What is usually the amount of time between books?

[SilentSam]

I know that in the time between Redwall and Mattimeo was about 8 seasons, or 2 years, (if you say 4 seasons is 1 year). But... the time between Mattimeo and Pearls of Lutra was about a lifetime, as only the babies lived to Lutra, and were VERY old by then. (Well except for Martin II), but what is the USUAL amount of time?

[James Gryphon]

The short answer is simply that "It depends on which books".

There's effectively three big time periods in Redwall history. We can trace the old era from the beginning of Martin's life (and shortly before), starting in Lord Brocktree and Legend of Luke, and work our way up as far as The Bellmaker, where Rawnblade Widestripe (the great-grandson of Sunflash) reigns over Salamandastron. Abbess Vale is said to directly succeed Abbot Saxtus, so Salamandastron must be at the tail end of that time period.

Between Salamandastron and Redwall, there is a long gap. Methuselah was born after Salamandastron, and had outlived "many" abbots by Redwall. Unfortunately, as far as I know we have no information as to when Methuselah's life began, which prevents us from getting a precise answer to the length of this time period.

You already mentioned the progression from Redwall to Mattimeo, and on. We can date the difference between Pearls of Lutra and The Long Patrol as being a little shorter than a lifetime -- probably eight seasons or so wouldn't be out of place, since Arven is now in his prime and the 'teenaged' protagonists (Craklyn, Tansy, etc.) are now old, though not ancient. Marlfox is probably about the same distance away; Arven had died in the last couple of seasons or so, and the only character we remember is Cregga. By Taggerung, everyone but Cregga has died again. It was probably more than eight seasons later, since Song was relatively young when she became Abbess.

After Cregga is gone, the cast of Redwallers completely changes every book, so there's not much to go by as far as that goes. Instead, you can look at the reigns of the Badger Lords, from Russano onwards, to try to get a grasp of how much time passed. The only trouble is that I'm not sure we know that other Badger Lords didn't reign in-between the ones that were mentioned, so it could have been much, much longer in-between books than 'just' the reigns of the mentioned badgers would suggest.

Eight seasons isn't a bad guesstimate for all the books where a few (but no more) non-badger characters are left over. I'd guess most of the ones directly covering Martin's life couldn't be more than three or four seasons apart, since he's there in the flesh in four books and twelve seasons is probably close to a mouse's expiration date. All the others are probably sixteen to twenty-four seasons or so apart, guesstimating that this is the average length of a badger ruler's reign.

I'm aware this isn't exactly an organized post, and a lot of it is speculation, but I have neither the time to edit it, or the books to verify all the details. Make of it what you will.

[SilentSam]

Okay thanks! 

The short answer is simply that "It depends on which books".

There's effectively three big time periods in Redwall history. We can trace the old era from the beginning of Martin's life (and shortly before), starting in Lord Brocktree and Legend of Luke, and work our way up as far as The Bellmaker, where Rawnblade Widestripe (the great-grandson of Sunflash) reigns over Salamandastron. Abbess Vale is said to directly succeed Abbot Saxtus, so Salamandastron must be at the tail end of that time period.

Between Salamandastron and Redwall, there is a long gap. Methuselah was born after Salamandastron, and had outlived "many" abbots by Redwall. Unfortunately, as far as I know we have no information as to when Methuselah's life began, which prevents us from getting a precise answer to the length of this time period.

You already mentioned the progression from Redwall to Mattimeo, and on. We can date the difference between Pearls of Lutra and The Long Patrol as being a little shorter than a lifetime -- probably eight seasons or so wouldn't be out of place, since Arven is now in his prime and the 'teenaged' protagonists (Craklyn, Tansy, etc.) are now old, though not ancient. Marlfox is probably about the same distance away; Arven had died in the last couple of seasons or so, and the only character we remember is Cregga. By Taggerung, everyone but Cregga has died again. It was probably more than eight seasons later, since Song was relatively young when she became Abbess.

After Cregga is gone, the cast of Redwallers completely changes every book, so there's not much to go by as far as that goes. Instead, you can look at the reigns of the Badger Lords, from Russano onwards, to try to get a grasp of how much time passed. The only trouble is that I'm not sure we know that other Badger Lords didn't reign in-between the ones that were mentioned, so it could have been much, much longer in-between books than 'just' the reigns of the mentioned badgers would suggest.

Eight seasons isn't a bad guesstimate for all the books where a few (but no more) non-badger characters are left over. I'd guess most of the ones directly covering Martin's life couldn't be more than three or four seasons apart, since he's there in the flesh in four books and twelve seasons is probably close to a mouse's expiration date. All the others are probably sixteen to twenty-four seasons or so apart, guesstimating that this is the average length of a badger ruler's reign.

I'm aware this isn't exactly an organized post, and a lot of it is speculation, but I have neither the time to edit it, or the books to verify all the details. Make of it what you will.

[JangoCoolguy]

From a few years to several decades to over a century, depending on the book.

[LT Sandpaw]

Hm I think you just about summed it up.


                   

[SilentSam]

The End!

Or...
 

Le Fin