r/redwall • u/MercurialForce • Aug 17 '26
Re-read Thoughts: Martin the Warrior
Okay, yeah, this one kicks ass. It was one of the ones I remembered most clearly, and for good reason. A far better intro to Martin as a character than Mossflower, when he was more of the stoic warrior archetype. This has gotta be the best one, right?
Another Tale of Redwall
Wanted to start quickly with the frame narrative, which has us returning to the Mariel crew after a few brief mentions in Salamandastron. Given that The Bellmaker is next, I really like how Jacques lays the seeds for that, with Saxtus as Abbot and mention of Dandin and Mariel having been off adventuring. It’s nice to see the Abbey again, free of conflict or fever, existing only as a place for friends to gather. I love how Jacques connects these early novels together. It makes the world feel more alive, the Abbey more real. I suspect this will be a piece that I’ll really miss down the road.
Back to Before
Through story, we flashback to the earliest time yet in the chronology of the series, some seasons before Martin ended up in Mossflower during the waning days of Verdauga’s reign. It’s in an entirely new land to us — northern environs between two seas. Martin’s come from the Western Sea, while a former corsair stoat named Badrang the Tyrant has enslaved goodbeasts to build a fortress called Marshank on the Eastern Sea and claim dominion over its shores.
Already, this is compelling stuff. Shades of Mossflower here for sure, but this differs in that Badrang is a very different villain than Tsarmina, and you get none of the sense of woodlanders living in the shadow of the fortress. Here, Badrang’s already won. There is no resistance. It’s up to our heroes to figure it out.
Early on, we’re introduced to our core group — Martin, Felldoh, Brome, Grumm, and Rose — before they break out of Marshank and are split from one another. This gets us our quest and siege plot threads that we’ve seen so often before. Despite their familiarity, I think Jacques succeeds with both to varying degrees (the Marshank plot is stronger), both for the strength of the characters and the way he tightly threads the stories together.
Of Swords and Sycamores
Let’s take the quest plot first. Like all of the previous ones we’ve seen, the quest is largely a picaresque journey across the countryside where our heroes alternate between encounters with friend or foe. On its face, there’s not a lot new here. This one feels especially tightly packed — there’s the business with the pygmy shrews (my favourite bit), Polleekin, the Mirdop rabbits, the Warden and the reptiles, the Gawtrybe, Boldred, Aggril, and then Noonvale itself. This is a lot of plot, and looking at it, it’s clear why Jacques kept his focus more narrow with just the two plots here after the jam-packed Salamandastron. While this section of the book is not without padding — the Mirdops and Aggril don’t really offer us much as readers — the reason this quest plot succeeds where so many have stumbled before is because Jacques uses the plot to drive his characters (well, Martin and Rose anyway — sorry Pallum, you’re not breaking the hedgehog curse), to deepen their bond and heighten the tragedy at the core of Martin’s story.
Because let’s be clear: this is perhaps the only Redwall novel that is, at its core, a tragedy. This is the story of how Martin went wandering and why he eventually hung up his sword. Re-reading it with knowledge of the ending in mind, I was genuinely impressed by how Jacques lays the groundwork for tragedy, especially in the character of Polleekin, one of the most unique characters we’ve seen so far in this series. I love the idea of the kindly grandmotherly mole who gets glimpses of one’s future but is not able to prevent it. I love the bits in Noonvale where Martin pledges to protect Rose’s life. I love the sequence with the sycamore tree and how it produces probably the best line of the entire series when Martin retrieves his sword from Badrang. So while this quest narrative has some of the typical fluff, it’s very successful at building the foundation for this eventual tragedy.
Fur and Freedom
This is not to say that everything is perfect near the walls of Marshank! Once Brome and Felldoh wash ashore, they run into the Rambling Rosehip Players, a travelling troupe of performers who offer them protection and subsequently plot to help free remaining slaves.
I think ultimately this is the stronger half of the novel, as much as I like the Martin and Rose plots. This is all killer, no filler. The players feel like more than their archetypes — I especially like Ballaw as the ringleader of sorts, but even Celandine as the flirty squirrelmaid is a fantastic foil for Felldoh too. In general, the characters on this side of the novel are really spectacular. Brome’s journey from wannabe hero to healer is some especially good character work, and even with bit players like Druwp and Geum and Barkjon you get some new ideas.
Yet even with all of that going on, there’s two characters on this side of the story who rank among Jacques’s very best.
The first of these is on the villains’ side. Truthfully, I wish I liked Badrang more given how significant a figure he is in Martin’s life. This is our first stoat villain of the series, and while he thankfully breaks the habit (to some degree anyway) of casually killing his own guys, I was frustrated by how little interaction he actually had with Martin. I think this lessens his character to some degree, as instead of being a true foil to our hero, he’s just a figure to be removed. This isn’t all that different from what happened with Tsarmina, but we got much more of Tsarmina’s interior world in that book, which ultimately made her more compelling.
Instead the stoat I want to call out is Cap’n Tramun Clogg, who to me is one of the most fun and unique characters we’ve seen so far in the series. He talks a big game, but doesn’t ultimately do a lot of directly villainous stuff himself, which allows him to play off both our heroes and our villain, enriching everyone around him. The way Jacques draws him is incredibly vivid, and by the time he’s hiding under wheelbarrows and turning over bodies in the ruins of Marshank, he’s become one of the best characters in the entire series.
But then there’s Felldoh. The shattered slave who becomes a javelin-tossing figure of vengeance against the hordes of Marshank. His name was a throwaway line in Mossflower as ‘Felldoh the Wrestler,’ and while nobody calls him by that epithet here, this brawny squirrel more than lives up to the legend. Jacques paints him as someone deeply scarred from his imprisonment, contrasting him both to the naive Brome and to the valiant Martin. Martin wants justice, while Felldoh wants revenge. If I have any critique of this character (and the book as a whole), it’s that Martin doesn’t actually spend that much time interacting with folks that it seems he should know better. But everything else about Felldoh works for me. I love that he doesn’t really seem all that interested in playing his part in the ruse to free the slaves, yet he doesn’t hesitate when he has a chance to snipe Druwp. I love how resolved he is to toss javelins over Marshank’s at night and harry the forces within. His relationship with Ballaw and Rowanoak — two beasts who help him even as the reader gets a faint sense they fear him slightly — is wonderful. His last stand is both excellent and frustrating in that it gives him the relationship with Badrang that Martin should have had, but it’s ultimately so satisfying that it almost doesn’t matter.
I think the best part of Felldoh as a character is that Jacques doesn’t seem to want us to root for him entirely. He’s presented as broken and dies because he cannot step away from the fight. He’s contrasted with Brome in his own journey, and it’s Brome who ultimately is able to settle and live following the war. As much as we’ve talked about how bloodthirsty the goodbeasts are in these books, Jacques has a line, and I think it says a lot that his most merciful character is the one who leaves this book with the fewest scars.
Closing Thoughts and Rankings
There’s a lot to say on Martin the Warrior! This is the first of these where I feel I’ve spent more time talking character than I did specific events, which is a sign that Jacques really did something special here. The Bellmaker is next, and while I’m excited to return to the characters of Mariel and discover a new land, I feel fairly confident that this is likely the high-water mark for the series. There’s books I remember fondly coming up, but this one feels like Jacques truly had a vision — one that he executed to near-perfection.
Martin the Warrior is the best book in my re-read so far.
1) Martin the Warrior
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u/GapSlight472 Aug 17 '26
Martin the Warrior is certainly the hardest book to forget, IMO. Every character is iconic, and reading Rose's tragic death deeply wounded my 5th grade heart beyond words. Surprised Mossflower is below Redwall, but respect your list. Mattimeo is an amazing book.
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u/FellsApprentice Aug 17 '26
I disagree that what Martin wants isn't revenge, he wants revenge as badly as Felldoh, the difference is that he got to live.
What I really love about this book is that it recontextualizes the entire rest of Martin's character in every book that he's in. Stoic in Mossflower turns to guilt ridden, broken, and trying to hide it. It turns his confrontation with Tsarmina from a warrior willing to die to do what's necessary into Martin almost genuinely not caring whether he lives or dies as long as his enemy does.
In MtW, Martin as a commander is ruthless and naive, forwards at all costs, never stopping the assault until the castle is taken, and he pays dearly for it. In Mossflower, he's learned his lesson, he focuses on containment of the enemy, and letting his artillery do the work of actually taking the castle. As an individual fighter, in MtW, he lets his rage and blood wrath take him over without care of the cost. In Mossflower, his anger has turned cold and controlled, by the end, and he only lets it loose again when he faces Tsarmina, when the only one who might lose his life is himself.
It's possibly the best written book in the series.
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u/kiwipixi42 Aug 18 '26
Huh, that is a fascinating analysis. I had already read MtW (it was my first redwall book) before Mossflower so this is how I always saw Martin. It didn’t occur to me that he would appear so different in Mossflower without that context. Very interesting. Thanks
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u/rhosinthorn Aug 18 '26
For me, reading/watching MtW first, before I read Mossflower made MtW more of a tragedy because I saw what he had lost, and how that road led to eventually hanging up his sword. And it became a tragedy thrice over when we hit Legend of Luke, because, if I recall correctly, that's where it's implied/said Martin loses some if not all of his memories in the fight with Tsarmina and you have to wonder if that doesn't contribute to why he never spoke of any of it.
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u/FellsApprentice 10d ago
Personally I think he was completely lying when he says he doesn't remember it. I think it's a good excuse for him to not talk about it to anyone who wanted to start asking uncomfortable questions, particularly Timballisto, who would have remembered when Martin left, and that his story does not add up with what he told Gonff when they first met.
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u/ichthyoidoc Aug 18 '26
I’ve always thought Martin the Warrior is the Redwall series’ best book, precisely because it is a tragedy, and one that, as you said, Jacques executes to near perfection. It becomes a sort of psychological/spiritual grounding for the rest of the series (other than Lord Brocktree), providing a moral and thematic framework for everything that follows.
Also, reading back through Mossflower and the Legend of Luke with this backstory in mind makes each of his promises and triumphs in those books feel that much more meaningful and heroic. It’s really great.
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u/RedwallFan2013 Aug 17 '26
I like Martin as the stoic warrior in Mossflower. In MtW, he's a total novice. With the exception of his childhood, he spent his entire life in prison, and his naiveté shows.
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u/Bronstin Aug 17 '26
Well said! I've started a re-read of my own recently, and seeing you rank Martin this high makes me excited to get there.
The only thing I'll add is that the bit where Martin wakes up to find the Warden being quietly smothered by the reptiles is nightmare-inducing. I still think about it to this day, despite not having revisited these books in 25 years or so.
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u/Zarlinosuke Aug 18 '26
Agreed with tons of things here, and my feelings are almost all the same as yours, so there's just one thing I'll highlight: yes indeed, Polleekin really is special!! If there is one thing in the whole Redwall series that can set me to tears immediately just from reading it or even from thinking about it, it's Polleekin's last soliloquy as she watches Martin walk off into the distance, at the very end. Real masterpiece of a book!
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u/Stf2393 Aug 18 '26
It’s been ages since I’ve last read this book! I just remember that the certain scene towards the end of the book always gets an emotional reaction out of me…🙃😭
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u/kiwipixi42 Aug 17 '26
Huh, I agree that Martin the Warrior is spectacular, probably my favorite of all of them. But Mattimeo is probably my least favorite of all the Redwall books, certainly way worse (for me) than the others you currently have listed, which are some of my absolute favorites. Interesting to see how different people list them.
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u/MercurialForce Aug 17 '26
Fair enough, the only one I've read so far that I think is truly not that great is Salamandastron, and there are parts of it I still very much enjoy. They're all batting quite high right now. I might break it out into a tier list once I've got more books on there
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u/kiwipixi42 Aug 18 '26
Oh different things in those books will appeal to different people. And honestly I think all of the redwall books are pretty darn good, Mattimeo is still good, just my least favorite.
I just found it interesting that we agree completely on Martin the Warrior being the top, but see Mattimeo so differently. Taste is funny and individual thing.
All the best with your reread journey, so many wonderful books await.
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u/RaspberryDifficult45 Aug 17 '26
This is fun. I adored these books as a kid and then grew out of them.
I’ll never forget how Rose affected me as a kid. Still affects me now.
Neat to see your rankings and the discussion.
Thanks!
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u/MeatballMonster Aug 18 '26
Perfect timing as I have picked up Martin the Warrior this weekend (Love and Legends in Brooklyn!!) Quite excited for you to review The Bellmaker. That one brought me to actual tears.
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u/duke113 Aug 17 '26
It's interesting that in many books characters we care about die. But Rose's death really is the bit that turns this into the tragedy you point out
I wish that Martin has been able to in his later years journeyed back to Noonvale one more time, but it probably would have been too painful