Chapter 1
Email from Alexi
A
Thursday evening in October, 1995
The
oval red-gold sun disappeared at the edge of the world where prairie
hills met up with a dark blue canopy. Earth magic. No longer day and
not yet night, it felt like the end of time. I let go of all the
technical words, facts and figures in my head and relaxed. I was
almost home.
After
three days on the other side of the state listening to three vendors
tell us why their software should be selected to run the statewide
online library catalog for the next three years, I was glad to be
back in town. Drove straight to campus, parked in front of the
library and went in. After I’ve been away, I like to know
everything’s copacetic, no scrungy problems or unpleasant surprises
waiting for me on Friday morning.
“Hi
Dr. Newton, glad you’re back!” several students made me feel at
home as I came through the front doors; Circulation Desk on the
right, Reference Desk on the left. Everyone’s busy, quite a few
students and faculty for this early in the evening. That’s good.
I’ve
been dean of libraries here for five years. The staff works well
together, we have a grand, efficient building already hot-wired for
the future, steady support from the administration and faculty and
every year more students choose our campus. Life is a nice mix of
technology, teaching and mental challenges, laid-back culture and
wide open spaces to explore.
No
urgent notes on the desk. Thank goodness. Phone light tried to draw
me over. Resisted.
I’d
left my laptop at home, knowing how intense it would be I chose to
eliminate distractions and concentrate on the business at hand. After
all there’s half a million dollars at stake, and still homework to
be done. By the end of next week I’ll have to send in my
recommendation for vendor. This Council for State-wide Online Library
Systems only gets together twice a year. Librarians all around the
state have to cooperate for it to work. So far it runs smoothly.
Plenty of support from the state legislature helps.
Couldn’t
resist. Turned computer on to check email. All work stuff except for
this one:
From:
Alexi
Hamilton
To:
John
Newton Subject:
Working
in Alexandria!
Hi
John,
Gosh,
summer went by fast! Glad the heavy, hot work is finished. This new
facility that specializes in translating ancient texts is
unbelievable! Sorry, I never seem to have enough time to “talk”
now that we’re in Alexandria with the conservators and translators.
Mainly trying to keep tabs on everything going on, and, uh oh, just
remembered due date of article I asked you to check a few things for
is at end of this month. Hope you can find a little time for that.
We
have 317 scrolls and codices, all were packed into 24 big clay jars.
First guess for time of origination looks like mid to late fifth
century. Mark is happy to have a change and do some translating. He
just found some writing that at first look appears to be part of a
diary written by a librarian working in the Serapeum Temple-Library
complex.
I’ll
attach one short translation to whet your appetite!
Cheers,
Alexi
My Reply to:
Alexi Hamilton
Hi Alexi,
Good to hear your work is moving
forward! Very glad Mark is there too, I know he loves all of it. Have
been out of town, will read translation as soon as I get home! And
for sure, can finish and send article verifications you need by
Monday.
Thanks,
John
Glad
everything was moving forward for them, it was still hard to imagine
such an amazing find. I’ll check on Alexi’s questions this
weekend. Downloaded codex attachment to laptop, assumed
the encryption key was same one we used before, opened the decryption
software and put it to work. Sure enough, the unencrypted file
appeared.
My
grumbling stomach warned of near starvation; I decided to read later.
Picked up a beef-veggie wrap on the way home. It went well with a
bottle of ale. Felt good to be home. I was tired, but curiosity took
precedence.
Codex – translated by Mark
Miller, September 1995
found
in the Wadi Natrun (cave 450uc) by Alexi Hamilton, dated to AD 415
My
Life, by Yarrl
I,
Yarrl, an assistant librarian in the Great Library was born in
Constantinople in the 11th year of the reign of Emperor Theodosius.
My mother died in childbirth. My father, a commander in the Roman
Army, was transferred to Alexandria in the 5th year of the reign of
Honorius, where he was placed in charge of a Roman cohort that
provided security services for Alexandria and the surrounding region.
My
father was brother to Theon of Alexandria, who was Prime
Administrator of Alexandria University and father of
teacher-philosopher-librarian Hypatia of Alexandria. My father was
killed by an unknown assailant in Alexandria in the 9th year of the
reign of Honorius. I was then adopted by Theon who provided me living
space in the Serapeum Temple-Library complex and continued my
education there.
I
was an assistant librarian at the library for several years, escaping
persecution and death at the direction of Alexandrian Bishop Cyril in
the 20th year of the reign of Honorius. Now in the desert far away
from Alexandria, I do not know the fate of the other librarians,
Theon or Hypatia. Afraid most are now no longer living.
This
is the story of how I escaped from Alexandria and walked south to
Baramus Monastery, far from Alexandria and Cyril's monks. I am safe
here, my true identity known only to Abba Moses and Abba Arsenius.
I
hide this writing until a time when reason and equanimity once again
prevail.
God
be with all mankind now and in the future.
I
was in a fog, not quite comprehending what I’d read or able to
believe that was real. I’d never encountered or even heard of an
old text like this one written by a librarian.
“Why
did he write it? What happened to him afterward?” I was talking to
myself, distracted. I tried to slow my brain and breathe regular;
he’d used the term: “Serapeum Temple-Library complex,” which I
believed was the correct name in Yarrl’s time.
Today,
a lot of people talk about the Great Library of Alexandria like it
was still in existence much longer than it actually was. Near the
shore, the original building had been reduced by war, fire and other
calamities through the years, until its probable destruction on July
21, 365 AD, when a huge tsunami, triggered by an 8.0 magnitude
earthquake off the coast of Crete, sent a thirty-foot-high wall of
water at five hundred miles per hour across the city. Thousands of
people died and many buildings were destroyed.
Some
historians have surmised that any salvageable materials from the
Great Library were then transferred to the Serapeum Temple-Library
complex, also known as the Daughter Library. Many theories try to
explain what happened to the Library after the time of Yarrl, but
none have been proved beyond doubt.
What
a surprise to read an ancient text that contains so much personal
information and also seems to agree with my ideas about the past. In
all my study of those places and times in Egypt I’d never heard of
or come across anything even vaguely like that. I hope there will be
more.
From:
John
Newton
To:
Mark
Miller
Subject:
My
Life, by Yarrl
Hi
Mark,
Alexi
just sent me your translation of this text. It’s unbelievable! You
must be on a real high over there! Can’t imagine finding something
like this. Are you able to stop long enough to eat and sleep? Is
there a lot more to translate?
Thanks
for keeping me in the loop. Look forward to more of Yarrl’s story,
hope it’s intact. What a find!
Keep
going,
John
I
was so jazzed by that story the adrenaline was pumping, but I was
also dead tired and needed sleep because President’s Council meets
early tomorrow. So made myself walk around the block for fresh air.
Back
home, I picked up a book that didn’t look specially interesting and
went to bed.
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