HIMODOTUS
We know exactly when the Forgotten Time began, but we were not the first to use the name. That honour goes to Himodotus, who probably lived in the fifth century BCE. For us, it began when the Box was opened and the book inside was read. That was the first anyone had heard of the time history forgot. Opening the box and reading the book made Emdee Wyse’s dream come true. It completed the link with that distant past and opened a slot in time through which Emdee has since sent a lot more. That is not the only way we have learned about the Forgotten Time. Remnants of that time have been discovered hidden in plain sight. A particular example is A History of Forgotten Time by Himodotus. It has been known for centuries but generally discredited and overlooked. Himodotus tells how he discovered a copy of Animal Tails in a ruined library in Minoan Crete. Something about it made him believe it came from another time. He told everyone but nobody believed him, so he went in search of evidence. He travelled extensively and collected stories of this unknown period, but still, nobody would believe him. He wrote this book and published it himself to answer his fellow scholars who scoffed at his ideas and laughed at him. Consequently, over the centuries, nobody bothered to study his book. Indeed, it was thought to be lost until 2010, when a tattered scroll was discovered in an urn in the ancient desert city of Petra. Specialists are still working on it, but this is what we have so far. I have added to some of the entries when we have information from another source e.g. the Encyclopaedia Amnesia, or the crazy journals of the Grumpy Old Man. References to Animal Tales are noted AT1 etc. Himodotus did not get the credit he deserved in his time, but he did what he set out to do. He prevented the last traces of the Forgotten Time being erased.
Steve Steventon - Garden Cottage 2026
A History of the Forgotten Time
Here are presented the results of the enquiry carried out by Himodotus of Samos, to prevent the traces of human events in a previous time being erased. It is the greatest story never told! There was a time on Earth which has been entirely forgotten! It is not mentioned in the histories, yet I know it existed. It was a time of farmers and sailors, cities, and villages, of love and of loss. It was a time much like ours, but it was also a time of magic, dragons, giants and unicorns. I have called it the Forgotten Time. I, Himodotus of Samos, proclaim this to be true! Some scholars say such a time did not exist. They say there is no evidence, and there is no gap in history where it fits. I say they are wrong twice over. There is evidence, and there are many gaps in history. We all know this! Farmers often dig up mysterious objects – weapons or tools with unknown uses, coins stamped with the head of forgotten kings, scrolls in forgotten languages! Explorers have found tombs of forgotten people, and even nameless cities buried under the dust of centuries or overgrown in the jungle. I, Himodotus of Samos have travelled the world to study these mysteries. Wherever I went, I collected every remnant of the Forgotten Time I could find. Here are my findings. They are evidence of the existence of a time left out of history. This is what we know about the Forgotten Time. Scholars may say I have invented it all. To them I say, where is your evidence?
BANGAN was a large oasis in the western desert of Yondaland. It was where the legendary Bangan horses originated. Known as the Jewel in the Sands it was rich and relaxed. Surrounded by desert it was safe from invasion. There was plenty of water to irrigate the fields. Except once when legend tells of a terrible ten-year drought. The pool in the oasis shrank. There was not enough water for the people or the horses. Their queen, Dassa, took half her people and some horses and led them across the desert to the sea. She hired a ship and sailed over the great ocean to the land of the Endless Forest. The horses she left behind were released to roam wild. From then on, they chose their own riders or had none. Bangans were the fastest and cleverest horses in the world. Nobody in Yondaland would hurt one because they looked like the Black Horse, Father of the Universe (AT10). In time Bangan returned to prosperity, people from the land of the Endless Forest often retired there, but they no longer bred horses. Young Bangan folk joined with others under flag of the two tigers and attended the annual Selection Day in the Grasslands when Bangan horses chose their riders.
BEE-GINNING In those far off days it was generally believed that the universe came from nothing and would return to nothing at the end of time. This was nothing was not empty space. They called it SBN (Sticky Black Nothing/ Something But Nothing). They say the beginning began with a bee. I have seen the story painted on the walls of a ruined Bee Dome in ancient Bogdoria. The story goes like this – Before the beginning and always, it was dark. Then light pierced the darkness. A point of light appeared and spiralled through the SBN like a golden corkscrew. Shadow and light, came together, grew wings, and became the Beginning Bee. The Bee flew through the SBN. The vibration of its wings created the Wind of Time and that blew bubbles in the SBN in which stars were born. According to AT1, the Buzz came before the Bee. Sound came before light. The Beginning Bee was the single most important fable in the Forgotten Time. It was generally believed that every atom in the universe was made of vibrations. The buzz of the Beginning Bee was the first vibration. It started the universe buzzing. The black and gold stripes of the bee were the vibration between dark and light. Scholars scoff at this
nonsense, but they still write books about it.
Note. In ancient Greece It was widely believed that bees could fly between this world and the underworld.
Note. Scientists today can detect the buzz of the beginning in the cosmic microwave background (CMB).
BIRTHDAYS In the Forgotten Time a birthday was more than an excuse for a party. Each one meant something different. Every seventh birthday was called a Newborn Day (NBD); the first marked the change from infant to child and the second marked the transition from child to adult and began The Year of Adventure when they left home and fended for themselves. Seven was also the birthday of flowers when a child chose a flower to be his or her lifelong emblem. Eight was a year for books. Nine was a year to learn a new skill. Ten was a year for diary writing. Eleven was a year for Change and Chance. It was thought to be a lucky time to take risks. We do not know any more except forty-nine. It was called Dream Night. On that night you had to sleep alone in a White Room – a room without windows painted white, floor, walls, ceiling and door. There was nothing in the room apart from the bed. The bed was white with white bedding. You had to wear a white nightshirt. It was supposed to help you dream. Most village halls had a White Room. Whatever your dream was that night, you were meant to follow it, even if you did not want to. Nobody knows how many people followed their dream. Some may have done but probably most treated their dreams like some scholars treat facts. They only paid attention to the ones they liked.
Note. We know that on her Dream Night, Emdee Wyse dreamt of someone in the future reading her book. Because of that she devoted herself to writing the book and finding a way to send it through time.
THE BLACK HORSE (Father of the Universe) Yondans did not believe in the Bee. They were horse people. They believed the first creature was a black horse. They say the universe began when,
“In the black velvet nothing one huge golden eye opened, and it was the sun.
Then the Black Horse, Father of the Universe, opened his other eye and it was the moon” (AT10). Yondan baby’s wore earrings – a tiny gold ball in one ear and a silver ball in the other. In this way the Black Horse, Father of the Universe, would always have his eyes on the baby and keep it safe. Yondan wedding rings were black iron set with a band of gold for the man and silver for the woman. Yondans said, after it made the universe, the Black Horse slept and became the night sky. The stars are drops of sweat glittering on his velvet coat. They say, when he wakes up and runs again, the world will end. Scholars call it a silly story, but we will not know for sure until the end of the universe!
BLANKIA The legendary island of Blankia was so called because it “arose from the sea, a blank page for a new story”. From the beginning it was a home for outlaws. Legend tells us it was created when the unicorns crossed over to Thera (AT7). The seabed was sucked up behind them and did not drop back when they were gone. The hunters pursuing the unicorns were the first to settle there. They became the first pirates, and Blankia became Pirate Island. Legend also tells us that the unicorns’ “living raft” landed on the new island and turned it green True or not Blankia was an astonishingly fertile place. However, it had very few farmers. There was no money in it. It was hard to make money from pirates. Pirates had principals. If they could not steal it, they did not want it. They certainly would not pay for it. Only the inns made money. In them you paid your bill or they cut your throat. Blankia Town was said to be the most dangerous place in the world.
THE CALENDAR There were a few different calendars in the Forgotten Time. The most widely used Cycle of the Years was based on the number eleven. There were eleven years in the cycle and eleven months in the year. Each month was thirty-three days and there were two extra days: Tree Day and New Year’s Day. Eleven was an important number because it was believed that reality needed eleven dimensions to exist. The common cycle began with the Bee, followed by Cat, Dog, Bear, Crab, Dragon, Fox, Butterfly, Horse, and Beaver. Months had the same names as years. In Yondaland they began with a horse and had a snake instead of a fox. Different parts of the world had different animals in their cycle. Some had different cycles; ten years, sixty years etc. Some with different names and number of months For this reason, it is difficult to know when exactly anything happened in the Forgotten Time. Some scholars might tell you they have worked it out but believe me they have not. Some scholars will say anything to get attention.
The DOOR is mentioned in many ancient manuscripts. It could be in two places at once. It is said to have been made by a group of Wyse women in the darkest days of the ice age, when nearly all life on Earth had been extinguished. They made a frame of star-iron, across it they stretched a net made with hair from a unicorn’s mane. Somehow, they caught a ‘blob of Sticky Black Nothing in the net, and used it take Earth back in time to when it was green and full of life! The SBN in the iron frame, looked like a black door with coloured glass windows. The Wyse women did not know where the windows came from. When the windows turned into eyes and then became cats, they called them Exoticats (aka E-Cats). There are four of them. Each controls a direction of movement. Amber controls movement in time, Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald control movement in space. They were powerful and dangerous. Several Wyse women were blown apart by their deadly touch! Some scholars suggest that E-Cats came from the eleventh dimension to steal the chogocream. Some scholars say Exoticats are pan-dimensional beings, but hardly anyone knows what that means. Scholars disagree whether the Door ever existed, or indeed if it still does; but then, disagree is what scholars do best.
Note In Gripes and Groans, the philosopher Stagee Vagee aka The Grumpy Old Man said, “the thing about The DOOR is that it’s two”. Scholars have puzzled over this statement. Most believe he was referring to the double nature of The Door, one side in one place, the other side in another. Some say he simply meant there were two Doors. In More Gripes and Groans he asked, “When is a door not a door?” Some scholars say this is a deep meditation on the essence of “door-ness”. Some answer that a door is the opening that lets us in. Others answer that a door is the barrier that keeps us out. Some answer, “When it’s ajar”, which is the oldest and saddest joke in the world.
DRAGONS were there from the beginning; born in the flames of the first age, when the Earth was a ball of fire, and the Father of Fire (The Sun) was a golden dragon (AT2). Dragons fought each other. They burnt the land, boiled the seas, vaporised the sky, and blew the planet in two! The two pieces became the Earth and the Moon, dancing together forever round the Sun. Then on Earth the rain came, for a million years. It extinguished fire and hid the sun. Most dragons died in the dreary damp. Some sought fire underground. Legend says they still sleep, curled up in caves, dreaming of a burning Earth. People say these dragons’ dreams are why the world is full of war and woe, but people will say anything to avoid responsibility. Most scholars say that the last dragons drowned in their sleep. Some say that dragon-fire was not totally extinguished by the rain, because some dragons took to the ocean. Scholars do not agree but then scholars never do. However, it is likely, if you see a dragon, it will be a sea-dragon.
Note The philosopher Stagee Vagee aka The Grumpy Old Man wrote “dragons don’t lay eggs nor breathe fire”. Scholars called him crazy, but the great biologist Rachel S Darlose dissected a dragon to find the truth. She discovered that dragons were more explosive than previously realised. They did not just lay eggs; they shot them out of their birth tubes so hard that they penetrated deep into the ground. Darlose found two mysterious organs in the dragons back. She called them fire-makers. A tube from each connected to a chamber in the skull just behind the nose. She believed that chemicals from these organs mixed in the chamber and exploded, shooting fireballs out of the barrel of the dragon’s bony nose.
EARTHERA the double planet was the Wyse women’s name for the Earth and its shadow planet Thera. Thera was out of sight on the dark side of the Moon. The two planets were said to connect through the mother of magic (the Moon). Scholars disagree whether Thera was a physical planet or a magical reflection of the Earth. Some believe it is still up there hidden in moon-shadow. Others believe it flew away long ago. Surprisingly nobody doubted that Unicorns discovered Thera. Legend said they danced on moonbeams up to the Moon and down the other side to Thera. Unicorns were creatures of the Moon, and their silver hooves could “grip the gossamer glow of a moonbeam”. Some scholars laugh at the legend, but they cannot explain how else Unicorns got there. It is agreed that Unicorns lived on Thera for as long as EarThera existed and that Thera was empty when they got there. Some say Thera did not exist at all until the silver herd discovered it, but that is just moonshine. Wyse Women could travel between Earth and Thera. They said Thera was a magical paradise, before the wizards got there, and turned it into a mad house! Wizards tell another story, but it changes every time they tell it.
An ELEVENER was someone who believed the number eleven to be lucky. Eleven was known as the Lucky Dimension because reality cannot exist without eleven dimensions. The Mathmagician Naysaac Oldton wrote an eleven-page equation that proved this. The letters on this page are two-dimensional; they have width and height. If they were made of wood or metal they would have thickness too, giving them three dimensions. If they got up and ran around, they would be moving in time, the fourth dimension. We can all understand that. We cannot see time, but we can experience it. According to Oldton, there were seven more invisible dimensions! Nobody understood what he meant so nobody disagreed with him.
FENARIO was the most famous city in Yondaland. In the ancient tongue, it was Ibretu or “unicorn city”. The city badge was a unicorn and a ship. It was in Toomoon Bay at the end of the Great Canyon. Toomoon Bay was divided by The Daggers, towering blades of rock that extended out into the sea. One side was a great city of shipbuilders, pirates, stonemasons, silversmiths, bakers and bandits. The other side was Lilmoon Bay, a crescent of golden sand beneath the famous Moonlight Cliffs that glowed with their own light, so bright they could be seen out at sea, warning sailors of the dangerous Daggers. Magnificent mansions were carved into the moon-marble cliffs, and beautiful gardens laid out in front of them full of statues and fountains carved from glowing moon-marble. Sadly, none of this extraordinary stone has survived to our time. Most scholars say it never existed, but what do they know? They have never yet found Fenario.
GIANTS The giants of the Forgotten Time were rather tragic creatures. They never stopped growing except when they were asleep. If they slept too long, they might not wake up. They lived a very long time, but they got slower in mind and body as they got older. In the end they turned to stone. Men called them “land whales” and hunted them. They were hard to kill. It took skill to get a spear down their throat or in their eye. Giants were children of the Earth, as unicorns were children of the Moon and dragons were children of the Sun. All three were born from eggs formed in the beginning of the world. In most of the ancient tales giants were wicked creatures that eat people, but in the oldest story of all, they were heroes. They saved humanity from extinction during the great flood! They linked arms, stood shoulder to shoulder, and held back the waters. The story was carved into a huge emerald. Kimikula saw it, but nobody has seen it since. Many scholars doubt its existence, but then many scholars doubt their own existence.
HOLLOW MOUNTAIN (AT6) According to legend, Hollow Mountain was the final hiding place of the Silver Herd, the last unicorns on Earth. In the early days of life on Earth, before the time of people, unicorns roamed fearless and free. They did not learn to fight or flee because no beast tried to harm them. Bugs would not bite them. They made the world green. Flowers bloomed round their silver hooves. The first people hunted everything, and Unicorns were easy to kill. The Silver Herd learned to fear people. They hid from them in Hollow Mountain. Eventually Hunters found them. They dropped down inside on long silk ropes. Sentry bees buzzed the alarm. The unicorns were prepared. They performed a dance that shook the mountain. Many hunters dropped to their deaths. Bees stung the rest as they tried to climb to safety. It was a victory, until one wild arrow hit a baby unicorn. Its scream panicked the herd. Unicorns ran around, banging into each other. Horns broke and blood splashed. The hunters took their chance and fired more arrows. Seven unicorns died. Their deaths stained the rocks with moonlight. The head of the herd led the survivors into the river under the rocks. They escaped into the dark unknown. Scholars have suggested many sites for Hollow Mountain, but they haven’t found it yet. Some say it cannot be found because it was on the lost continent of Mu. Some scholars say they cannot find it because, it never existed. The question is, how good are these scholars at finding things? Most of them cannot find their keys!
KASHKASH was once famous for its horses and gold work. Kashkash was buried under the sands of the Desert of Sighs. The people took to their horses and learned to live on the move. It is said they never stood still because they were pursued by the sighing sands. but many things are said, and most are not worth listening to. The QUEEN OF KASHKASH was a woman of such beauty; men were said to have burst into flames at the sight of her! Women could not bear the sight of her either. She covered herself from head to toe in a gauze cloth to protect her people. The cloth also kept out flies and mosquitoes, but it only became fashionable, after she removed it and led her blindfolded army over the burning bodies of their enemy! One man who did not burn, was Ekips the bearer of the Eagle Sword, of whom many tales are told, some of which may be true.
KLATT The ancient city of Klatt was famous for its knife fighters and blue striped camels. Visitors rarely came back from Klatt. People were entranced by the mystery of Klatt. People, who had never been there, wrote thousands of words on what was behind Klatt’s thousand-year-old walls. There are scrolls on Klattan art, cooking, and politics. All imaginary. One who did return from Klatt was the philosopher Stagee Vagee. He claimed to have lived in Klatt for seven years before escaping. He called Klatt, “a peaceful paradise protected purely by story”. Scholars, who disagree about everything, agree that Stagee Vagee was a loony or a liar or both. Their unity makes me doubt them. Maybe Stagee was right.
LIVING SPELLS, were magic spells that had physical form. They could look like anything from little stinging flies to the Fizard, the spell the Wyse women used on the Giants. Fizards were fat, slow moving, soft skinned lizards. Giants could not resist them. They thought them delicious. They ate them and condemned themselves to imprisonment on a mountain top. Little mosquito type ones would track their target for as long as it took, be it an hour or a lifetime! All living spells lived until their job was done.
LOTS IS LOST The story of the Forgotten Time is the story of lost things; the lost planet of Thera, the lost city of Fennario. Not only are places like Hollow Mountain, and creatures like dragons lost to us, but also many plants. One such plant is Sylphium with its heart shaped seeds. It was used in love potions. Starflowers are lost too. The Silver ones only grew round unicorn hooves. The Rainbow ones were used in good luck potions. Trees have also been lost. Scholars disagree whether the Magic-Redwood, the Timeless Tree, and the Chumchuk are one, two or three types of trees, but anyway, they are lost. The saddest loss is surely the Chogonut tree. It was the tallest of all trees. Its timber was the hardest, and strongest. Its fruit was the most highly prized. Chogonuts were tasty but even better when made into chogocream. According to one ancient document, chogocream was, “the top ten most delicious, sweet things in the world rolled into one”. In another document the words, “I love chogocream!” are repeated two hundred times. Nobody has tasted chogocream for centuries, yet scholars compete with each other to describe how delightful it must have been.
The LUCKY STAR (aka Rainbow Star) is a seven-point star made with seven sevens, one of each colour of the rainbow, to represent the universe of light. It was a popular good luck charm in the Forgotten Time. People believed the universe was governed chiefly by chance. They put the Lucky Star on everything. Most commonly it was made of enamelled gold or silver and worn round the neck on a leather thong. It was a Sevener symbol, but Eleveners also wore it. To them the Lucky Star represented the seven invisible dimensions. This is a popular theory with scholars. They love writing about invisible things. They can say what they like with no evidence at all.
MAGIC From all my research, it seems that the Forgotten Time was a time of magic. It was not imaginary but very real. On Thera magic was in the air. On Earth there was moon magic, singing magic, unicorn magic, bee magic, and maybe more. Why are our times without magic? Where did it all go? As usual scholars do not give a straight answer. They disagree about what magic means. They even disagree about what meaning means! Perhaps they are all under a disagreeing spell!
SNOWDOG In the far northern city of Vinterhafen, when winter comes and the Sun sleeps, they tell the tale of the lost children and how they were saved by the Snowdog, a magical hound made of snow, stardust, and wind. Through the dark days they have a festival of storytelling named after her. When the Sun returns, they honour her by dancing, wagging their tails like she did when she returned to the sky.
STICKY BLACK NOTHING (SBN) was their name for the emptiness that existed before the beginning of our universe. SBN also stood for Something But Nothing. Sticky or not that’s what it was. SBN crossed the border between existence and non-existence.
THERA was probably the Moon’s moon hidden in its shadow. Wyse Women said it was a peaceful paradise, where unicorns lived in meadows of starflowers, safe from the vicious hunters on Earth. Then wizards arrived and wars started. The first wizard was Razlo. He was said to have grabbed the tail of a unicorn and hung on, all the way there. Thera was full of magical energy. The longer Razlo stayed, the more his magic powers grew. That is not the only story. Men must have been taken to Thera by Wyse Woman. Only they knew how to get there and they must have guarded that secret well. Time flowed differently on Thera. It was said, if one could look up, through the sky, across the void of space, and straight through the Moon herself one would see Thera on the other side, but it would be a blur. This is because we can only see one time at a time. Thera vibrates between different times. On Thera this went unnoticed. They lived minute by minute as we all do but the difference between Thera and Earth fluctuated Some scholars say this is ridiculous nonsense because Thera was made of cream cheese and was constantly being eaten by invisible cosmic mice. To them I say, see a doctor!
TREE DAY In the Forgotten Time, trees were important to people. This is unsurprising as the Endless Forest covered most of the western world. On the first day of winter, it was the custom to decorate a special tree erected in the village square. Everyone hung something on the tree. Then they made a circle around the tree and cheered. This was called Tree Day and was celebrated with special food and dancing. The tree stayed decorated until the first day of spring when they had another party and took the tree down and burnt it, along with the paper decorations. The more precious ornaments were saved and passed down the generations. There are mentions of bees made of gold glass and unicorns made of woven silver wire, but they disappeared long ago. We can only imagine them, which pleases both scholars and artists.
UNICORNS There were many stories about unicorns the Forgotten Time. In some they were creatures of the Moon, filled with her magic. They ran up and down moonbeams, as light as butterflies. In others they are the source of life on Earth. In the Book of the Moon, we read that, “Flowers would grow, and sweet water flow where Unicorns stamped their silver hooves”. An ice-age began when the last unicorns fleeing from ruthless hunters, left the Earth, and flew to Thera. The ice-age did not end until one unicorn came back. Legends differ about how Unicorns were born. Was it from the Moon, or from silver eggs in the fires of the first age of Earth, or were they horses that changed through their love of the Moon. Perhaps they were all three. All the stories agree that Unicorns never used their horn to hurt, and no creature would willingly hurt them – except for man. People hung images of Unicorns on the tree on Tree Day, along with images of the Beginning Bee and the Lucky Star. Some scholars say Unicorns symbolized beauty; others say that they symbolised spring or love. Most unusually for scholars, they all agree that Unicorns were a force for good and the world misses them.
WYSE WOMEN were the leaders of nomadic tribes that roamed free in the early days of life on Earth. They discovered the Magic stored in Unicorn horns. The magic made them powerful. They could not get enough of it. They sent men to hunt these harmless creatures. The last unicorns fled the planet, and the world froze. Too late, Wyse Women realised they had brought the Earth to the brink of disaster. They tried everything they could think of to make the world green again. They created the Door, and all kinds of other magic but the ice-age did not end. It was Kimikula and her singing magic that saved the world. She enticed one unicorn back to Earth, to live with her herd of horses. A new generation of unicorns was born. Wherever they roamed the ice melted and the world grew green again. Or so the legends say. Much of what we know about The Forgotten Time comes from the writings of Wyse women. Scholars say they cannot be trusted. I say they can! Wyse Women confessed that they nearly destroyed life on Earth. That sounds like honesty to me. Moreover, when the ice-age ended they all gave up the leadership of their tribes and retired from the world! They chose to live in small groups or alone in remote places where people did not go. They did not want to make the same mistakes again. After Kimikula, Wyse Women were wiser and kinder. If only scholars were like that!
YEAR OF ADVENTURE In the Forgotten Time it was the custom for young people, when they were fourteen, to leave home and fend for themselves for a year. It was called a Year of Adventure. They usually left the day after their birthday. Sometimes they left with a plan, contacts and so on but sometimes they just travelled with no other plan than to see the world. Some never went home again. Scholars cannot explain this practice, but we cannot expect scholars to understand adventure. They prefer the dust of old books to the dust of the road.