In the huge chief priest's house, the fire pit heated the entire house so warm that the people inside could cope with it wearing only ordinary linen clothes.
The number of priests in the tribe is not large, and they are all women. In order to take on this job, they also gave up their rights as mothers.
They are all people who receive support from the tribal people. Except for performing sacrificial activities on necessary days throughout the year, they spend most of their time in the longhouse of the priest.
Many priests spent a lot of their free time weaving their own clothing with linen threads and boiling flammable lamp oil from animal fat.
When Rurik was invited to enter this area, he immediately smelled an attractive aroma.
Although the entire longhouse is warm, it still has a lot of loopholes. The air heated by the multiple braziers seeped out from the gaps on the top floor, and the cool air from outside also penetrated through the gaps in the lower floors. There is no possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning here, and the indoor temperature will drop quickly because the charcoal in the brazier is extinguished.
The younger priests built a simple stove on the brazier, and placed some seal fat in the thick cast iron basin.
When Otto happened to catch a few fat Baltic seals when he returned, boiling oil was naturally a necessary operation.
When the bay is frozen, drilling holes in the ice to capture seals is also part of the tribe's normal work.
The meat and internal organs of these captured seals are used as food, and the skins are used as clothing. The seal oil is naturally an excellent fuel.
The aroma of roasted fat makes Rurik very comfortable. He is not hungry now. He came to the longhouse of the priests today and learning that knowledge is his first priority.
Rurik came with a great purpose, and the priest Vilia who will serve as his one-to-one teacher also came with a great purpose.
But every great achievement has a small beginning.
It was snowing lightly in the sky, and Rurik knew that his father was going to lead the tribe to the north for collective hunting. According to years of experience, they would be able to return with a full load of prey in more than ten days. With luck, I can eat venison all winter long.
Rurik has his own job, and while he is very young and has a lot of free time, it would be best to learn that knowledge in a short period of time.
He entered the warm long house, sighed with emotion, and put aside the leather jacket he was wearing.
Vilia, who is on crutches, is as kind as his grandmother.
"Child, you arrived as promised."
"Yes, great priest." Rurik bowed deliberately and was very respectful in his words.
The tribe does not bow or even have clear ceremonial movements.
Of course Vilia felt very comfortable. She couldn't help but stretched out her old and skinny right hand and covered Rurik's head with golden braids.
She couldn't help but praise: "You are indeed different from those children. Let usLet’s get started! If you cultivate you into a talented person, I will be satisfied for the rest of my life. This is the biggest task for the rest of my life. ”
“Start studying now? "Rurik immediately raised his head.
"Yes! From now on, there is still time in the future. Since you are interested in learning, tell me clearly, are you willing to master all the wooden boards in that room? ! ”
“Of course. "Rurik answered without hesitation.
"Very good. That’s a lot of knowledge, and I hope you keep your word. ”
There is a lot of knowledge on the wooden board? Rurik didn’t think so at all!
The Babylonians recorded knowledge on clay tablets, and the ancient Egyptians recorded knowledge on straw paper. The Greeks recorded knowledge on sheepskins, and in the very far east, they used bamboo slips and paper.
However, by this era, paper should have been widely used in Europe.
Rick estimated this, how could the situation be so ideal?
The real historical process, from the third century to the thirteenth century, a thousand years, the best recorded documents and records in Europe? The carrier of books was parchment. Until the invasion of Menggu, the papermaking technology from the East spread. In just a few decades, the entire Europe began to use cheaper paper for writing, which objectively promoted the rapid spread of the Renaissance.
Because ordinary people can buy cheap books without spending too much money. They will no longer be dull for a long time because of the monopoly of knowledge by priests. They can have their own understanding of the whole world through books. My own independent thinking.
In the first half of the ninth century, due to the decline of the Tang Dynasty, the order of trade routes from Dongtu to Dashi and even Eastern Rome became increasingly worse due to wars. Desperate merchants were more willing to transport silk, tea, porcelain and spices with higher added value. Various types of paper, which were not expensive in the East, were not the main commodities. Even for these commodities, the nobles of Eastern Rome flocked to them. After all the supplies are purchased, it will be difficult for Western Europe and even Northern Europe to obtain these supplies.
Unless the various Viking tribes around the Mediterranean have greater ambitions to trade with Eastern Rome.
The time is 828 AD. So far, no Viking force has truly had commercial contact with Eastern Rome.
Because now, the "Viking Age" has actually just begun. < /p>
Here, the most likely person to complete it is the Rus tribe branch of the Swedish Slavic Alliance. If they move their entire family to Novgorod according to the historical process, the mixed Varyag-Slavs will , the era of trade and competition with Eastern Rome also began immediately.
Rurik basically knew this historical process, and he also knew very well that he should be the historical driver of this process. But these inner words. It is too metaphysical and grand, and ordinary people may find it unbelievable if it is told. Vilia will probably believe it. So what if she believes it? In the end, she sighed: "Odin's blessing.
It stands to reason that the Russians could also use sheepskin or cowhide to make writing carriers, but they did not do so, probably because this operation is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
If you think about it carefully, they don't seem to have a strong motivation to do so.
There are thousands of people in the entire tribe, and there are only a few people who love learning book knowledge. The more people are not anti-intellectual, but just anti-intellectual. On the contrary, everyone understands the importance of knowledge.
Ordinary people disdain the knowledge recorded in runes on wooden boards, because in order to understand the knowledge, you must first learn the runes. Many people were dissuaded.
What they know best is actually some symbols marked with numbers in the rune letters. After all, trade requires understanding of decimal numbers.
Only a few of them understand it. How to mark your name with runes is basically limited to this.
They pay more attention to technical teaching through words and deeds. The shipbuilder teaches his son how to build a ship, and the professional blacksmith teaches his son how to select ore and smelt. and forging. Women in the family also teach their daughters how to make linen threads, how to weave cloth, and process animal skins.
The living environment is so harsh that any young boy or girl must learn the most in a short time. Practical life skills, learning those obscure theoretical knowledge, the male parents of the family are not willing to let their young children go out of work to learn some "obscure graphics compiled by the priests who eat the food."
Yes, most people are members of the Ross tribe. Unfortunately, they don’t even know the written alphabet of their own tribe.
It is not surprising that the Ron alphabet has always been a niche. The sad fact is that writing is dying out quickly.
So, the entire tribe essentially dislikes books because they cannot yet understand the use of learning something obscure.
Lack. With the help of the tribe, the historical development of the tribe must also be recorded. The Villians are afraid that their tribe will forget who they are after a few generations.
She chose some by herself based on her own memory. The elastic oak board was baked until it was very dry and then polished with a whetstone, and finally engraved with ancient knowledge in rune letters.
But what she mastered was not just this knowledge. Most of the tribe members had no idea that young Vilia had the honor to meet men in black who claimed to be from the "Warm Beach".
Those men in black persuaded Vilia to believe in a supreme existence, Wei LiYa. Leah told them bluntly that the only supreme being was Odin.
However, Verya still got a treasure, which was compiled from dozens of parchments in a small wooden box. The book's exquisite cover fully displays the Eastern Roman style, and the content is written in two sets of languages - Latin and Greek.
As for the content, they are all praising an apostle, and The Apostle's Teachings to Common People
Velia's knowledge was reputed.Wise, her knowledge is still extremely limited.
She doesn’t want to be a follower of that apostle, she just wants to be a servant of Odin. Villa respected those men in black from Rome, and based on her own understanding, she simply determined that the book that had been sealed in the wooden box for decades was the "Oracle Book" of the Romans.
Odin controls the cold north, and the Roman south is not within Odin's control.
Villa kept the book very well because she felt that when the tribe had the opportunity to have further contact with the Romans in the future, this book would serve as a medium for friendly exchanges. After all, fighting-style contact was the next step. Last resort.
In addition, she marveled that Roman books and texts were preserved on soft parchment. How is animal skin processed into such a writing instrument? She didn't understand it at all, but she was envious but helpless.
She could only record the tribal knowledge on oak wood, because the region was cold and dry, and the oak wood was strong enough. Judging from the preservation time, the writing on the oak board was still very clear after decades.