Redwall

Description of Book / Brief Plot Summary:
This is a book about anthropomorphic woodland animals (including mice, squirrels, hedgehogs, moles, otters and a badger) who live in Redwall Abbey within Mossflower Wood. The animals are gentle and peace loving, but are roused when an evil rat Cluny attacks their home with his hoard of vermin (rats, stoats, weasels and ferrets). The hero of the story is a young mouse called Matthias who goes on a quest both inside the Abbey and outside in Mossflower, solving and following clues to find the sword of Martin the Warrior (one of the Abbey’s ancient founders) with which he can battle Cluny.

The story is exciting and moves at a rapid pace. It is full of memorable characters and has lots of descriptive language – Redwall Abbey, the surrounding forest and the differenrt creatures are all brought to life in a compelling way. These books are well known for the way Brian Jacques invented various different dialects for some of the creature for example in this book the moles and the sparrows. There are also songs and poetry throughout the story which adds variety and interest. The story is set in the age of swords and spears.

From the Cover: Redwall Abbey, tranquil home to a community of peace-loving mice, is threatened by the evil, one-eyed rat warlord Cluny the Scourge and his battle-hardened horde of predators. Cluny is certain that Redwall will fall easily to his fearsome army but he hasn’t bargained for the courage and strength of the Redwall mice and their loyal woodland friends . . .

Language – Does the book contain any offensive or blasphemous language?
The book does not contain any very strong language or blasphemy – the phrase ‘good lord’ is used a small number of times.

However, the book does contain quite a lot of language that refers to hell and the devil especially in the dialogue and descriptions of Cluny and his followers. Examples are: ‘by the teeth of hell’, ‘tell the devil Cluny sent you’, ‘bat out of hell’, ‘like a satanic minister’, ‘by hell thunder’ and ‘as hot as hells furnace’.

Religious Content – Does the book contain any religious content, Christian or other?
Although the animals live in an abbey, the mice are called brothers and their leader is called an Abbot, there is no overt religion or religious content. Visions and dreams play quite a big part in the story, and Martin the Warrior is revered as an almost mystical figure watching over Redwall and its inhabitants.

Moral Content – Good and Bad. Does the book contain any positive moral content? Does the book contain any questionable themes?
This is a simple story of good vs evil, and there are no overt immoral themes. The abbey creatures are good, loyal and trustworthy. The vermin army are wicked and cruel. Good wins out over evil, and kindness over cruelty. Loyalty and bravery are key themes. The goal of the Abbey is ultimately always peacful and they only take up arms to defend themselves.

There is quite a bit of violence in the story, and it does not shy away from sadness, e.g. key characters are badly hurt and a few are killed.

In passing it is mentioned that at feasts the animals enjoy ‘October Ale’ and without drunkeness being mentioned directly, drinking too much of this ale has an effect, making the animals them merry and sleepy.

One final point is that invariably, a creature’s species determines their nature and this does not change e.g. mice are good, rats are evil.

Other Comments:
Redwall is the first book in the Redwall series. There are 22 books in total. All the books follow a very similar style. Chronologically some are set before ‘Redwall’ and some after. The book was first published in 1986. The reviewed copy was printed in 1990 and has 416 pages. The book has been reprinted many times – the latest printing has 352 pages (according to Amazon).