Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution

Robin’s understanding of who he is and what Babel does changes when he meets Griffin. Griffin is a member of the Hermes Society, a group that wants to end England’s virtual monopoly on silver. Babel isn’t studying languages just for the sake of knowledge; the translators participate in the exploitation of other countries and cultures to get new words. These new words can then be translated into English, allowing for new match-pairs to be created. It is a vicious cycle: The British Empire hoards and exploits other languages to create military assets and industries that allow them to conquer even more countries. Griffin is a founding member of Hermes, which steals silver bars and sends them out to colonized countries to fuel revolt. He joined after dropping out of Oxford in his third year. Robin and Griffin are both Lovell’s illegitimate sons, but Lovell has a wife and two children who live in Yorkshire. Griffin asks Robin to join Hermes, but Robin refuses because he is afraid of leaving behind the potential of life as a translator. Griffin tells him he has five days to decide. If he changes his mind, he can leave a cross on a tree on the college grounds.