Thinking Redwall
Bi-Monthly
Blurring Good and Bad
August-September 2001
Veil, Fenno, Gawtrybe Squirrels, and Blaggut, what do they all have in common? They blur the lines between good and evil.
In most cases, certain animal species are goodbeasts while other species are vermin. The first example I gave is 
probably the most controversial. Veil, son of a ferret warlord is raised at Redwall to become a goodbeast, but whether it was others' prejudice against him or just his inner evil, Veil did the unspeakable. He poisoned an abbey member. In the end of the book, Veil sacrifices himself to save Byony, but the question remains, Did Veil sacrifice himself on purpose, or did he accidentally fall in front of the spear?
Fenno! The murdering shrew who made everyone's blood boil when he literally backstabbed Log-a-Log in Marlfox. Fenno is a rare case of an evil "goodbeast". No one felt any sympathy for him when he was captured or killed.
My third example is just as my first, very debateable. The Gawtrybe Squirrels from Martin the Warrior were either evil or misguided. The squirrel tribe insisted on trying to throw Martin and his friends off of a mountain in a "game." Yet, later in the book the Gawtrybe assist Martin in the final assualt on Marshank. So are the Gawtrybe evil? Who can really say?
Blaggut, our favorite searat-turn-good. He came to Redwall Abbey with his boat's captain, Slipp. Whereas Slipp only wanted to steal abbey treasure, Blaggut found that he liked the life at the abbey, where he was a "carpenter" who made boats for his favorite dibbuns. When Cap'n Slipp killed a venerable abbey member and steals a silver cup, Blaggut flees with him. Later, Blaggut realised what he had to do and killed his own captain. Blaggut returned the cup and decided he would live peacefully in Mossflower Wood and visit the abbey from time to time.
Through my four examples I have shown good "vermin" and evil "goodbeasts", along with two questionable accounts. There are many other creatures who blur the line between good and evil, Gingivere for another example, but the four I chose give the good examples of the ways Brian Jacques blurs good and evil in his books.
Coming October-November: Loamhedge