The Rise of Rurik

Because of the stove, the huge wooden house was baked very warmly.

A white-haired old man, dressed in thick buckskin leather, sat around the fire, waiting for the kettle to boil. At this moment, the smell of boiled onions and herbs filled the room.

This old man was Veria, an unbelievably old woman who lived to the age of seventy.

Beside her, some young women in the tribe are her lower-level priests. They are quietly doing their work. After serving Vilia and drinking herbs, the day's work is not explained.

Veria is indeed very old, and she has always ordered the lower-level priests under her to prepare herbs and make medicinal soup for herself to take.

It seems that both priests and witch doctors have a source. Vilia learned some herbal knowledge from the ancestors of the tribe. Today, she feels that she has contracted the cold. After drinking the herbal soup for a few days, she feels that her condition is getting better day by day.

But she is still too old, and needs the assistance of others in many aspects of her daily life.

She has such a long life! Therefore, this person who holds the office of tribal priest is highly respected, and many times, her opinion is on the same level as that of the chief Otto.

Kanuf's mother told her everything she knew, and Vilya believed very much that the young Rurik had talents. She never imagined that Rurik, who was only seven years old, was already there. Concentrate on training the children of the tribe.

"So, do you support him?" Kanuf's mother asked respectfully.

"He is the son of the chief, and he is blessed by Odin." Veria sat cross-legged like a rock, squinting, "I understand what you mean. Rurik will be our chief in many years, But the road has not been smooth. He has some unique ideas, are they correct? I need to hear from Odin."

All Viking tribes have very similar beliefs.

Most of the tribes believe in Odin, followed by Torr, and some tribes have a small belief in Loki.

Therefore, the priests of the tribe always hope to get in touch with Valhalla through a certain method.

Villa slowly opened his eyes and signaled to a low-level priest to bring the divination pot with the rune inscription and the whole body inlaid with some gold patterns.

Then, she slowly stood up with her aging body, and put on thicker clothes with the help of the attendant, especially when she solemnly put on a helmet inlaid with huge antlers. Even though the antler helmet was heavy, she had to wear it.

The priests of the Viking tribe of Scandinavia had their own helmets with antlers. And the warm Gaul region, where the druids of the former native Celts, also have their own antler helmets.

In this respect, it seems to be the embodiment of their common ancient memory.

Then, surrounded by all the priests, Veria slowly walked out of the warm wooden house with the clay pot in her arms.

One of the things that the Ross tribe is very similar to other Viking tribes is that they all have altars that are similar in shape.

A well-tended flat site with more than fifty stones embedded in the ground and pieced together into huge streamlined shapes to imitate a boat.

This is the altar of the Rus tribe. Similar altars must be found in every human settlement in Scandinavia in this era, and there are even more in Gotland.

There is also a stone platform stacked in the middle of the altar. The platform has existed for more than 100 years, and the granite has been polished very smooth by people.

Some frozen fish were offered as tributes to Odin, and the lower priests carried a large number of bronze empty oil lamps on each stone of the boat-shaped altar. Each empty oil lamp is poured with a bit of warmed seal oil, and the wick is set on fire.

Undoubtedly, the Ross tribe is very superstitious, and there are sacrifices and four oil lamps placed on the stone platform.

After Vijay entered the altar, he slowly knelt down alone, and everyone else knelt down, including Kanuf's mother who was involved. Tonight's sacrifice is purely a temporary move by Veria. If it is a normal activity, a considerable number of people in the tribe will participate.

They all knelt on the ground, so-called paying respect to Odin, whom they believed in.

Villa muttered a spell to the dancing flames, thus making contact with Valhalla. At least that's what Veria's ancestors did when they were priests, and it's what her generation and subsequent priests do.

They were convinced of it.

After some spells were recited, Villa finally held the key pottery in his arms.

She continued to plausibly speak, shaking the pot with both hands, and finally, with her eyes closed, she took out a stone from the pot.

She slowly opened her eyes, and in the light of the oil lamp, she saw that it was a ruby, and she couldn't help showing a satisfied smile.

"Valhalla has given us a revelation." Villa stood up and looked at Kanuf's mother enthusiastically: "Rurik's decision is permitted. So we can't question his decision, and don't treat him There is too much emotion and praise for the decision. Because everything is fate." After that, Villa deliberately showed the ruby ​​in his hand.

The ancient priests of the Rus tribe were in charge of a clay pot containing six gems, two each of red, green and blue.

Red means "Odin's affirmation", blue means "Odin's negation", and green means "Odin's unwillingness to answer".

All the gems were polished into spheres as much as possible, and because of the frequent use of priests in the past, all the gems were extremely smooth in appearance.

These six gems have a great weight in the hearts of the tribes. They are considered to have mysterious power, so people only want to believe that only the divination made by priests using these gems can truly reflect Odin's wishes.

They simply believe this because they think it is worth believing.

It seems that the so-called divination is purely the performance of probability, and the situation is not so simple.

The gemstones have been specially treated. For example, the red gemstones have been deliberately polished with a small groove, and the sapphires representing negation have been polished with two.

Ordinary people have no chance to touch these divination gems, and this is a secret kept by the priests among each other.

Of course, Villa has alternatives. Some time has passed, and on certain occasions, she will show these gems to the people of the tribe, and what is actually shown are replicas of them without any scratches on the surface.

So does such "divination" still make sense? Of course there is. As for mortals hoping to obtain Odin's answers by this means, how could it be so simple. Compared to this, Villa believes in dreams and the revelation from the sky - the Northern Lights.

Therefore, Vilia used this method. In addition, she had served as the highest priest of the tribe for 30 years, and she was the second person in control of the tribe behind the leaders of all dynasties.

Even Rurik's father Otto, who was able to serve as the chief of the tribe for a long time, was supported by the power of Veria.

Obviously, what the mortals of the tribe don't know is that the aged Vilia has made up her mind. She loves her Ross tribe and thousands of people, so she must nurture Otto's son in her lifetime. rick.

When she felt the time was right, she called Rurik to her side, making him truly the first wise man recognized by the tribe.

She has always believed that, as a leader, knowledge is more useful than brute force. Obviously, the young Rurik was naturally aware of the value of wisdom. Thirty people formed a fighting group, and thirty people just filled a boat. Four boats can form four human walls, and can form a hollow array.

Villa recalled his own life, and no one in the tribe had ever imagined such a fight before.

She had no idea what such a tactic would bring. After all, she listened to Kanuf's mother's dictation, which Rurik came up with himself. And Rurik is really training those children according to his own assumptions. The children roared amazingly on the hill every day, and the visiting lower priest came back and reported: "They are like a stone wall, panning forward very neatly."

Recalling these reports, as well as the surprise report of Kanuf's mother, the aged Villa had more emotions.

She only sighed that her life was not long. It took seventy years for the Ross tribe to have such a promising and ambitious child. If she could not teach him the knowledge of the tribe's ancestors she had mastered in her lifetime, it would be her eternal regret!