A boy of nearly 11, Hiccup is physically smaller than most of the Viking boys. He is also more bookish, a self-proclaimed dragon nerd living in a tribe with few members who know how to read. On the surface, he appears to fit the nerd-versus-jock trope, but rather than forge his own niche in his tribe, Hiccup appears to want to fit in: He doesn’t protest the dragon lair raid in spite of knowing its dangers; he trains his dragon and competes in the Thor’sday Thursday Celebration without protest; and his only real moment of anger stems from being exiled from the tribe. However, Hiccup longs for his tribe to view him as a hero, and this motivation informs his bold actions throughout the novel.

Hiccup doesn’t seek to disrupt Viking culture. He strives to add room for thought and reason. He possesses a great capacity for academic learning, having studied dragons in books and learned their language, Dragonese. Furthermore, he has a natural inclination toward research, as shown by the methods he uses in training Toothless. As he experiments with his list, he takes notes on what works and what doesn’t.