Slagar the Cruel

Chickenhound, later known as Slagar the Cruel, was the son of Sela the healer in Mossflower Woods. During Cluny the Scourge's war on Redwall, Sela was called on to heal Cluny. She and her son, however, were double dealers of information, and tried to sell Cluny's plans to the Abbey. Cluny soon deciphered what their game was, and ordered them both to be executed. Chickenhound survived, however, and hauled his wounded body to the Abbey, where he told them Cluny's plan to tunnel into the Abbey grounds. During one of the skirmishes with the horde, Chickenhound started to loot Redwall, but accidently ran into Friar Hugo. Running from the Friar, he encountered Methuselah, who bravely tried to stop him. The fox took no notice and struck the old mouse with his bag of loot, killing him. Chickenhound ran into Mossflower and hid from Constance, who was trying to find and kill the fox.

She passed by him, but things still went bad for Chickenhound. While he was hiding, the giant adder Asmodeus had sneaked up on him and bit him in the face. By a miracle Chickenhound survived, though he had been badly disfigured by the venom. Escaping Asmodeus, he hid in the wilderness, slowly treating himself with healing know-how taught to him by his mother. As he got better, he became more and more convinced that his pains were brought upon him by the Redwallers and vowed to take his revenge upon them. Adopting a silken harlequin colored head mask, he renamed himself Slagar.

Sometime in his travels, he encountered the kingdom of Malkariss, and promised the polecat that he would bring him slaves if he were given all of the land above ground. With these new deal in mind, Slagar realized how he could gain his own kingdom and extract his revenge on Redwall Abbey at the same time.

Over the course of many seasons, Slagar perfected a slaving routine: gain a gang of vermin, make them help him get some slaves, travel back to the kingdom of Malkariss, and then get them to betray and kill one another, while Slagar himself recieved all the credit and reward-to-be.

Finally, Slagar decided the time was right to perform his vengeance on Redwall. With his new band of slavers, he worked his way back to they Abbey, picking up several slaves, including Auma, on the way. They arrived at Redwall just in time for the Mid-Summer feast. Disguised as a group of circus folk, Slagar's gang entered the Abbey and put on a show, while Slagar secretly drugged all of the drinks. When everyone was asleep, the fox took the liberty of kidnapping Mattimeo, son of Matthias, and several other Abbey children.

Slagar once again continued his routine of traveling back to Malkariss and delivering the slaves. This time, Malkariss finally agreed to give Slagar his own army of rats and the land above. As Slagar and his new found force was leaving, however, they encountered Matthias's party, who had tracked him there. Allowing others to do the fighting, Slagar snuck off.

After the band of woodlanders had fought and destroyed the army of Malkariss, Matthias and company were ready to head back to Mossflower. As they were leaving a rat named Vitch, who had been part of Slagar's gang, started to run off. Slagar siezed this chance to kill Vitch with his bolas. This alerted Matthias and Orlando the Axe to his presence and Slagar was forced to run. Before either could get to him, however, Slagar accidently stepped into a sealed hole, which used to be a well, causing the masked fox to fall to his death.

Television VA's: Jonathan Wilson (Redwall), Tim Curry (Mattimeo)

Audio VA's: Simon Smithies (Redwall), Paul Braithwaite (Mattimeo)