Redwall

From start to finish, Cluny is an unrepentant villain. He is described as an evil-looking rat with only one eye:

Cluny was a bilge rat; the biggest, most savage rodent that ever jumped from ship to shore. He was black, with grey and pink scars all over his huge sleek body, from the tip of his wet nose, up past his green and yellow slitted eye, across both his mean tattered ears, down the length of his heavy vermin-ridden back to the enormous whiplike tail which had earned him his title: Cluny the Scourge! (17).

Cluny’s only interest in life is conquest. He is basically a bully who believes he can take whatever he wants. Because Cluny understands the usefulness of fear, he rules his band of cutthroats by intimidating them. He expects that the same tactic will work on the mice he intends to conquer. Cluny’s arrogance causes him to underestimate the determination of his small opponents, and he pays for that mistake by losing his life. 

Methuselah is the abbey’s recordkeeper and the oldest mouse still alive. He is, in fact, a piece of living history: “Methuselah had the gift of tongues. He could understand any creature, even a bird. He was an extraordinary old mouse, who lived with the company of his volumes in the solitude of the gatehouse” (36). When everyone else doubts the existence of Cluny, it is Methuselah who corroborates all the stories about the evil rat. Methuselah is also the quickest to notice the similarity between Matthias and Martin the Warrior. He acts as a mentor to the young mouse and helps guide him on his hero’s journey. Sadly, Methuselah is accidentally killed by a fox, but the lessons he imparts to Matthias help to create Redwall’s new defender.

The abbot of Redwall is a kindly, elderly mouse. He took Matthias into the abbey when the latter was a mere orphan and has since always regarded him as a son. Unlike the other defenders of Redwall, the abbot devotes his time to healing the sick and injured. As he tells Matthias, “The day of the warrior is gone, my son. We live in peaceful times, thank heaven, and you need only think of obeying me, your Abbot, and doing as you are bidden” (16).

The abbot fails to recognize that barbarism still exists in the world. He wants to believe that Cluny will eventually leave of his own accord, though some of the other woodlanders think his perspective is naïve. Belatedly, the abbot recognizes the need for a mouse who can defend Redwall now and in the future. Before he dies from Cluny’s poisoned dart at the end of the story, the abbot names Matthias as Redwall’s champion. 

Warbeak is a combative little sparrow who is captured by the defenders of the abbey. She is the niece of the erratic king of the sparrows, which makes her part of the royal bloodline.

Initially, she is hostile to the mice: “The captive sparrow fluttered her wings against the upturned basket. ‘I killee you!’ she chattered angrily at Matthias. ‘I killee mouse, let Warbeak free, you dirty worm’” (166). However, Warbeak eventually becomes Matthias’s friend. She proves her loyalty after Matthias himself is taken captive by her sparrow flock. Unlike her uncle, Warbeak thinks in terms of the good of all the sparrows, so she helps Matthias escape and ultimately helps him retake the abbey from Cluny. After she becomes queen of the sparrows, her flock is able to live in peace with the rest of the woodlanders. 

Constance is a badger, not a mouse. As such, she is the biggest and toughest of the abbey’s defenders. In many ways, she functions as the general in charge of protecting Redwall: “Constance’s back hairs bristled. She gave an angry growl followed by a fierce bark. The mice huddled together with fright. Nobody had ever seen a snarling, angry badger at a Council meeting” (35).

While Matthias is away on his various quests, Constance foils Cluny’s schemes time after time. Because of her size and fierceness, she isn’t afraid of the giant rat and even challenges him to hand-to-hand combat. Of course, that honor must fall to Matthias, but Constance leads the rest of the defenders to victory.

Cornflower is an attractive young field mouse who becomes Matthias’s love interest in the story: “Cornflower was a quiet young mouse, but undoubtedly very pretty. She had the longest eyelashes Matthias had ever seen, the brightest eyes, the softest fur, the whitest teeth” (22).

For most of the tale, she spends her time preparing food for the defenders and taking care of the injured. Although she functions in the traditional role of nurturing female throughout much of the novel, Cornflower manages to foil Cluny’s siege tower scheme. Thinking quickly, she breaks a lantern over the wooden structure and destroys it. By the end of the story, she marries Matthias and bears a son to carry on the tradition of Redwall defenders.