Isle of Berk (Franchise)

"This is Berk. The best kept secret this side of, well, anywhere. Granted, it may not look like much, but this wet heap of rock packs more than a few surprises."

- Hiccup, opening narration

The Isle of Berk or just Berk is a relatively small island that's the primary setting of the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.

This island is home to the many Vikings of the Hooligan Tribe and many dragons as well.

Official Description
"This is Berk, a dragon-friendly utopia jointly led by new chief, Hiccup, and his best friend, Toothless, the reigning Alpha of all dragons. Much has changed on Berk in the five years since Hiccup and Toothless bonded and showed Vikings and dragons alike that coexistence between their species is not just a possibility — it’s the way of the future. The catapults and trebuchets that once dominated Berk’s towers during wartime have now given way to aqueducts, wing-inspired windmills, and Dragon Racing bleachers. Similar changes also occurred beneath Berk’s surface, where a reinforced hangar, complete stables, feeding troughs, and a dragon wash now occupy the old Whispering Death catacombs. Despite Drago Bludvist’s vicious attack on the island, Berk survived the Bewilderbeast’s barrage and emerged from the fray stronger than ever. Now joined by the full compliment of Valka’s flock and the liberated members of Drago’s army, the people of Berk take to the skies on the backs of their dragons to protect their home and spread their message of peace."

- Hiccup's Race to the Edge Map

Geography
"This is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless, and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery."

- Hiccup, opening narration Berk is a small island that's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death (the latter two being either figurative modes of speech or, less likely, actual, comically-named places). It is located solidly on the Meridian of Misery in the Barbaric Archipelago.

Berk is a rather round island, similar to an oval shape, and it looks quite small on maps. Unlike many other islands, it has very few sea stacks. It contains many interesting geological landforms such as rocky arches and cliffs, beaches, waterfalls, streams and several large forests. There is also a massive cavern under the village which now serves as space for dragon stables.

Berk receives two weeks of the midnight sun every year, putting it roughly 70 km south of the Arctic Circle at a latitude of around 65 degrees, 54 minutes North.

Climate
"This is Berk. It snows nine months of the year, and hails the other three."

- Hiccup

"This is Berk, boasting the kind of balmy fun-in-the-sun climate that will give you frostbite on your spleen."

- Hiccup

"Winter on Berk lasts most of the year. It hangs on with both hands and won't let go."

- Hiccup

"But it's too early for a storm, it's still winter. Devastating winter isn't due for another month!"

- Hiccup

"This is Berk. We've got ice, we've got snow . . . and we've got more ice."

- Hiccup

Berk is known to have extremely cold, long winters and short warm summers. However, throughout most episodes and the movie, the weather seems to be clear, yet cold. Very few episodes show the weather as described by Hiccup, as most of the time Berk appears to be green and growing.

This could be more a production limitation, as rendering rain, hail and snow all the time is harder than just clear days and nights.

Notable places
A rather large number of places are introduced around Berk.

Hooligan Village
The Hooligan village is where the Vikings of Berk live. The village is filled with large houses with an architectural theme of dragons, and the homes are built on land with a slope. However, these homes had to be constantly reconstructed or repaired after being destroyed during dragon raids. As shown in How to Train Your Dragon 2, more houses were then destroyed when Drago Bludvist's Bewilderbeast blasted the village with ice, but were again repaired after his defeat.

"On the Isle of Berk, perched on the side of a mountain, there lies a village of formidable Vikings. Having settled here for seven generations and after weathering a multitude of dragon raids, the villagers have demonstrated their fortitude against hardships. During the feud between the Vikings and dragons, the architecture of Berk remained relatively modern, as the constant attacks made it necessary to rebuild often."

- School of Dragons Website

The Great Hall or Meade Hall
The Great Hall is the centerpiece of the island, serving as a communual hall for the Hooligans. They gather to meet, eat and discuss political matters and is arguably the most important and iconic structure on Berk.

Barn
A large barn exists at the base of the cliffs, and in front of it are large pens for the yaks the Vikings domesticated. Chickens, Yak and sheep are also kept here as shown in "Animal House".

Weapon Storehouse / Armory
The armory acts as a storage for weaponry. Apparently there is gunpowder or some other explosive substance inside, which at one point Mildew lit to blow up the Storehouse and framed Toothless as shown in "In Dragons We Trust".

Docks
The Docks in Berk have large individual docks for loading and unloading large cargo into the ships. The docks are built from the large cliff of Raven Point. A wooden walkway is built above the docks to view the ships from. This is where Hiccup stood as he watched the ships sail away to the Dragons' Nest as shown in the first film, How to Train Your Dragon.

Haddock House
The Haddock house is built on top of the high slope overlooking the entire village. The house is larger in comparison with other homes and is located next to the Great Hall. However, this is not so in "A Time to Skrill".

Main Room
The Main Room is the main living area after entering. This room consists of a fire pit mainly used for cooking and heat. Further in is the large dinner table where the Haddocks have their family meals. Stoick has a large arm chair, and there are a few stools by the fire pit. To the left side are steps to the loft and Hiccup's room. Under the steps, they hang meat for consumption later. In The Terrible Twos, Stoick is shown to sleep down there. There is a second door in the back wall to what's probably Stoick's bedroom, and another small door from that room to outside. Many shields and swords decorate the walls.

Hiccup's Room
Hiccup's Room is a loft over the back half of the house. A log with steps cut into it leads up to it. It mainly consists of a wooden bed with patterns carved into the head board. On one post of the foot board is where Hiccup keeps his helmet. At the base of the bed is a small wooden chest. Beside the bed is a table and chair that Hiccup sometimes works at. Hiccup pins many of his designs on the wall above the table. On the other side is a small wooden cabinet. There is a also a large rock slab that Toothless sleeps on. A hatch window is directly above Hiccup's bed which he can open on warm nights, and also escape out of when needed.

Gobber's Blacksmithing Forge
Gobber's Blacksmithing Forge is the main blacksmithing shop of the island and was where the Vikings got their weapons during the dragon raids. The forge is spacious with many weapons inside. Lately Gobber has become a dragon dentist, so he put up a sign above the forge with a tooth on it, though the forge is still used. By the second film, it became the greatly expanded Dragon Armory where Gobber continued to practice his dragon dentistry and has dragon saddles built here. Both Hiccup and Stoick worked here on saddle orders as shown in How to Train Your Dragon 2".

Hiccup's Workshop
Although it's unverified, Hiccup's workshop is located inside Gobber's blacksmithing forge. It appears to be a small back room with a curtain to separate it from the main building. This is where Hiccup works, on his own time, to build or plan to build things as shown in How to Train Your Dragon.

Mildew's House
A gloomy house built in the shadow of a cliff on the back edge of the village, away and out of sight from the rest of the village. According to Gobber, the Vikings built it there because they find Mildew annoying as shown in "How to Start a Dragon Academy".

Library
The library on Berk has a collection of sources of information and similar resources for the village to use.

Gothi's Hut
A house built high up on top of a cliff that houses Gothi, the village elder. She has it secured on tall scaffolding, that need many stairs to reach. She's so high up, it appears she has a good view of the entire village from her front door.

Berk Dragon Training Academy
Once the arena where Dragon Fighting class was held, it also housed several dragon species the Vikings had captured for training the younger Vikings to fight. There was a Deadly Nadder (Stormfly), a Hideous Zippleback (Barf and Belch), a Gronckle (Meatlug), a Monstrous Nightmare (Hookfang), and a Terrible Terror (Sharpshot). Toothless was also imprisoned here a short while. It was also used for the purpose of housing the battle between the best of the Dragon Training class and a Monstrous Nightmare as shown in How to Train Your Dragon. Later, Stoick gave Hiccup the arena to use as the Berk Dragon Training Academy, and a sign depicting Toothless was put up over the entrance as shown in "How to Start a Dragon Academy". The dragon cages were kept intact, as the dragons were locked up here when they were causing trouble, and also Stoick's Thunderdrum, Thornado, was locked up here with a muzzle when it was still aggressive as shown in "How to Pick Your Dragon".

Raven Point
As stated in the first film, Hiccup says he shot down a Night Fury that fell just past Raven Point. Raven Point is a mountain peak filled with forests and steep cliffs. At the base of the tallest peak, lay the docks. This is notable because of a large canyon like structure between the tallest peak and another steep cliff.

The Cove
A large sunken area in the forest with rocks, tree roots, and a pond with fish. It was here Toothless crash landed once Hiccup released him, and this was where they gained each other's trust and friendship. The walls are steep enough that Toothless cannot easily get out, though he can if sufficiently motivated, as seen when he escaped to save Hiccup from Hookfang as shown in How to Train Your Dragon. However, Vikings can easily enter and exit through narrow corridors. Hiccup occasionally leaves Toothless here when he doesn't want him to go anywhere, as seen when he believes Toothless' aggression around Torch, the baby Typhoomerang, to be a problem and leaves Toothless stranded in the cove as punishment in "The Terrible Twos". Astrid and Snotlout collect water from the Cove's pond in "Tunnel Vision". Stoick ordered everyone to retreat to the Cove when the Speed Stingers attacked in "Frozen".

Dragon Stables (also known as Dragon Hangar)
Using the tunnels and caverns that were created and found following the Whispering Death and Screaming Death attacks during the events of "Tunnel Vision", Hiccup and Gobber were able to build the stables with custom stalls for the various dragons. The stables also had storm doors.

Dragon Race Stands
Following the start of Dragon Races, stands were built for the spectators with the chief's chair in the center as shown in How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Caves of Jötunn
These caves were in the bowels of Berk. They were also known as the Underworld. It was here that Captain Fiske had a mining operation where he hoped that the village of Berk would be swallowed up as shown in "Underworld".

In Dragons: Wild Skies
In the video game, DreamWorks Dragons: Wild Skies, you can travel around several areas of the Isle of Berk. It should be noted that these locations have not been seen anywhere else in the franchise, and most of the names originate from the book series.

Berk Village
The village of Berk is an area in Wild Skies which is home to the Vikings of Berk. It has several houses on a cliff, and progresses downwards to the Dragon Training Arena. The village sits on the edge of a cliff facing towards the open ocean, which has many rock formations and arches rising out of the sea. In the sky, large mountains are seen.

Unlandable Cove
Unlandable Cove features a large damp swamp and several small rock formations rising out of the murky water. There are many plants and vines around this area, and the area is very foggy. Tall trees rise out of the ground on islands in the swamp, and many arches and cliffs are scattered around the outer rim of the area. The Deadly Nadder's lair is found in this spot and the Changewing is also found here.

The Great West Ocean
This area's most prominent feature is the large bay in the middle of the area. Many arches, cliffs and rocks are found around the exterior of the area, and large land forms rise out of the middle. Various waterfalls flow from the tops of the islands and land forms into the water below. The area that can be explored on foot has several ramps that lead to higher cliffs. This is where you encounter the Scauldron.

The Woods That Howled
This area features a large forest and many giant land forms. Vines hang from the bottoms of the mountainous land forms, and at the very bottom of the area is a big thick fog. In the ground area, a large lake is found. A huge rock dome with many holes in it can be found sheltered over a cave entrance, which leads to the lair of the Gronckle as well as the Whispering Death.

Lava-Lout Island
This area has various lava pools and lavafalls around it. The main feature is the giant hollow mountain rising up in the middle, which at the very top houses the Monstrous Nightmare and the Smothering Smokebreath. In a circle around the mountain is a lava moat. It also has many spikes and spiky cliffs scattered throughout the area. The first time you enter you need a Zippleback. Sometimes there is a glitch where if you try to enter with a Typhoomerang, it will say that you need different type of dragon to enter but after a while, you are able to enter Lava-Lout Island.

Black Heart Bay
A large bay is found in the middle of the area, which leads into the ocean. Huge islands rise out of the sea, with various trees growing on them. Arches and cliffs circle around the place. The ground area is a woodland area with a very rocky and desert area branching off the side, which leads you straight into the Hideous Zippleback's domain. A very big lake is featured lower into the area, with a gigantic waterfall splashing into it. A cave system is found behind a waterfall.

Wild Dragon Cliff
A very foresty area, Wild Dragon Cliff features many cliffs with trees dotting the tops. A giant lake sits at the bottom of the area, with a large island rising up out of it. A huge waterfall flows into the lake, and up the waterfall sits the entrance to Badmist Mountain. A giant archway rises above the waterfall. There's a crack in the mountainside which leads to the Typhoomerang's home.

Badmist Mountain
A very large area which sits at the top of the Isle of Berk. Many cliffs form a U shape, with the open part of the U facing the open ocean. Several land forms rise up from the barren ground, and a large underground lake can be found in the side of the cliff. This is Toothless' favorite spot on the island, and he can be found in a small alcove of trees on ground level. A wide-spread mist covers up the sky so only a Nightmare can get there the first time you go in due to its huge wingspan.

Wrecker's Reef
A large bay covered in constant snowfall, large spires with bridges connecting to cliff sides dot the area, which is penetrated by a large icy bay. Snow-covered trees are the only foliage. Crabs can be found in the bay. You can locate the Thunderdrum here.

Dragon Species
A large variety of dragon species live on Berk and its surrounding islands. Twenty-one different species and counting have been encountered to date. The only known Night Fury lives on Berk, and the first Typhoomerang was also discovered on the island. Other recently encountered species include the Terrible Terror, Hideous Zippleback, Monstrous Nightmare, Deadly Nadder, Gronckle, Thunderdrum, Boneknapper, Scauldron, Fireworm, Whispering Death, Changewing, Grapple Grounder, Rumblehorn, and Hotburple. Timberjacks are known to fly around Berk. At the end of the second film, the Hobblegrunt, the Raincutter, the Scuttleclaw, the Seashocker, the Shovelhelm, the Snafflefang, the Snifflehunch, the Stormcutter, the Thornridge, the Threadtail, the Thunderclaw, the Windgnasher, and the Windstriker started to live on Berk as well. By the time of the third film, the Crimson Goregutter and the Hobgobbler begin to inhabit Berk.

Dragon Riders' Auxiliary
The Dragon Riders' Auxiliary, also known as the A-Team, are a group of dragon riders founded by Astrid Hofferson, that act to defend and protect Berk during Race To The Edge, while the dragon riders are exploring beyond the archipelago.

The Dragon Riders' Auxiliary consists of Berk citizens. It is lead by Gustav Larson, and consists of Spitelout Jorgenson, Gothi, Bucket, Mulch, and Silent Sven.

Appearances
This island has made its debut in the first film and has made frequent appearances ever since.

Dragons: Rise of Berk
Berk is the main island in this game, where most buildings, like the Dragon Hangar or the Hatchery, are found.

Trivia

 * According to Brook Chalmers' Tumblr page, there are roughly 250-300 residents on Berk during Dragons: Riders of Berk and Dragons: Defenders of Berk.
 * Berk is British slang for a fool, prat, or twit.