Chapter 28: Ties That Bind

''The decisive defeat of the Danish-English navy by Berk in late 1041, in particular, resulted in a tremendous shock to the political status quo of the era. While most of the nobility and royalty had heard of the story of the defeat of the Green Death in the year since the event, that had been an incident from which there was a limited number of primary witnesses, and only second-hand evidence was available (even if that evidence was compelling). In contrast, there were thousands of survivors from the English fleet, all of whom were terrified first-hand witnesses to one of the most one-sided naval battles in recorded history. The rumors and news would be much harder to dismiss as exaggeration or invention as many had done previously. While it might be hyperbole to state that an air of hysteria began to descend on the monarchs of Europe, many did react to the news with varying degrees of fear, placation, aggression, or all three at the new power that had just made itself known. ''

—Corpus Historiae Berkiae, 1396

Payoff:

 * Setup in Chapter 2: Mildew and Johann are witnessed by Ruffnut arguing. It is revealed in this chapter that Mildew is upset that his usual order of a deadly poison was unavailable.

Epigraph Tie-In

 * The epigraph mentions that the aristocrats of Europe were shocked by the decisive defeat of Harthacnut's navy and reacted to Berk with varying degrees of fear, placation, aggression, or all three. The chapter shows that even Magnus' vassals were affected with them demanding he ties Berk more strongly to Norway by giving Wulfhild to Hiccup.

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