The hidden clues.

[Cornflower MM]

I've always wondered about the hidden clues - Who put them there? I mean, if Martin did, surely somenbeast would have noticed them before the time they were discovered by the clue hunters. Some books (Like Pearls of Lutra, or Doomwyte) where it tells who hid the clues. That's just one thing I've never gotten. One good example of this, I think, is the shield notch in Redwall. You remember, on the walltops? It was never mentioned after that, and if Martin put it there, again my point of surely someone would have found. And who's to say that it wouldn't have, you know, rubbed off or something?

Thoughts?

[The Skarzs]

In Pearls of Lutra one pearl were found by a bee, and the other by the birds, but they wouldn't really be ones you'd expect to actually find the clues.
  A lot of clues were in rather remote places, like the outside wall of the building in case of the pearl, or a certain rock outside a place forgotten, Brockhall, that if turned a certain way would open a way in (Triss), so it's not entirely implausible that a lot would never be found.
  However, as to the cut stone for Martin's buckler, that is rather odd. There were quite a few books before Redwall's time, so one would think it would have been discovered and looked into. Perhaps it is as a lot of people have said: that Redwall isn't necessarily canon, what with the reference to pigs, a town dog, a horse, etc.
  It may all have something to do with the theorized amount of magic in the books, like how on earth Dandin got Martin's sword without really even going anywhere.

[Jetthebinturong]

Martin's sword was given to Dandin by Simeon after Martin's spirit guided him to the tomb where it was previously hidden.

[Tergen]

Many of the hidden clues could have been added by a redwall creature under the direction of the Martin after this death.  There are many examples of creatures that recite messages from Martin with no memory of said messages.

One of the oddest hidden messages is the hidden message under Martin's tapestry(Redwall).  Given that the tapestry was hung once, one would think that the engraved message would have been noticed.

If the hidden messages were discovered, I would imagine that the messages were either forgotten over time or lost in the myriad of history that was almost never researched by the redwall abbey recorders.

One note on the books Redwall and Mattimeo, they have elements that are only mentioned once.  The most interesting elements are the tombs of Martin(already mentioned) and Abbess Germaine's tomb(Mattimeo) behind the founders stone.  Abbess Germaine's tomb was only found after Martin said through the sleeping Abbot Mordalfus:

Seek the Founder in the stones where the little folk go.

[Keldor]

Many of the clues take the form of poems and rhymes that don't necessarily make a lot of sense out of context (and even in context, they're riddles).  This means that a beast discovering one at random might not see any particular significance to it besides an interesting and mysterious poem.  There are plenty of things that might be engraved in walls around the abbey which no doubt meant something to the engravers, but the meaning has been largely forgotten in the countless seasons since then, so these clues wouldn't really stick out.

We have to remember that Redwall has been around for a very, very long time.  The beasts who would have engraved something are long dead.  The ones who would have known them as old beasts when they were but dibbuns are dead too.  The ones who knew them?  Long dead too.  Expect for a few beasts who did great deads, they're all utterly forgotten, their existance only known in the abstract by all beasts obviously being the descendants of *someone*, as well as a few mentions buried deep in some old book in the archive.  Things that are not in locations seen simply won't be noticed by future generations.  Even things out in the open tend to be ignored for the most part.  When was the last time we read a plaque that we walk past every day?  Maybe the first time we saw it, seasons ago?  Names on a memorial?  Probably never.

There are also a great many places that beasts almost never see in an abbey.  A real life case in point would be when I was taking pipe organ master classes at a big church in Alkmaar.  There was a spiral staircase in the wall that went up to the organ loft.  But it kept going up past this, so I was curious and climbed up to the top.  Up there there were a couple old doors, leading to precarious ledges on the walls and roof of the church, and nothing else.  No doubt these were useful back when they were building the place, and occasionally when they need to do renovations, but it's easy to imagine that *years* would pass between this and the next time someone climbed up there.

An engraving up in some similar location in Redwall would be completely forgotten, especially if it was located in a hard to see place, like on the outside behind where the door swings open.  At best, some beast might notice it on some rare instance they had cause to be up there, and would perhaps mention it, and if it was especially mysterious, a couple of the more adventerous beasts might climb up there to see it for themselves.  It might be a conversation topic in Cavern Hole for a few days.  After a few weeks, it would no longer be in the minds of anybeast.  If, a season or two later, someone was suddenly looking for mysterious clues and riddles for some reason, maybe this would jog someone's memory.

And there are much more obscure places than that.  Behind the tapestry is one.  The frequency at which they take it down would be "essentially never".  Old, delicate cloth, priceless artifact, you do not touch it without a *very* good reason.  I'm not sure what they would do to clean the dust off every once in a while.  Heavens forbid taking it outside and beating it!

[Tergen]

Many of the clues take the form of poems and rhymes that don't necessarily make a lot of sense out of context (and even in context, they're riddles).  This means that a beast discovering one at random might not see any particular significance to it besides an interesting and mysterious poem.  There are plenty of things that might be engraved in walls around the abbey which no doubt meant something to the engravers, but the meaning has been largely forgotten in the countless seasons since then, so these clues wouldn't really stick out.

We have to remember that Redwall has been around for a very, very long time.  The beasts who would have engraved something are long dead.  The ones who would have known them as old beasts when they were but dibbuns are dead too.  The ones who knew them?  Long dead too.  Expect for a few beasts who did great deads, they're all utterly forgotten, their existance only known in the abstract by all beasts obviously being the descendants of *someone*, as well as a few mentions buried deep in some old book in the archive.  Things that are not in locations seen simply won't be noticed by future generations.  Even things out in the open tend to be ignored for the most part.  When was the last time we read a plaque that we walk past every day?  Maybe the first time we saw it, seasons ago?  Names on a memorial?  Probably never.

There are also a great many places that beasts almost never see in an abbey.  A real life case in point would be when I was taking pipe organ master classes at a big church in Alkmaar.  There was a spiral staircase in the wall that went up to the organ loft.  But it kept going up past this, so I was curious and climbed up to the top.  Up there there were a couple old doors, leading to precarious ledges on the walls and roof of the church, and nothing else.  No doubt these were useful back when they were building the place, and occasionally when they need to do renovations, but it's easy to imagine that *years* would pass between this and the next time someone climbed up there.

An engraving up in some similar location in Redwall would be completely forgotten, especially if it was located in a hard to see place, like on the outside behind where the door swings open.  At best, some beast might notice it on some rare instance they had cause to be up there, and would perhaps mention it, and if it was especially mysterious, a couple of the more adventerous beasts might climb up there to see it for themselves.  It might be a conversation topic in Cavern Hole for a few days.  After a few weeks, it would no longer be in the minds of anybeast.  If, a season or two later, someone was suddenly looking for mysterious clues and riddles for some reason, maybe this would jog someone's memory.

And there are much more obscure places than that.  Behind the tapestry is one.  The frequency at which they take it down would be "essentially never".  Old, delicate cloth, priceless artifact, you do not touch it without a *very* good reason.  I'm not sure what they would do to clean the dust off every once in a while.  Heavens forbid taking it outside and beating it!

I am in agreement Keldor.  One example would be the engraved message in Taggerung below Cregga's bedroom window that was only found after finding the monocle.

[Jack the Quick]

The people who new about some clues had known when they had been hidden, like when Martin's sword was placed one the roof, so they did not attempt to get them. Others, sometimes the same ones, were taken by other people before they could be found properly. Others were hidden in spots no one would look for unless they had clues.