By now, Rurik felt that he had memorized all the records on the wooden board, and he had a general outline of the migration of the Ross tribe.
However, there were still many problems that troubled him, such as the precise latitude of Fort Ross.
If he knew this data, Rurik, who had an engineering background, felt that he could accurately measure the location of Fort Ross in the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea through physical knowledge, and even use wooden boards to describe the migration distance of the Ross tribe in the past, and infer their former homeland.
s position.
At present, Rurik can accurately know every day of the Julian calendar from Vilia, for example, today is November 27th, and he also knows that one day in the future, the sun will not rise.
In Roseburg, there are always one or two days without night and one or two days without light every year.
Rurik almost instinctively determined that Fort Ross was very close to the Arctic Circle. If the precise dimensions were measured, it would be very helpful to the tribe. Because the latitudes of many areas had been measured, Rurik felt that he could draw a map of the area.
map.
For any ethnic group that desires development, accurate regional maps can often promote the development of the ethnic group.
Rurik is indeed not an ordinary person. He remembers the basic outline of the modern world map in his mind. Regarding the map of Europe, I can’t say whether the details can be reproduced well. He can at least draw the outline relatively accurately and make it as complex as possible.
Certain details, that is, specific proportion issues, can only be determined through re-mapping of astronomy and geography.
At this time, no one had yet conducted a detailed map of the Baltic Sea.
Any geographical surveying and mapping must be guided by astronomical observations. After all, the stars in the sky are changing at an extremely slow speed that humans can perceive. To the ancients, the stars were eternal.
The immovable stars are a good reference, and the Romans, who inherited Greek scientific knowledge, had long recognized that the world in which humans live is a huge ball.
The wise men of the Eastern Roman Empire inherited the scientific heritage of ancient Greece. They knew how to use tools to measure the angle between stars and instruments to determine their approximate position. Unfortunately, this knowledge did not spread.
In the ninth century, Western Europe was a vast and sparsely populated region in a realistic sense. Poor productivity levels resulted in a population of less than 15 million.
In the various barbarian countries established on the ruins of Rome, the majority of civilians had no access to advanced knowledge from the outside world. In order to survive, they could only be bound to their respective villages and harvested little food using extremely rough farming methods.
After paying tribute to the nobles, they lived a life of hunger and satiety.
Compared with the poor farmers in Western Europe, the life of the Ross tribe is indeed much easier, because the gift of the huge Gulf of Bothnia can support thousands of people. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of wild reindeer on land, of course.
Their range of activity extends further and further north as a result of human interference.
A new leader is about to ascend his throne.
Rurik boldly asked Vilia for a treasure: "Grandma, I have an idea for a big order. I need your ruler for a special measurement."
"Measurement? What are you going to do?"
"Well..." Rurik originally wanted to explain the truth, but now, maybe it's right not to say it. He said deliberately vaguely: "I just want to know whether the World Tree is real."
"So, do you believe he is real?" Vilia asked casually, without showing any more emotion.
"Maybe that's just an old story. Our world is not a flat piece of land lifted up by big trees. My father told me that our world, Midgard, is like a bird's nest held up by big trees. We are the bird's nest.
If this is true, why do those in the south, especially the Romans, interpret it differently than we do?"
After hearing this, Villa couldn't help but become interested.
At such an age, many things she had once been sure of were now confused, especially when she was young and came into contact with the men in black from Rome. The young Vilia listened to the elders' words. She believed in the World Tree and the Ah
The twelve main gods of Sgard also believe that humans live in cold places.
Those Romans claimed that they lived in a warm land, and claimed that an infinitely great being created all of this, but that being was not Odin.
Maybe the great god Odin has different names among different people?
Until the man in black clearly pointed out that the world is not something lifted up by a big tree. The world is a huge ball, and the stars in the sky are rotating around this ball.
Although the young Vilia did not agree with what the man in black said, she did not selectively forget it.
Today, the immature Rurik actually raised such a question, which naturally awakened her dusty memory.
Villa ordered his subordinates to cut some more bacon, and then sat directly on the animal hide, crossing his legs, hoping to hear any special insights from the child in front of him.
"My child, sit down now. I have a question. Do you already know the Romans' explanation of the world?"
"I……"
Rurik was shocked. He really shouldn't understand the "Roman explanation".
He had an idea and deliberately said: "That Roman book! Thanks to Odin for giving me the ability, I understand part of the content. Those Romans claimed that our world is a huge ball."
"Wait!" Vilia's squinted eyes suddenly opened wide, and her aging wrinkles seemed about to explode due to her excitement.
Rurik never thought that the priest would be so excited.
"I...I just saw something like this. I am very curious. Because the book also said that our world is not only a ball, but also a ball that tilts and rotates..."
Heliocentric theory, this theory can be said to have existed since ancient times, but this theory was too alternative in the classical Greek era.
Geocentric theory still occupies the mainstream because it conforms to the simplest beliefs of the vast majority of people.
Perhaps after entering agricultural civilization, people everywhere need to believe in a great existence, because primitive agriculture relies on the sky for food. If the "great god" becomes angry, it will cause a food shortage and the entire family will starve to death.
People always face the despair of hunger and natural disasters, but at the same time they always weave hope for a better future.
People always believe that God loves them and created a world specifically for human beings to reproduce, and God also needs human respect.
This kind of thinking is almost inevitable, so with this kind of thinking, the land under your feet is the center of everything, so it is logical to think like this.
Greek philosophers tied geocentric theory to mythology, and Rome further promoted this idea. The destroyers of Western Rome and Eastern Rome directly tied the idea of geocentrism to the legitimacy of their own rule.
But as early as the Greek classical period, there were still scholars from Peloponnese who believed that the sun was the center of everything.
The two theories are actually summaries made by ancient scholars based on their own observations of astronomy and geography. They had different opinions due to different observation angles. They once attacked each other, and the advocates of the heliocentric theory in the city-state era were completely defeated. Aristotle
and Ptolemy was victorious.
Of course, both theories are wrong, because the concept of "world" eventually becomes a huge scale that is difficult for humans to understand, measured in light years. There is no definite center in the universe, and even the earth itself is like sand on the beach.
Small.
But this was unimaginable by people in the ninth century, and even by ordinary Viking farmers and fishermen.
After all, the two ancient doctrines have many overlapping parts. In the areas that were ruled by Rome and are still ruled by Rome, people who understand those ancient classics at least believe that the world is a big ball.
Villa felt strongly touched in her heart. In thirty years, she found the second person who claimed that "the world is a ball". Moreover, isn't the appearance of this person a miracle?
Villa tried to suppress his inner excitement and said: "A long time ago, the Romans I met also said the same thing. They gave me some examples to try to prove their words, but unfortunately I couldn't understand them.
It’s been so long, what the world looks like, maybe when I die and become a Valkyrie, I can really see it in the sky, haha.”
When Villa said this, there was more ridicule in her words, and there was also regret that she could not understand the true meaning of the world while living.
Rurik took the opportunity to relay: "Haha, then you will see that the world is a ball when you are high in the sky. Maybe the stories I heard are only part of the truth. Maybe one of our ancestors long ago knew everything,
But I’m worried that ordinary people like us won’t be able to understand it, so I’ll use a set of words that we can understand. The story has been passed down orally for countless generations, and the story has gradually become divorced from reality.”
Although the child is young and speaks very logically, I may never be able to treat him as a child.
Vilia also got some inspiration from these words, and she had to doubt a lot.
Priests will deliberately make up some stories to stabilize people's hearts, and at the same time to maintain their own interests and let the tribesmen continue to worship their priests. So how many private goods have been added to the fabricated myths by the priests of the past generations? No priest will do it in public.
Declare that you are making up a lie.
Willia won't have her world view collapse just because of one or two words. She is a little doubtful at best.
"Well, maybe our world is a big ball held up by the World Tree. Because none of us have seen the whole picture of the World Tree."
"It may also be held up by something we can't see." Rurik had an idea and said with a smile, "For example, air? After all, without the nourishment of air, all living things will die. People must
Breathing. Maybe the ancestors just wanted to explain that our world is nourished by something, just like a big tree, by describing a world tree."
“Excellent explanation!”
Face to face, Rurik could clearly feel Villa's excitement, as if his nonsense words were outlining a new worldview system.
In this case, Rurik also let go of his courage: "Asgard should be in the sky, and they must be one of the stars. They have been watching us, and they send Valkyrie to check us every winter. They may still
He would go and watch the Romans, and he would send messengers named Angels to mingle among the crowds and guide the outstanding ones among them to achieve great achievements."
No child would say such complicated words. Now, Vilia is sitting cross-legged. Even though she is in her late seventies, she is actually just a child today.
Rurik's words are an attempt to describe that the Viking-style Nordic beliefs of the Rus tribe and the Romans are not actually very different in principle.
After all, if the integration of the Rus tribe into the Slavic world is a historical necessity, then it is also a necessity to possess the cross and obtain the double-headed eagle.
In order to meet this necessity, reinterpreting the World Tree may be the most correct choice.
However, everything needs to be proved that the earth is a ball.
For this purpose, Rurik needed at least a rope ruler. The next step was to use the most primitive level to select the test site, and then it was as simple as pole measurement.
Through a large number of measurements, the length of the sun's shadow at noon on the winter solstice was calculated. Of course, Roseburg had already fallen into polar night on the winter solstice.
After many days of measurements, the possible photo studios on the winter solstice were finally calculated. This operation finally calculated a basically correct angle between the sun and the precise latitude of Roseburg.
In fact, as long as the latitude can be calculated, the explanation of "the world tree supports the land of mankind" may be shaken. The final result is that almost everyone except hunting, fishing, smelting, fighting and boating can be shaken.
The ignorant residents of the Ross tribe know that the world is a ball.
Because it can never be a "great leader" who can truly bring so-called prosperity to the Ross tribe. Prosperity requires the joint efforts of all units that make up society.
Rurik, or Liu Li, believes that prosperity should be like this. In layman's terms, it means that when ignorant people become smart and knowledgeable, they begin to actively think about the meaning of their own existence, which means that they no longer follow what others say.
, no one or anything will restrain their philosophy anymore, and the creativity of the human group will usher in a general explosion.
In ancient society, even a few technological breakthroughs would bring huge leaps to this ethnic group.
What can bring about the longest leap is often the most basic thing. For example, the Vikings in the ninth century generally believed that the world was first of all a ball.
If they believe this, they might dare to think about the feasibility of circumnavigating the world.
Ah, after all, the great geographical discovery was only six hundred years later.