Rise of Rurik

December 28 in the Julian calendar, the longest night, is also the biggest festival of the Ross tribe throughout the year, Hanukkah.

Light always accompanies darkness, and the winter solstice is the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere, after which the day slowly lengthens every day.

This normality is particularly prominent in the geographical location of the Ross tribe.

Not only them, but all the peoples and tribes around the Baltic Sea, they are aware that certain days of the year are surprisingly dark. After this worst dark time, the days will get longer and longer, and soon spring will come.

Hanukkah is not unique to the Ross tribe.

All the inhabitants of their southern confederation of Sithian tribes, including Jutland, south of the sea, make great sacrifices during these days. After the sacrifice, it is the residents who revel in the new year. They would drink up the ale they brewed or bought, and feast for a few days in a very luxurious way.

The old priest Vilia did not understand how the Roman calendar was made. The only thing she was sure about was that the Romans had used this calendar for 870 years!

Her and the other priests' cosmology differed from those of the Roman black robes who preached to the north. Although everyone believed that human time would be destroyed one day, the Romans believed that on the day of destruction, all souls would be tortured. This is incomprehensible to Velia, who prefers to believe that the warriors of the Doomsday will fight alongside Odin and face Ragnarok in Asgard.

So, when will the world end?

She didn't know, and the men in black didn't even know. They also knew very little about their past, and the Roman black men believed very much that after the end of the flood, Noah's people developed to the present, but only a few thousand years ago.

Vilia can be called the wise man of the tribe. Her knowledge of the history of her tribe is not more than a hundred years, and it is only a few legends in the time range of three or four hundred years.

The 870-year-old calendar must be accurate, Veria was convinced! Looking up at the starry sky and seeing the positions of the stars, there are less than three days before the festival, and Villa is deeply moved by the subtlety of the Roman calendar.

She sent her own messengers, especially Bona, who succeeded the high priest after her death, and asked her to lead the lower priests throughout Roseburg, stepping on the snow to spread the message of the coming festival.

A grand sacrifice is about to begin.

When Rurik returned to the high priest's house after a long absence, his image had obviously changed from before.

He came here in the dust, except for a thicker leather coat and the latest velvet hat made of the whole snow fox skin, which was a beautifully decorated short sword that he began to wear around his waist.

Rurik came back, and the longhouse continued to smell of burning fat, which was more comfortable than the strange smell of burning ore from the blacksmith shop. At least whet your appetite.

When he entered the room, he opened his eyes wide and looked left and right. Unsurprisingly, some priests were still boiling oil. There is still a lot of pure white seal fat piled on the ground at will, waiting for further processing.

Villa is also here, her aging eyes are deeply sunken, nearly half of her teeth are lost, and her face is full of deep wrinkles. Carefully wipe all the crevices of the giant reindeer antlers with a piece of linen.

A strong reindeer with huge ossified horns on its head is no easy task, let alone an old man?

This is Valeria's duty as a high priest. If she doesn't do well, the antler helmet will be handed over to Bona as soon as possible.

It is clear,

Only when one's own life ends, the antler helmet of the high priest, which symbolizes the sacredness passed down from generation to generation, will be handed over to his successor according to tradition.

Hearing some restlessness, Villa noticed Rurik's return.

"Oh boy, you're back at last. Come! Come to me."

At this moment, seeing Rurik's small figure, she felt that it was obviously her grandson who entered the house.

Deep down in Willia's heart, she longs for a grandson who is willing to inherit her will, and it seems that Rurik is such a rising star.

Rurik nodded and hurried over, sitting obediently beside Veria.

"I'm back and I've had some really pivotal things going on these days that I've done successfully."

"Yes... I've heard a lot about it. It's the sword you're wearing around your waist. My child, you shocked me. You gave some of Odin's commands to Thor's servants, so that's fine." Leah really needs to say more, because a legend was circulating in Rosberg a few days ago that the blacksmith Kravason's family was helping the chief's son to make a magical sword, and it was successful.

The new sense of soap in the tribe has not yet passed, and the good news that the blacksmith can make the sword can not help but go.

"Son, the blacksmith has made a fine sword for you. Come on, pull it out and let me take a good look at the sword."

"OK."

Rurik didn't hesitate, and the action of drawing his sword was smooth.

A number of circular chandeliers hang from the wooden beams of the long house, and the flames of a large number of oil lamps give the room a fairly bright light.

Through these firelights, the short sword in Rurik's hand showed a completely different color from ordinary swords.

Looking at it with a pair of aging eyes, Villa can also perceive the difference of the sword. Its blade is different from the body, as if the blade was made for a special purpose.

"It... can really cut through iron?" Villa was a little disbelieving.

"Or we can try."

"Okay! My dear, I really want to see how the blacksmiths use the wisdom of Odin to create the sword." Saying that, Veria directly beckoned Bona, who was boiling oil, to come.

The experiment was quickly ended under the hands of Bona, and a deep trace was cut out of a copper basin made of bronze.

Even though Bona is a woman, she is not an ordinary woman.

In fact, according to everyone's living habits, women can also go to the battlefield under special circumstances.

Some tribes have other explanations for their mythology, such as the Danes. Some Danes believe that if a female warrior is killed in battle, her soul will also enter Valhalla, and there will be a chance to be promoted to a new Valkyrie.

Some tribes think that the Valkyries are the daughters of Odin and the race of the gods, which is something that mortals cannot expect.

When it came to the Ross tribe, there were new sayings, which basically came from Veria's own convictions. That is to worship Odin for the rest of his life, and treat the long house as a sanctuary. As long as he is pious enough, he may become a Valkyrie after he dies without fighting.

Bona has developed very strong arms in the daily toil, and this kind of woman is born to deal with some battles. starter

Holding the sword herself, she slashed marks on the bronze pots used by priests on a daily basis, and surprisingly, the shiny sword was unbroken.

Vilia's eyes were shocked at first, and soon she completely accepted all this, and her hunched back quickly cheered up.

"It's very nice, my child. No! The good boy blessed by Odin..." Vilya clenched Rurik's hands deeply, "You hand over the knowledge to the blacksmith, and you want them to make more of this as soon as possible. Good sword. We have to get stronger and one day we're going to go south and take back our place in the league. You...you've seen those planks and you know why we left."

"I..." Rurik recalled carefully, there is a realistic factor in the northward migration of the Ross tribe, that is, there are more people and less land in Svealana.

In fact, it’s not really that there are too many people and few land. The area is generally vast, that is, there are a lot of lakes and unusable deserted beaches. There are not many farmlands that can be reclaimed, and good places have been occupied by other tribes.

An ethnic group that has migrated out of the core area of ​​the tribal alliance, even though its population has reached 10,000, is truly marginalized. It is precisely because of the marginalization that the Ross clan can no longer intervene in various matters within the alliance as frequently as it did a hundred years ago. Although the tribe has never withdrawn from the alliance, their voice in the tribe is really getting lower and lower.

If it weren't for the fact that there are still a large number of merchants from allied tribes living in the far north of Roseburg, perhaps the alliances that accumulated in the Svealan Plain would have forgotten the existence of the Rose tribe.

Rurik thought about it for a while, and said deliberately: "I have made an agreement with the blacksmith, and they will try their best to make it. When I grow up and become a leader, I will do my best to lead everyone to continue to develop."

Villa slowly got up, grabbed her crutches and stood her somewhat hunched body.

"When you grow up, you will take your well-trained children and your magical weapons to the south. If you want us to prosper, you will bring the army to surrender to other tribes, and you will be the leader of this alliance. "

Allies? Shouldn't he be king?

But the Rus people obviously want to...

Seeing that Veria was too old, she continued to wear a giant helmet to preside over a priesthood, and she had to crush her neck.

How long will Villa's life last? Looking at her declining appearance, it might be difficult to survive until next summer.

"Okay, I'll try my best to be the leader, grandma," Rurik said deliberately.

"Okay, boy. You stay here, and soon your servant will be back with the deer. You are a kind master, and you have treated your servant well. But you will face some enemies, face those enemies. , mercy will only kill you."

"I see. I will not be merciful to the enemy."

Rurik was happy to chat with Veria, and it was his way of killing boredom in the winter.

After a while, the grazing Rumia really came back. She drove all the deer back to the deer pen, and then saw the warm priest's longhouse.

She took off her thick coat to keep out the cold as usual, and Rurik turned his face away to see the beautiful silver ornaments on the sweater on her chest and the girl's smiling face.

The girl is still laughing now. When she obediently walked towards her little master and sat sideways beside him, Villa's words quickly stopped her laughing.

"The sacrifice will be coming soon, Rurik. According to my agreement with your father, there will be five deer for the sacrifice."

"Yes, I know it, but for the remaining deer, I also hope that my servants will continue to raise them. I intend to restore the deer herd as much as possible, so that the huge herd can continue to bring us wealth."

Villa nodded: "This is your decision, and I support it. Rurik, now you need to appease your servant. Those deer..."

Rurik turned his face slightly, and saw Rumia, who was still happy just now, with a sad look in her eyes.

"Ah..." Rurik didn't say anything, everything was silent.

The grand festival of Hanukkah is under intense preparations.

At first, Bona was worried about this year's festival because soap must be made with a lot of fat. Unexpectedly, with the news that the magic soap needs seal oil as the main raw material, those masters who are good at digging ice and catching seals in winter are obviously more industrious than in previous years.

The priests made a considerable fortune, and the sealers took the opportunity to increase the price of their prey, but even so, they were no match for the huge profits of soap.

Compared to the priests, more than three hundred silver coins have flowed into Rurik's wallet during this period! Although he paid a large sum to order a sword, he still has a considerable and constantly increasing wealth.

He really cheated the priests with a wooden contract, and he really cheated the entire clan with the price. Rurik felt that he was showing a bad reputation as a profiteer, but he had to believe that the producers and consumers of the tribe felt that they had benefited.

A large number of seals were hunted, and the refining of a large amount of fat met the key needs of the sacrifice.

Just on December 27 of the Julian calendar, when the brief day ended abruptly, the grand ceremony of Hanukkah took place tonight.

The severe cold almost froze the entire Baltic Sea. Although the relatively warm waters near Jutland were not completely frozen, there were still a lot of ice blocks on the sea.

Even the bravest Danes had to spend the holidays in their respective residences at this time.

In particular, a chief named Sigurd lived in southern Jutland, and his tribe was influential throughout Denmark.

However, in the current peninsula, Hafgen, the chief of the Robard tribe, can earn a lot of wealth just by charging various fees from his peers because he controls the transportation routes between the inner sea and the outer sea.

Chief Sigurd, however, often faced the Franks in the south, as well as some Wends, the most western Slavic tribesmen.

He is very willing to go south to loot in the warm season. In the past years, he also took the fleet to sweep south along the coastline many times. Because of these successful actions, the tribe also hoarded a lot of wealth.

These actions really stimulated his son Ragnar, who was envied by his father's glorious record, and he was eager to build even greater achievements. starter

Ragnar in the winter of AD 828, Ragnar was only an eighteen-year-old youth! This year he married his wife, but he has not yet obtained the nickname of "hairy trouser legs", let alone the nickname of "son of Odin". He got a lot of legends about wealth from his father and was eager to inherit his father's leadership. He was even considering going to the north to find the "lion" Hafgen to go head-to-head and chop off his head on behalf of his tribe, so that he could serve as the new leader. Allies. After that, lead your allies to form a huge fleet and rush directly to the fabled most prosperous place in Frank - Paris.

To move all the gold that has piled up a mountain in Paris home! Of course, there were also those who captured the Franks as their slaves.

The ambition of the young man should be equated with his own strength, and Ragnar now has no chance at all.

He didn't even know that the northern part of Scandinavia in the north of the sea was close to the legendary "Rider" Rus tribe, where there was a genuine "Son of Odin".

They all have lofty ideals, but they do not have equal strength.

Life is still going by step by step.

Every tribe of the Danes celebrates Hanukkah, as do a group of tribes in Scandinavia, and even the fishermen on Gotland do the same.

After a few days of festivals, the first day of the first month of the year in the Roman calendar has arrived, and the time will irreversibly enter the year 829 AD.