Alrighty then, another day, another lesson. So entertaining for me, so educational for you.

Lesson Five: Knowledge Is Power

I feel as if I am hitting my head against a brick wall. Several times.

How can you forget things so easily?!? Do you not have a head?!?

From what I can gather, you Redwallers have a tendency to lose and forget crucial facts. No, not the little sayings and recitals from Abbey School; the facts about your defenses of Redwall.

Why can you remember the old songs but not the old facts?!?

Example: Martin the Warrior had a sword, yes? And he hid it. However, twice in your history the Sword of Martin had appeared before its finding by Matthias. It first came to Dandin, companion to Mariel the Warriormaid, and later the sword also came to Samkin the Squirrel. Both were famous. Both had tales told and written about them. And, the listeners happened to forget about the Sword of Martin!!

You would think such a monumental object would be remembered. But nooo, you abbey beasts happily go back to your farming ways and totally forget about the sword until Cluny the Scourge comes along and takes over Redwall until Matthias finds the blinkin' bally sword on nothing more than the original riddle Martin wrote.

And just to put in some more facts about your forgetfulness about such important weapon, Abbot Saxtus, who was abbot of Redwall at the time of Mariel and Dandin, wrote about the appearance of the Sword of Martin. Generations later, Brother Hal, Abbey Recorder at the time of Samkin, discovered a measly paragraph about this. A single, almost forgotten paragraph.

Do you have no record-keeping system? Yes, I know you have Recorders. Unfortunately, they write diaries. That is all well and good during peacetime, but diaries are not very efficient in times of war. Why would I want to know about a particularly good harvest/feast when I am at war? No, thank you very much.

I cannot believe how many times you Redwallers have forgotten things about your own history. History that would help in times of trouble, such as Martin's Sword. Or even more simple, a source of water.

During the time of Mattimeo, a network of tunnels was made, including a tunnel from the Abbey pond from the cellar. This convenient water source was, of course, forgotten until the time of Martha the Hare, when you Redwallers were once again trapped within Redwall Abbey for a long period of time.

As you may well know, nobeast can survive for long without water. A clean, clear, unpolluted water source is vital to your defenses. A water source within the actual Abbey is worth pure gold. So why, may I ask, would you forget something so precious so easily?!?

Ah yes. Because you do not know how to properly record this information. You keep facts here and there within enormous volumes of diary entries. This is not only an inefficient way of storing them (for you must search volumes one by one unless by sheer chance you have even the slightest inkling of where to look), it is also highly dangerous.

For one, books happen to be flammable. Need I say more?

Two, books can get lost/stolen/stained/ripped, etc. Any one of the various misuses can happen, especially with dibbuns running around. It will obviously be difficult to read the book if the pages are unreadable or missing.

And three, the passage of time tends to 1) stain the pages anyway even with the greatest of care; 2) fade the ink so that it usually becomes unreadable; and 3) become so old and archaic, it may as well be in a different language. (It doesn't help that somebeasts, for some reason, tend to write in riddles and/or code.) And I believe you still have scrolls lying about. Now that is truly archaic.

So, to remedy this, especially in the matters of defense:

1) Move all of the books into the abbey. In this way, you prevent vermin from getting easy access to burnable materials as well as keeping history, keepsakes, and important reference materials from being destroyed. Set aside an entire room and put all of the books in there. On the door, in nice, big, bold letters, write, "ABBEY LIBRARY." Congratulations, you now have an official library!
Note: In smaller letters, it is advised that you append, "No food or drink allowed inside." Books do not mix well with food. In fact, also add, "No dibbuns allowed without supervision." That should need no explanation.

2) Catalog your information. Catalog everything. Get extra bookshelves so that instead of having fifty volumes, you will have five hundred volumes -- a great deal thinner. If you desire, feel free to use colored ink, tabs, and ribbons to make reference easier and more interesting. It is not advised, however, to add feathers, bulky objects, or anything that in any way may hinder the fact that the object within is a book.

2b) Be specific. Use nice, big, labels. Put the books categories other than "Season of the Heap Big Snow." Be specific. Get down to nitty gritty. Label books as "Harvest techniques, Season X" or "War, Season X."

3) Shelves books into genres. Keep the diaries in one sections and the riddles in another (Advantage: for fun and games in the deep winter) and the war reference guide (including this one) in a nice, well lit area.

3b) On the War Reference Guide: Obviously must be well kept and up-to-date. Make maps of everything. Create blueprints of Redwall Abbey and add to them accordingly as you inevitably find secret passages. Make careful diagrams of all weaponry ever seen and ever used so that you will know what they are the next time they come around. Write, write, write!

4) READ THEM. Do not let them turn dusty. All right, you can let the diaries go dusty, but books should not be left to rot after transcription.

So now, when you are attacked, you can easily trot down to the library (a great deal safer than trotting to the Gatehouse, which requires you to walk across open ground and possibly getting shot), open a book, scan through the info, and quickly find out just what to do.

For example: Vermin Fox Band demands Magic Sword. You walk down to Library and pull out this reference guide. It states that one, you should not attempt to argue with them and that two, you should probably attack them. Informed, you tell the Abbey Warrior and the defense council. For more research, you find a smaller book entitled, History of Small Vermin Bands and learn various strategies used in the past to drive vermin off, ie the flank maneuver, the "fireball" attack, the use of nature, etc.

Armed with this knowledge, Redwall Abbey can stand firm against the evil invaders. If not, you shall fall miserably into the Pit Of Stupidity and I shall laugh at you.

Now, what have we learned today?

Hn. That you forget things way too much and therefore that shall be remedied, by creating a library and cataloging them properly. And of course, remembering where you put them.

LoneWolf16, Recorder of Redwall Defense in Mossflower Country