Dark Forest

[Plugg Firetail]

like...ocean, land, etc

No like I said before.

[Lutra]

so martin the warrior went to hell

You make it sound like I said that.    I said I never gathered any sort of immaculate afterlife for any of the animals.  Mr. Jacques never gave Redwall a religion, so therefore, nothing to look forward to beyond your present earthly life.  The animals always called it the Dark Forest, so to me, that means a place for the dead and nothing more.  Does it sound splendid to really any of us when you hear that's your destiny on your deathbed?  So yeah, good or bad...seems like everyone goes to one place in the Redwall universe when they die.

[Taggerung The Otter]

oh...ah get it

[Skipper]

i disagree but i partly agree with you because you will often hear the warriors shouting that they will send the vermin to the dark forest and some good guys go there like in eulalia gorath sees boar and stuff there but if you read loamhedge saro and bragoon say to each other just before they die, ill see you in the sunny slopes and the quiet streams (or something like that)

[Lutra]

Guess I'll have to reread Loamhedge again and see for myself.

[Lily]

I always thought it was just a euphemism for dying. Just like we would usually say, "So-and-so passed away," instead of, "So-and-so died," because it seems a little more sensitive.

[DanielofRedwall]

I always thought it was just a euphemism for dying. Just like we would usually say, "So-and-so passed away," instead of, "So-and-so died," because it seems a little more sensitive.

That is a really good theory, actually, but the way they mention it makes it seem to me like they mean it as an actual place after death.

[Mad Maudie]

Well i kinda thought
Sunny slopes = Heaven
Dark forest = kinda like an afterlife but darker
Hellgates =hell

[Skipper]

i agree with maudie but i think Dark forest is for walike goodguys like all the badger lords and stuff

[Mad Maudie]

well yeah for good guys it would not be nice if cluny was there duh!

[White One6193]

I'm enthused by the idea of Dark Forest being a purgatory. It means that nobeast in Redwall is irredeemable. Definitely fits with Brian's Catholic background. 

[Mad Maudie]

well actually he was not catholic, he was Anglican, but that is very close to catholic.

[Lily]

I thought he referred to himself as a "working-class Catholic".

[DanielofRedwall]

Yes, Brian Jacques was Catholic, as he said in one of his interviews. And Maudie, I'm Anglican and I can name hundreds of differences between Anglican and Catholic! I'd say it's closer to Baptist.

Anyway, I think I like the idea Lily said here:

I always thought it was just a euphemism for dying. Just like we would usually say, "So-and-so passed away," instead of, "So-and-so died," because it seems a little more sensitive.

[Bragoon]

I agree with Lily's theory.  I would also add that his Catholic beliefs may have played a part in how he invented those euphemisms, but as has been pointed out, he tried pretty hard to keep religion out his story.