Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was a truly extraordinary Viking Hero. Warrior chieftain, awesome sword-fighter and amateur naturalist, he was known throughout Vikingdom as ‘the Dragon Whisperer’, on account of his amazing power over these terrifying beasts.

But it wasn’t always like that. In fact, in the beginning, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was the most put upon Viking you’d ever seen. Not loud enough to make himself heard at dinner with his father, Stoick the Vast; not hard enough to beat his chief rival, Snotlout, at Bashyball, the number one school sport and Certainly not stupid enough to go into a cave full of dragons to find a pet…

How to Train Your Dragon is now a major 3D animated Dreamworks film.