User blog comment:Argulor/Characters ages/@comment-9946467-20130807212513

Yes, Matthias being 13 in the TV series has generally accepted as being book canon, but it isn't necessarily.

As for the amount of time of seasons, it's very frustrating that Mr. Jacques is so vague on what they're equivalent to in human years. Then you have the few instances he does reference years, which just make things more confusing, and on top of all of this, the fact that different species may age at different rates, as LordTBT pointed out. (In "Pearls of Lutra", it is indeed stated that badgers have a longer lifespan than any other creature in the Redwall universe, but that doesn't necessarily mean they live to BE older.)

However, I personally think the reason Mr. J is so vague on all this, is that it should be up to the readers to decide the characters' ages for themselves. That's not something you usually find in literature. It's not necessarily something that would work well, either, but since it's just animals in Mr. J's series, this is a rare case that it does. :)