"Please, would you be so kind as to spit my friend out?"

Fri Oct 24 2025

Blazing Reader,

Pishyou, keendlee gobba oot mi freeundlee?

No, I'm not practicing my Dutch.

It's Dragonese for: "Please, would you be so kind as to spit my friend out?"

A Dragonese dictionary is just one of the many amusing sidebars that lines the pages of Cressida Cowell's super-successful young adult novel, How to Train Your Dragon.

I'd seen the animated movie many years ago and, while I found the plot rather predictable, the execution was delightful. The book has always been on my must-read list. I can go scratch it off now with a dragon's talon. I just completed reading it in English to my son, alternating each sentence with my polyglot wife reading the Dutch translation (Hoe Tem Je Een Drak).

The novel's plot is completely different from the movie's. The setting and characters are the same, but it's a unique adventure. It's also far funnier..

And then there's the philosophizing man-eating dragon:

“The thing is, we are all, in a sense, supper. Walking, talking, breathing suppers, that's what we are. Take you, for instance. YOU are about to be eaten by ME, so that makes you supper. That's obvious. But even a murderous carnivore like myself will be supper for worms one day. We're all snatching precious moments from the peaceful jaws of time.”

The whole story was full of such delightful humour, along with comic characters and many plot twists. The Viking backdrop is far more realistic with plenty of snow and ice (unlike the movie, which appears to be set in a perpetual Scandinavian summer paradise).

All in all, an entertaining mix of morals, mirth and myths.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. You can grab yourself a copy of How to Train Your Dragon through my Blazing Bookshop.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.