Update Thread 41: Not quite the answer to life, the universe, and everything

[Mamorien]

Time for the new thread's first A Thing of Vikings post!

A much more potent and frustrating miss on Haddock's part came from his invention of the pantograph (from the Greek for 'all-writing'), when he would soon have all of the parts necessary for the creation of the printing press—which would languish in unrealized potential for more than a century and a half, eventually being realized by Hiccup's descendant, Kamikaze clan Frelsifrædi.  At the time Haddock created the pantograph, he already had the concept of identical production via stamping from his drop-press, along with molds and other forms for creating interchangeable movable type, and would be introduced to the concept of movable type itself from his visits to and trade with Zhōngguó within only a handful of years after his creation of the pantograph. 
But instead of building the revolutionary printing press, he created the pantograph as a scribe's aid, as an extension of how things were done in his time rather than expanding outwards into new possibilities.  And the pantograph did change the rate at which books could be copied; a simple pantograph could be made in an afternoon by a competent carpenter or blacksmith, and allowed even illiterates to help with copying books simply by tracing text and diagrams.  But it did not change the method by which books were copied, as a printing press would have.  Books were still copied by hand, one page at a time. 
But due to its simplicity, the pantograph quickly became the dominant form of text reproduction, a position it held for the next two hundred years.  There are arguments that Haddock's status as the creator of the pantograph alone pushed the creation of the printing press back by generations, as the more efficient text-copier directly challenged and threatened the supremacy of a device tied to Haddock's legendary reputation.

In Kappadokia, Sigurd pays a visit to the estate of Romanus Sclerus, one of his new neighbors, to demand gently but firmly request the return of some things the Greek gentleman borrowed in the wake of Maniakes' removal. Outside Cairo, at the Dragon Mail construction site, Hiccup demonstrates a new invention (see epigraph; see also: pantograph). Back on his new estate, Sigurd gets dragged into a much-needed discussion with Gunnar and Gudmund. In Vedrarfjord, Fintan is making himself useful to Hákon and Gunvor. Back in Cairo, Hiccup puts on a demonstration of strength, in the hope of forestalling future shows of force. In London, Magnus and Sigvatr discuss the ways in which the king is doing the Lord's work. Finally, in Höfn, Iceland, Mildew gives us more reasons to hate him, just before encountering something that could prove extremely dangerous...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...s/43956304
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12639117/83...Of-Vikings