Chapter 114: The Paragon Of Animals

''The Saami are a Finno-Ugric ethnic group indigenous to the Sápmi District of the North Sea Empire. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Saami's ethnic roots originated from the Uralic peoples to the southeast in the Volga Region between five and four thousand years ago. Migratory tribes of these people eventually pushed towards the Finnish Lakeland region approximately three and a half thousand years before present, and eventually spread through the highlands of the Scandinavian and Kola Peninsulas, mixing with the isolated groups already present and integrating them, creating the predecessors to the Saami people…''

As one of the Sovereign Peoples of the North Sea Empire, the Saami, as a political unit, have the legal right to organize their own Things for internal self-government in their District, full representation in the Grand Thing, and to determine Saami tribal identification according to their own criteria…

Many Saami who live in the Sápmi District continue to maintain their traditional lifestyles, with herding reindeer, fishing, hunting, and forestry being dominant activities, while Saami who live outside of the District are noted as being disproportionately employed by House Haddock as Dragon Tenders for the Imperial Brooderies and Rookeries, a tendency that goes back to the founding of the Empire.

''—Saami. (n.d.) In Wikikenna. Retrieved January 8, 1891''

Foreshadowing
Put spoilers here

Epigraph Tie-In

 * The epigraph gives background details on Eret's people, the Saami, and how they are a sovereign people and their own political unit in the North Sea Empire. The chapter opens with Eret's point-of-view and how he is still getting used to Berk, the centre of the North Sea Empire.

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