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

[Mamorien]

With each day, the world we live in is made anew.
I say this not as a religious mystery or philosophical quandary, but as a statement of fact, because each day, we rebuild the world that defines us and that we ourselves define, based on the world that defined us yesterday.  All of us, man and dragon alike, are defined by our histories and choices.  Consider this conundrum. Suppose that tomorrow, upon rising, I were to state that the ancient laws and duties incumbent upon my station and status did not apply, and that I owed no man my efforts or time. 
Well, I would be seen as mad by all of those who had risen that day and expected that those laws and duties would apply to me.  How they would react would depend on many things, but what manner of things tells them that such laws and duties should apply?  Nothing, except for their own histories and choices, the teachings and expectations passed down by our predecessors.  And so, for all that the world is made anew, it resembles the old one quite well in its fidelity.
But now consider: suppose that I taught my own children that the expectations upon them are different than my own?  Or suppose I taught such a thing to all of the children?  Would I be freeing them from my own history, or freeing myself?  Or both?  Is such a thing possible?    Would the definitions shift?  What if I had a particular vision of how the world should be?  Or if I saw the world I live in now as an ideal to be cherished and preserved? 
As the world is invented anew with each day, we each have a choice whether to accept the world of yesterday or create the world of tomorrow through our choices of what we accept from our predecessors and and what we teach to our inheritors. 
I myself choose to try to make a better world, one where I feel that I am fulfilling my responsibilities to my ancestors and to my descendants, and hope that they, in turn, will work to preserve or improve upon what I have given them. 

Due to circumstances I'm not sure I can control, my usual pithy thummary of this week's A Thing of Vikings chapter includes major spoilers for the moment of WHAM at the end of last week's inciting exstallment:

Spoiler

On his estates in eastern Anatolia, Sigurd struggles to pick his jaw up off the floor and scrape his scalp off the ceiling, with help from Gudmund Heidrun and Gunnar as they work to repair any damage they may have done and much of the damage they didn't do.

In Köln, Hiccup's work on a gift for Toothless is spurred by a reminder of what his bud has to put up with. On Berk, Jonna and Reidun talk about the point Fishswill made last time, that Clan Joms is ideally going to need an heir of its own. Back in Anatolia, Sigurd gets an unwanted wake-up call, then a somewhat more welcome one, then either the worst or the best possible interruption. In Glenfinnan, Kerr wakes up in his turn, to assurances of safety from Ivor (last seen way the hell back in Chapter 9). In Berk's mead hall, Gobber witnesses the mortification of Jonna and Reidun's first choice to sire their heir (but assures them they can make it up to the man later); hearing their second choice prompts him to tell them the story, toward which we've had hints subtle and otherwise, of what happened between him and Clodgall. In Glenfinnan again, Ivor reflects on the condition of their mystery guest, and of the prosperity Berk has brought. Returning to Köln, his walker's gift Toothless receives, and to good use puts it. And we cut right back to Glenfinnan for our final scene, in which the people who've been looking for Kerr find him, then act on their findings in a downright deranged way...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089.../44396899/
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12639117/85...Of-Vikings

Sadly, what's not a spoiler is that, per his note, the author's taking an early and extended hiatus due to real life pleasures and pressures. He'll be back when he's built up a meaningful buffer; however long it takes, I know it'll be worth it.