The Rise of Rurik

Chapter 40: Do You Know Rome?

Rurik held the wooden board in both hands and handed it to the kind-hearted Veria.

What did the kid carve on the board? After all, some weird marks.

Veria was full of curiosity, and her mind was very peaceful, until she saw the amazing mark on the wooden board with the help of the glow of the oil lamp.

Those were some labels that surprised her!

The lower right corner of every rune letter I saw was engraved with new letters. right! That's another alphabet, how could Rurik know this? !

Veria's eyes widened, and the aging wrinkles on her face trembled.

"You...you...what exactly did you engrave?!" She muttered tremblingly, her hands loosened, and the plank fell directly on the animal skin on the ground.

There was no longer a kind expression on Veria's face, and her appearance even made Rurik a little scared.

"Grandma Priest, did I do something wrong?"

"No! You didn't." Veria swallowed hard, then picked up the fallen wooden board, and continued to stare at the incredible traces.

She fell into deep thought, and Rurik had to stare for a while, waiting for the old man to speak again.

Those lower-level priests who were doing their daily work realized that the atmosphere was not right, and consciously stopped their work. The entire high priest's house suddenly fell silent, and everyone was waiting for Veria to speak. The only sound in the room was the faint crackling of the burning coals, and the squeak of the seal's fat being fried in the hot cast iron pan.

Veria's mind is doing a strong ideological struggle.

Finally, she made a decision.

"Rurik!" Veria sullenly asked the child in front of him with an extremely serious attitude, "Do you know Rome?"

"You... what did you say?!"

"Rome. It's Rome! A mighty city far south."

In fact, Rurik still couldn't understand it too well. He seemed to understand that what Veria was referring to was "Eastern Rome", but what about the city.

After some thought, he finally understood the situation. The "Rome" here really means "Eastern Rome".

Because all Vikings are still in the tribal stage, their largest organization is still the alliance of tribes. They do not have a clear concept of a country, and naturally they do not have a clear word to describe "country".

At this point, Rurik didn't know how to answer. He couldn't think of it at all, did the priests of Vilia still know the distant Rome?

The Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea, the two are simply two unrelated worlds!

Do not! Wait a minute!

Suddenly, Rurik thought of his own home, where his father, the leader, had a locked wooden box that contained mostly metal.

Those are coins, most of which are tributes from Novgorod residents. These minted coins can be exchanged for some goods with other tribes, and its purchasing power is a mystery.

The local people in Novgorod simply did not have the ability to mint coins, and the currency they used was from Eastern Rome.

Those coins are printed with the portraits of the characters and the labels of the words.

Rurik had an idea and reluctantly explained: "I saw some special letters on the coin my father showed me, and my father said that it was the script of distant Rome. So I used it."

This explanation is not convincing!

The wily Veria knew the boy was lying just by looking at his face.

"My child, what you say is not true. Your father Otto did not understand the use of Roman script, and those Romans hardly used the script you marked. It is an older script, and I am not sure about it. Also very limited. But you! You use it. And you"

Eastern Rome in the ninth century was more Hellenistic, Latin and its scripts had declined,

The Greek language and the Greek alphabet became mainstream. Therefore, the new coins minted by the government are brighter than the old coins that have been in circulation for hundreds of years, and the inscriptions on them have naturally become Greek. Therefore, Rurik should not have known the Roman alphabet, he should have known the Greek alphabet.

Veria's eyes widened, she felt like she was carrying a huge burden, and her whole body was overwhelmed by the intensely repressed atmosphere. Her spirit was shaken violently, because Rurik, his ability to understand the Roman alphabet, was a miracle in itself.

"Rurik, you know the ancient alphabet of the Romans, and you use it very correctly. The letters you carved are still in use by the Franks, and you have carved the same letters that they used.

Only two of our tribe know this unique set of letters! "

"Huh?!" Rurik was even more frightened in an instant, how could he think that things could turn out like this.

"Who? Which two?"

"You are! And me." Veria stretched out his head and looked at Rurik's smiling face solemnly, "Now look straight out of the corner of your eye, tell me honestly, who taught you this?"

"This..." Rurik couldn't explain it for a while.

Veria used his imagination and asked tentatively, "Could it be those women from Novgorod? Only their clansmen have a better chance of contacting the Romans."

Rurik can actually give Veria a very straightforward conclusion: I was born with this knowledge.

But he can't guarantee it now. If he said this, what kind of moth would happen. Now the priest of Veria, who is over 100 years old, is too excited. He is afraid that the old man will have a heart attack because of being too excited.

Hearing Veria say that, Rurik seemed to have grabbed the life-saving straw, and nodded vigorously: "Yes! Yes! With those people, I learned this from my sister Peravina?"

"You... a lie!" Veria vetoed on the spot, and pouted her shriveled mouth, which had almost lost its teeth, and said regretfully, "Those women from Novgorod are A bunch of stupid people who don't know any script at all. Including the people of our tribe, only our own rune script, only a few people know! Only a few people in our Roseburg know how to write their names This is what saddens me the most, only you! Rurik, you are the hope of our tribe."

Rurik was a little happy when he was suddenly praised by Veria.

Then came a new question: "You can't learn anything from stupid people, especially these Roman alphabets. Tell me who taught you."

"This..."

"Tell me the truth, otherwise!" Veria looked left and right, thinking in his heart that since the child's father had already led the warriors on the last large-scale hunting before the extreme cold, who could take good care of Rurik at this time What about this kid?

Veria ruthlessly said with a threatening tone: "If you can't give me a satisfactory answer, you can't leave here."

Threaten? A real threat.

Rurik looked troubled, as if he could only tell the truth, but did Veria believe it?

In the current situation, it seems that I can only prevaricate with the reason of "naturally possessed".

"Yes! I just know the language of the Romans." Rurik murmured deliberately.

"What did you say?"

After all, Veria is very old, his vision is a little blurry, and he is also slightly deaf.

Rurik guessed that this matter should not be made public, he stood up and approached the ear of Veria who was sitting cross-legged, and deliberately muttered: "Priest grandma, these are the knowledge I was born with, except for it I And know a lot more. I have this knowledge in my head from the first sight of the light."