Sailor Johann

''"And that's why we come.  From Berk we trade iron to get dragon hide, dragon claws, dragon teeth, dragon meat." He swung around an iron barstock from the chest, a shape that any half-competent blacksmith could make into just about anything, flipping the rough rod through his fingers before setting it down. ''

''"And in London, Lisbon, Barcelona, Pisa, Rome… for dragon hide, dragon claws, dragon hearts, dragon teeth, dragon blood, dragon eyes, dragon bones… we get gold." He grinned and whistled. "And that is why Johann comes here, because every year, they have a whole summer's worth of slaughter ready for us to buy, and their new class will have graduated—and the head of the class will be ready to sell the prize." He smirked. "And that's what that Snot of a lout was promising me last year—that he'd get to kill the dragon, and sell the carcass."''

-Chapter One, The Old Salt to the new sailor

A merchant implied to be ethnically Norse, Sailor Johann has been travelling to and from Berk for the purposes of trade for years, as one end of a yearly trade route that reached the Nile Delta in Egypt.

Book I
A Thing Of Vikings opens with the arrival of Johann's trading fleet arriving in Berk's waters to discover that the status quo has changed since their previous visit.

Trivia
Sailor Johann's character originated in the HTTYD television series, specifically the ninth episode of the first season, "Dragon Flower", where he sells a hazardous flower, the Blue Oleander, to Mildew. He continues to be a recurring character through the television series, culminating in a (widely panned) character twist at the conclusion of season 5 and continuing into season 6, which made him into one of the main antagonists.

Due to ATOV's writing predating the airing of Seasons 5 & 6, and the author of the fic having a strong and negative reaction to the character twist due to reasons of severely bigoted antisemitic coding (having described it "something literally out of Nazi propaganda ," with analysis to back that statement up), the author has unequivicably stated that Johann will not undergo any such character twists in ATOV.

Appearances
Chapters 1, 2, 28,49,50