Because of the stove, the interior of the large wooden house was very warm.
An old man with white hair, wearing a thick deerskin coat, was sitting around the stove, waiting for the kettle to be set up to boil. At this moment, the smell of boiling onions and herbs filled the whole room.
This old man is none other than Vilia, an old woman who incredibly lived to be seventy years old.
Beside her, some young women from the tribe were her subordinate priests. They were quietly doing their work. After serving Vilia and drinking the herbal medicine, the day's work was explained.
Vilia was indeed very old, and she had been asking her subordinate priests to prepare herbal medicines and make medicinal soup for herself.
It seems that both priests and witch doctors have the same origin. Vilia learned some knowledge about herbal medicine from the ancestors of the tribe. Today she felt that she had caught a cold. After drinking the herbal soup for a few days, she felt that her condition was getting better day by day.
But she is still too old and needs help from others in many aspects of her daily life.
She is so long-lived! Therefore, the person who serves as the tribal priest is highly respected. In many cases, her opinions are as important as the leader Otto.
Kanuf's mother told her everything she knew. Vilia was very convinced that young Rurik had talent. She never expected that Rurik, who was only seven years old, was already in school.
Focus on training the children of the tribe.
"So, do you support him?" Kanuf's mother asked respectfully.
"He is the son of the leader, and he has been blessed by Odin." Vilia squinted and sat cross-legged like a rock, "I completely understand what you mean. Rurik will become our leader in many years.
But this road is not smooth. He has some unique ideas. Are these ideas correct? I need to hear Odin's opinion."
All Viking tribes have very similar beliefs.
The vast majority of tribes believe in Odin, followed by the followers, and some tribes have niche beliefs in Loki.
Therefore, the priests of the tribe always hope to get in touch with Valhalla through certain methods.
Villa slowly opened his eyes and signaled a low-level priest to bring over a divination pottery pot engraved with rune inscriptions and inlaid with some gold patterns.
Then, she slowly stood up with her aging body, and with the help of her attendants, she put on thicker clothes. Especially when she seriously put on a helmet inlaid with huge antlers. Even though the antlered helmet was very heavy, she could still wear it.
Must be worn.
The priests of the Viking tribes in Scandinavia all had their own antler helmets. In the temperate Gaul region, the former indigenous Celtic druids also had their own antler helmets.
This aspect seems to be a reflection of their shared ancient memories.
Then, surrounded by all the priests, Villa embraced the clay pot and slowly walked out of the warm wooden house.
One of the things that makes the Ross tribe very similar to other Viking tribes is that they all have altars with similar shapes.
On a very clean flat land, more than fifty stones were embedded in the earth and assembled into a huge streamlined shape to imitate a boat.
This is the altar of the Rus tribe. There must be one similar altar in every human settlement in Scandinavia in this era, and there are even more in Gotland.
There is also a stone platform piled in the middle of the altar. The platform has existed for more than a hundred years, and the granite has been polished very smooth by people.
Some frozen fish were used as tribute to Odin, and the low-level priests carried a large number of empty bronze oil lamps and placed them on each stone of the boat-shaped altar. A little warm seal oil was poured into each empty oil lamp.
, and then the wick burned.
Undoubtedly, the Ross tribe was very superstitious. There were sacrifices and four oil lamps placed on the stone platform. After entering the altar, Villa slowly knelt down alone, and everyone else also knelt down, including those who participated.
Among them Kanuf's mother.
Tonight's sacrifice is purely a temporary measure of Welia. If it were a normal activity, a considerable number of people in the tribe would participate.
They all knelt on the ground to show respect to Odin, whom they believed in.
Vilia muttered a spell into the dancing flames to contact Valhalla. At least this is what Vilia's ancestors did when they were priests. In her generation and subsequent priests, they all do the same.
.
They firmly believe this.
After reciting some incantations, Villa finally held the key clay pot in her arms.
She continued to speak plausibly and shook the clay pot with both hands. Finally, she closed her eyes and took out a stone from the clay pot.
She slowly opened her eyes, and under the light of the oil lamp, she saw clearly that it was a ruby, and she couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.
"Valhalla has given us enlightenment." Villa stood up and looked at Kanuf's mother enthusiastically: "Rurik's decision is allowed. So we cannot question his decision, nor should we criticize him.
There are too many emotions and praises for my decision. Because everything is fate." After saying that, Villa deliberately showed the ruby in his hand.
The priests of the Ross tribe are in charge of a clay pot, and there are six gems in the pot, two each of red, green and blue.
Red represents "Odin's affirmation", blue represents "Odin's denial", and green represents "Odin does not want to answer".
All gemstones are polished into spheres as much as possible, and because they have been used frequently by priests throughout the ages, the appearance of all gemstones is extremely smooth.
These six gems hold great weight in the hearts of the tribal people. They are considered to have mysterious powers, so people only want to believe that only the divination performed by priests using these gems can truly reflect Odin's wishes.
They simply believe in this because they think it is worth believing.
It seems that the so-called divination is purely a manifestation of probability, and the situation is not that simple.
The gemstones have been specially treated. For example, the red gemstones have been deliberately polished with a small groove, and the sapphires, which represent negation, have been polished with two.
Ordinary people have no chance to come into contact with these divination gemstones. This is a secret kept by the priests among themselves.
Of course, Vilia had an alternative. Some time passed, and she would show these gems to the people of the tribe on specific occasions. What was actually shown were replicas without any scratches on their surfaces.
So does such "divination" still have meaning? Of course it does. As for mortals hoping to use this method to obtain Odin's answer, it is not that simple. Compared with this, Vilia believes more in dreams and revelations from the sky -
—Northern Lights.
Therefore, Vilia used this method, and since she had been the highest priest of the tribe for thirty years, she was the second person to control the tribe behind the previous leaders.
Even Rurik's father Otto, who was able to serve as the leader of the tribe for a long time, had the power support of Vilia behind him.
Obviously, what the mortals of the tribe don't know is that the old Vilia has made up her mind that she loves her Ross tribe and the thousands of tribesmen, so she must train Otto's son to be a good person in her lifetime.
Rick.
When she felt the time was right, she called Rurik to her side, making him truly the most recognized wise man in the tribe.
She has been weak all her life and has always believed that as a leader, knowledge is more useful than brute force. Obviously, the young Rurik naturally realized the value of wisdom. Why do thirty people form a fighting group, and thirty people just sit there?
One boat is full. Four boats can form four human walls and form a hollow array.
Wei Liya recalled his life and found that no one in the tribe had ever thought of fighting like this before.
She had no idea what such a tactic would bring. After all, Kanuf's mother told her that this was Rurik's own idea. Moreover, Rurik was actually training those children according to his own ideas. The children
They made amazing roars on the hill every day, and the visiting lower priests came back and reported: "They are like a stone wall, moving forward very neatly."
Recalling these reports and the surprise report from Kanuf's mother, the elderly Vilia felt even more emotional.
She only lamented that her life was short-lived. 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 during her lifetime, it would be her eternal regret!