Cluny the Scourge

Cluny the Scourge was an enormous black male bilge sea rat with unknown origins. It is believed that he once was involved with seafaring, and came from distant jungles. Cluny had one eye, the other was lost in a battle with a pike and covered by an eye patch. He wore a cloak made of batwings that was fastened at his throat with the skull of a mole.

His war helmet was adorned with blackbird feathers and stag beetle horns. One of Cluny's most distinguishing features - as well as his primary weapon - was his own tail, which was long, powerful, and whip-like. In battle, he fastened a poison spike to its tip and used it to lash out at enemies.

The Scourge is well-known as being one of the most infamous villains Brian Jacques has created. He was extraordinarily strong, fast and agile, but was unusually intelligent and a master tactician as well. Cluny was very observant and ambitious, and remains as the only villain who successfully took and occupied Redwall Abbey.

He commanded a vast 500-strong horde of rats with a smattering of weasels, stoats and ferrets. The Scourge also employed Mossflower residents Sela and her son Chickenhound, both healer foxes, when he was injured in a fall from a tree.

History

While Cluny's heritage is a mystery, Cluny wrought a path of destruction that seemingly began in the Far North. After discovering a mine owned by badgers and others, he attempted to take it for his army and lost a battle for it. He later returned to collapse the mine and kill everyone inside. As Cluny moved south, his horde burned down a farmhouse, consumed a litter of piglets, infected livestock with disease, and destroyed a village with a cow stampede.

In the Redwall TV Series, he is portrayed as having killed Matthias' family during an attack on their village.

Mossflower Woods

After Cluny arrived in Mossflower Woods, he began expanding his army and made quite a name for himself as a warlord. During the Summer of the Late Rose, Cluny waged an intense war against the residents of Redwall Abbey in an effort to take the structure and rename it Cluny Castle.

He suffered from deranged dreams of a mysterious warrior mouse and often lost control of his temper. Despite this, he was probably the most competent warlord Redwall has ever been up against.

Cluny the Scourge

Cluny's various tactics included a false attempt at parlaying, tunneling under the walls, a battering ram, boarding the ramparts from a tree, and building a massive siege tower to reach over the walls. All of these attempts failed, however, and his final successful plan involved forcing the dormouse Plumpen to open the gates for him after gaining access to the Abbey.

The dormouse was threatened with the death of his family, which had been captured by Cluny. After gaining entrance to the Abbey, Cluny quickly subdued the Redwallers and would certainly have won if not for the timely return of Matthias, who had procured the missing sword of Martin the Warrior, bringing with him the Guosim and the deadly Sparra warriors.

Though Cluny far outmatched Matthias in strength, force, experience, and skill, the young mouse was able to kill the evil rat by slashing the rope that held the Joseph Bell in place, which began free-falling towards Cluny and then crushed him before he even knew what was happening.

Cluny the Scourge as depicted by Allan Curless in Redwall Diary 1996

Prior to his death, he killed Abbot Mortimer with his poisoned tail barb. Later, Cluny the Scourge was mentioned in Pearls of Lutra as one who resided in St. Ninian's prior to its burning. Cluny was also mentioned in Taggerung by Sawney Rath as one who tried (and failed) to enter Redwall Abbey. He was also mentioned in a poem about the Abbey bell that killed him.

Other References

• Off Color Brewing in Chicago, IL, has named a 9.9% ABV Belgian-style stout "Scourge" after Cluny, with accompanying artwork.

Trivia

Cluny the Scourge from the Redwall TV Series

• Cluny the Scourge is described as Portuguese, however Portugal does not exist in the world of Redwall.
• Cluny was meant to rhyme with the word "loony" as Brian Jacques describes him as a "mad type."
• A scourge is a whip-like weapon, and is how Cluny earned his title - by using his tail as a natural scourge.
• In the TV series, villains Cluny the Scourge and Badrang the Tyrant shared the same voice actor, Diego Matamoros.