The Rise of Rurik

The people of the tribe believed most in the prophecies of the priests, and also in the words of the wise man Veria.

The anxiety of the onlookers was instantly eliminated, and then the negative emotions of the entire tribe also disappeared.

The people began to disperse, and only Nia and Rurik were left behind by the priest Veria.

"Great priest, do you have an important command?" Nia has always admired Willia very much in her heart, and she was even a little scared.

"Your son, Rurik, he is the one blessed by Odin." Veria thought for a while, and had an idea. "Actually, you can leave. Your son will stay with me today."

"Some instructions?"

Veria said casually: "Odin gave me more revelation about Rurik, and I want to explain some things to him in person. I thought about it again, maybe you don't listen to these words."

At this moment, Rurik was a little confused. He looked at the elderly Grandma Veria, and only felt that the old man had a kind face and was worth getting close to.

He asked what his mother was doing now.

Nia stroked her son's shoulder and looked at Vilia: "Okay, I'll give him to you." Then he bent down: "The priest wants to talk to you, it's Valhalla's revelation to you, you don't You can refuse, you know?"

"Well... I understand." Rurik nodded, thinking in his heart, I am afraid that the simple old grandma has her own words to say, and it is not suitable for outsiders to know.

Rurik followed Veria cautiously into the priest's residence, and today was his first time here.

"Child, don't be nervous, just follow me." Veria instructed.

Rurik hummed, his eyes widened and he looked left and right, curiously observing everything he saw.

Veria leaned on a cane and slowly turned into a small room in the high priest's house.

It was a dark room, and when Vilia walked in, an inexplicable sense of fear immediately filled Rurik's body.

After all, until now, he still didn't know what the long-lived Grandma Veria was going to do.

"Don't be afraid." Veria asked kindly, and then she lit the oil lamp in the room.

Rurik asked cautiously: "Respected priest, this is..."

"You can call me grandma, my child." Veria beckoned, and Rurik walked in obediently.

There are some wooden counters on display in this room, some planks are placed neatly on it, and there are even the existence of obvious scrolls.

Thinking about it with his toes, Rurik also knew that it must be some bookshelf.

Those wooden boards and scrolls must be ancient books treasured by the tribe. Thinking of this, Rurik suddenly became full of curiosity.

Could it be that the Vikings, known for their barbaric robbers at sea, still had their own books? !

Veria turned slowly, the exaggerated wrinkles on her face enhanced by the dim oil lamp's comforting kindness.

"Rurik, my boy, do you know where this place is?"

"Yes... it's a mysterious place. I saw those wooden boards, which must have been carved with words and recorded some stories."

Hearing this, Willia was really excited.

For decades, only one child in the entire tribe could tell that they were books.

Veria tried to suppress her inner excitement, and her squinted eyes suddenly opened at this moment.

"Rurik, I tell you, these boards are books. What is a book? Write a lot of what happened in the past, engrave it on boards, or write it on sheepskin, and it's a book."

At this moment, Rurik understood the word "book" in Old Norse, and the big concept was "bokk".

After all, the Danish and Norwegians who invaded Britain all speak Old Norse, and many of them have basically similar pronunciations. So a large number of Norse words went directly into Old English, which eventually influenced the language of millennia later.

"But grandma, you brought me here, do you want me to learn what's in the book? "　　

"Of course! Of course it is..." At this moment, Veria couldn't help expressing her excitement. For the time being, she breathed a sigh of relief and said bluntly, "My child, I have a dream."

"Your dream? Is it about me? You want me to be the leader?"

Facing a rare and teachable boy, Veria approached Rurik, an old hand caressing his tender head.

"My dear, you will indeed be the new leader in many years. I hope you will be a wise leader."

"Like Russian father Otto?"

"No!" Vilia shook her head. "He's just a little smarter than the normal people of the tribe, and you are far superior to your father. You have the potential in this area, and in order to make it a reality, I think you have to make this room a reality. All the knowledge in the room is learned."

With the old hand still on his forehead, Rurik raised his head slightly and stared at the old grandmother with wide eyes.

"Grandma, I am willing to learn this knowledge, it is not just to satisfy your hopes. I think that since I am going to be the future leader, I must know more."

"You!" Rurik's consciousness was completely beyond Veria's imagination.

She forced herself to calm down and continued: "You do need to know this. Your father knows some of it, and maybe you'll be happy to know all of it."

"I will. But what exactly is this knowledge."

"Sit down first and I'll tell you slowly."

For many years now, this "library" that houses all the intellectual heritage of the Ross tribe, Rurik is a rare visitor to it.

Rurik pretended to be obedient and sat on a pair of animal skins, listening to Veria's explanation.

Rurik was not too surprised by the results she told. The planks and scrolls here are mainly the past of the Ross tribe, which is their own history.

They are the Ross tribe! One day will become a great group, and Rurik is the precursor of this change.

The torrent of history is in itself, and Rurik is also willing to follow the development of this thread.

Now he never imagined that the Ross tribe actually recorded its own history. If these wooden scrolls are lost, everything about the Rus tribe will be a mystery before they settle in Novgorod!

"Now that you understand what the plank recorded, you should remember it, because your father remembered part of it, do you have a reason to remember it all."

Rurik nodded obediently: "I see."

"No..." Veria shook his head, "Son, you need to know more. Your father can subdue the crowd and become a leader. Why is he able to subdue the crowd? It's all because he has a lot of knowledge, and he can explain Austrian Ding's will."

Having said this, Veria was very calm and asked solemnly: "Rurik, do you fully believe in the existence of valhalla and hell?"

"This..." Rurik was a little puzzled. He didn't believe in these myths originally. Taking into account the feelings of the priest Veria, he finally nodded: "I believe it. Just like when I was born, you told the people that I was a Those whom Odin blessed."

Veria laughed lowly for a while, then said, "That was my plan, my child."

"Ah! So, I'm not?" Rurik deliberately looked surprised.

"No! Now it seems that my judgment is correct. You are indeed the one blessed by Audi. But there are some things you need to understand. You have seen what happened just now. I took out the ruby ​​and signaled to everyone that they will come back safely. Actually I'm not entirely sure about it. I'm sorry, my boy. I can't judge your father's condition."

Rurik felt very strange that Veria said so. It's not because she can't do the correct divination, she must not be able to do such a supernatural thing. She is a long-lived person, revered in this age of ignorance.

The only thing that surprised Rurik was that Veria himself admitted that the divination was ineffective.

"So, my father's situation..." Rurik asked pretending to be surprised.

"I'm sorry, my boy. We're all mortals, and Odin doesn't answer prayers because of a few fish. Odin only sends Valkyries to search for warriors, Valhalla doesn't give us for little things. Revelation. It is only on special events that I can receive revelation from Valhalla, such as your identity, that you are indeed blessed."

Veria's words were suffocating, and Rurik could not have imagined that she could explain it in such a way.

Rurik hurriedly asked, "Then my father and the others..."

"Don't worry." Veria stroked Rurik's head again and reassured: "They must have brought too much wealth, which delayed the return voyage. In my long life, there have been many voyages. It took more than forty days before and after. Those women were too young, but they waited a little longer, thinking that their husbands were gone. In fact, on the contrary, they will bring back great wealth."

"I hope it's true," Rurik muttered.

"This is true, you are worth believing. Child, I know what you are doing during this time, obviously you have a certain appeal, you have more incredible ideas to train those children, This is good."

"Ah! Are you supportive?"

"Of course, you can continue to train them, and you have to come to me to learn the knowledge on the plank. You are very young now, and you have a lot of time to study instead of wasting fighting games. If you think you can, we now Let's start. I'm very willing to teach you. Child, you should be able to understand that my time is running out, and you must become the new wise man of the tribe as soon as possible."

At this moment, Rurik did not resist in the slightest.

The priest's longhouse was very warm, and secondly he himself was full of good spirits about the tribal past.

Aged Veria gained strength from the boy with the golden ponytail, and she hurriedly brought out a few wooden boards and placed them in front of Rurik.

Just a glance, Rurik was completely dumbfounded.

Why? I saw dense symbols engraved on it, and they were very neatly engraved. Rurik also knew that this was the rune script that the priests were particularly proficient in. The tribe's own history was recorded in rune script, but Rurik couldn't understand it at all.

They are like heavenly books, but the rune script is also a phonetic script, which determines that the amount of information is limited.

Even though the number of boards here is large, the amount of information is not that much.

Rurik stared at the board and frowned: "Grandma, I don't understand."

Veria smiled knowingly: "It's only temporary, I will teach you the use of letters in the next few days. You are a rare smart child, you are very likely to learn in a few days, at least a month is enough. Dark night In the next winter, you can no longer lead those children to train, and you can't waste time, just come to me to study, after the new winter, you will be able to understand all the content of the boards and scrolls."