Redwall (novel)

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Title Redwall

UK 1st Edition Cover
Author Brian Jacques
Illustrator Gary Chalk
Cover artist Pete Lyon
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Redwall
Genre(s) Fantasy
Publisher Hutchinson (UK) & Philomel (US)
Released 1986
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 311 (UK Hardback) & 351 (US Hardback)
ISBN ISBN 0-09-165090-9 (UK Hardback) & ISBN 0-399-21424-0 (US Hardback)
Followed by Mossflower


Redwall is a fantasy novel by Brian Jacques. Originally published in 1986, it is the first book of the Redwall series. The book was illustrated by Gary Chalk, with the British cover illustration by Pete Lyon and the American cover by Troy Howell.

Contents

[edit] Plot introduction

When Redwall Abbey is attacked by a rat known as Cluny the Scourge, the Redwallers rise up in defense, and a young mouse known as Matthias embarks on a quest to recover the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The novel centers on the fate of its eponymous abbey and the characters contained within, although much of the book takes place in the forest surrounding the Abbey Redwall Abbey was founded by a great mouse hero named Martin the Warrior, who swore himself to peace after founding the abbey, and his followers throughout the ages have done the same. One of the abbey residents, Matthias, dreams more of times of adventure than a life of quiet servitude, but he is counseled to patience by his elders. Redwall is a fixture in the local community, set in the heart of Mossflower Woods, and was designed to be a place of refuge for the beasts of the forest in times of trouble.

Trouble arrives in the form of Cluny the Scourge, in the Summer of the Late Rose. Cluny is an evil, infamous rat, owning an extra-long tail with a poisoned barb on the end, and commander of a horde of vermin. The foebeasts arrive at the beginning of the book and make their headquarters at the Church of St. Ninian, to the south of Redwall, with the intention of taking the Abbey for themselves. The Abbey inhabitants refuse to back down and make ready to defend themselves if necessary, especially since most of the inhabitants of the surrounding area are now within its walls. None of them are particularly martial, but Redwall folk, and indeed much of the Mossflower population, are generally described as slow to anger but fierce fighters when aroused, and they are able to make an effective defense. Matthias, fearing that Cluny will still overrun them, begins a quest to find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior, which is supposedly hidden somewhere within the Abbey, stored away for a time of need. He is helped particularly by Methuselah, an old and grizzled librarian mouse. Matthias is a brave-hearted young mouse, if small in stature (obviously), and as the story continues, his natural leadership abilities begin to emerge.

US cover of Redwall
US cover of Redwall

Clues to the location of Martin's sword, as well as his shield and the sword's scabbard, have been built into the Abbey. Matthias recovers the latter two, and with Methuselah's help eventually divines where the sword is hidden. Unfortunately, it isn't there any longer, having been stolen by a wild sparrow tribe, that dwells on the Abbay roof, years before. A few years after that, however, the snake Asmodeus stole the sword from the sparrows. The continuing search leads Matthias to the Abbey attics, where a fierce and chattering tribe of sparrows live. He gains the help of a young sparrow who is the niece of the King of the Sparrows. The King of the sparrows, named Bull Sparra, who is a crazed, dangerous leader. Mathias is held captive by King Bull Sparra. He regains the sword's sheath but while escaping he and King Sparra plummets into the Abbey lake. King Bull Sparra drowns but Mathias lives. He continues to the lair of the gigantic snake Asmodeus. Along the way he acquires several allies: Log-a-Log, the leader of a local band of shrews; Basil Stag Hare, wandering do-gooder and general cad, and Warbeak Sparra, a princess of the sparrow tribe who becomes Matthias's friend when they are forced to work together against the insane sparrow king. He also befriends Captain Snow and Squire Julian. He succeeds in retrieving the sword from Asmodeus's cave (in the process killing the snake) and rushes back to Redwall to save his friends after being tipped off by the sparrowhawks about the fall of the abbey.

Cluny, in the meanwhile, has been attempting a number of unsuccessful strategies to gain entrance to the Abbey. He has had to deal with traitors such as Sela and her son Chickenhound, who kills Methusaleh, and had also been seriously injured from a fall. When all else fails, he captures a family of dormice and forces Plumpen, the head of that family, to open one of the gates or his family will be killed. Plumpen complies but he is knocked unconscious by Cluny. However, his victory is short-lived; soon after he takes over the Abbey when Matthias returns. He, his allies, and the assembled Redwall population turn on their captors; Matthias himself takes on Cluny, and defeats him by crushing him under the Abbey's main bell called the Joseph bell. However, a great deal of damage is done and there are many casulties. Abbot Mortimer, who was inflicted by Cluny's poisoned barb, dies after proclaiming Matthias Warrior of Redwall and Brother Alf the new Abbot of Redwall.

The novel closes with an epilogue. Matthias has married Cornflower and she has given birth to their son, Mattimeo, an abbreviated version of his full name" Matthias Methuselah Mortimer. Also, Brother Alf is now known as Abbot Mordalfus. John Churchmouse is now the Abbey recorder.

[edit] Characters in "Redwall"

[edit] Discrepancies

As Redwall was the first book in his series, many of the defining traits of the series had not been hammered out.

[edit] The World

  • Redwall appeared to take place in the real world. Cluny was referred to as a Portuguese water rat at one point. Additionally, Methuselah claimed that one of the accounts of Cluny came from a town dog. The horse present in the early chapters was the size of a normal horse, and the wagon it pulled was scaled to the same size - an entire army of rats was able to ride in it. Also there was a mention of cows that trampeled through a village. However, Brian Jacques did not expect the book to be published, and excluded references to humans and many larger animals in later books.[1]

[edit] Size Discrepancy

  • Matthias was able to land in the mouth of a cat, indicating that the cat/mouse sizes were the same as in real life.
  • A snowy owl was big enough to catch and eat mice.
  • A horse was big enough to draw a cart that carried an entire army of rats
  • Constance the badger was described as far bigger than the mice and rats repeatedly, able to carry a fish in her mouth that the mice couldn't move. She also lifted a table, and was able to outfight rats while unarmed.
  • Asmodeus the viper was big enough to swallow rats whole.
  • A beaver was described as being similarly big.

[edit] Redwall Discrepancies

  • Redwall Abbey was described as being home to The Order. The Woodlanders were invited inside the Abbey walls for protection when Cluny invaded, but they did not live there.
  • John Churchmouse, in particular, lived with his family in St. Ninian's Church. Reference was made to their poverty. In later books, everyone lives in the Abbey, in comfort.
  • The beaver in Redwall (he was never named) was the only one to appear in the entire series. Beavers haven't even been mentioned since.
  • The characters are said to be eating ice cream at the beginning of the novel, but this foodstuff is never mentioned again in any other Redwall book.
  • In Redwall, Guosim was a character, the leader of the Guerilla Shrews. In later books, the shrews themselves were referred to as the Guosim, and no mention of the character Guosim was made, even in Mattimeo (which took place at a time where she had only died relatively recently). The Shrews did not rename themselves after her, indicated by the fact that they were referred to as Guosim in books chronologically earlier than Redwall.
  • Bees can communicate in Redwall, indicated by a statement at the end of the book where the Guerilla Shrews learned to speak the bee language so they could trade and argue. This was not noted in other books.
  • Foxes are indicated as not all evil. It is mentioned that Abbot Mortimer used to trade tomes with "wandering healer foxes". Sela The Vixen's brood of foxes was referred to as a bad lot, indicating that they were an exception and not the norm, although in all later books there has never been reference to good foxes.

[edit] Trivia

  • A number of characters in the Redwall series have names that seem allegorical to their biblical counterparts. Most notably in this novel are Methuselah, who was the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, a fiendish snake named Asmodeus, perhaps after a fallen angel, that terrorizes the land around Redwall abbey, and Matthias, who was the thirteenth apostle.
  • The discovery of the sword of Godric Gryffindor in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling, is strikingly reminiscent of the discovery of the sword in Redwall: in both books, an ancient sword of unusual origin which once belonged to a fabled hero is discovered in a cave, and used to slay a poisonous snake.
  • Redwall, as the first book written, contains no references to other books and so although it has a definite place in the chronology, appears to occur several hundred seasons after the last book before it in the chronology. The gap between Salamandastron and Redwall is an indefinite period of time in which all bloodline links to the earlier past and most physical links are lost. Notable exceptions are the tapestry and sword of Martin. Only three characters from the past are mentioned: Martin the Warrior, Sister Germaine, and Joseph the Bellmaker, the last of these only in the name of the bell, which is destroyed in the book, presumably taking all knowledge of Joseph with it. However events in Mattimeo make clear that such links do survive as, being written after Mossflower, Mattimeo contains references to it.
  • Killconey the ferret is sometimes referred to as male, but other times as female.
  • This is the only Redwall book to use profanity. While the rats are chasing Basil around the church, one says "I'll stick his damned guts on my pike." and shortly after Constance takes the phoney plans from Sela, Redtooth thinks, "Damn that badger's hide!". Also, the late King Bull Sparra was called an ass but it was possibly literally.

[edit] Awards and nominations

Winner:

  • Lancashire Libraries Children's Book of the Year Award [2]
  • Western Australian Young Readers' Award [2]

Nominated:

[edit] Book Divisions (English)

  • Book 1: The Wall
  • Book 2: The Quest
  • Book 3: The Warrior

[edit] Translations

  • (Dutch) De Roodburcht
    • De Aanval
    • De Zoektocht
    • De Krijger
  • (Finnish) Soturi Matiaksen Miekka
  • (French) Rougemuraille: Cluny le fléau
    • Tome 1 : Le Seigneur de la guerre
    • Tome 2 : L'Épée légendaire
    • Tome 3 : La Vipère géante
  • (German) Redwall: Der Sturm auf die Abtei
    • Die Mauer
    • Die Suche
    • Der Krieger
  • (Italian)
  • (Lithuanian) Raudonmüris
  • (Polish) Bitwa o Redwall
  • (Swedish) Cluny Gisslaren
  • (Russian Рздвлл

[edit] Release details

Select print publications:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Redwall.org. Retrieved on August 4, 2006.
  2. ^ a b c Brian Jacques at Puffin.co.uk. Retrieved on August 4, 2006.
Preceded by
Salamandastron		 Redwall Series
(chronological order)		 Succeeded by
Mattimeo
Preceded by
none		 Redwall Series
(publication order)		 Succeeded by
Mossflower


Books in the Redwall series, by Brian Jacques
v • d • e

Lord Brocktree | Martin the Warrior | Mossflower | The Legend of Luke | Outcast of Redwall | Mariel of Redwall | The Bellmaker | Salamandastron | Redwall | Mattimeo | The Pearls of Lutra | The Long Patrol | Marlfox | The Taggerung | Triss | Loamhedge | Rakkety Tam | High Rhulain | Eulalia
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