Trapped in the snow and wind, what else can people do in their homes?
Adults will tell their children some exaggerated stories, especially those men who participated in the northern exploration. They tell their children that the deer herders are terrible enemies and that the fathers fought for them. Win them.
Adults do not hesitate to put gold on their faces to gain the admiration of children.
If you just tell strange stories for a long time, life will seem very boring.
Many people actually weave and repair hemp rope nets in their own longhouses, and repair longboats in larger wooden houses.
This time a large amount of animal skins were brought back. If the animal skins cannot be processed quickly and the animal skins rot, using them to make clothes will not be a good choice.
There is a group of professional blacksmiths in the Ross tribe. They found iron ore in the mountains and copper ore further away. Their iron smelting technology is not good. Using ancient technology, they can only smelt pig iron and then beat it to make a good axe.
Compared with iron smelting, their ability to make bronze is better, but the copper mines in this area are rarer and the output is lower.
For most tribesmen, the main way they obtain wealth and food is through hunting and fishing. They make smoked fish jerky and a small amount of leather. While satisfying their own use, they sell extra products or complete transactions within the tribe.
Leather trade is usually indeed internal trade.
The blacksmiths of the tribe rarely participate in fishing, and they rarely participate in large-scale collective hunting. Not even very enthusiastic about the Sorgon voyage led by leader Otto himself?
Why?
Because they are professional blacksmiths.
Every household in the tribe has its own metal tools, and iron tools are widely used in everyone's daily life.
Those wrought iron tools that have been beaten to a very low carbon content are prone to rust even if they are used. When some tools are severely rusted, they have to be handed over to a blacksmith and paid for renovation, or is to buy a new one.
Blacksmiths would go to the mountainous areas themselves, carry suitable iron ore home, and make it into usable tools or weapons after a long process of smelting and forging.
Besides that, the main job is repairs.
Ordinary people, if their wood-cutting axes become dull or the blade is damaged, they still have to take it to a blacksmith and ask him to forge it and pay for it.
Perhaps the professional blacksmiths of various civilizations were their original chemistry experts.
Blacksmiths have to go deep into the mountainous areas to search for available mineral deposits. In the process of searching, they will naturally dig up some priceless amber, as well as a small amount of rubies and sapphires. They can always find some translucent ores, including crystal clear natural quartz, gypsum, and even alum and thenardite, which are very important to the tribe.
Alum and Glauber's salt can be found in the mountainous areas of this region.Starting from that day, the Ross tribe no longer needs to import these two "strategic materials" from the brother tribes in the south, and will even export them on a small scale.
In fact, they are not particularly precious minerals, because they are quite common in rocky mountains all over the world.
The central ridge of Scandinavia still contains many minerals. The Ross tribe and the Siiya tribe alliance prematurely discovered that this ridge is rich in iron ore. Perhaps they have not thought at this time that further mining and smelting of these ores will eventually make Sweden and Norway rich.
The few blacksmiths are like the "geological experts" of the tribe. They are more focused on blacksmithing. The alum and mirabilite they mine are basically sold out as soon as they are brought back to the tribe.
Especially those allied tribesmen living in the Ross tribe. Some of them are not only businessmen, but also professional craftsmen.
These people buy and hoard alum and thenardite, and wait for the end of autumn, when the hunters of the Ross tribe will continue to sell the newly hunted animal skins to themselves.
So in some longhouses, it really stinks!
But under the stimulus of great wealth, it is completely worth enduring the stench and continuing to work.
Otto, his victorious operation brought him a profit of one hundred deer. During the difficult journey back, 80% of the deer either died or were sold by him on the way.
He personally owns fifty fresh deer skins. Although they are fresh, they are actually hardened by the cold.
Otto is not short of animal skins and clothing, and he does not expect Niya to complete the complex processing of fifty deer skins alone, and there is not enough material for processing animal skins at home.
He sold all the deerskins and directly earned fifty Roman silver coins of good quality, which he locked in his piggy bank.
In the cold winter, the world is frozen. Not only do the homes of leather merchants stink, but the entire family also falls into the busiest season. Celebrating Hanukkah with the Ross tribe, being able to experience the days without sunshine is really more interesting than at home in the south.
This is also a place of wealth. After processing a complete deerskin, regardless of the cost, selling two can net you at least one silver coin.
It can be said that this is a job that seems to be profitable without losing money, and this is indeed the case, that is, it requires a lot of labor from the workers.
They hide in a warm home, first pre-process the fresh fur, scrape off the meat and fat on the hide, and wash it with hot water.
Fortunately, there is snow at your fingertips outdoors, which can be done by melting and boiling it.
Then comes the salt-making process that requires the participation of Glauber's salt, and the odor containing trace amounts of toxicity also escapes. To complete this step, there is also the tanning process involving alum.
When they completed all the processes and the hide became soft and extremely corrosion-resistant, spring arrived, and soon the frozen sea melted enough for shipping to resume.
Otto, and the people of the Ross tribe, everyone does not know how profitable the leather craftsmen among the allies are in purchasing the fresh furs they hunt.
Reindeer skin is warmer and has a larger surface area than sheepskin. It itself is quite expensive leather, and the Sami people who are good at raising deer also quickly turned from trade to war after encountering the Siiya tribe heading north. Small clan-based deer herder communities were being destroyed one after another, and this year Otto was simply doing what his ancestors had done.
Deer breeders are losers. There are not many wild deer herds to begin with. Without deer breeders, the reindeer population has shrunk sharply.
Today, reindeer are extinct in Jutland, and reindeer are increasingly rare in Scandinavia.
The Danes struggled to raise sheep and cattle, so they could only obtain important leather. Because of conflicts with the Frankish Kingdom and the Slavic Wende tribe, the originally relatively harmonious bilateral trade turned into pure robbery.
The relationship between the Danes and their traditional partners has become increasingly tense, and their trade routes have been affected. They have to take tougher measures to do business with swords more frequently.
So the cobblers living in Rossburg can row their long boats straight to the Danish territory, and of course they have to sneak over quietly. Although the conflict between the Siwei Tribal Alliance and the Danes has become more and more serious in recent years, the private trade between the two parties is not really determined.
Everyone speaks the same Norse language, and the language has not become too different due to geographical barriers. The merchants directly claim to be Danish and are the same race as the customers. As for where the high-quality deerskin comes from, the answer is easy to guess - it was stolen from the Finns in the north.
It is not an exaggeration to replace one processed high-quality reindeer skin with five sheepskins from the Jutland locals. Although this is a very risky behavior, if you take the risk of being attacked by the Danes, you can at least make twice or more than selling it to your own people.
This time, there were more than 200 reindeer skins, as well as a large number of Arctic fox skins, ferret skins, wolf skins, and even ten white bear skins. The Ross hunters sold them all in order to quickly exchange for silver coins.
In this way, the locals in Fort Ross praised their leader as a "brave adventurer" who bravely helped everyone get a huge fortune.
As for the guest leatherworkers, they almost knelt down in front of Otto, praising the leader's generosity with exaggerated smiles.
Cobblers are busier than they have been in decades. The small number of cobblers has to work at home this time, and even young children must help.
Because the head of the family understands that if he spends a freezing winter completing a huge amount of work, the income gained will be enough to give his family a life of food and clothing without worrying about labor for two or three years!
Therefore, in the wind and snow, some strange buildings were always emitting black smoke.
It was the tribe’s blacksmith shop and tannery workshop, where they burned charcoal to carry out complex production work with high added value.
Of course the richest people in the tribe are the leader Otto’s family.Next are the priests, and third are the blacksmiths, cobblers, and several particularly skilled carpenters.
It is understandable that the leader is the richest, because according to the traditional rules of the tribe, the leader must legally get more loot. The priest group is completely supported by the entire tribe, and the priests are also composed entirely of women. The number of people is only small, so the per capita wealth seems to be greater.
Those craftsmen are ordinary people in the tribe, and their identities also determine that they cannot become heroic spirits in Valhalla.
They can't even be Odin's servants, because they believe in Thor.
People believe that Thunder is the incarnation of Thor. This god holds a sledgehammer. In people's concept, he looks like a young blacksmith.
All blacksmiths worship Thor, as do other craftsmen. These people naturally do not need to fight to prove themselves. Although they are people of the same tribe, they believe that they are actually protected by Thor.
Since the heavy snowstorm started, the snowfall actually lasted for five full days!
Fortunately, only the first two days were filled with terrible snowstorms, and then it was just pure snowfall.
But this is not the beginning of peace. Every family's house is facing huge safety risks. The heavy snow can easily collapse the roof. Starting from the third day, some residents have taken risks. In the wind and snow, I first clear the snow in front of my house, then climb up to the roof and use the wooden shovel I usually use to dig away the snow to clear away the snow as much as I can.
Probably only blacksmiths and leatherworkers don't have to worry too much about snow. The inside of their longhouses is extremely hot, and the snow on the roofs cannot be stored at all. The stone slabs at the chimneys remain the same.
Rurik spent most of his time these days studying.
Rumia easily finished feeding the few deer hiding in the pen. The only necessary task that Rurik assigned to the girl was this. The rest of the time, he took the girl with him and learned the language of the deer herders through the translation of the Vilia priest.
In just a few days, Rurik has learned some of the most commonly used words, including phrases such as "eating" and "drinking water."
In contrast, Rumia also learned many Norse words and phrases. Due to the fact that the Norse language of this era still has many tongue-licking sounds, it would be difficult to master it quickly if one did not learn it from an early age. This has resulted in Rumia's current pronunciation of the language being quite strange. The ancient Sami language of the deer herders does have the tongue-licking sound, but it is not used as frequently as in the Old Norse language.
Thankfully, Rumia has basically learned the words that are most commonly used in ordinary life, and she has to use the newly learned words immediately in order to communicate with her master.
But is Rurik really the master?
This little boy, who is three years younger than himself, bluntly claimed that he would rather call himself sister.
In fact, this child had intended to call him this from the beginning, butAt that time, I didn't understand Norse at all.
Rumia was even more moved by this. What she longed for most was her family. As long as she had a family member who was willing to love and care for her, a lot of the pain in her heart would be gone.
This is the fourth day of snowfall, and the snowflakes are more dense than yesterday. Everyone believes that the snowstorm season will soon pass.
During these days, Rurik led his servants to engage in an intensive study life in the longhouse of the priests, at least that was what Otto thought.
The lives of Otto and Niya have also become more boring. They are more willing to hide in their warm house and watch their young son play during the boring winter. Although for several years, every cold winter, my son used a wooden stick to draw strange symbols on the ground.
As long as they see this little guy, the couple is satisfied.
On a silent night, Niya's heartache that she had endured for many days finally broke out.
She asked her husband: "It has been several days. Rurik has been living in the priest's cabin. Are you really relieved?"
"The child is studying. Of course I am relieved. He said that he would not only be our leader, but also the leader of Novgorod and many deer farmers. This kid is challenging my authority, and his ambitions are very ambitious. "Thinking of many things that had happened, Otto had mixed emotions. Facing his wife, who was as old as himself, there were some things he really couldn't say.
“But he is a seven-year-old child.”
“In ten years, he will be a seventeen-year-old child, my Niya. He loves to learn very much. He will grow up to be a wise man. You also know that Rurik was learning the language of the Novgorodians from Peravina of Arik, and now he is learning the language of the deer herders. Of course, to become the leader of a foreign tribe, you have to learn the foreign language, so you don't have to worry about anything. He is your son and will always be yours."
"But I still like him to be messy in the house. He looks like he's running, or like he's banging around with a stick."
"Don't worry." Otto sighed, "I'll get him here tomorrow, along with his little servant. The servant is also learning our language, and I just want to see what the girl has done. Listen, we have to clear the snow off the roof tomorrow. If the roof is damaged, it will be difficult to repair. ”
"You reminded me, I will prepare the snow clearing tools now."
"Prepare some more food." Otto added.
"Well, Rurik is very light. If he climbs to the roof to clear the snow, I won't worry about the house collapsing. But you..." Niya chuckled, "He is too heavy, you can't You must not go to the roof. Like last year, I was worried that the house would collapse."
"Then you can't completely count on Rurik to go to the roof. The servant must also go up. If Rurik wants to eat meat, the servant must also eat meat."
"Why?A servant. Niya looked very unconcerned. "Just give the servant something to eat, such as some shark liver or something else." ”
What Niya actually means is that the food given to servants is a reward. Although it is a reward, we should also reward those unpalatable foods that can only satisfy our hunger, such as shark liver. If it is not for survival, who can I would be happy to eat this strange-smelling food.
Otto rejected his wife’s idea. This was not because Otto was kind, but because he was his son’s servant.
" It’s better to prepare more. Otto ordered, "You don't know, Rurik said in front of the priest that that servant is his future helper." Rurik eats meat, and his servants also eat meat. I don’t know why, but Rurik pays special attention to this servant. "
"It's strange. I've seen that servant before. There's nothing special about it. "
"No! Otto shook his head, "It must be special for our son." Because that servant was tamed by himself, you should not say anything more about the servant from now on. If that servant disobeys, Rurik will punish him, and we don’t need to interfere. ”
“That’s fine. We called Rurik back, and... and that servant named Lumia. As long as that servant sweeps the snow properly, I will reward her. But you, I can't control that servant if he doesn't work well. Rurik is my son. If he can't bear it, I won't care. I will personally punish the servant who doesn't work! "
Feeling his wife's tough attitude, Otto deliberately asked: "What will happen to you? "
"I...at least...at least give the servant a slap and warn him that he will be punished for being lazy. "
Otto wanted to laugh wildly, but when he thought about the incident a few days ago, he closed his mouth again. "Don't think about it, continue to sleep, we have to clear the snow tomorrow morning . ”
Otto said no more, wrapped himself tightly in the animal skin and continued to rest, but his mind was full of thoughts.
For the girl named Rumia, my son He boldly resisted his own authority and held his own sword.
Not to mention, if this brat’s grandfather still has his grandfather’s grandfather, some of his ancestors must have entered Valhalla. They should have seen this scene in the sky. They will also be happy for their unruly descendants.
Also, their own era is about to pass, maybe in another ten years, the Ross tribe will be here. It's Rurik's time
Chief, times have changed.