#eulalia!

[kai-the-mad]

Part one of the poll found here

You have to pick a Redwall Villain to make into a good guy. Which one would have the most interesting redemption arc? 2/2

Vilu Daskar

Ungatt Trunn

Gruven Zann

Princess Kurda

Raga Bol

Gulo the Savage

Riggu Felis

Vizka Longtooth

Korvus Skurr

Vilaya the Sable Quean

Razzid Wearat

My Villain is on the other list

Voting ended onApr 24

[lostmidnightwriter]

Inktober day 2: Weave

She bobs and weaves and beats you to death if you are an evil asshole, or insult her cooking, or look at her funny.

[rose-of-redwall]

Mouse Mummies

Anoxic bogs are most often found in northwestern Europe. What makes these bogs special is their lack of oxygen- thus “anoxic-“ and their content of chemicals called tannins. When living creatures happen to fall into a bog, their tissue is preserved because tannins keep it static and all the little mites that cause decomposition can’t live without oxygen. (Bones, however, are often dissolved if the peat is too acidic.) Not only are bodies preserved, but clothing and trinkets as well. This is how big bodies are made! You might have heard of the Tollund Man or the Yde Girl, both famous examples of European mummies, from Denmark and the Netherlands respectively. These mummies can be preserved for thousands of years.

This is the Tollund Man, probably the most famous bog body

Now, marshes and bogs aren’t exactly the same thing, but for the prevalence of marshland in Mossflower country I’m sure that some of that could be a peat bog.

Slegg, Dirig, Gruntan Kurdly, the victims of the wytes… countless named and unnamed woodlanders have found themselves sinking in the swamp. Countless bodies under the surface.

I recently discussed in this post that “the 22 [Redwall] books cover hundreds and hundreds of seasons, their stories spreading farther than memory can reach.”

That is all to say, imagine what tales are hidden inside Mossflower wood. Imagine what relics of long-gone eras are preserved in the bodies of those who wandered through Mossflower and found themselves an unfortunate end. Imagine (accounting for the fact that not all muggy water is a bog) what the Maudie, Barbowla, and Log-a-Log Luglug were blissfully unaware of when running from the Brownrats. Just one of the thousands of stories Redwall has to tell.

[collgeruledzebra]

gruntan kurdly was right about hard boiled eggs

[asordidbarwere]

*cracks knuckles* SO glad Brian Jacques died before he could ever say anything stupid on Twitter!

[subtleshenanigans]

Some more memes compiled together (minor spoilers):

[fuzzhugs]

Minimalist Redwall cover: Eulalia!

[rose-of-redwall]

On “Eulalia:” me and my little etymology brain

“The term is supposedly derived from an ancient Norse, Viking, or Celtic word meaning ‘victory.’”1 “It comes from "Weialala leia", the lament of the Valkyries in Richard Wagner's opera Götterdämmerung, as quoted by T. S. Eliot in The Waste Land.”2

In The Waste Land, “modern (1920s) Europe has become an uncivilised place: not only in the fact that it has been the scene of a massively destructive war; but also in the sense that it has lost its way morally and spiritually.”3 In the poem, Eliot makes allusions to many older classic works of art. One of these, of course, is Götterdämmerung. The opera is German, but is written about the Valkyries of Norse stories, which is where “Norse, Viking, or Celtic” comes in. The Valkyries were mythical women who guided soldiers after their death. Apparently, they cried “Weialala leia” to mean victory, as far as Wagner transcribed it.

Or, at least, that’s as far as I can figure it. He must’ve been such a well-read man

Sources and Disclaimers

1: Redwall wiki, where we get “victory”

2: Wikipedia, where we get everything about Wagner and Eliot, but keep in mind that this is un-cited

3: An explanation of The Waste Land

Also see “Brian Jacques discuss the term 'Eulalia' on the Redwall TV Series” <3