Doomwyte



Doomwyte is the twentieth novel in the Redwall series; the book will not be released in the UK and as such, artist David Wyatt was not commissioned for a UK cover. You can read the Redwall Wiki's advance review of Doomwyte right here! It is the first of the Redwall series to not feature any badger characters.

The title is based on the myth of "doom whites", a type of foxfire. According to this particular legend, people would follow the lights into the forest, and never be seen again.

According to villain Korvus Skurr, the events of Doomwyte take place "thousands of seasons" after the time of Gonff the Mousethief.

Book Divisions (English)

 * Book 1: The Raven
 * Book 2: A Prince's Descendants
 * Book 3: Baliss

Summary
A magpie named Griv was caught in a storm trying to seek shelter. She found Redwall Abbey and perched on a dormitory sill where she heard a mouse named Bisky telling a story to the Dibbuns; the story is about how Gonff the Mousethief stole four great jewels from the Great Doomwyte Idol. The story ends in a pillowfight between Bisky and a squirrel named Dwink who thought the story was a bunch of fibs. Brother Torilis, the Abbey herbalist and infirmary keeper wakes up and catches the young ones in their fight. A stern squirrel elder, he promptly puts a stop to the fight and punishes the instigators, Dwink and Bisky, putting them on Abbot's Report. Griv, having left at the end of the story flies off her perch to seek out Korvus Skurr, leader of the Doomwytes, to tell him about the jewels.

The following day, as Abbot Glisam is dealing with Bisky and Dwink, they tell him about the story that Bisky told. Samolus Fixa, who is also Bisky's uncle, interrupts saying that there is truth in Bisky's story. As they dig into the Abbey records they come upon the journals of Young Dinny, Lady Columbine, and Gonff. All three relate to Gonff's adventure when he stole the idol's jewels. Columbine refuses to accept the jewels as a gift because the jewels have seen so much evil. Gonff hides them and composes anagram riddles that reveal their locations.

The search leads the cellars where the party (consisting of Bisky, Dwink, Samolus Fixa, Skipper Rorgus, Laird Bosie McScutta of Bowlaynee, Foremole Gullub Gurrpaw and Umfry Spikkle) finds a door that leads to tunnels. Because the tunnels split, Bisky, Rorgus, and Umfry go down a tunnel which leads to a group of Painted Ones. Samolus, Bosie and Dwink take the other path, and Foremole stays behind to guard the packs of rations.

Meanwhile, as Bisky's group is caught in battle with the Painted Ones, the second group run into an owl, Aluco, who lives in the tunnels, perpetually hiding from the Painted Ones. He has one of the green Doomwyte emeralds and uses it to scare away the tree rats. Together they elude the Painted Ones and re-enter Redwall.

Bisky gets captured and irritated in captivity by a tree rat named Jeg. Soon after, a Guosim shrew named Dubble joins him; he was captured after escaping the bully of his father, Log-a-Log Tugga Bruster. They escape after a short while and sleep in a hollow log. As they sleep, they got bonked over the head by a sandbag and are dragged off.

Bisky and Dubble awaken in a large cave filled with bickering mice, and they are confronted by the chief of the tribe, known as Gonfelins. Bisky fills Pikehead Nokko, the chief, what they've been through. Later that night Nokko shows Bisky the Gonfelins greatest treasure and one of the Doomwyte jewels, a red ruby.

After a quick feast, several of the Redwallers, including the Guosim with their Log-a-Log Tugga Bruster, set off to save Bisky in the hope that the Log-a-Log's son might be with him. On the way they see the adder Baliss thrashing around in madness from the pain from some of Corksnout Spikkle's spikes. They continue and the Painted Ones ambush them in a clearing and a battle begins with Dwink slinking off into the trees to capture one of the Painted Ones. Bisky and Dubble convince the Gonfelins to help them save the Redwallers and together they attack and outnumber the Painted Ones. The battle soon ends in a Redwall victory.

Meanwhile, Dwink is tricked by Jeg, who captures him and ties him upside-down on the five-topped oak, the Painted Ones' home. Jeg prepares a fire beneath him that he intends to have Dwink fall into. Unconscious, Dwink has a vision of Martin the Warrior who tells him to hang on and that Jeg will experience a death much worse than any he could think up. Jeg was poisoned and killed by Baliss.

When the Redwallers and the Guosim prevail in the fight against the Painted Ones, they remove their paints from their faces and send them out on to the Western Plains. During this process, the Painted One Tala, wife of Chigid, who was slain by Tugga Bruster, swears revenge. After trying to steal one of the Doomwyte emeralds and running away from his failed attempt, Tala gets her chance and stabs a sharpened wooden branch through Tugga Bruster's chest.

Characters in Doomwyte

Release Details

 * 2008, US, Philomel Books, ISBN 0399245448, Pub. Date: October 2008, Hardcover
 * 2008, UK, Philomel Books, ISBN 9780141384375, Pub. Date: October 2008, Hardcover
 * 2009, UK, Puffin Books, ISBN 9780141323985, Pub. Date: July 2009, Paperback
 * 2010, US, Ace, ISBN 0441017789, Pub. Date: January 2010, Paperback