Chapter 36: Your Side...

''King Magnus's attempts to free himself from Einar Thambarskelfir's control were, at first, tentative and uncertain. Einar controlled the structures and systems of government, and had made himself into a bottleneck through which all correspondence and control had to be directed. Magnus also did not have access to the full text of many treaties and laws. Einar additionally had waged a specific campaign of corruption throughout Magnus's teen years in attempting to weaken Magnus's work ethic in order to make him easier to control, a campaign that is believed to have resulted in the birth of Magnus's bastard daughter, Ragnhild, when Magnus was in his mid-teens. ''

''However, in the aftermath of Magnus's marriage to Ruffnut, Einar began to realize the depth of his miscalculations and reacted poorly. On the one hand, he now had dragons to help enforce his policies. On the other hand, he had to deal with Queen Ruffnut, which he was reported to have described later on as a challenge that would make the hardiest man quiver in his boots in trepidation, especially when combined with her brother. Furthermore, it was becoming obvious to him just how poorly he had understood Hiccup Haddock's basic personality…''

—Corpus Historiae Berkiae, 1396

Foreshadowing
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Epigraph Tie-In

 * The epigraph discusses Magnus' initial problems with trying to get out from under Einar's thumb. The chapter opens with Magnus discussing those problems with Ruffnut.

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