The Rise of Rurik

Chapter 44: The World Is Round

By now, Rurik felt that he had memorized all the records on the wooden board, and he had a general context about the migration of the Ross tribe.

But there are still many problems that plague him, such as Roseburg's precise latitude.

If he knew this data, Rurik, who was an engineer, felt that he could accurately measure the location of Rossberg in the Gulf of Bothnia on the Baltic Sea through his physical knowledge, and even describe the migration distance of the former Ross tribes through wooden boards, and infer their former homeland's position.

At present, Rurik has been able to accurately know every day of the Julian calendar from Veria, for example, today is November 27th, and he also knows that one day in the future, the sun will not rise.

Rossburg, every year there are one or two days without night, and there are always one or two days without light.

Rurik almost instinctively determined that Rossberg was very close to the Arctic Circle. If the precise dimensions were measured, it would be very helpful for the tribe. Because the latitudes of several regions were measured, Rurik felt he could draw a map of the region.

For any group with a desire for development, accurate regional maps can often promote the development of the group.

Rurik is indeed no ordinary man. He remembers the basic outline of a modern world map in his mind. When drawing a map of Europe, he can't say whether the details can be reproduced well. At least he can draw the outline relatively accurately, as much as possible. Engraving certain details, that is, specific proportions, can only be determined through astronomical and geographical re-mapping.

In this era, no one has carried out a detailed map of the Circum Baltic Sea.

And any geographic 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. In the sense of the ancients, the stars are eternal.

The immobile stars are a good reference, and the Romans, who inherited the scientific knowledge of Greece, have long recognized that the world in which humans live is a huge ball.

The wise men of Eastern Rome inherited the scientific heritage of ancient Greece. They knew very well how to determine their approximate position by measuring the angle between the stars and the instrument. Unfortunately, this kind of knowledge has not been popularized.

Western Europe in the ninth century was practically sparsely populated, with a population of less than 15 million due to poor productivity levels.

In the barbarian countries established on the ruins of Rome, the vast majority of civilians could not access the advanced knowledge of the outside world at all. In order to survive, they could only be bound in their own villages, harvesting a small amount of food in a very rough farming mode and handing them over to them. After paying tribute, the nobles lived a life of starvation and fullness.

Compared with the poor farmers in Western Europe, the life of the Ross tribe is indeed much better, because there is no problem in feeding thousands of people with the gifts of the huge Gulf of Bothnia. What's more, there are hundreds of thousands of wild reindeer on land. Of course, their activity area is extended to the north by human interference.

A new leader is about to ascend his throne.

Rurik boldly asked Veria for a treasure, "Grandma, I have an idea for a big order. I need your rope ruler for a special measurement."

"Measurement? What are you going to do?"

"Well..." Originally, Rurik wanted to explain the truth, but now, maybe it's right not to say it. He deliberately said vaguely: "I just want to know if the World Tree is real."

"So, do you believe he's real?" Veria asked casually, she didn't show more emotion.

"Maybe it's just an old story, our world is not a flat ground held up by a tree. My father told me that our world Asgard is like a bird's nest held up by a tree, and we are the bird's nest. If that's the case, why do those in the South, especially the Romans, interpret it differently than ours?"

Hearing this, Veria couldn't help but get interested.

At this age, many of the things she was sure about have now become confused, especially when she was young when she came into contact with people in black from Rome. The young Veria listened to the elders. She believed in the world tree, the twelve main gods of Asgard, and also believed that humans lived in cold places.

Those Romans claim to live in the warm land, and claim that an infinitely great being created it all, but that being is not Odin.

Perhaps, the great god Odin has different names in different groups of people?

Until the man in black clearly pointed out that the world is by no means lifted up by a big tree, the world is a huge ball, and the stars in the sky revolve around this ball.

Although the young Veria did not agree with the words of the man in black, she did not selectively forget.

Today, the young Rurik actually raised such a question, which naturally awakened her dusty memory.

Veria ordered his subordinates to cut a little more bacon, and then sat directly on the hide, cross-legged hoping to hear any special insights from the child in front of him.

"Sit down now, my boy. I have a question. Do you already know the Romans' interpretation of the world?"

"I..."

Rurik was startled, he really shouldn't have understood the "Roman interpretation".

He had a brainstorm 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!" Veria's squinting eyes suddenly widened, and the aging wrinkles seemed to burst because of her emotional excitement.

Rurik never expected the priest to be so excited.

"I...I just saw this. I'm very curious. Because the book also says that our world is not only a ball, but also a ball that tilts and spins..."

Heliocentric theory, this theory can be said to have existed since ancient times, but this theory was too unusual in the classical Greek era.

Geocentric theory still prevails because it conforms to the most simple beliefs of the vast majority of people.

Perhaps after entering the agricultural civilization, people everywhere need to believe in a great existence, because primitive agriculture relies on the sky for food. If the "Great God" is angry, it will lead to a shortage of food, and the end result is that the whole family starves to death.

People always face the despair of hunger and natural disasters, and at the same time weave hope for a better future.

People always believe that God has great love for them, and specially created a world for human beings to reproduce, and God also needs the respect of human beings.

This kind of thinking is almost inevitable, so with this kind of thinking, the earth under your feet is the center of everything, and this kind of thinking is logical.

Greek philosophers tied geocentric theory to mythology, and Rome further developed this idea. The destroyers of Western Rome and Eastern Rome directly bound the idea of geocentric theory to the legitimacy of their own rule.

But as early as the classical Greek period, some scholars from Peloponnesian 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, and they disagree due to different observation angles. They had attacked each other, the heliocentric proponents of the city state era were totally defeated, and Aristotle and Ptolemy were victorious.

Of course, both theories are wrong, because the concept of "World" eventually becomes a huge scale that is incomprehensible to humans in light-years, the universe does not have a definite center, and even the earth itself is like sand on a beach, extremely 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 had a lot of overlap, and in the regions where Rome ruled and still ruled, those who read those ancient texts at least believed that the world was one big sphere.

Veria felt a strong touch in his heart. In the past 30 years, he found the second person who claimed that "the world is a ball", and, isn't the appearance of this person a miracle?

Veria tried to suppress the excitement in his heart and said: "A long time ago, the Romans I met also said the same. They gave me some examples to try to prove their words, but unfortunately I can't understand it. It's been too long, what the world is like, maybe when I die and become a Valkyrie, I can really see it in the sky, haha."

Veria said this, with more ridicule in his words, and regret that he was unable to understand the true meaning of the world in his life.

Rurik took the opportunity to relay: "Haha, then you will see the world is a ball in the sky. Maybe those stories I heard are only part of the truth. Maybe one of our ancestors long ago, he already knew everything, But I am worried that ordinary people like us can't understand it, so let's explain it with a set of rhetoric that we can understand. After countless generations of word of mouth, the story has gradually become detached from reality."

Although the child is young, his speech is very logical, and maybe he will never be able to treat him as a child.

Veria 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, but also to maintain their own interests, so that the tribesmen continue to worship their priests. So in the fabricated myth, how many private goods were added by the priests of the past dynasties? No priest will publicly declare that he is making up a lie.

Veria won't make the world view collapse just because of one or two words, she is a little skeptical at most.

"Well, maybe our world is a big ball held up by the World Tree. Because we haven't 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 deliberate smile, "For example, air? After all, without the nourishment of air, all living beings will die. People, must be Breathe. Maybe the ancestors just wanted to show that our world is nourished by something, like a big tree, by describing a world tree."

"Excellent explanation!"

Face to face, Rurik could clearly feel Veria's excitement, as if his nonsense was just sketching out a new worldview system.

In this case, Rurik let go of his courage: "Asgard should be in the sky, they must be one of the stars. They have been watching us, and every winter they send the Valkyries to inspect us. They may also Will go to see the Romans, will send messengers named Angel to mix in the crowd and guide the best among them to build their merits."

No child would say such complicated words, and now Veria, who is sitting cross-legged, does not look at her in seventy-three, but she is a child today.

Rurik's remarks are an attempt to describe that the Viking style Nordic beliefs of the Ross tribe are actually not much different from that of the Romans 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 have a cross to obtain a double-headed eagle.

In order to meet this inevitability and reinterpret the tree of the world, UU reading may be the most correct choice.

However, everything needs to prove that the earth is a ball.

To this end, Rurik needed at least a rope ruler, the next step was to use the most primitive spirit level to select the test site, and then it was as simple as measuring the shadow with a pole.

Through a large number of measurements, it is calculated that the day shadow at noon on the winter solstice is long. Of course, on the winter solstice, Rosberg has already fallen into the polar night.

After many days of measurement, the possible studios on the winter solstice were finally calculated. This operation finally calculated a basically correct angle between the sun and the precise latitude of Rossburg.

In fact, as long as the latitude can be calculated, the interpretation of "the world tree holds the land of mankind" may be shaken, and the last result is to make almost the same thing as hunting, fishing, smelting, fighting and boating. The ignorant inhabitants of the Ross tribe know that the world is a ball.

Because it is never a "Great Leader" who can really bring the so-called prosperity of the Ross tribe, and prosperity requires the joint efforts of all the units that make up the society.

Rurik, or Liu Li, was what he believed to be prosperity. In layman's terms, that is, when ignorant people become smart and knowledgeable, and begin to actively think about the meaning of their existence, that is to say, they will no longer follow others' opinions, no one or anything will restrain their philosophical thinking, and the creativity of human groups will also welcome. Come on a total explosion.

In ancient society, even a few technological outbreaks will bring a huge leap to this group.

And the things that can bring the longest leap are often the most basic things. For example, the Vikings in the ninth century generally believed that the world was first and foremost a ball.

They believed this, and maybe they dared to think about the feasibility of circumnavigating the world.

Ah, after all, the great geographical discovery is only six hundred years later.