Master Smith of Babel
Born: Before the Flood; birthplace unknown
Home: Babel; formerly Eridu
Known for: Leading the Forty to Mount Olympus and his knowledge of metalwork and timber
First recorded in: The Lion of Shinar
The Chronicle
Enoch learned his craft in the workshops of Eridu, a southland city already lost before the Flood. His association with Zeus took him to Olympus, where the springs sustained a life extending far beyond an ordinary man’s years. By the time the rains came, Enoch had spent a thousand years at the watcher’s table. The skills learned in Eridu remained familiar enough for his hands to follow them without conscious effort.
During the Flood, Enoch led forty men, women and children up Mount Olympus. Zeus supplied grain and dried meat for fifty nights, with shelters on the eastern ridge above the rising water. Those who followed depended upon Enoch’s assurance that the watcher would admit them to safety. With the passage into the mountain still sealed, complaints were directed at the man who had brought them there. Naamah was among those prepared to defend him.
Within his own family, that trust was harder to find. Enoch’s wife had been dead for three hundred years before the rain began, while their son, Methuselah, condemned the years his father had spent with Zeus. The two disagreed over the watcher’s authority and whether accepting his protection could be justified. Enoch had secured a forty-first place for his son, but Methuselah refused to join the others on the mountain.
By his arrival in Babel, Enoch had practised his craft across the lives of many generations. The growing city offered work in its forges and in the construction of sledges. White-bearded and often dusted with ash, the old smith continued working through conversations, testing the weight of objects almost without thought. Pride in the workmanship was usually kept to himself. Objections to an unsafe forge were expressed repeatedly, with little success in persuading anyone to inspect it.
Enoch is comfortable with difficult materials and less comfortable with animals. Timber remains consistent to him even where the grain is awkward; a beast has intentions he cannot anticipate. The patience available for a demanding piece of work does not make him a capable stockman.
