[Note: This post is about the How to Train Your Dragon books, not the movie. Although the names are recognizable, the stories are quite different. I love both versions.]
I finished reading How to Seize a Dragon’s Jewel last night. It’s the tenth (and latest) book in Cressida Cowell’s “How to Train Your Dragon” series. At the end of every book, adult Hiccup writes an epilog. Its style is quite different from the rest of the book. Being written in first person (the stories are told in third person), they are often profound—and quite poetic.
This epilog has a very old Hiccup reflecting that the story is really about mothers. Hiccup’s mother, who up until now, had appeared in only a couple of the books, proves to be a mighty warrior and Hero. And Hiccup’s best friend, the orphaned Fishlegs, learns his mother loved him and had not abandoned him, but had died before she could be reunited with him. [It’s such a beautiful but heartbreaking tale, I tear up thinking about it.]
Is this a sign I should write about my mother? It’s something I’ve been thinking about. She has an interesting story to be told. Perhaps I should get busy telling it.
Stream of Conscience 