Fic Updates Agent 47

[Mamorien]

New A Thing of Vikings! Three thousand years in white-hot claws at your window and I always keep my nose clean...

• Supernova 1054
  
• Constellation: Taurus
  
• Distance: 6.5 kilolight-years
  
• Remnant: Nebula
  

SN 1054 is a supernova that was first observed on 4 July AD 1054, and remained visible until c. 6 April 1056. The event was recorded in numerous contemporary astronomical sources, including Zhōngguó, Nippon, Islamic, and European, as well as in petrographs associated with the Hisatsinom culture. Furthermore, it is historically noteworthy and significant as being one of the instigating factors in Magni Hiccupsson House Haddock’s initial astronomical synlengra experiments, which began a new age of observational astronomy in the coming decades and centuries. One aspect of these studies is that the remnants of SN 1054 have been extensively tracked, with new and increasingly larger synlengra constructed as the supernova remnants faded over time. The remnants of SN 1054, known as the Magni Nebula, consists of debris ejected during the explosion, and is located in the sky near the star Zeta Tauri, with the core of the exploding star having formed a pulsar, called the Magni Pulsar. Due to the centuries of close examination, and as one of the few Galactic supernovae where the date of the explosion is well-known, the nebula and the pulsar it contains are some of the most well-studied astronomical objects outside of the solar system, with the two objects being the most luminous of their types in their respective categories.

(…)

Cultural Significance:

The supernova was received as a supernatural portent in the immediate aftermath of the wedding of Tuffnut Thicknutsson House Thorston and his first wife, Princess Mór of the Isle of Mann, performed on 3 July AD 1054. The pair had attempted to wed in ceremony repeatedly over the preceding eleven years as a betrothed couple, despite technically qualifying as a common law marriage between their extended cohabitation and the births of five children in that time.

According to contemporary sources, the wagering on what might interrupt the wedding on this latest attempt included “another war,” “The Apocalypse,” volcanic eruptions, the blotting out of the sun by an eclipse, and several other types of natural and supernatural disasters, with the longest odds on offer given to the nuptials going through successfully. Several primary sources from the subsequent court cases indicate that the odds were universally set in excess of a hundred to one by different odds-makers, with the highest value being 400:1 against the ceremony going through without incident.

When the supernova was observed the day after the wedding ceremony had taken place, several odds-makers claimed it as a portent and attempted to avoid making their ruinous payments to the winning wagerers. This resulted in a number of lawsuits, the proceedings of which have been portrayed in dramatic and educational productions repeatedly over the ensuing centuries…

We begin our latest inciting exstallment at the Skald's Hearth inn on Eigg (one of Berk's neighboring islands in the Alban Hebrides), to which Tuffnut's twin, Queen Ruffnut I of House Fairhair, has been summoned "in response to your inquiries" -- inquiries she herself had almost forgotten making, let alone readers who don't keep track beyond a certain level of detail. Over on Berk, in the Chief's Hut, Stoick the Vast and his immediate peer group pick the best time to start facing the problem of what Berkian citizenship is going to mean, rather than waiting 20 years for the second-best time. Out in his shiny new Islas Canarias, Viggo Grimborn uses his brother Ryker as a whetstone for how to handle the islands, their dragons, and their humans. Back on Berk, Wulfhild and Magnus get caught up on each other's lives over a game board in the mead hall. In the smithy over on Eigg, Stoick brings Gobber up to date on the citizenship question, particularly what it means for the Jews... and has what promises to be a wonderful awful idea. Returning to Berk, Tuffnut and Mór begin their long hilarious meandering journey to the altar. In his palace in Almatu, Drago Bludvist, Kagan of the Pechenegs, consults with his lesser chiefs, then meets with his chief advisor, Elder Khurşӑ... and with the elder's granddaughter. On Berk again, back in the Chief's Hut, Astrid snuggles with Hiccup and Wulfhild, until her shoulder starts playing up, leading to a discussion of why their lives keep getting punctuated by excitement. In a Vedrafjord inn, Fintan helps a young woman find a job and a large man talk his way out of trouble he talked himself into...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...s/99057441