When Brian Jacques began his Redwall saga, he was writing his tales for children, and this has remained his intended audience ever since.  However, as with the phenomenally successful Harry Potter books, the series has been embraced by fans of all ages, and some of Redwall's most enthusiastic readers have turned out to be high school students, college students and even adults.  This across-the-board popularity has led to a spate of Redwall discussion and speculation in on-line communities at web sites devoted to the series.  There has also been a proliferation of fans writing their own stories, and many of these discussions and fanfics explore subject matter which goes far beyond the scope of the official books.  Typical topics range from teen angst and adolescent awkwardness to the lack of technological progress in the Redwall universe to elements of racial intolerance and prejudice to the religious and social makeup of the Redwall community.  Some fanfics have gone so far as to include rape and suicide.  This brings us to perhaps the most untouchable of area of all: sex.

Let's face it: Redwallers do have sex.  If they didn't, BJ's wonderful saga would have lasted exactly one generation.  Notice I said "sex" and not "mating"; even though the characters are animals, they are so very human in their emotions and behavior that they must also be human in their physical experiences.  And while there is little evidence in the official novels that the creatures of BJ's world ever have sex for reasons other than procreation, it is perhaps a testimony to how fully realized a world BJ has created that the reader can wonder about such "unmentionables" as the characters' sexual habits or other bodily functions.

Of course, being proper little British mice, all such hanky panky is kept discreetly behind closed doors.  This is perhaps less a function of the series' juvenile nature than to keep it in step with the heroic tradition.  In most such fantasy adventures, all the way up to the granddaddy of them all, Tolkien's Middle Earth saga, dwelling on such mundane and base sides of the characters' natures undermines their larger-than-life heroism.  There can be romance, and perhaps Orcs or oarslaves can be mentioned as living in filth, but for the most part the narratives are kept squeaky clean, not so much to keep things age-appropriate as to not take the sheen off the adventure and the fantasy.  Of course, it could be argued that lots of kids like stuff that's gross, and even BJ's youngest readers might take perverted delight in flatuence, or nose-picking contests among the vermin.  And older fans might get a chuckle or raise an amused eyebrow at the occasional sexual innuendo amongst hares or otters, especially since such subtle adult content would likely go over the heads of most children anyway.

You might think that the vermin of the Redwall world would be less inhibited in their sexual pursuits, but you would be wrong.  BJ's foxes, rats, weasels ferrets and stoats might be as oafish and unrefined as they come, but they seem to observe the same rules of romantic discretion as their goodbeast counterparts.  Not even the great and powerful horde leaders are exempt from this.  In "Outcast of Redwall," when Swartt Sixclaw uses treachery to take over the horde of his fellow ferret Bowfleg, as part of the deal he "inherits" Bowfleg's daughter Bluefen as his wife.  He is hardly grateful for this - "as if that were not enough, he had found himself landed with a wife" - even though  " ... she was quiet and pretty enough."  Indeed, he scarcely notices his new spouse and bedmate: "Swartt dismissed his wife from his mind and concentrated his thoughts on horde problems" and, when she brings him a water flagon, he "hardly noticed she had been and gone."  Several more times it is stated how little attention he gives her, and then suddenly, in Chapter Eighteen, "Bluefen ... gave birth to  ferretbabe, after which she faded and died ... "  Um, Brian, didn't you skip a step in there somewhere?  It appears that on at least one lonely night Bluefen and Swartt, ah, found comfort with each other.  This example is also noteworthy because it DOES appear to be a case in which a character indulges in sex for pure pleasure; Swartt certainly wasn't trying to sire a son or daughter, since it's made clear early on that he considers such things a nuisance, and from the way he fails to mourn Bluefen or afford even the slightest bit of parental affection to his unwanted son (he doesn't even NAME him!) Swartt clearly was not thinking with the head on his shoulders at the time Veil was conceived.

Most of the main villains in the Redwall books are without spouses.  The only other obvious example is Urgan Nagru and his mate Silvamord in "The Bellmaker," and their relationship is so contentious that one can scarcely imagine them sharing a bed.  Ferahgo clearly had a mate, otherwise there would never have been any Klitch, but that weaselwife comes and goes unnamed between the prologue and Chapter One.  Chances are it was probably a relationship much like Swartt's and Bluefen's, although Katie Sullivan, aka Snowfur, speculated in her short fanfic "Loss of a Flower" that things between the two of them might have been quite different.

It's also worth noting that, to the best of my recollection, there is not a single instance of a pregnant character appearing in any of the official books.  All gestation takes place offstage, as when Matthias and Cornflower have Mattimeo (which conveniently takes place between the last chapter and the epilogue) although we have on occasion seen the birth of a character, such as when Filorn has Deyna at the beginning of "Taggerung."  It's almost as if even this innocent acknowledgement of the birds and bees is forbidden territory.  Talk about going out of the way to keep up the appearance of purity!

But in the world of Redwall fanfiction, the official rules don't apply.  Not only can the violence be more graphically described than in the published novels, but the language and other subject matter can be as mature as the author cares to make it.  Legend has it that there has been at least one explicitly sexual fanfic, dating back to the days of Abbot Alf's original RFF Board around 1997 or 1998.  That story has been lost to time - and perhaps just as well - but many others remain.

One of my personal favorites, the songfic "Promises" by Slashfang, captures a Badger Lord in the moments after a coastland battle, agonizing over the burden of the Bloodwrath.  In one passage he ruminates:  "He thought now of his beloved wife ... His paws, that so tenderly held her when they made love, had held death.  How he cursed those paws."

When they made love.  How simple and innocent those words seem in passing, and yet how revolutionary they are in the world of Redwall.  Even this fleeting acknowledgement of such behavior would be strictly off-limits in the official books.  That Slashfang is able to slip it in so casually, and enrich the story with so brief a throwaway detail without venturing out of PG territory, is a tribute to her skill as a writer.

In another, more recent fanfic, Jason's "Bennegaris," when the lead character discovers his home in shambles and his family presumably slain, he retches "so hard his testicles ached."  Nothing explicitly sexual there, but the mere acknolwedgement of anatomical correctness would be quite taboo in any of BJ's tales.

"Bennegaris," DB's legendary "The Spreading" and Steelshine's superb "Beyond the Walls" are three Redwall fanfics in which the F-word appears.  While commonly dismissed as a mere obscenity, it should be noted that this word's origin was as an acronym of "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge," and thus most definitely has sexual connotations, even if the author doesn't use the word in this reference.  The mere existence of this word in any story automatically acknowledges the existence of adultery in that universe.

"The Spreading" was a genre-buster far beyond its solitary obscenity.  It even includes a rape scene, near the story's climax (no pun intended ... I think):

"GlumEyes shuddered.  This did not sound good at all.  He was in the Redwall cellar.  This was where he had been hearing noises from.  They weren't good noises.  Screams of agony mixed with passion were coming from here.  Before even showing up, GlumEyes could tell what was happening.  From his years of serving in Izecor's army, he knew what those sounds meant.

They were raping somebody.

His fingers tightened on his staff as he passed a barrel.  There were two rats there.  One was holding down Mania, a very attractive mousemaid, while the other was on her.  She screamed and struggled."

This story also includes some rather unRedwallish thoughts by the mousemaid slave Featherlight as she regards one of her fellow slaves:

"Ahead of her stood Wesley Riley, a tall mouse, with a boyish, good-looking face, and an elegant upper torso.  His perfect muscles flexed as he lifted a rock.  Oh, what she wouldn't give to get a piece of that!"

And then there's the sadistic guardrat Gutters, who clearly covets Featherlight in a most unhealthy fashion:

"'What have ya been sayin' 'bout me, sweetheart?' Gutters asked with a sick smirk on his face.

'Nothing!  Nothing!  Let go of me!' she struggled with his grip.

Gutters chuckled his sick chuckle.  'Ooooo!  Feisty!  You wanna get even feistier with me, darling?'"

Later in the story, the warrior otter Karen Redgrave worried what victorious vermin might do to her daughter Sarah if they were to prevail: "Still, if Redwall did fail, Sarah would end up dead.  Or worse.  Karen shuddered as she envisioned what some of the dirty vermin males would do to Sarah in their private tents."

Jason's "Bennegaris" also mentions rape, notably in the form of the barbarian badger Kor who, in a most unbadgerly manner, terrorizes and murders any helpless woodlanders who cross his path, and is not above ravishing any of the female pursuasion who strike his fancy.

In addition to the sexual references already noted, "The Spreading" is also infamous for having a mouse fall in love with a squirrel.  For better or worse, this romance remains unrequited, with the would-be Romeo and Juliet finally professing their feelings to each other mere moments before one of them falls to their death.  The same cannot be said for Nakar's "A Forge's Destiny," in which a mouse-squirrel union not only takes place but even produces a child.  Due to the skill of Nakar's writing and storytelling, this relationship never comes across as kinky or perverted, but is instead presented for full emotional impact, the characters struggling with the awkwardness of their situation.

As for the resulting consequence of sex - pregnancy - this too is explored more fully in fanfiction than in the official books.  Seadog Driftwood's traditional but revisionist tale "Celandine, the Thorned Buttercup" features both Rose and Felldoh surviving the battle of Marshank.  Celandine and Rose both marry their respective loves and are both soon in a family way.  Rose gives birth to twins, but Felldoh's wife is destined to bear sextuplets: "Celandine tapped her belly, which was as round as an acorn.  She and Felldoh would soon be parents too."

Kevin's "Dradd Corenda" features a pregnant harewife giving birth to her child in her isolated island community shortly before it comes under siege from two corsair ships.  This pregnancy and birth is only incidental to the main plot, but is handled with such a natural ease that it does make one wonder why BJ doesn't include such details in his own books.  The natural cycle of life need not be presented in a way that would be at all inappropriate for younger readers, and if a fan writer like Kevin can pull it off, why not the Lord Master and originator of Redwall himself?

Then there are the humor fics, such as Dannflor's "Beer" and Rustiredd's "Death to Pop 'Music,'" which contain their fair share of sexual innuendo and ribald shennanigans.  Some of these can be quite crude and suggestive, depending on the story and author, and BJ would almost certainly turn some very interesting shades of color if he were ever to read the worst of these.

Whether it is employed for humorous purposes or used in a more mature manner to seriously explore areas ignored by the official Redwall books, the sexual side to these characters is not to be dismissed out of paw.  Many fans discover the series in their adolescence, and much RFF shows that they are quick to use the medium to work out and project concerns that are going on in their own lives.  Seen in this context, it is perfectly understandable that some would embellish the Redwall universe in more realistic ways, in order to make the characters as fully alive as possible.  And sex is such a central aspect to our natures - perhaps the overriding biological impeerative in both the human and animal worlds - that it seems forced and naive to turn a blind eye to it.  Yes, the published Redwall novels are children's tales, in spite of their violent content and thickness and involved plots.  But like all quality literature they spark the imagination and engage the reader in a way that makes these stories take hold in our minds and dreams.  And it is there that we seek to complete what the original author has left out.  After all, who wants to work with characters who are missing a such a vital piece of what makes them who they are?