentious restrained, the haughty repressed, litigants pacified, and the evil dealt with." He crossed his arms triumphantly.
"-the unskilled taught, the lazy aroused, the poor relieved, the oppressed liberated, the good approved, the depressed encouraged, the infirm supported, the unskilled taught and all are to be loved." Artemisia finished the quote. Linus gave her a stunned look, and she chuckled. "I have read Saint Augustine's teachings, Linus. If you're going to quote philosophers word for word, then use the entire quote and appreciate all aspects of it. His teachings were not a buffet from which one can pick and choose. And I don't disagree with all he had to say. But I want you to ask questions and think for yourself. The library of Alexandria has seven hundred thousand volumes. Scrolls with writing on every subject imaginable. It is unlikely that any one book possesses the answers to all of our questions. Widen your mind."
"My pastor says we must not fall prey to the mad teachings of witches!"
"Has he met many, then?" Hiccup asked, feeling considerable indignation on Artemisia's behalf.
Linus fixed him with a withering glare. He then turned his attention back to Artemisia. "What you say is impossible! It contradicts the Bible, and the Bible is God's word! You cannot argue with God! He is all-powerful!"
Artemisia pinched the bridge of her nose. She said, "Linus, in my experience one can argue with anything man imagines. In another three hundred years, your god may be a forgotten relic as so many gods have come and gone before him. At one age, the Roman gods were thought supreme. Before them, the Greeks and the Egyptian's. But during all that time, the square of the hypotenuse was equal to the squares of the other two sides. So it shall continue to be long after all our names are gone from the history books because that is something which is truly outside Man's control."
"How dare you!"
"If your god disagrees with me, let him come down from the sky and strike me dead himself." Artemisia said shortly. "In the meantime I have plenty to do, Linus. I suggest you go back to your church. Clearly nothing taught here will satisfy you."
His jaw jutting out defiantly, Linus turned on his heel and stomped out the door.
Hiccup was amazed. "You'd argue with gods?" he asked as the door closed.
"I would argue with people." The teacher replied calmly. "In my experience the gods keep themselves to themselves. I have no problem with belief in a deity, but to believe all of a religion's teachings instead of what you can see with your own two eyes, instead of what is proven through logic and mathematics and experimental methods of inquiry which produce repeatable results… Is to paint oneself a fool. It is the opposite of critical, rational thought and that is something I cannot abide. Not in my own students…"
"But there must be Gods." Hiccup reasoned. "How else would the world come to be?"
"I'm sure there are."
He took a moment to examine the curiosities which had been laid out on her desk. The strange cone was first. It was beautiful, dark wood object. It had been sliced four times at four different angles.
Artemisia gently pulled the model to pieces for him. The top came off first to reveal a circle, then a section sliced diagonally to create an ellipse. Two more slices revealed a parabola and hyperbola in sequence. Hiccup found himself curious about each shape. What were their relevant equations? How could he use them in a practical, effective way?
"Conical sections." Artemisia said. "Each cut is on a different plane, and reveals a different shape. Apollonius of Perga wrote eight volumes on conical sections. They are an informative read, if a little dry."
He smiled at her, and she smiled back, "I'm glad you're here, Master Haddock. You have a brilliant mind, and I'm looking forward to seeing you put it to use."
"About that…" He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I'm an apprentice blacksmith with Yanick Erwan. I'm needed at his forge every afternoon."
The teacher was already pulling out a scroll. She unrolled it to reveal a very important-looking government document. She signed and dated a line at the bottom, then rolled it up and handed it to Hiccup. She repeated the process on a second one which she gave to Shahira. "An application for financial compensation for your reduced hours of labour. All he has to do is take it to the treasury. Hiccup, it takes most pupils a few devoted lessons to understand Trigonometric calculations. You learned in minutes. You belong in this classroom. Don't let him pressure you into thinking otherwise."
Hiccup stared down at the document, feeling stunned. "You'd just volunteer money? Just like that?"
Artemisia laughed. "Master Haddock, I told you this city was built for Academics. Some of my students have travelled here all the way from Byzantium. Not all of them could afford it without scholarships. The Government has lots of money available to assist young minds. All you have to prove is that you're worth the cost." She held up his pulley and gave it a spin. "I think you've already done that."
"Thank you." He said numbly, feeling overwhelmed.
"No trouble." She said.
He found his eye wandering over to the strange, tree-like construction he had spotted when he'd first stepped through the classroom door. "What is that thing?"
"Aristarchus' heliocentric model." She answered. "There are some natural philosophers who believe that the earth isn't actually at the centre of the universe."
Hiccup frowned. "And you do?"
She shrugged. "It explains the retrograde motions of the planets just as well as Ptolemy's epicycles. But I keep this one around mostly just to make my students think and ask questions. The Christians claim it's blasphemous, of course. I think every god that was ever worshipped would probably disagree with the theory."
Hiccup kneeled to give the strange cosmic model a closer look. "And you're not afraid of angering them?"
"When I don't even know which one is in charge? Ha. No. Let them kill me, then I'll know whose religion is true and I'll find a way to report the results back for Humanity's benefit." She turned to face him. "And what about you? What do your gods say?"
But Hiccup was bent over, eye-level with his teacher's heliocentric model of the cosmos. He pointed at one of the orbiting spheres.
"That is Mercury," Said Artemisia, "Messenger of the Roman gods."
Hiccup shook his head. He reached out with a long, slender finger and gently pushed the sphere, watching it trace its path around the model. "It is Odin, the Wanderer. He has two ravens, Thought and Memory, which fly far and wide, watching everything and reporting back to him." the heliocentric model squeaked as Hiccup pushed it further, watching the spheres rotate around their central axis. He said, "Odin gave up an eye to sate his thirst for knowledge. He knew that was more than a fair trade."
"And what would you give up in return for knowledge, Hiccup Haddock? In return for a better understanding of the world?"
"I've already given up my home."
Shahira and Artemisia exchanged a glance which Hiccup failed to notice. He was enamoured by the spinning model. "Odin carried Gungnir, a spear taken from the root of Yggdrasil, the world tree, and forged by the dwarves of Nidavellir. The laws which govern the nine worlds were etched on it."
Artemisia listened in patient silence. She said, "World tree?"
Hiccup gestured at the spindly model, with its long, slender stand leading up to the bunch of multiple arms at the top, each one carrying a planet. "Does this not look like a tree to you?"
The teacher raised an eyebrow, and then smiled at him. "It does. Would you like to learn one of the laws which Odin must have etched on that spear?"
He looked up at her, his eyes shining. His heart was pounding with excitement, and he couldn't help but grin back at her. "I want to learn them all."
Artemisia was suddenly alive with motion, feeding off of her student's enthusiasm. She swept across the sandy floor and retrieved her teaching staff. With it, she drew an enormous triangle which stretched across the floor of the empty classroom. "Then let us begin with Euclid and Pythagoras, Hiccup. I am going to teach you the laws of the natural world."
I'm afraid there are going to be less marked footnotes this time around. This chapter took a while because I wanted to get it right. Let me know what you think.
On the subject of religion, and how it has been portrayed in this fic, the friction between devout believers and those who sought an understanding of the universe through the scientific method is an undeniable aspect of human history. I will not shy away from it.
Anyways my apologies for how boring this chapter may have been to you, but it was utterly crucial for setting up what happens later. I tried to make the teacher flamboyant enough and enthusiastic enough to be fun. All mathematical principles and laws quoted are real. All historical figures named are real (though Artemisia herself is not), and all of their accomplishments are real. Men knew the earth was round long before the Christian god ever came to be. Sadly this knowledge was lost and forgotten during the fall of the Roman Empire. It has since been re-proven, though Flat-Earthers still exist to this very day. Facts which today we take for granted, such as the spherical nature of our planet, were hotly debated topics during that time.
Several readers have asked about Hiccup's religious beliefs. It is true that Christianity was the dominant religion at the time this story takes place. It is true that many of the Vikings converted to Christianity. Some stayed, and some brought it back to Scandinavia with them. Scandinavia was eventually converted, but it took around 200 years before the actual beliefs themselves became accepted socially. We shouldn't discount the power of those old gods. Thor is still worshipped even today. It was not uncommon for Norse men and women to wear both the Hammer and the Cross. Even after the hammer was banned, it was still sold freely in many villages, and private worship was not frowned upon in these communities. Today the Icelandic nations are among the least religious on the planet, and many people are beginning to convert back to the original Pagan Norse culture.
Hiccup believes in the Norse gods for plenty of reasons, his Viking stubbornness being the main one. It also allows some distance between him the events around him as demonstrated in this chapter. It's an unusual perspective. But his beliefs are also going to be altered and changed by the lessons he learns. The Heliocentric model being a sort of metaphor for Yggdrasil is a good example of how I intend to work this angle. Ironically enough I think he'd have an easier time fitting Artemisia's strange ideas into the old mythology than he would if he had converted to Christianity.
On a side note, I cannot find any evidence which states directly that Vikings thought of Mercury as Odin, but in the pantheon of gods, Odin and Hermes share more characteristics than Odin did with Zeus. Hermes and Odin were both travelers who sought knowledge. Hiccup's identification of the Planet mercury as Odin is meant to showcase his slightly muddled religious views which have been altered by his travels as he fits his understanding of the larger world into what he knew before to be true. This should not be interpreted as a literal Norse belief.
On to Artemisia herself: She is based on Hypatia, though some of her theories in future chapters will have been stolen directly from Johannes Kepler. I've included her because I wanted a foil for Stoick, as Alexandria is meant to be a foil for Berk.
Hypatia was a prominent scholar, philosopher and teacher in ancient Alexandria. Kepler was a German Astrologer, and the man who mathematically explored and proved the elliptical movement of celestial bodies. Both of them worked from the Greek mathematicians, and it is from that common source material that I intend to draw Artemisia's teachings.
I understand that this story might start to piss off some of the more devout readers. The debate between the factual claims of religion and science has been going on for a long time, and is central to the stories of both Hypatia and Kepler.
Hypatia herself was a mathematician living in Alexandria about 400 years after the crucifixion of Jesus supposedly took place. She was a very intelligent woman, a student of the Greek philosophers, and a very influential figure in ancient Alexandria. Unfortunately she was also embroiled in the dirty politics of the time. A bishop named Cyril wanted her out of the way because she had been supporting his political opponent. He told his congregation that she was practicing witchcraft.
His congregation pulled Hypatia off the street and into the nearest church (which is still around today). Then they dropped her in front of the cross, beat her with roofing tiles until she was an inch from death, and then used clamshells to flay off her skin. Then they tore off her limbs and burned the remains.
Cyril eventually defeated his opponents and went on to be canonized –declared a Saint- by the Church.
I'd say his fate is somewhat undeserved. Yet it also serves to keep in mind that Hypatia was murdered because of politics, not religious belief. Her death signaled the end of Alexandria as a center for scientific investigation, and factual understanding of the world. She is often regarded as the last civilized light extinguished before the dark ages began.
The character of Artemisia is meant to be an echo of that ideal scholarly class of person.
There is nothing wrong with believing in God, but plenty of damage can be incurred when facts and critical thought are ignored. Hypatia's death is a perfect demonstration of how easy it is to manipulate people who don't ask questions. Spiritual belief should never be mistaken for, or allowed to evolve into blind Zealotry. I'm afraid this will be a theme explored in this section of the story, as it was an issue of the time.
If that makes you uncomfortable, best leave now.