Rise of Rurik

One long ship after another directly hit the soft shoal. Now the reeds have sprouted, and soon the muddy land will be lush and green.

The oak keel was gnawed deeply into the soil, and a strong figure jumped up holding on to the wooden railing, stepping on the mud of Novgorod calmly and yet magnificently.

Rurik finally returned to his richest agricultural area, to the queen's natal home, which was also the best place for all the old Russians to live.

He smiled and his beard trembled.

He opened his arms, his golden ponytail was blown elegantly by the warm south wind, and his golden laurel wreath shone in the sunlight.

Behind him, soldiers returning from the expedition jumped down with large and small bags of loot, either on their backs or on their strong shoulders. Because the loot was too much and too heavy, many people jumped down and fell to their knees without being able to stand firm, and their knees hit the mud heavily.

The people who came up in this way could judge the results of their expedition with their naked eyes.

"Isn't it possible that a strong man couldn't carry the spoils of war? How much wealth must this be?!"

Old Otto couldn't help but think in his mind. He saw that everyone had gained a lot, and immeasurable wealth must have poured into this place. It is true that even all his achievements in his life could not compare with the plunder of this war launched by his son.

The shining golden Otto moved around with the assistance of two strong men. His strong cowhide belt served as a good handle. The strong men on the left and right tried their best to hide their hands pulling the belt in order to show that the old king was still tough. At first glance, it was Otto. He relies on his own strength to move forward wearing this heavy armor.

This scene frightened Rurik, and he really thought that his old father had become brave again.

There were only cheering crowds around him, and a large number of women holding their children chatting and laughing.

There were more and more onlookers on both sides of the river. Some fishing boats on the lake heard the rumbling of the city and hurriedly came to watch.

When the fishermen discovered that Wang Shi had arrived in the harbor, some of them turned their boats around and headed straight to Mstisk and Youth City in the east of the lake, just to deliver the good news.

Novgorod is destined to be packed with people, welcoming relatives, trying to buy trophies, and even people just watching the fun, they flock here with various purposes.

For Otto, the scene in front of him was shocking.

My son will probably not grow any taller. His body used to be a bit thin, but now he seems to be getting stronger and stronger. He saw shadows of his past, when he first arrived in Novgorod at this age. However, Rus was still weak at that time. To the Slavic people of Yin Ermen Lake, they were essentially a group of pirates who broke in and demanded tribute.

Times have changed, and everyone here is cheering for their king.

The world suddenly became bizarre and unreal.

Otto blinked hard to wake himself up, and finally walked up to his son and hugged him with great strength.

He didn't need to say anything, he just hugged Rurik like this and patted Rurik on the back. This move was worth a thousand words.

Queen Niya was so excited that she burst into tears. She ran over with a wooden stick, her white hair flowing in the wind, and she hugged her son tightly.

People continued to cheer and make huge noises, and the booing people screamed like apes, just to make the atmosphere of victory even more exciting.

For a moment, people ignored the sacrifices and the cruelty of war.

Anyone with eyes can tell from the large number of linen bags packed on the longships that cannot be unloaded quickly that Rus has indeed gained a lot in this war. War always kills people, and often a lot of people die. Compared with dying in war, dying in peacetime from winter cold, various accidental injuries, and dying from diseases is not a very tragic way to die in war. What's more, people believe that the souls of good people or warriors will have a beautiful destination and eternal happiness after death.

The unique post-war security system determines that a family will not collapse if its main labor force is killed in the war. In the hands of Rurik, Ross determined the national policy of equal emphasis on sea and land power. In terms of a single livelihood, farming is not the only means of survival. You can earn profits by engaging in other economic activities, and then exchange them for food to continue your life.

At least the women of the old Russians and the women of the White Tree Manor who rule the basic base basically do not have to do anything during the slack period. The people have been organized to engage in handicrafts. The long winter has become a production period. The most important production activity is the production of leather products. and cotton and linen products. They require a large amount of raw materials to produce a large amount of output. Each farm becomes a "village factory", the people earn labor fees, and the king opens the market for the final products.

The extremely enlarged sacks on the beach long boats were stuffed with wool from Flanders that had been trampled and compressed as much as possible. The wool is rolled into wool, and then undergoes a series of processing using flax processing techniques, and finally weaving. The hand-rolled wool is much thicker and longer than the linen thread. The method of knitting sweaters is simply hand-spinning with two wooden needles.

After a brief but warm welcome at the dock, Rurik had decided to gather the local boyar nobles and industrial owners together after the carnival.

Ross must repair the damage caused by this war, and also use the spoils to quickly expand the size of the economy, etc.

However, what shocked him was his large group of gorgeous women. They are dressed in beautiful and even dazzling floral cloths, and most of them have straight or curly hair, and beautiful headbands strung with glass beads and amber are tied around their foreheads. This is a very standard Slavic woman's dress. These are my concubines with the lowest rank. On the other hand, they were all holding their children, and they all looked like bratty brats.

"Can't I have another daughter?"

Soon, when all Rurik's wives and concubines gathered in the lobby of the Novgorod palace, all he could see was the little boy.

And his astonishing number of wives and concubines.

No wife or concubine is as noble as Queen Svetlana. She is fatter but more attractive. Because she lived with Rurik prematurely, she led a high-protein and high-calcium life of eating meat and fish. She is much taller than her sister Lilia, and her facial features are already delicate and her cheeks are full of flesh.

The queen held the two-year-old Prince Osborne Slav in her arms, and held hands with Oleg, who was about to turn three.

Each wife and concubine holds one in her arms.

Duchess Carlotta of Ostara brought her four-year-old son Karl, and her biological sister Ella also held a little guy.

The lobby was filled with the voices of women chirping, as well as the wailing of children. There were even children who were frightened or were born, crying so hard that they could not help but cry.

Such a lively scene was like a dream to Otto and Niya. The old couple was happy to hear the crying of a large group of children. The louder the voices, the more likely it was that these boys had a bright future.

Rurik knew that all this came from his crazy hard work more than a year ago. This body is both young and strong. It is no problem to deal with a group of wives and concubines in a short period of time, but now it becomes a problem to look at them.

Instead of swarming up with their children in their arms, they would sit sideways on the cushions with their children in their arms. The man looking at them had a smile on his face. Each of them had a thousand words to say, eager to talk to the king more. sentence.

They also maintained their duties. As a king's woman, she could have a lifetime of food, clothing, glory and wealth, but the price was that she could not enjoy the favor of a man alone, nor could she betray her own man. They will seize every opportunity to be close to the king and compete for beauty. This is really human nature.

Rus's palace remained crude, and the hierarchy of the harem had long been established.

After all the wives and concubines experienced the bloodshed in their hometown of Roseburg, they became each other's sisters, their ranks were established, and everyone's fate was also determined.

According to the rules, when the king returns, he must stay with his wife, the queen, for a long time. In the end, each concubine will be entrusted to distant places because of their sons and become nobles of different sizes.

First, the wives and concubines had to give birth to sons of their own.

"You've seen it all!" Old Otto's voice was hoarse and he couldn't hide his inner joy: "It's all Freya's blessing and Odin's gift. They all gave birth to sons."

Old Otto's words were so shocking that all the chattering wives and concubines fell silent, so much so that his voice actually echoed in the lobby.

Rurik, who was sitting in the middle of the hall, was surprised and happy. He said bluntly: "I have seen them all. They are all my sons."

"Indeed. Go and cheer! Rurik, my son! I won't ask you about the expedition today, but you will definitely write down and post your deeds. Now it's just our family matter."

"Family matters?"

Old Otto looked around at the women present again. "Rurik, give your sons formal names. It is your right and your obligation."

"Huh?! They don't have names yet?"

"Only informal nicknames. Just like you give your maids new names, and they give you sons, the task of naming them is yours."

Rurik suddenly looked embarrassed. He glanced at his wives and concubines from the corner of his eyes, thinking to himself, wouldn't it be enough for the mother to give the child a name first and then confirm the matter later? Just like Nolen and Beyathil gave birth to children during the war, both were named by their mothers.

Parents do not choose names for their children randomly.

In countries like Frankfurt and other countries that believe in God, priests baptize children. They just flip through the scriptures and use the name of the person who appears first as the name of the child. Without this ritual process, the name can only be regarded as an informal nickname.

Ermenslav is also very particular about it. Parents choose a good day as their son's name day. However, the tradition here is to give sons formal names. The girls in the family often do not have names. They often use mock titles such as "eldest daughter" and "second daughter" with a little modification to become names. Only families with noble status and a lot of wealth will be very particular about their daughters' names.

Although the Old Rus and other Viking tribes do not have to choose an auspicious day as the naming day for their children, they still must use good words to name their children. They treated their children equally in naming them, perhaps because in traditional old Viking life, the social division of labor between men and women was not yet clear.

More than ten years ago, when Rurik got ten maids, it was destined to be where he is today. He cherished the obedient girls at hand, taught them knowledge personally and made them special craftsmen.

It is a natural thing nowadays for masters to give names to slaves. Those girls did not have serious names in their hometown. Rurik giving them names was actually a gift.

But the so-called given names are also defined according to the order of Roman letters, and a suitable catchy word starting with the corresponding letter is found.

Anna is A, meaning elegant. Bella is B, which means white, and by extension means pure. Ciccia C, which means heavyweight, was the name of one of Caesar's favored slaves. Diana is D, named after the Roman goddess. Ekaterina is E, and it is purely Rurik’s bad taste to give the fifth child this name. Finna is F, which is the Norse finnr with a feminine suffix. She is a Slavic woman, and her name refers directly to Finland. Rurik just chose it because it sounded good.

Greta is G, taken from the old Norse word, which means full of energy. Helena is H and Yinlia is I, both of which come from the names of Greek goddesses. Yulia is J, and the masculine name is directly Yuri. It is really a name tailor-made for Rose.

They all gave birth to healthy boys, and whether it was the custom of the Slavs or the Rus, the boys had to have a good name.

In this way, Rurik also understood today's situation.

He scratched his head, and a strong Nordic man suddenly became hesitant.

"Father, is today the children's name day?!" he had to ask.

"Exactly." Old Otto continued with a hoarse voice, "I decided that it would be good to determine a name day. In the future, every child will have a name day, which is as important as the birth date. Rurik, give your sons a name day. Name it! Today is their name day! After that, all the children will be sent to the temple in the city, Freya will grant them health, and Odin will grant them courage and strength. Oh, and the Slavic fire god here, It will also give children special powers.”

The old father suddenly became eloquent when he spoke. These words should have been spoken by a priest.

Whatever. Rurik continued to scratch his face. He couldn't name his sons casually to avoid them complaining about their father in the future, but today was the name day, and it was wrong not to finish the "proposition composition" quickly.

Simply, just follow the naming routine of their mother’s name! The first is for the boys born to the wives and concubines of the ten lowest-status maids.

Then there are the sons of Ella and Saipolava. They have high status. If they have already chosen a name for their child, they will admit it immediately.

Since it is now a ceremony to name a child, things should be done in a more orderly manner.

Ella still looks gentle, and her character has not changed even after becoming a mother. She is not suitable to be a feudal noble, but is more suitable to be a scribe.

Without mentioning anything about Ella's son in advance, she quickly brought the paper and quill to record the king's arrangements.

Everything is ready, and it can be seen that Ella is ready to write and record.

"Anna!" Rurik turned his face and spoke suddenly.

This sound shocked Anna and she was flattered: "I...I'm here."

Rurik spoke loudly: "Your son's name is Alexander. Aleksanda, spelled like this."

Forget it, he looked at Bella again and said, "Your son's name is Boris. Boris, spelled like this." This is a Slavic word that means "to fight." Bella understood it completely and was immediately satisfied.

Then came Ceva, Dmitri, Evgeni, Feori, Heracles, Ignat, Juri.

In Rurik's opinion, most of the children's names have been severely Slavicized, that is, their names come from Slavic, Norse, Latin and Greek sources.

At least the children's names retain their own characteristics. After all, they are born princes, so their names should be as unique as possible. Also because their bloodline is mixed and their mothers have lower status, the names of their children must also be clearly distinguished from those of senior princes. For example, these children's names do not have the suffix v.

Ella and Saborava have already named their sons.

Ella's son was named Amberman, which means Amber Man.

Saipolava's son was named Bouba, which means treasure in the Finnish Kovin dialect.

The two chose the name in such a way that Rurik could conclude that they had discussed it, so he described his son as as precious as a gem. In this way, there is no need to change the names of those two cubs.

The name day had a happy outcome for everyone. All the princes' names were completely identical, which tested the limits of Rurik's own cognition.

What always criticized him was the naming habits in the Western world, which made the probability of duplicate names always very high. This problem is extremely prominent in the Viking world, full of Bjorn, Harald, Harold, Eric, Carl, and variations thereof.

Rurik knew that his name was also a special variation of "Eric". Like his cousin Aric, the name is a direct corruption of "Eric".

Therefore, every man hopes to have a domineering nickname. I don’t know because it represents a man’s honor. On the other hand, it is also because parents always lack imagination. They already have good words for their children, but good words are aimed at them. My poor literary knowledge is limited to a few, so the names are always highly concentrated in the dozen or twenty.

It’s an obvious problem for our children, it’s time to make a change!

Starting from the royal family, they took the lead in introducing Greek, Latin, Slavic words, and even some seemingly meaningless but particularly catchy syllables as names.