Redwall
Redwall was the first book in the series by Brian Jacques.
|
|
| Author | Brian Jacques |
|---|---|
| Translator | Various |
| Illustrator | Various |
| Cover artist | Various |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's, Fantasy novel |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Redwall is a series of children's fantasy novels published by Brian Jacques. It is also the title of the first book of the series, published in 1986, as well as the name of the Abbey featured in the book and the name of an animated TV series based on three of the novels (Redwall, Mattimeo, and Martin the Warrior), which first aired in 1999. The books are primarily aimed at older children. There have been twenty-two novels and two picture books published. The twenty-second, and final, novel, The Rogue Crew, was posthumously released on May 3, 2011.
The book series does not chronicle any one particular timeframe. Rather, it covers many periods in the history of Redwall, a world which entails Mossflower woods, surrounding islands, and a land called Southsward. Some of the books focus on characters who, in other volumes, are historical figures (e.g., Martin the Warrior's father, Luke, in The Legend of Luke). Typically, those books are set before the founding of Redwall Abbey. There is a timeline in the Redwall series, but it generally places the books in a completely different order than the order in which they were written. However, there were two phases when the novels were published in chronological order.
The characters in the books are all anthropomorphic animals of some sort, almost all of whom are capable of speech (with a few exceptions like the horse in Redwall).
Redwall contains little practice of magic. Elements of the supernatural or paranormal appear mainly in two forms: First, the ghost of Martin the Warrior or another long-dead hero will often appear in hallucinations, dreams, or visions to one of the woodland creatures (usually, but not always, an Abbey-dweller) and impart information. The information is always accurate (though often in the form of a riddle) and is of a nature such that it must have come from the ghost of Martin the Warrior and could not be the result of a creature "solving" a mystery in its sleep and dreaming about Martin the Warrior on its own. Also, some creatures in the books are called "seers" and claim to be able to see the future. While some of these "seers" turn out to be frauds; others such as the seers of Outcast of Redwall, Loamhedge, The Taggerung and Lord Brocktree are quite real and play a key part in the turning of events in these books. Virtually all of the seers, both real and fraudulent, are vermin, who are generally considered more primitive and superstitious than woodlanders and other goodly creatures and are almost always the "bad guys." However, in the booklet Tribes of Redwall Mice, both Martin the Warrior and Abbess Germaine can foresee the future. Also present is the sword of Martin the Warrior, which is believed by many creatures (especially vermin, who in some instances try to steal it) to be magical. This sword was forged from the fragment of a meteorite at Salamandastron by Badger Lord Boar the Fighter in the book Mossflower.
...
Wikipedia