Sheep (Franchise)

Sheep are common livestock seen on Berk. The Vikings are willing to do a lot to protect them.

Description
Sheep (Ovis aries) are domesticated herbivorous mammals. They have cloven hooves and move well on rocky terrain. Sheep may or may not have horns, or even a double set of horns, depending on breed. In the How to Train Your Dragon Franchise, most sheep appear to not have horns, or have thin spiraled horns. It is unclear if the horns indicate gender differences or not.

Sheep in the How to Train Your Dragon Franchise appear to be wool sheep, as opposed to milk sheep or hair sheep. They have a thick dense coat that is sheared for textiles. They come in white and the rarer black color.

Behavior
Sheep are herd animals and are often seen on a flock or not too far off from each other in the How to Train Your Dragon Franchise. Because of the herd instinct, they can also make decent pets. Sheep are naturally afraid of Dragons as predators, but after the events of "Animal House", they appear to have realized that tamed dragons mean no harm.

In the Franchise, Sheep appear to tolerate a large number of activities that they most likely would not off-screen, such as being launched into the air with Snotlout's Sheep Launcher, sitting in a dragon's mouth, or generally tossed around.

Function
The function of Franchise sheep seen to be largely for wool collection. However, there are numerous references to Mutton - meat of an adult sheep - for eating, as well as lamb - baby sheep - for eating. There are also a few pet sheep featured in the How to Train Your Dragon Franchise such as Fungus and Phil. Later in the Franchise, Sheep are used as part of sports such as Dragon Racing.

In actuality, sheep can also be raised for dairy, but this is not in evidence within the Franchise.

How to Train Your Dragon (film)
At the onset of the first film, Sheep are seen being snatched by Dragons to feed to the Red Death.

Racing for the Gold - Bobsled
A flock of sheep appears in this short video tribute to the Winter Olympics. They are possibly tended to by Bob's Wife. Bob careens through the flock and also the hanging laundry of Bob's Wife, which results in sheep wearing underwear.

Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon
In Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon, Gobber has a pet sheep named Phil, who journeys with him to find the mythical Boneknapper Dragon.

Book of Dragons
At the onset of this short film, recaps from the How to Train Your Dragon movie were shown, including dragons attacking Berk and stealing Sheep.

Willie is introduced, the pet Sheep of Bork the Bold. In the movie short, Willie finds the lair of a Hideous Zippleback, which at that time was classed in the Fear Class.

Dragons: Riders of Berk
In "How to Start a Dragon Academy", Hiccup ran after a flaming sheep that was accidentally ignited by a dragon. Fungus, Mildew's sheep is also introduced.

In "Animal House", the sheep (along with the other livestock) make peace with the dragons. Before, they were really afraid of them and just collapsed now that dragons started being more prolific on the island.

In "Thawfest", it is revealed that carrying sheep on one's back and running towards a finish line is an event at the Thawfest games. This event appears to be rather challenging.

Dragons: Defenders of Berk
In "Worst in Show", Meatlug is seen with a sheep she likes to toss around with Fishlegs. The sheep don't seem to mind this, or being in Meatlug's mouth.

The twins poke at Silent Sven's sheep during "A View to a Skrill, Part 1".

More sheep are seen on Berk in "Bing! Bam! Boom!" as the baby Thunderdrum trio wreaks havoc in the village.

A sheep - specifically Fungus - appears in the final episode of the season, "Cast Out, Part 2".

Season 1
Silent Sven complains to Stoick on Gripe Day in "Have Dragon Will Travel, Part 2", about the ruckus his "wee" sheep cause in his house. He brings along one with him because it's so cute. The sheep looks like a miniature adult, but most likely is meant to be a lamb.

Season 4
In the episode, "Midnight Scrum", Hiccup is captured by Bounty Hunters and is taken to Sleipnir Island to trade to Viggo Grimborn. At one point Hiccup escapes and uses local Sheep as a diversion. It is unclear if they are feral or a roaming owned flock.

In a bad dream Snotlout is having in "Not Lout", the twins appear with a golden sheep statue in a cart pulled by Barf and Belch.

Season 6
A lone sheep appears in the episode, "Loyal Order of Ingerman" on Dramillion Island. It runs away from Fishlegs when it sees a Dramillion come up behind him.

In the episode "Mi Amore Wing", Ruffnut makes a dessert to showcase for Mala's wedding called "Mangy Mutton Meringue". Sheep do, in fact, can get infested with several types of mange mite.

Dawn of the Dragon Racers
In Dawn of the Dragon Racers, sheep are used for points in Dragon Racing. A white sheep is worth one point, while the one and only black sheep is worth ten. It's shown that Berk's sheep continue to not fear dragons or mind being carried around in their mouths: they just don't like being snatched from the ground at high speed and will thus run away if targeted for Dragon Racing.

How to Train Your Dragon 2
Sheep are seen at the beginning of the film as part of the Dragon Racing sport. As in Dawn of the Dragon Racers, a white sheep is worth one point and the black sheep is worth ten points.

How to Train Your Dragon (game)
The player must collect lamb to feed to a Gronckle in order to train it. This game indicates that rack of lamb is a Gronckle's favorite food.

DreamWorks Dragons: Wild Skies
Mutton can be obtained in this game in order to feed and tame the Deadly Nadder.

Dragons: Rise of Berk
Sheep appear minimally in the Game, Dragons: Rise of Berk. They are seen wandering about on Berk along with Vikings. If you tap on one, it will bleat and fall over. There are a few quests and achievements that involve sheep, such as the Achievement "Sheep Attack!" for knocking over 10 Sheep.

School of Dragons
Sheep are an animal players can purchase to populate their farm with. There are three types of sheep: white sheep, black sheep and racing sheep. Racing sheep are received after completing quests. Wool is harvested and used for various "Farm Jobs". Sheep also appear in some player quests, such as "Shrinking Sheep!" wherein Snotlout discovers that wool clothing may shrink in the rain, but wool on live sheep does not.

"They have fish-like scales that point its woolen fibers in the same direction. Also, sheep produce an oily wax called lanolin that protects their wool from getting too wet in the rain."

- Phlegma the Fierce

A sheep appears on a geyser inside the maze activity "Loki's Mirage", but doesn't have a direct purpose.

A sheep product - lamb chops - appear in the Quest "A Thoughtful Gift". Astrid wants to make a sandwich for Hiccup and asks the player to get "meat" from Fishlegs. The item that goes into the player's inventory is a lamb chop.

A lone white sheep is seen on Snotlout's Sentry Station. It is unknown if the sheep was brought there, or it is feral.

For Dreadfall 2018, School of Dragons released three painted sheep variations. Each had a stylized skeleton motif on their bodies in either orange, green, or blue.

Look And Find: How to Train Your Dragon
Sheep appear in the children's activity book in the first scene in which dragons are attacking Berk and stealing sheep to take back to the Red Death. The seventh image also includes sheep in the mouths of dragons.

Trivia

 * In the How to Train Your Dragon series, sheep are usually used as comic relief.
 * The same model used for the How to Train Your Dragon movie sheep was used in the Penguins of Madagascar movie.
 * Four sheep with the same model appeared along with Oh in a DreamWorks' Home movie poster.