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Nimrod and His Times — a Novel

Nimrod's Mistake

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Nimrod and His Times — a Novel

In a sense, I think that Robert E. Howard already wrote a version of it. Conan the Cimmerian is starting out as a mighty hunter, and he's ending up as a Conqueror or Usurper or King of some sort. If Robert E. Howard didn't pick that from a certain chapter in the Bible, well, I on't say "I'll be damned" I'm not taking that kind of risks, but I'd probably be surprised on Doomsday. He also set Conan in a very relevant period: The word "Hyborian"* is derived from the legendary northern land of the ancient Greeks, Hyperborea, and it is rendered as such in the earliest draft of Howard's essay "The Hyborian Age". Howard described the Hyborian Age taking place sometime after the sinking of Atlantis and before the beginning of recorded ancient history. Most later editors and adaptors such as L. Sprague de Camp and Roy Thomas placed the Hyborian Age around 10,000 BC. I'm not suggesting this was when Nimrod actually lived. But I ...
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Nimrod's Mistake

Nimrod put the sundial to use. One shadow traced the way of the Sun, and as the Sun went from East to South to West, the shadow went from West to North to East, as shadows of sundials do. He imagined that cutting the two halves of the day in half could allow for a more precise measure of time. And, indeed, when he did, he found that the time from one end to the second middle, from the second middle to the middle, from the middle to the other second middle and from the other second middle to the other end, at the equinoxes corresponded to 8 water drippers. He liked the number six, so he decided to change the water drippers to 6 water drippers for such a space of time. And he did. Instead of 1350 calm heart beats, the dripper now was for 1800 calm heart beats. Now, he took care to note the time from Sunset to Moonrise. Each night, the Moon rose two (new) drippers later than the night before ... no, not quite. The last of the drippers went more and more incomplete till finally at Ful...
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