Enoch Root (Enoch the Red) is a fictional character from Neal Stephenson's novels The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon. He is a religious leader by profession, but can handle himself in a fight, and is also competent in medicine, chemistry, and cryptography. He has ties to a semi-secret society known as the Societas Eruditorum. Randy Waterhouse describes him, simply, as a wizard. Root possesses an alchemical means of rejuvenation called by Leibniz the elixir vitae, which allows him to resurrect himself after he dies, and be present in novels set in the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. He also has an uncanny ability to be at the right place at just the right time to influence other characters, so that they do something of import. For example, Root sees Eliza in an observatory in Amsterdam, and shouts out a cryptic message that gets her to turn the telescope to the horizon, where she spots the sails of a French ship sailing in to abduct William of Orange. Once she figures this out, Eliza rushes to the beach to help rescue the Prince.

Root's elixir vitae resurrects both Daniel Waterhouse and Sir Isaac Newton in The Baroque Cycle, as well as curing Bobby Shaftoe and America Shaftoe in Cryptonomicon.

How Root has what he has and does what he does is a mystery to readers. His last name may be a play on the concept of root user, the superuser, who has godlike powers in Unix style computer operating systems (operating systems being a subject Stephenson has written about at length). It may also be a clumsy transliteration of the word "red" from a Germanic language, since he is sometimes known as "Enoch the Red" in keeping with the Lord of the Rings naming convention for wizards.

See also

• Solomon Kohen
• Philosopher's Stone

External links

• Enoch Root page at The Metaweb.
• What's up with Enoch Root?