How to Train Your Dragon is the first in a series of eight books set in a fictional viking world. The books were published in 2003 as children's novels written by British author Cressida Cowell who pretented to be the "translator" of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third's original book. These are the adventures and misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third as he tries to pass the important initiation test of his Viking clan, the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, by catching and training a dragon.