Alvin the Treacherous (Books)

Alvin the Treacherous (a.k.a. Alvin the Poor-but-Honest-Farmer, His Most Mighty Murderousness Alvin the Treacherous, Great High Chieftain of the Outcast Tribe, Thin Prefect of Rome, Alphonse the Talented but Emotional French Chef or Terrific Al) is Hiccup's arch-nemesis. He has been an enemy of Berk in general and Hiccup in particular ever since How to Be a Pirate. His last appearance was How to Fight a Dragon's Fury. Though appearing in the television series, his role is not nearly as prominent as in the books.

Like Hiccup and Snotlout's family, Alvin's family is also directly descended from Grimbeard the Ghastly, but through a different branch. He was the son of the Witch Excellinor and Algarick Ogglebert and is the father of Fishlegs Ingerman.

In the Books
Physical Appearance & Personality

As of his first appearance, in How to Be a Pirate, Alvin has lost his hand (taken by the coffin of Grimbeard the Ghastly), and over the course of the books also loses a foot (taken by Sharkworms), his nose (lost in a volcano), one eye, and his hair (digested by the Monstrous Strangulator's stomach juices). He also wears a metal mask over most of his face, to hide the hideous warts inherited from his mother, Excellinor the Witch.

Alvin falls far outside of the typical Viking mold. The is thin and weak (at least in the early books), using treachery instead of fighting honorably to achieve his ends. Unlike virtually every other Viking in the Archipelago, he has never had a dragon of his own, as they simply don't like him (with good reason).

Role in the Books
Alvinsmen are Alvin's soldiers they created the secret base under the water fall. Snotlout was temporarily one of the Alvinsmen. Alvin the Treacherous was thrown into a coffin, which was tossed into the sea by the Meathead tribe. He eventually arrived on the Isle of Berk where he was mistaken for the corpse of Grimbeard the Ghastly by the Hooligan tribe. He traveled to the Isle of the Skullions with the Hooligan tribe to find Grimbeard's treasure. However, this turned out to be a trap as the Outcasts attacked the Hooligans on their return journey to Berk. After the Battle On Board The Lucky Thirteen, Alvin, along with Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Toothless, went down into the sea with the shipwreck. Toothless guided the three to an underwater cavern, which coincidentally contained the real treasure of Grimbeard the Ghastly. Alvin fought against Hiccup in the cavern until the Monstrous Strangulator awakened and shortly swallowed him. Because Hiccup managed to make the Monstrous Strangulator poison itself, Alvin was able to cut himself free of the dragon's stomach and escaped.

Alvin did not reappear until the next book, How to Speak Dragonese. The Thin Prefect of Rome was really Alvin in disguise, and he was the main mastermind behind the Fiendishly Clever Plan to start a blood feud between all of the Viking tribes in order to steal all of their dragons to their unawareness. Alvin had Hiccup, Fishlegs, Camicazi, and Toothless captured and taken to Fort Sinister where they were to await the Saturn's Day Saturday games in which they would be participating. During the destruction of Fort Sinister, Alvin gave Hiccup a Venomous Vorpent (which resulted in Hiccup getting Vorpentitis) and clung on to the bottom of Hiccup's balloon in an attempt to escape. Hiccup unscrewed Alvin's hook by getting everyone to spin the balloon, and Alvin fell into the Sharkworm-infested waters below.

Alvin, having survived the incident with the Sharkworms, resumed his old disguise as a guard at the Lava Lout Slave Jail named "Terrific Al", where he lied to Humungously Hotshot the Hero, causing him to try to kill Hiccup upon his release.

Hotshot left the Lava Lout islands with the Lava Louts who had imprisoned him when Exterminator Dragons began to rampage without the Firestone, leaving Alvin behind. Alvin planned to tame the exterminator dragons, whilst Hotshot could not bring himself to kill Hiccup and helped Hiccup return the Firestone to Lava Lout Island.

Alvin was swallowed by a fire-dragon which then dove into the Earth's core, although Alvin survived due to his firesuit and managed to escape in a quite disgusting bubble.

Alvin masqueraded as a French chef called Alphonse in order to capture and kill Hiccup. He imprisoned Hiccup in a tree-cell on Berserk with a witch. Unbeknownst to him, the witch he had imprisoned Hiccup with was actually his mother. Hiccup escaped from the cell, but the witch did not. However, after she escaped he encountered his mother, the Witch, on a burning bridge.

Alvin survived this frightful encounter with the help of his mother, and got sword fighting lessons from Flashburn, the greatest sword fighter in the Barbaric World.In How to Steal a Dragon's Sword he became king of the Wilderwest through trickery, stealing the title from Hiccup with the help of his mother and Snotlout. It is worth noting that Snotlout did not realize he was helping Alvin. In doing so, Alvin incited full scale war between the Dragons and Vikings, as well as stealing eight of the King's Lost Things from Hiccup.

A year after Alvin became king, in How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel, he had thousands of slaves in Prison Darkheart to look for the Dragon Jewel, having tricked Valhallarama into working against her son and delivering to him the map. After learning Hiccup was among the slaves, he threatened to kill Snotlout, who was loyal to Alvin and his mother, if Hiccup didn't turn himself in. He then took Toothless and Wodensfang, and was about to kill his enemy, but was stopped by Excellinor, who argued that they needed Hiccup to find the Jewel. After Hiccup found it and escaped, he was captured by Valhallarama and brought back to the prison. However, she did not give Alvin the Jewel. Instead she convinced many of the Vikings to accept Hiccup as their King, reinventing the Slavemark as the Dragonmark. When the Red Rage showed up, Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Camicazi escaped on the Deadly Shadow and freed Toothless and Wodensfang, but Alvin managed to take the Dragon Jewel, gaining a ninth Lost Thing.

Following a period of three-way war between the Dragon Rebellion (led by the dragon Furious), the Alvinsmen (his own forces), and the Dragonmarkers (led by Hiccup and Valhallarama), Alvin captured Hiccup once more. Hiccup had broken into the Alvinsmen's underground stronghold to burgle the nine Things from Alvin, though instead Alvin took the tenth Thing, Tooothless, from Hiccup. Hiccup escaped before Alvin could execute him, though, taking the King's Lost Things with him. Naturally Alvin pursued with quite a large army, and managed to reclaim the Things. As of press time, Alvin believes Hiccup to be dead and is making his was to the island of Tomorrow to be properly crowned King of the Wilderwest.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
Alvin is Hiccup's archenemy in the books. He first appeared in How to Be a Pirate. Like most of the Hooligan tribe, Hiccup at first thought very well of him, although he started to doubt him when Toothless said he believed the man to be an Outcast, an accusation later proven true. At first, Alvin simply wanted to kill Hiccup because he had promised himself that he would kill Grimbeard the Ghastly's Heir. After Hiccup foiled him several times, Alvin's grudge against him became much more personal and consumed him almost entirely. By the time Excellinor, his mother, forced him to higher aspirations, Alvin's hatred of Hiccup had grown so great that the boy's death meant more to him than his own freedom or survival. Alvin is one of the few people who has learned not to underestimate Hiccup, and views him as a serious threat.

Quotes

 * "I promise. Word of a Treacherous."

Trivia

 * The name "Alphones" in How to Break a Dragon's Heart might be a play off "Alvin" and "phony."
 * Book Alvin was not an Outcast due to being exiled, he was instead born into it. However, he was cast out from the Outcasts after losing his hair, which is pretty impressive.