What is the world, or the universe, supposed to be made of?
What Rurik strongly believes is that everyone in the world in this era will believe that everything they know is created by a great being.
So every ancient ethnic group has developed various beliefs. They need a founder so that they can no longer be confused about their own existence and find a meaning for their own existence.
In a cold world, the mountains of the fjord serve as a barrier to resist most of the cold winds from the Arctic. The sea was frozen and the ground was covered with a layer of snow. The sky was very clear at night, and the moonlight and aurora illuminated the snowy fields.
The large number of wooden houses in Roseburg are warm places, and many people have already crawled into the nests made of animal skins and fell asleep.
Rurik sat on the leather cushion, as if he were a teacher.
His two students are already very old, the blacksmiths Klavasen and Kawei. They just want to hear what Rurik has to say about the human world.
The two of them sat cross-legged with their eyes blazing, and Rurik also acted as serious as a priest.
"We all know that there is a giant named Ymir, and Odin used his corpse to create everything. The giant tree holds up the human world and Valhalla. Odin He is the Lord of Valhalla, the Valkyries are his servants, and our fallen warriors will serve as warriors of the temple..."
Rurik repeated what he had seen on the wooden planks of the priest's longhouse. Mythology records documents in order to first gain a resonance with Klavason.
He kept narrating, but suddenly, Klavason interrupted.
"Rurik, dear, I have known these ancient stories for a long time. I also know that Odin created the human world, and I also know that Odin is Thor's father."
"Huh? You know everything?" Rurik's eyes widened.
Clavason chuckled: "We are blacksmiths, of course we know. My dear, don't compare us with those fishermen."
"Fishermen, you are referring to those Warriors?"
"Of course! They think they can go to Valhalla after they die. I hope they can. This has nothing to do with us blacksmiths. We are Thor's servants. . You should tell me something more realistic. I just want to know. Your dagger is made of ordinary things. Could it be that the more times you hit it and the more it is burned, the more hard it becomes? !”
Rurik scratched his head, he really overestimated the blacksmith’s mythical belief.
Perhaps from the beginning, blacksmiths and other professional craftsmen were more realistic and secular than others.
"Okay, I'll tell you now, but I still have to start from the beginning!" Rurik emphasized.
"Where to start?"
"Start from the death of the giant." Rurik returned to his serious expression to emphasize that his words were true: "The giant especiallyMir died, and Odin used his divine power to turn the body into powder. This kind of powder is smaller than the powder you can understand. It is the smallest existence that Odin can create, and it is the smallest existence that builds our human world. I don't know what to call it. I'll give it a name now, call it indivisible, call it at. "
at, derived from atos, the classical Greek word for "the indivisible thing."
What Rurik is talking about now is that Klavasen, who has lived a long time, simply cannot It was an incomprehensible statement, he tried to recall, and he was particularly sure that even the wise man of the tribe, Vilia, had never explained the structure of the world in this way, but he could not infer that Rurik's words were nonsense because this child had indeed obtained Austria. Ding’s blessing, isn’t the soap a proof?
Klavasen didn’t take it seriously at first, he deliberately said: “I can’t understand what you said. Could it be that we... include myself? , is also composed of what you call at. ”
“Of course! I can tell you with absolute certainty that everything is composed of the tiniest at. Because of this, Odin can..."
Rurik suddenly had an idea, because on this issue It is most appropriate to give them an appropriate metaphor.
“Blacksmith, if you want to build a wooden house, you can’t carve it out of a big tree. You need to cut down some small trees and use an ax to carve them into large and small pieces of wood. So for a wooden house, each wooden block is an at. A wooden block is just a wooden block, a hundred wooden blocks can build a wooden wall, and hundreds of wooden blocks can put together a house. By this time the block was no longer called a block, but a part of the house.
So, a huge number of at constitutes your and my body, your blacksmith shop, and my sword. "
"This...is this true? "Hearing this, Klavason has completely understood and wants to think about it.
Kawei is only twenty years old, and he is more willing to get in touch with new things.
Rurik's description is full of very positive meanings, because the houses are made of a large number of wooden blocks and wooden strips. Not only the houses, but also the tribe's ships are made of huge quantities of wooden blocks and become particularly complex. Existence.
Kawei stared at Rurik with his eyes widened and stretched his head: "I believe what you said! "
"Hey! Kawei. "Clavason nudged his son, "You have to think about it, this is really amazing. "
"Dad, aren't Rurik's words worthy of belief? Or is it because you are too old? ! Kawei stiffened his mouth and faced Rurik again: "Go on, I am very willing to believe you." "
"Okay..." Rurik swallowed. He knew that if he wanted the two senior blacksmiths to immediately believe his magical words, he would need a more detailed and popular explanation and more examples. .
Is there an example?
Rurik feels that he can explain them scientifically now.How is steel made?
"A person is like an AT. When multiple ATs come together, they cannot be called simple ATs. For example, six ATs come together and they are charcoal." As he said, Rurik He also deliberately pointed to the carbon pile placed in the corner of the wooden house. "Charcoal is made up of many small things. I call this thing carbon. Six ats make up one carbon. Carbon is always pure in the tree. If you give it temperature, other things will leave, leaving only There is carbon in the tree."
"Ah! Is this true?"
"Kawei, can you get me a piece of ore? asked Rurik.
"Of course."
At this moment, Kawei felt that he had heard the most incredible thing. He staggered up and hurriedly brought a small piece of ore and placed it on Rurik. before. His mouth became stammered because of this: "Tell me... tell me more."
"Okay, this is the ore." Rurik put his hands on the stone, " It is the smallest form of AT. For example, our tribe. If a single person is an AT, Kawei, you and Klavason and your mother form a blacksmith family in the tribe. There are five. There are also many professional cobbler families in the tribe, and there are many professional carpenter families. The largest number is the fisherman family, which is the main force of our tribe's warriors. As a result, each family has different jobs. We are not divided because of the different jobs of our families.
This ore is the same! At, a large number of families with different characteristics form a tribe, which is this stone.
So, we use fire to burn this stone, which is mixed living. families, forcing them to live together according to their different identities.
For example, if my father Otto wanted all families in our tribe to live in designated areas according to the characteristics of their occupations. In this way, the five blacksmith families in the tribe are neighbors, and all the cobblers live together."
Klavason looked confused. After hearing this, Kawei's flexible mind successfully imagined the scene of a large-scale relocation of the Ross tribe's family, and successfully understood many of the mysteries in Rurik's remarks.
Kawei asked excitedly: "What if... what if our tribe is a huge ore, turning the ore into iron, as if all the blacksmiths live together?"
"Ah, you have completely understood." Rurik breathed a sigh of relief. After all, young people's brains work better.
Rurik thought for a while, and since this metaphor worked best, he might as well continue.
“Actually, every piece of ore is basicallyA tribe of sand and iron. Suppose there is a tribe where there are only blacksmith families and fishermen families. Now because of some things, the fishermen families decide to move away from the tribe. The fisherman left and even tore down his own house. In this way, all the blacksmiths were left in the tribe, they lost all their neighbors, and they felt lonely and dangerous. So all the blacksmith families decided to live together again.
So, when we burn the ore, we force the sand to leave the ore, and the last thing left is iron. What the blacksmith has to do is hammer the loose iron together. Kawei, maybe you will understand if I say this. "
"I...it turns out...it turns out to be like this!" Kawei laughed enthusiastically, "Haha, it turns out that's what my job is." "
"Klavasen, what do you think of what I said? "Rurik turned to ask this old guy with a huge beard.
"Sounds interesting. "Karavason seems to be silent, because he can't make a hasty conclusion yet.
"My next words are the key, and they are also what you want to know most! "Rurik's eyes became serious, "14 at form the smallest sand. If these smallest sands form the shield wall that our warriors like most, the sand will turn into transparent pebbles. Such pebbles are found on the beach. a lot of. But with the axes and swords we need, all the smallest bits of sand must be removed, and the best way is to burn them!
But you will never imagine that by just removing the smallest piece of sand, we will get pure iron.
It consists of 8 ats..."
Suddenly, Rurik felt that he really couldn't explain to them what oxygen was.
He might as well come He took a deep breath and explained: "If a person doesn't inhale, he will die soon. Because 8 at constitute the energy of life. "After saying this, Rurik really admired his cleverness from the bottom of his heart. Oxygen, a temporary phrase invented in the Old Norse language, originally meant "the breath of life", which is a good explanation.
He continued: "We are in gas, and it is also mixed. What we need is the gas of life in it. There is also the largest tasteless gas, which is composed of 7 ats. We don't need it. The breath of life is very powerful and we need it to survive! The life energy can enter the water, so the fish can survive, but the fish can only use the life energy mixed in the water, and it will die when it reaches the shore.
The energy of life can also enter the ore. They like iron very much, just as pure as men like women. Therefore, the iron in the ore always holds a small ball of life energy.
But when we use charcoal to light a flame, the breath of life is like an unfaithful woman who left her iron and went to be with the smallest charcoal, that is, carbon, and turned into a kind of breath. Away down your chimney.
What you get in the end is pure iron. "
Kawei found it even more interesting, "Rurik...this…This is the funniest story I’ve ever heard. "
"No, this is not a story! " Rurik emphasized seriously, "You can't be like your ancestors who spent their whole lives blacksmithing without knowing the principles of blacksmithing. What I am telling you now is part of Odin's wisdom. "
"Go on. "Klavasen urged seriously.
Rurik looked at the old guy again, and saw his eyes were burning.
"Okay, let me continue. Now all the smallest bits of sand and life energy in the ore are gone, leaving only pure iron, which you use to make an iron sword. You have also noticed that if an iron sword is not properly maintained, red rust will appear on the sword. That's because of the energy of life. Pure iron still likes to be with the energy of life. So Clavarson, if you find some red stones in the mountains, there is no doubt that it is another type of iron ore, which is the same thing as the red rust on the sword. "
"Ah! "Klavasen yelled and sat upright suddenly, "Is this really the case? ! ”
“That’s it, you don’t have to doubt it. So you reheated and forged the rusty sword, and it became the same as it was at the beginning. Because the energy of life has been eliminated again. Okay...you should understand a lot now. I think it's enough. I should tell you why my hard iron sword can cut through ordinary iron swords. "
As he spoke, Rurik inserted the iron sword directly into the ground and pierced the animal skin without much effort.
"Pure iron is very strange. It is relatively able to be penetrated by other substances. It's like salt can penetrate into the meat and the result is cured meat, which is completely different from fresh meat. The same is true for iron. The energy of life seeped in, and the iron sword became red and fragile. What if the smallest charcoal, that is, carbon seeps in? The blacksmith becomes brighter and stronger. An iron sword can smash a pottery urn without any damage, because the iron sword is the hardest. My dagger cuts through the iron sword, and the edge is perfect, for my sword is the hardest.
To do this is very simple. In fact, you light a charcoal fire in your stove and put an ordinary iron sword in it without using a blower at all.
The temperature of the fire is not high enough so that a small amount of carbon can enter the iron sword. The more it goes in, the stronger the sword becomes. However, the carbon cannot enter evenly, so I ask you to fold and forge repeatedly. I ask you to burn the iron sword fifty times and forge it fifty times. The sword has absorbed enough carbon.
But carbon cannot absorb too much, otherwise it will break easily. When I felt it was enough, I added dirt to the sword, just letting the blade absorb more carbon. Now you can see that the blade is brighter than the spine. ”