December 28 of the Julian calendar is the longest night, and it is also the biggest festival of the year for the Ross tribe, Hanukkah.
Light always accompanies darkness. The winter solstice is the longest night in the whole year in the northern hemisphere. After this day, the days are slowly lengthening every day.
This normal phenomenon is particularly prominent in the geographical location of the Ross tribe.
Not only them, but all the ethnic groups and tribes around the Baltic Sea, they all realize that certain days throughout the year are shockingly dark. After this worst period of darkness, the days will become longer and longer. , spring will come soon.
Hanukkah is not a festival unique to the Ross tribe.
All residents of the Siwia tribe alliance in their south, including the Jutland peninsula south of the sea, made major sacrifices during this period. After the sacrifice, the residents reveled in the new year. They would drink up all the ale they brewed or bought, and eat luxuriously for several days.
The old priest Vilia did not understand how the Roman calendar was formulated. The only thing she was sure of was that the Romans had been using this calendar for 870 years!
She and the other priests had a different view of the universe than those of the black-robed Romans who preached to the north. Although everyone believes that one day human time will be destroyed, the Romans believed that on the day of destruction, all human souls will be tortured. This is something Vilia can't understand. She would rather believe that the warriors of doom will fight side by side with Odin and face Ragnarok in Asgard.
So, when will the world end?
She didn’t know, and those men in black didn’t know either. They also knew very little about each other's past. Those Roman men in black believed that it only took a few thousand years for Noah's people to develop to the present after the flood.
Vilia can be called the wise man of the tribe. Her knowledge of the history of her tribe does not exceed a hundred years, and further back it is only a few legends within the time span of three to four hundred years.
The calendar that has been used for 870 years must be accurate, Vilia is convinced! Looking up at the starry sky and seeing the positions of the stars, with less than three days before the festival, Villa was deeply impressed by the exquisiteness of the Roman calendar.
She sent herself as messengers, especially Bona, who would take over as the high priest after her death, and asked her to lead the lower-level priests throughout Fort Ross, walking on the snow to spread the news of the upcoming festival.
A grand sacrifice is about to begin.
When Rurik returned to the longhouse of the priests after a long absence, his image had obviously changed from before.
He came back after a long journey. In addition to putting on a thicker leather coat and the latest velvet hat made of whole snow fox skin, he began to wear a beautifully decorated hat on his waist. dagger.
Rurik is back, and the longhouse continues to be filled with the burning smell of fried fat. Compared with the strange smell of burning ore in the blacksmith shop, the smell of burning fat is more pleasant. At least it whets people's appetite.
When he entered the room, he opened his eyes wide and looked left and right. As expected, some of the lower priests were still boiling oil. There is also a lot of pure white seal fat piled randomly on the ground, waiting for further processing.
Vilia is also here. Her aging eyes are deeply sunken, nearly half of her teeth have been lost, and her face is covered with deep wrinkles. Wearing his huge antlered helmet, he carefully wiped all the gaps in the huge reindeer antlers with a piece of linen cloth.
It is not easy for a strong reindeer to carry huge boned horns on its head, let alone an old man?
This is Vilia's duty as the high priest. If she can't do it well, the antlered helmet should be handed over to Bona as soon as possible.
Obviously, only after his own life ends, the high priest's antlered helmet, which symbolizes the sacredness passed down through the generations, will be handed over to his successor according to tradition.
Hearing some restlessness, Villa noticed Rurik's return.
"Oh, child, you are finally back. Hurry! Come to me."
At this moment, seeing Rurik's small figure, she felt like entering the house It is obviously his grandson.
Deep in Velia's heart, she longs for a grandson who is willing to inherit her wishes, and it seems that Rurik is such a rising star.
Rurik nodded and ran over quickly, sitting obediently next to Vilia.
"I'm back. There are some very critical things during this period, and I have successfully completed them."
"Yes...I have heard a lot about it, that is, your waist The sword is hidden. My child, you shocked me, you gave other commands of Odin to Thor's servants, so it is good. "Vilia really wants to say more, because there are a few days in Roseburg. There was a legend circulating a while ago that the blacksmiths Clavarson and his family were helping the leader's son make a magical sword and succeeded.
The novel feeling about soap in the tribe has not yet passed, and the good news that the blacksmith shop can make divine swords can't help but spread.
"Child, the blacksmith has made you a good sword. Quick, pull it out and let me take a good look at this sword."
"Okay."< /p>
Rurik did not hesitate, and his action of drawing the sword was smooth and smooth.
Many circular chandeliers hang from the wooden beams of the longhouse of the priests, and the flames of a large number of oil lamps give the room a fairly bright light.
Through these firelights, the dagger in Rurik's hand showed a completely different color from ordinary swords.
Looking with a pair of aging eyes, Villa could also notice that the sword was different. Its blade was different from the sword body, as if the blade was made for a special purpose.
"It... can really cut through iron?" Villa didn't believe it.
"How about we give it a try."
"Okay! My dear, I really want to see what the sword looks like when the blacksmiths use Odin's wisdom to create it. "With that said, Villa directly waved the order.Poona, who was cooking oil, came over.
The experiment ended quickly under Bona's own hands. A deep mark 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 interpretations of their own myths, such as the Danes. Some Danes believe that if a female warrior dies in battle, her soul will enter Valhalla and she will have the opportunity to be promoted to a new Valkyrie. .
Some tribes believe that the Valkyries are all the daughters of Odin and are descendants of gods, which is something that mortals cannot hope for.
When we arrived at the Ross tribe, there were new opinions, and these opinions basically came from Veria’s own conviction. That is to devote the rest of his life to worshiping Odin and treating the longhouse of the priests as a sacred place. As long as he is pious enough, he may become a Valkyrie after death without having to fight.
Bonna has developed very strong arms through daily hard work. This kind of woman is naturally capable of handling some battles.
She personally held the sword and cut marks on the bronze basin used by the priests daily. Surprisingly, the shiny sword was not damaged.
Vilia's eyes were shocked at first, but soon she completely accepted it all, and her rickety back quickly cheered up.
"That's great, my child. No! The good child blessed by Odin..." Vilia held Rurik's hands deeply, "You give the knowledge to the blacksmith, You want them to make more and more good swords like this as soon as possible. We must become stronger one day and we will go south and regain our position in the alliance. You...you have seen those boards, you know why we left."
"I..." Rurik carefully recalled that there was a practical factor in the Ross tribe's northward migration, that is, Svealana had more people and less land.
In fact, it is not true that there are more people than less land. The area is generally vast, with a large number of lakes and unusable desert beaches. There is not much farmland that can be cultivated, and good areas have been occupied by other tribes.
An ethnic group that has migrated out of the core area of the tribal alliance is truly marginalized even if its population has reached 10,000. It is precisely because of their marginalization that the Ross tribe 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 there were not a large number of merchants from allied tribes living in Rossburg in the far north, perhaps the alliance gathered in the Svealand Plain would have forgotten the existence of the Ross tribe.
Rurik thought for a moment 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 the leader, I will do my best to lead everyone to continue to develop. "
Villa slowly got up, holding onto her crutches to stand upright with her somewhat stooped body.
"When you grow up, you will take your carefulThose kids you trained, and these magical weapons of yours, go south. If you want us to prosper, bring your army and make other tribes surrender. You must be the leader of this alliance. "
Leader of the alliance? Shouldn't I be the king?
But the Russians clearly want to...
Seeing that Vilia is too old, he continues to wear the Wearing a giant helmet to hold a ceremony, her neck must be broken.
How long can Vilia survive? Looking at her declining appearance, maybe she can survive until next summer. It’s difficult.
“Okay, I will try my best to be the leader, grandma. "Rurik said deliberately.
"Okay, kid. You stay here, and soon your servants will return with the deer. You are a merciful master and you treat your servants well. But you will eventually face some enemies, and against those enemies, kindness will only kill you. ”
“I understand. I will show no mercy to my enemies. ”
Rurik was happy to chat with Vilia, which was a way for him to kill the boredom in winter.
After a while, Rumia, who was grazing, came back. She drove all the deer back to the deer pen, and then met the warm priest's longhouse.
As usual, she took off her thick coat to keep out the cold. Rurik turned his face and saw her in surprise. The beautiful silver jewelry hanging on the sweater on her chest, and the girl's smiling face.
The girl is still smiling now. When she walks towards her little master obediently and sits beside him, Willy. Ya's words quickly stopped her laughter.
"The sacrifice will be held soon, Rurik. According to the agreement between your father and I, there will be five deer for the big sacrifice. ”
“Yes, I know that, but for the remaining deer, I hope my servants will continue to raise them. I intend to restore the deer herd as much as possible, so that the huge deer herd can continue to give us Bring 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, only to see Rumia, who was happy just now, with a sad look in her eyes.
" Alas..." Rurik didn't say anything, he kept it all.
The grand sacrifice of Hanukkah is under intense preparations.
At first, because of the production of soap She must have consumed a lot of fat. She was worried about this year's festival. Unexpectedly, with the news that the magical soap required seal oil as its main raw material, those who were good at digging through the ice to catch seals in winter were more obvious than in previous years. More diligent.
The priests made a considerable fortune, and the seal hunters took the opportunity to increase the price of their prey. Even so, they were still unable to match the huge profits of soap. Compared to the priests, the amount of silver coins flowing into Rurik's wallet during this period has exceeded three hundred! Although he paid a large sum to order a sword, he still has a considerable amount of wealth that continues to increase in value.rich.
He really deceived the priests with a wooden contract, and also deceived the entire clan with the price. Rurik felt that he had shown a bad behavior 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 a large amount of oil was refined to meet the key needs of the sacrifice.
On December 27 of the Julian calendar, when the short day suddenly ends, the grand sacrifice of Hanukkah will be held tonight.
The severe cold has almost frozen the entire Baltic Sea. Although the relatively warm waters near Jutland are not completely frozen, there are still a lot of ice on the sea.
Even the bravest Danes have to stay in their respective residences to celebrate the festival during this time.
In particular, there was a chief named Sigurd who lived in southern Jutland. His tribe was quite influential throughout Denmark.
However, in the current peninsula, Hafgen, the chief of the Robard tribe, controls the transportation routes between the inland sea and the outer ocean. He can earn a lot of wealth just by charging various travel fees.
However, Chief Sigurd often faced the Franks in the south and some Wends, the most western Slavic tribesmen.
He is very willing to go south to plunder in the warm season. In the past years, he has led his fleets to sweep south along the coastline many times. Because of these successful operations, the tribe has also accumulated a lot of wealth.
These actions really stimulated his son Ragnar. He was envious of his father's glorious achievements and he was eager to establish greater achievements.
In the winter of 828 AD, Ragnar was only an eighteen-year-old youth! This year he married his wife, but he had not yet received the nickname "Hairy Trouser Legs", let alone the "Son of Odin". He got many legends about wealth from his father, and was eager to inherit his father's position as leader. He was even considering going to the north to find the "lion" Hafgen in a duel, and cutting off his head on behalf of his tribe, so that he could serve as the new leader. Leader. After that, he led his allies to form a huge fleet and rushed directly to Paris, the legendary richest place in Frankfurt.
We must move all the gold piled up into a mountain in Paris back home! Of course, there are also those who captured the Franks and regarded them as their own slaves.
The young man’s ambition must be equated with his own strength, and Ragnar has no chance now.
He even didn’t know that further north in Scandinavia, to the north of the sea, was close to the legendary "Oarsman" Ross tribe, where there was a real "Son of Odin".
They all have lofty ideals, but they do not have equal strength.
Life is still going on step by step.
Each tribe of the Danes celebrated their own Hanukkah, as did a group of tribes in Scandinavia, and even fishermen on the island of Gotland were doing the same thing.
A few days of festivalAs soon as the day passes, the first day of the first month of each year in the Roman calendar also arrives, and time will irreversibly enter the year 829 AD.