Berserk is a large island in the Barbaric Archipelago. The tribe that inhabited Berserk was called the Berserk tribe, of whom were known throughout the entire Archipelago to be insane. Berserk was also where insane people from other tribes were sent to. Berserk had a complex tree bridge system and inescapable tree prisons. Engaged, or prisoners who were to be sacrificed to the Beast, were held in ordinary cages. Berserk is the primary setting of the eight book, How to Break a Dragon's Heart.
Official Description[]
“ | Vikings that have gone mad are sent to Berserk to live. | ” |
— Official Website |
Location[]
Berserk lies near the Mainland, being bordered with it in all directions by west, but being separated by a straight and other bodies of water. Also bordering Berserk with separation by a straight is the Island of the Quiet Life from the north. More specifically, bordering Berserk on the Mainland is the Flaming Forest, Bloodspilt Bay, and the unnamed central shore. To the west of Berserk flows the Summer Current.
Geography[]
The whole island was covered with a dense and high forest known as the Woods That Howled. The trees were big, and thick enough to drill down inside them and construct buildings. In some of them lived the maniac Berserks. Some of these trees had cells with high entrances to prevent escape from the prisoners formerly held here. Stretched between the trees were hanging bridges for communication and travel between them. It is unknown how tall the trees were, though Hiccup said that the tree bridges were around "two hundred and fifty feet up in the tree canopy."
History[]
As told in How to Break a Dragon's Heart, after the death of his son, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock II, King Grimbeard the Ghastly captured Furious who had flown away to burry Hiccup the Second in the Bay of the Broken Heart. Grimbeard imprisoned Furious on Berserk where he became known to the inhabitants as "The Beast." The Berserks regularly held human sacrifices to the Beast until he was freed by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III.
Around 80 years after Furious' imprisonment and 20 years before How to Break a Dragon's Heart, the witch, Excellinor the Witch was imprisoned here in a tree trunk cell by UG the Uglithug for speaking of a new King of the Wilderwest.
Shortly before How to Break a Dragon's Heart, UG captured Camicazi and had her imprisoned on Berserk too. The thirteen fiancés that UG sent on suicide missions to Berserk to collect honey for his daughter, Tantrum were too at one point captured and going to be fed to the Beast.
While camping on the Bay of the Broken Heart during their search for Camicazi, the Hooligans were ambushed by the Uglithugs, which eventually ended with Fishlegs going to Berserk to collect honey for UG's daughter. Hiccup trailed along too as he knew Fishlegs would be in danger and need help.
Once on the island, they both gathered honey and were attacked by Scarers, though Hiccup got them out of the situation. Both boys were then captured by the Berserks. Fishlegs attempted to convince the Berserks to free them as he claimed he was a Berserk, something the Berserks laughed wildly tot.
During the night, the Chief Berserk's French Chef, Alphonse, who was actually none other than Alvin the Treacherous approached Hiccup's cage. Alvin grabbed Hiccup with his hook and began to strangle him to death, but Hiccup, thinking cleverly, offered to strike a deal with Alvin. Hiccup promised to free him from being the Chief Berserk's Chef if he freed him from his cage and took him to Camicazi's cage, of who Hiccup knew was on the island based on UG poorly attempting to lie to Hiccup about not knowing who Camicazi was. Alvin then stopped choking Hiccup and took him across Berserk's rope bridge system to a tree cell where Camicazi supposedly was imprisoned. Once Hiccup was inside though, Alvin double crossed him and trapped Hiccup in the cell and revealed that he didn't actually know which cell Camicazi was imprisoned in.
While inside the cage, Hiccup met Excellinor the Witch. Excellinor performed surgery on Toothless who had swallowed a magnet earlier. As part of a deal between the two of them where they would guess each other's name and the victor would kill the other, Excellinor, who told Hiccup his name was Hogtrude told the story of the Kingdom of the Wilderwest and how Grimbeard the Ghastly killed his son, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock II. Due to Hiccup's dedicated interest in the story, him shouting "NO!" to the part when the witch told of Hiccup the Second's death in the story, and Hiccup speaking of how Stoick the Vast wasn't supposed to marry Valhallarama, the witch guessed correctly that the boy was the third Hiccup. However, Hiccup guessed correctly too, that the old woman was Alvin the Treacherous' mother. Excellinor then ambushed Hiccup in the dark, only for Hiccup to escape from the tree cell by using the key-that-opens-all-locks, which the witch pulled out of Toothless' stomach.
Hiccup then saw a trail of winkles Toothless found lying on the rope bridges. Hiccup wondered why there would be winkles, a sea creature up in the tree canopy, and deduced that Camicazi, who always had some on her for Stormfly laid the trail. When Hiccup got to her cell, he freed Camicazi and they went to save Fishlegs and the thirteen fiancés.
Hiccup ended up almost being fed to the Beast, but right after the Beast put Hiccup into his mouth, he pulled him out after Hiccup shouted "Halt!" in Dragonese. Before he had been fed, Hiccup noticed the scar on the Beast's chest and deduced that the Beast was actually Furious. Hiccup tried to persuade Furious to help him, but Furious revealed that his 100 year imprisonment drained all the compassion he had for humanity. Hiccup finally managed to persuade Furious to help him, and Hiccup used the key-that-opens-all-locks to free the Sea-Dragon.
A great battle ensued after Camicazi freed Fishlegs and the fiancés. Suddenly though, Furious double crossed Hiccup and set fire to Berserk's forests. Furious reasoned that since he only had half a heart, he could only keep half a promise. The Berserks fled the island, and presumably many died.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- In the Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Polish, and German version of the film, Berk is instead called Beserk.
Gallery[]
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The Barbaric Archipelago of | |||||||||