Peace Island

[Tiria Wildlough]

I've always been fascinated by the peaceful island in Triss, though I personally think that they lived a keep-on-plodding-look-down-at-your-feet-and-there'll-be-no-rocks-to-stop-you kind of life.
I just wondered what everyone else's thoughts were.

[Matthias720]

I have to wonder if even during the events of The Rouge Crew there were hedgehogs still living on Peace Island. The island itself is easily defensible, and the ground is very fertile, allowing for many, many crops to be grown there. Also, the natural camouflage of the island helps to protect it. It is not inconceivable that there are still inhabitants living there.

[daskar666]

I want to know how its population changed from otters to hedgehogs.
It would have been interesting to read a book focusing on the island instead of Redwall, where it's under attack.

[Matthias720]

I want to know how its population changed from otters to hedgehogs.

I think you're confusing Peace Island with Ruddaring

[Dotti]

The hedgehogs seem to have the same attitude the Redwallers have during periods of peace.  The Redwallers assume that since peace has reigned for many long seasons, it will continue to do so during their lifetimes.  The hedgehogs at least have an armory prepared in case of attack, though since it specifically mentions that there were no demonstrations of strength or skill with weapons, it's doubful if they would really know how to use the content of their armory if the need ever arose.  Hmmm, that would be an interesting story where the knowledge of how to use weapons was passed down from leader to leader...... and then when an attack finally came, the leader was the first one killed.......and a young outcast has to return and save the day..... I like the possibilities!

[Captain Tammo]

I thought rudderang was the coolest thing ever! Easily defendable and near impossible to penetrate!
But back on topic, I think peace island went on forever peacefully and lived up to it's name

[daskar666]

I want to know how its population changed from otters to hedgehogs.

I think you're confusing Peace Island with Ruddaring

I got the impression that it was the same island but with a different name.
Sort of like Terramort and Sampetra likely were.

[James Gryphon]

Well, I had the impression that all four were different places.

In the case of Terramort and Sampetra, Sampetra is clearly noted as a tropical island, whereas no such status is ever made for Terramort. This is very probably the most important feature of Sampetra, and if Terramort was the same place it would have had to also be in the tropics. We don't see that this ever being pointed out as being the case, which is a very serious problem with the idea of the two being identical. They are also stated (via Redwall wiki) as being in slightly different parts of the sea; Sampetra is in the distant west, and Terramort in the northwest.

Also, if we look at the maps, the terrain looks substantially different, more so than I think natural erosion could do in the type of time period we're talking about. The final problem with this is the total absence of Monitors on Terramort. While it's possible they could have immigrated at some point after Fort Bladegirt was abandoned, there's no evidence for this, and they are believed to be native to the island.

There seems to be a better argument for Peace Island and Ruddaring being the same place. Both are located roughly in the Western Sea, both are in an inactive volcano, both are notoriously safe because of their concealing rock features. The only problem is that Ruddaring is clearly a mountain above sea level, where the otter inhabitants entered into a secret tunnel at sea level with the rise and fall of the tide. It would require either a massive shift in the Redwall world's sea level (impossible), or some major seismic shifting to bring Ruddaring down to the point where the top of the island would be accessible by normal ships, as "Peace Island".

It also strikes me as thematically unlikely, that the book would imply an insidious fate for Ruddaring. For one thing, I have the feeling that Brian Jacques intended that Holt Ruddaring continue on peacefully into perpetuity, like Redwall, and having their mountain fortress suffer such a natural disaster would obviously prevent that from being the case; also, with Brockhall (a well-known location) being in ruins, and the story being about rediscovering it, he probably would have felt that taking down two peaceful places at once is overkill.

What could be a reasonable explanation is that Ruddaring and Peace Island are part of an island chain of defunct volcanoes, with Ruddaring being notably higher than Peace Island. This allows us to explain the similar location and traits of both islands, while not disregarding Ruddaring's higher altitude and keeping Brian Jacques' likely intentions in consideration.

[daskar666]

According to the book maps Terramort and Sampetra were (roughly) in the same place (at least that's the impression I got), it was once stated in Pearls of Lutra that it was cold in the north but got warmer as they went west (suggesting Sampetra was northwest) and I don't remember Terramort's climate being described as anything, btw, I believe the monitor lizards were stated to originally live at Ruddaring.

[Matthias720]

The monitor lizards did originate from Ruddaring.

And I am fairly certain Terramort was described as being more to the northwest and Sampetra being located to the west or southwest.

[James Gryphon]

According to the book maps Terramort and Sampetra were (roughly) in the same place (at least that's the impression I got)

The book maps also show that the geology on the islands are very different, though, and I'm not sure so much time has passed that we can reasonably expect it to have changed that much. As far as the climate goes, like I said, Sampetra's status as a tropical island is the single most notable trait about it, and it seems highly unlikely that it wouldn't have been mentioned if Terramort was the same way.

Likewise, Terramort was littered with tunnels; if Sampetra is the same place, what happened to them?

The idea that some locations are really the same place at different points in time is intriguing, but I think the geological evidence here is a significant obstacle to that concept.

[Log-a-Log]

Which book was Ruddaring from? I don't remember it.

[James Gryphon]

Which book was Ruddaring from? I don't remember it.

Pearls of Lutra; the heroes visited an otter holt, Rudderwake, that occupied it.

[Log-a-Log]

I haven't read that book in years

[Popcornman]

ruddaring is to far north to be the same place as peace island