Swartt's lifespan

[Jetthebinturong]

Clearly it was simply an inconsistency in the story-telling. I. e. a mistake. And I'm okay with that.

But I can attribute Breeze and Starbuck's longevity to ancient badger majyks.

[James Gryphon]

This topic was the very first thread (and post) I ever made. O.o  Anyway, I have decided that Nightshade must have made a pact with the Devil (or whatever evil spirit-thing they have in the Redwall world) to give her and Swartt unnaturally long lives.  Crazy idea?  Yes, but it explains so much.

There's a few obstacles that get in the way of this idea, namely, that not only is it not mentioned, but we never ever see anything like this anywhere else in the series. It isn't even suggested. The only conversation any vermin seem to have with spirits are for attempting to foresee the future. Besides, it doesn't explain how so many of Swartt's crew with him remained alive and in good health to see his son and note the resemblance. If Nightshade's "connections" are so great as to keep a sizable band of vermin (all of who, besides Swartt, are unnecessary) alive for so many years, you think she'd have had some powers lying around to keep things from going as badly as they did with the badger and hares.

Anyway, I think it's wrong to assume that Swartt and Sunflash were "the same age". We know they started at equivalent ages, but I figure the rate they changed at is very different. If we say that both Swartt and Sunflash, at the very beginning of the book, are the equivalent age of eighteen, and then picture the story as taking place over the course of, say, forty years, then I figure that at the end of the book, Swartt is every year of fifty-eight, while Sunflash is still middle-aged and near his prime.

The only trouble comes in when we consider how this interacts with Bella's lifespan and the ages of mice, hares, etc., where several generations have apparently come and gone at the Abbey. But, if we assume mice age, say, twice as fast as ferrets, I'm not sure that kind of timescale is actually impossible.