The Rise of Rurik

Chapter 54: The Lost Sami People

The Ross tribe still calls it a deer breeder, because once it is discovered, it means that a large herd of deer can be obtained.

Otto's explanation instantly awakened everyone's memories, thinking of Otto's prophecy of Priest Veria, those who participate in the hunting action will surely benefit greatly.

The yearning for wealth drives everyone's unconditional obedience to the leader. In this way, Otto trekked northeast again for two full days with excitement and trepidation.

Their efforts were worth it. When Otto and others clearly saw a large number of animal footprints appearing on the soft snow, everyone had already made a clear judgment.

Experienced hunters found a large number of reindeer footprints, and experience told them that it must be a reindeer.

The snow has been turned over on a large scale, and the meadows covered by snow have also been gnawed, which further proves the existence of the deer herd.

Herd of deer, a lot of walking meat, a hundred reindeer enough for the tribe to eat until spring!

At present, only deer herds have been discovered, but no traces of those animals have been clearly seen, but everyone has made a very optimistic judgment through the traces, that is, the size of the deer herds is quite large.

But there are still people who are very serious who have discovered other strange footprints through careful observation.

To be precise, it is a human footprint, and the owner of the footprint is definitely not their own.

This is really great news. In the past few days, Otto's group's main job has been to travel. As the leader, he himself has still achieved nothing.

Of course, if you think about moving forward in the northeast direction, you may find the baby, but it has been too long.

Otto has made two surprising discoveries, and he ordered his subordinates to gather on the snowy field.

"A large herd of deer, we should kill them all, all the deer skins are ours. As for the venison... We fought back to the camp to tell everyone that all the venison was taken. We also found people The footprints of the deer breeders, we can...hehe, take their wealth for our own."

Thinking of these things, who wouldn't be happy?

Sounds like a good idea, everyone is happy, they are not fully sure of their abilities.

After all, hunting a group of wild reindeer, those animals are very mobile, and their thick fur is not something that can be killed with a short spear.

But for those deer breeders, it should be easy to defeat them, and everyone has full self-confidence.

Otto's mind was very calm about this matter, and he looked at his twenty subordinates.

Everyone was standing in the snow with the north wind whistling. Although they were all wearing thick skin and huge deerskin or fox fur hats on their heads, Otto couldn't help but think of finding a deer breeder and taking the initiative to attack. very worried.

Because in such an extremely cold area and far from Roseburg, if you are injured in battle, you may not necessarily die on the spot, but if you are seriously injured, the result is a death.

The situation began to become subtle, and the simple hunting action instantly became militarized.

So, are there deer keepers, the so-called Sami people, in the land where Otto is?

Of course the answer is yes!

Otto and his twenty current subordinates, who were chasing the reindeer, had gone too far northeast and had already broken into the Sami territory.

Specifically, the westernmost edge of the Sami area.

Otto was unaware of this situation, and neither were the Sami, who focused on winter grazing, of the approaching danger.

For decades, the Ross tribe, who had driven out the Sami with harsh means, did not encounter new Sami.

Decades are a long time. Gradually, the previous war was gradually forgotten by the two ethnic groups, as if they had never contacted each other.

Compared with the Swiss tribal alliance, the Sami structure is undoubtedly more backward and more fragile.

The Sami people are the oldest indigenous people in Europe, and they are also a part of the split from the Finns.

In the past 200 years, the Finnish tribes that had spread throughout Eastern Europe were driven by the Slavic tribes that moved eastward, causing some Finns to go straight to the Ural Mountains, and some to retreat to the north near the Arctic Circle.

The situation of the Sami is even worse. They have been driven away by the Viking tribes who landed in the Svealan area. Finally, the Ross tribe gave a heavy blow, which made the Sami have completely left the Gulf of Bothnia. .

The Sami retreated to the Arctic Circle, into the so-called Lapland and Murmansk.

To live in the Arctic, any energy they can harvest is invaluable. Don't think about developing agriculture in extremely cold regions. The Sami people depend heavily on their reindeer for their livelihood. By trading with some Finns living in Karelia in the south, they traded reindeer pelts, dried meat and wood products in exchange for some flax and metals.

However, trade is also extremely minimal, and they basically live a life of indifference and do not want anyone to disturb their hard and cold days.

Perhaps the Sami people are naturally peace-loving, but peace never comes from the charity of others.

The Sami people also knew how to cultivate agriculture. They failed in the battle. They escaped all the way to the Arctic Ocean. Is this a safe place?

Do not! Because of those Vikings with a great thirst for wealth, they are approaching!

In general, all Sami clans have to guard against arctic wolves attacking their hard-earned deer. They have to be prepared to take precautions. They also have to send people to watch wolves with wide-eyed eyes while grazing. group.

They always pay special attention to the wolves that are extremely threatening to humans and animals, but because they have not been in contact with the Ross tribe for a long time, many young Sami can only learn some ancient legends from the mouths of their parents.

Or because the descriptions of ancient horror memories are mixed with too many personal emotions, the "Varyags" that young people know gradually take on the image of wolves, as if they are a group of monsters with huge fangs.

Older people are indeed afraid of the "Varyags", especially pointing out that there is a group of "Varyags" who claim to be master paddlers who can steer longboats out of nowhere.

Young people don't understand all of this. They inherit the less rich heritage of their ancestors, that is, a herd of reindeer. According to the ancient living habits, they routinely graze twice a year on a large scale. .

The thick fur of the reindeer can easily resist the erosion of the cold, and by nibbling on the grass under the snow, each reindeer can grow rapidly in winter.

The annual winter grazing becomes especially important because when the climate starts to warm, all the reindeer will moult. The hair left by the Sami will not be wasted. They can be mixed with the exchanged linen and woven into a special linen, which is then printed and dyed with moss of various colors.

Therefore, the clothes of the Sami are much more gorgeous than the civilians of the Ross tribe.

However, no amount of gorgeous clothes could hide the fact that they were weak in force.

There is no large organization of the Sami people at all, they nomadic in the wilderness as clans with a population of only a few dozen people.

The leader of any clan must be an older woman, because they are still in the matriarchal clan stage, which makes them naturally only exist as a small settlement, and the number of the most fighting men in the settlement is not dominant.

Because of the Ross tribe, when the tribe is threatened, they can organize two thousand warriors armed with swords and prisoners of war.

In medieval Europe, 2,000 warriors were already the limit of troops that many feudal counts could organize.

But the number of Sami men was of no avail. They beat wolves with stone spears or antler spears, but were powerless against the Viking battle axes.

Although the Sami made single bows, they also made bowstrings and arrow clusters. As a result, the pound of the bow was too low, and the arrows were not polished antlers or stones.

Such an arrow can't even shoot through reindeer's fur at a long distance, but it's quite enough to shoot arctic foxes and ferrets with it.

They are such an ancient group with a sparse population, lack of organization, and a serious lack of metals still in the Paleolithic age.

Under the strong oppression of foreigners, and because of their own compromise, they escaped the disaster and retreated to the extreme northern region on the edge of the world, but after all, they could not change the fate of being conquered.

Because the leader of the Ross tribe has made up his mind, now, Otto's greed can't be healed at all.