Redwall (novel)

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.

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 for Redwall and his friends.

Plot summary

A young mouse named Matthias dreams of times of adventure rather 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. He has only one eye, having lost the other in a battle with a pike, which he killed. 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. They conduct some conscription amongst the vermin in the woodlands. The Abbey inhabitants, who refuse to back down, 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 roused, 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, who is the abbey recorder. Matthias is a brave-hearted young mouse, if small in stature, and as the story continues, his natural leadership abilities begin to emerge.

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 shield and sword scabbard, 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 Abbey roof and then by an adder named Asmodeus, who appears throughout the novel to pick off wandering creatures. After killing the crazed Sparrow King, Matthias continues to the lair of the gigantic snake Asmodeus, acquiring 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, the princess of the aforementioned sparrow tribe. He also roughly befriends Captain Snow, an owl, and Squire Julian Gingivere, a cat. Matthias and Log-a-Log succeed in retrieving the sword from Asmodeus's cave (in the process killing the snake) and Matthias rushes back to Redwall to save his friends after being tipped off by the sparrows 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 the vixen and her son Chickenhound, who kills Methusaleh, and had also been seriously injured from a fall. When all else fails,such as a tunneling attempt, a siege tower, and a battering ram, 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, Matthias returns. Matthias, his new 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 bell, called the Joseph bell, which sadly cracks. However, a great deal of damage is done and there are many casualties. 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 a fieldmouse named Cornflower and she has given birth to their son, Mattimeo, an abbreviated version of his full name: Martin Methuselah Mortimer. Also, Brother Alf is now known as Abbot Mordalfus. John Churchmouse, a resident of the Abbey, is now the Abbey recorder, who also has two twins that will befriend Mattimeo.

Characters in Redwall

• Matthias
• Cluny the Scourge
• Brother Methuselah
• Redtooth
• Fangburn
• Constance the Badger
• Jess Squirrel
• Basil Stag Hare
• Silent Sam
• Killconey
• Dunwing Sparra
• Sela the vixen
• Chickenhound
• Squire Julian Gingivere
• Captain Snow
• Asmodeus
• King Bull Sparra
• Guosim (shrew)
• Shadow
• Warbeak Sparra
• Abbot Mortimer
• Cornflower Fieldmouse
• Log-a-Log
• Brother Alf

Discrepancies

As Redwall was the first book set in the Redwall world, many of the defining traits of the world had not yet been hammered out, and are different than in all subsequent books in the series:

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 comes 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 trampled 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]

• Aside from the setting of the story—an Abbey with an abbot but no apparent religious observances—the St. Ninian's Church is the only reference to any kind of religion in any of the Redwall series, meaning at one point that the residents practiced Christianity (Although later in the series, it is rumoured that originally, the sign outside the church said "This ain't Ninians!", and some of the letters wore away. Cluny and his soldiers also remark to Satan ("by Satan's nose" or "Hell's teeth"), referring a belief in Hell. No other religious mentionings have happened in any of the later books. However, evil characters sometimes use "Hell's gates" as a reference to death or dying. Dark Forest's Gates, or just Dark forests refers to a place character's souls go to after death.

Species discrepancy

• Redwall is the only book in the entire series that makes any mention of domesticated animals. Animals mentioned in this book - but never again in the series - include horse, dog, cow, and pig. Additionally, the Abbot mentions a "village where the dog and pigs reside", perhaps implying human habitation. In the books following this, the world of Redwall is inhabited only by wild fauna. However, in Eulalia! an owl named Asio Bardwing refers to a cow in a song he sings. Moreover, various kinds of milks and cheeses are consumed by the inhabitants of Redwall, though no direct description of such farming or manufacture is ever made.

• The beaver in Redwall is the only one to appear in the entire series. Its species has not been mentioned since.

• 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 in Redwall as not inherently 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. In all later books in the series there has never been reference to good foxes.

• Brother Methuselah mentions that it was Martin who gave the first Foremole his title; however, in Mossflower, Foremole is already known as such before Martin's arrival, though this is most likely because Mossflower, Martin's debut book, was published after Redwall.

• In Redwall, the cat is scaled to real life compared to Matthias, but in later books, cats and wildcats are roughly the size of the other animals.

• In Redwall, Guosim was a character, a member 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. The Shrews did not rename themselves after her, either, indicated by the fact that they were referred to as Guosim in books chronologically earlier than Redwall. Furthermore, while the shrews appear in Redwall as an independent tribe with no alliance with the other "good" creatures, in books chronologically earlier they are shown as frequent allies. Log-a-Log, in addition, is always shown as their chief, while he is a mere ferry-shrew in Redwall. The customs of the tribe also changed dramatically: In Redwall the Guosim are democratic and the actions of the tribe are carried out by votes. In the books following, there is no voting, in fact the actions of the tribe fall primarily on the chieftain's decision.

Awards and nominations

Winner:

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

Nominated:

• Carnegie Medal^[2]

Book divisions (English)

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

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
  • Muren
  • Uppdraget
  • Krigaren
• (Russian) old version - Рздволл, new version -Воин Рэдволла

Publication history

Select print publications:

• 1986, UK, Hutchinson Children's Books Ltd., ISBN 0-09-165090-9, Pub. Date: October 1986, Hardback
• 1987, USA, Philomel Books, ISBN 0-399-21424-0, Pub. Date: August 1987, Hardback
• 1987, UK, Red Fox, ISBN 0-09-951200-9, Pub. Date: September 1987, Paperback
• 1990, USA, Avon Books, ISBN 0-380-70827-2, Pub. Date: March 1990, Paperback
• 1997, USA, G P Putnam's Sons, ISBN 0-399-23160-9, Pub. Date: September 1997, Hardback
• 1998, USA, Ace, ISBN 0-441-00548-9, Pub. Date: June 1998, Paperback
• 2002, USA, Thorndike Press, ISBN 0-7862-3858-5, Pub. Date: February 2002, Hardback
• 2002, UK, Penguin Putnam Books, ISBN 0-14-230237-6, Pub. Date: September 2002, Paperback

Adaptation as a graphic novel

Redwall has been adapted into a graphic novel titled Redwall: The Graphic Novel.

References