Whale (Books)

Whales are marine mammals mentioned in the original How to Train Your Dragon Book Series.

Description
Whales are marine mammals grouped under the term Cetaceans along with dolphins and porpoises. Currently there is not a specific taxonomic group including all species that are generally referred to as whales.

Blue Whales (Balaenoptera musculus) are a particular species mentioned in the Book Series. Blue whales are the largest animal at this current age on earth. The largest recorded specimen was 98 feet long and about 190 (US) tons. Blue whales can occur in oceans worldwide, but after advances in whaling in the 1900's, their populations plummeted to about four isolated groups.

Blue whales do not have teeth, but instead have hard plates called baleen, that act as filters. The whale takes in a large volume of sea water, and strains it through the baleen, leaving behind krill, the major component of its diet.

Function
Whales are only mentioned in the Books, and serve no function, other than for size comparison and a source for names.

In reality, however, Vikings and many other cultures both historic and current, hunt whales for a variety of products they provide. The flesh is edible, the oil used for lamp fuel, and the bones and other parts used for tools and other items.

How to Train Your Dragon (Book)
Blue whales are used for size comparison to Sea Dragons.

"Preposterously huge Sea Dragons that were twenty times as big as the blue whale and who killed for the fun of it."

- How to Train Your Dragon