Gulo the Savage is the main antagonist of Rakkety Tam, the seventeenth book in the Redwall novel series. He is the brutal and sadistic warlord, being the prince of the Land of Ice and Snow along with his brother Askor, who, after slaying his own father Dramz to seize power, sets out on a determined quest to slay his brother as well after he takes off with the Walking Stone. Taking the chase to Mossflower, he also violently massacres many creatures he and his horde come across, cannibalizing them for his own entertainment.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- It is mentioned in the narrative that he had killed many of his enemies.
- In order to seize power, he killed his own father Dramz.
- In spite of their father's wishes for them to rule together, after killing him, he chases Askor after he stole the Walking Stone, leading an army of vermin, with the intent of brutally killing him, pursuing him all the way to Mossflower.
- Along the way of pursuing him in Mossflower while unaware he is dead already, he and his vermin horde viciously massacre dozens in a large band of squirrels, killing them by ripping, slaying, and slashing them apart by weapons to pieces on top of cannibalizing them alive with their bones and fur being scattered everywhere and their heads being left as a macabre warning for his own entertainment.
- He and his horde massacre a group of several hares they come across in as vicious of a manner before stealing their drum that they intended to bring as a gift to the badger lord of Salamandastron.
- Encountering the River Rats when they tried to interrogate and steal from one of them, Gulo has his horde capture them before interrogating them on where Askor and the Walking Stone are, firm in the belief that they do have that knowledge, starting with their leader Driftail. When Driftail, after getting his pleas that he does not know falling on deaf ears, tries to lie to Gulo while making a mistake that causes Gulo to recognize the lie, Gulo brutally and sadistically kills him by torturing him to death and eating him alive before ordering for another rat to be brought to him.
- He sadistically terrifies the other rat brought to him, Runneye, by revealing how cannibalistic he is and causing him to faint, taking delight in how horrific he is.
- While he initially keeps the River Rats alive, it is out of pragmatism so that Shard would interrogate them on information that could help them on more details to find Askor and the Walking Stone.
- Learning of the place Redwall Abbey and the treasures it holds from the River Rats, he has them lead him to the place while brutally killing and eating more of them along the way.
- He is conveyed by Zurig to roast alive whoever they deem too old to eat to death.
- He ties up the last 2 River Rats, Runneye and Bluesnout, with a rope running from their necks to a stake. As they fought each other for scraps tossed to them by the wolverine, Gulo asks them questions about Redwall Abbey and after explaining to Shard that he will have his captain Shard take a score and scout out the Redwall place in secret to which they will then know the real truth, he threatens to subject the two rat captives to a special punishment that will last many days and nights, causing the two to weep openly pleading with him, their pleas falling on deaf ears as Gulo orders them to cease their whining and live on in misery until his captain returns to which he will then determine how to treat them and gives the orders to Shard to go swiftly while he and the horde follow on behind and await his report.
- When Urfig comes hurrying to Gulo and lied to him that his brother Askor came to camp and stole his sword and the banner, which was really stolen by a thieving vole named Yoofus Lightpaw, Gulo has his guards find him a trail and has Garfid, his best tracker, examine the ground and see if the marks left are those of his brother to which Garfid, fearing a horrible death, falsely affirms, inciting Gulo to order for them to go north. Unbeknownst to them, Yoofus left a trail to a clear track on the east, leading to Gulo often berating his creatures threateningly after they move on.
- At camp, when Shard brings him two captives he found wandering in the forest that are from Redwall Abbey, Gulo sadistically interrogates and terrifies them and when they refuse to answer his questions about the abbey, he has Runneye and Bluesnout be viciously mauled apart by his horde, subtly threatening to do the same to them if they do not answer his questions at dawn.
- Awakened upon the commotion started by a squirrel named Rakkety Tam McBurl rescuing the two captives and fighting the horde, Gulo bawls at his horde to cut him down, though Tam continues fighting them off before escaping.
- Pursuing them to the abbey grounds, Gulo and the forty-one vermin who had assisted in the pursuit came to a halt when seeing the Long Patrol, consisting of a hundred gallant hare members, charging to their aid. Knowing he was heavily outnumbered with the rest of his force back at the camp, he orders Captain Urfig to tell all those with bows to release a volley before following them back to the camp. This gets several of the hares pierced, some of whom were of the younger element and one being killed.
- Back at the camp, in a killing rage, Gulo had violently torn apart three vermin whose responsibility had been to guard the camp on the previous night using only his fangs and claws and proceeds to angrily berate his troops for their failure.
- Noticing Shard whimpering in pain from the wounds inflicted on him by Tam, he contemptuously asks him if he has a solution to which Shard merely remained silent to avoid his deathly wrath. Gulo leans down and warns him that if he makes just one more mistake, he will build a fire to finish off roasting him properly before ordering him to come with him to march straightaway to Redwall Abbey where he will take all of his fighters and gain entry, emphasizing that he wants everything, his banner, the Walking Stone, and Askor, all delivered to him. When Shard stammeringly claims that he will obey, Gulo gives him a swift kick and orders him to go and obey.
- As Shard carries this out and leads the vermin marching while limping hurriedly with fright, they hear the voice of Askor (who is really one of the main characters imitating his voice), causing Gulo to come dashing forward, knocking aside his creatures who were trying to back off from the stream and declares that he cannot see him, getting a snarling reply from "Askor" that he can see Gulo. Ever quick in action, Gulo, seeing the foliage rustle, grabbed an ermine that had its back to him and shoved the unlucky beast in front of him, causing him to get impaled as he drops flat with the dead vermin on top of him.
- Apathetic to the vermin that got killed by slingstones, Gulo scrambles up and seeing the bushes rustle and hearing the pounding of retreating paws from the other side of the stream, shouts orders to his vermin gang that they are going east and to ford this water and follow them to kill them. As Zerig led the band into the water across, Gulo thrust Shard's body callously to one side as he followed on, roaring to get Askor and promising to reward whoever brings him his head.
- Catching up with his horde as they ran the leafy woodlands giving chase and noticing them stopping with Grik the tracker bending over the trail studying it, he was tempted to kick him at first though he restrained himself from doing so as he was not fond of prolonged rushing and asked him for his report. When he explained that they number only fifty and are running east, though three have cut to the north with Zerig explaining that it is why they awaited his orders, Gulo called Zerig to one side and ordered him to take half of his force to Redwall Abbey and try to gain entrance there by night but without charging it while he himself follows his brother and the others. When Zerig asked about the three who went north, Gulo told him to send Dirig and three others after them and try to take them alive, though Dirig and the three others get tricked into going into a swamp where they drown to death.
- Back at the camp, when a sentry informed Gulo that he saw his brother, he nearly throttled him at first and after letting him go to hear his explanation, thundering off in the direction the sentry had pointed and spying the deep clawmarks with fur brushings at the end, Gulo bellows at his wakening followers to leave everything save their weapons and give pursuit to slay Askor. This was, unbeknownst to him, another trick pulled by the main characters, with Yoofus and Tam sneaking into camp and taking back the Royal Banner along with the drums they took from their victims.
- After Gulo making heavy going of the chase to the point of where he panted hoarsely upon slowing down and falling to the back of the pack when a slender ermine runner reported that they are in sight, wild hope surging through his huge muscular body, Gulo bounded forward with a burst of renewed energy and ordered his horde to get and kill them. However, they wind up being attacked by a large group of rooks and crows that Gulo gleefully engaged in a murderous battle against, though it ends with a good chunk of Gulo's followers being massacred as only thirty of them remain in the aftermath, piling the floor with winged carcasses.
- When a badly wounded ermine gave a whimper of pain and moaned about the brutal injuries he suffered from the battle and that he needs to rest, Gulo pretends to soothe him at first before cruelly slaying him with a brutal blow from his paw into the vermin's neck and growls out a warning to see if anyone else would like to join the slain vermin with their silence giving him their answer.
- After devouring a charred crow from the fire, he orders two of them to go and locate his brother and his band and the rest of them to eat and fill up on the flesh of their foes. Nearly every vermin stood up as no one wanted to stay in his wild presence, though Gulo stops them and repeats his orders before having them give a chant of war to show that they are ready to serve him. After two of them, a white fox and an ermine, do so, they return to report that they are camped by a broad river beyond yonder wooded hill to the east with boats. When Gulo asks about his brother, the scout answered that there was no sight of him, though Gulo angrily declares that he knows Askor is with them and rallies the horde to get in front of him and go with him to the river with all speed.
- Arriving at the broad stream too late as Tam and the hares had gone with the Guosim sailing two hours or more downstream, after scorning his warriors harshly for flopping down from exhaustion and calling an ermine tracker named Eissaye to his side to ask him where they are bound to on the water with Eissaye stating he doesn't know, Gulo pierces the lobe of his ear and drags him forward in front of him so that he could yell that he is a tracker and a scout and that no one would know better than him and repeat his question where they are under the threat of spilling his brains onto the bank.
- After Eissaye gasps out an explanation that it is likely they are going north, releasing him, sitting pensively, and licking the blood from his claw, Gulo, declaring that is well said as Redwall Abbey would be a wise refuge for Askor and his creatures, dispatches Eissaye to scout ahead and follows up the rear of his command as a threat to any who would dare to stop or drop out.
- After a long march along the streambank, when Eissaye reports that he heard singing ahead, leading to Gulo calling his band to a halt and silences them to hear for himself. He hears no singing and after interrogating him on it, Eissaye explains that he didn't hear the words, only the sound of singing, causing Gulo to buffet Eissaye heavily about his ears with his paws and knock him down and berate him before ordering him to get up and fetch the others.
- Soon, seeing a group of Long Patrol hares, a squirrel, and an otter, and deducing them as scouts, Gulo declares that they will get around the back of them and cut them off from the watermice and their boats with the intent to brutally kill and cannibalize them like they did with their previous victims.
- He gets two hares killed with arrows and a spear while launching an attack on the group, roaring at them to kill, getting five more hares killed afterwards.
- As Tam tries to rescue Corporal Butty Wopscutt who was harassed to the front and left by vermin, Gulo bounded out at him only for Tam to slash out blindly with his sword, managing to lop off Gulo's right ear and allow Tam to run by him and fight the vermin side by side with Butty while Gulo screamingly urged his vermin on to kill them.
- While they fight, Butty reveals that Gulo got him in the back with his fangs and claws severely and causing him to bleed hard before charging straight at the press of vermin and having Tam turn and dive into the current. While Tam makes it out, Butty gets slain by a screaming ermine piercing his throat with teeth.
- Believing that Askor and the Walking Stone are hiding in the boats in spite of Eissaye denying that he saw them, Gulo has his vermin pull a trunk into the water and has them paddle it to pursue the group, harshly abusing them as he does so.
- After getting outsmarted by the group due to his foolishness causing him to get the trunk falling over a big waterfall with nothing to steer or control it, while grabbing onto roots, when an ermine grasped his paw to cling on to dear life, Gulo cruelly kicks him to his death before flinging onto a crag and over onto a slippery ledge.
- While he gets the remaining vermin to save themselves by angrily ordering them to jump over onto the ledge or die, with only some of them doing so while the others fell to their deaths due to hesitating to jump, this is only out of pragmatism as they are beneficial to him as an army and he even threatens the ones who did make it over with death by throwing them after the ones that fell if they didn't follow him, which is something they obey as they know he never makes empty threats.
- When a fox named Herag tries to desert the band, Gulo kills him by ripping his head off before putting it in the water to float away, threatening to do this to any of the other horde members if they try to desert when they wake up to discover this before declaring that they move on to Redwall Abbey.
- Locating Doogy Plumm, the best friend of Rakkety Tam McBurl, several miles away from Redwall Abbey while he was walking there with Yoofus and his wife Didjety, Gulo and his horde ambush him with Gulo knocking him unconscious after he puts up a good fight with his horde and has his horde capture him and tie him up to a stake surrounded by dead boughs, branches, twigs, and dried ferns about him. When Doogy awakens, Gulo wickedly grins and tells him of his plan to hold him hostage to get Askor to face him in combat with eager intent to slay him, acknowledging him as Dramz' favorite son, and expressing intent to take all as the winner, not just the walking stone and the great drum, but even Redwall Abbey. He even reveals that he'll kill Doogy anyway by clear means of burning him alive once he wins.
- Then, after racing out onto the western flatlands to yell to his father Dramz that his name will be gone and forgotten while beasts will still speak of him, Gulo has one of the vermin, an old fox, light up some fire to tinder over some moss only for Doogy to snap the gag around his mouth and shout to his friends, though Gulo is actually satisfied by this as it will let his friends know he is still alive before thrusting his lit torch into the small fire, watching it crackle and declaring to his brother that it now begins.
- Getting the attention of the creatures on the walltop, declaring that they are not the ones he wants, but his brother Askor, when an otter Skipper tried to explain that there is no beast called Askor at the abbey and calls him mad, Gulo laughs this off, still under the firm belief they've sheltered him and the Walking Stone and threatens to burn Doogy alive along with the drum if they don't send him and the Walking Stone out, brushing off the other comments the hare Fortindom stated, even declaring he'll burn down the gates of the abbey to come in and get him.
- After Tam decides to step up and lie about killing his already deceased brother Askor, convincing Gulo after showing the Walking Stone (a tortoise) before challenging him to fight him at sunset on the flatland with six to come with him to watch his vermin and make sure they don't harm Doogy before going, at sunset, when the gates open and Gulo gets informed of this by Duge who also affirms that they have the Walking Stone and that the creatures with him are well armed except a bird, rising up, Gulo rallies his slayers, with full intent to brutally kill and cannibalize the creatures, declaring that they shall taste their flesh.
- Facing up against Tam, Gulo sadistically declares his cannibalistic intentions towards him by stating his body will add strength to his and his heart belongs to him, though Tam remains unfazed before activating the fight as Gulo slashes and tries to kill him several times only for Tam to wind up reigning victorious by beheading Gulo using the sword of Martin, ending his reign of terror once and for all.
- Despite Redwall's heinous standard, Gulo stands out for how brutal his massacres are, ranging in the dozens and consisting of creatures getting slashed, slain, and ripped apart by weapons along with being cannibalized alive and attempting to kill dozens more in a similarly brutal fashion with intent to cannibalize them as well.
- While he does go insane a few times, talking to himself as if he's talking to Dramz or his brother Askor in a hateful manner and showing paranoia like when one of his vermin arrives and he mistakes it for them being spies sent to watch him by Askor in spite of him having assigned them a task a moment before, he still has moral agency as he's aware of how immoral his actions are, bragging about his horrific nature to his victims to incite fear into their hearts about how evil he is, showing he's aware of right and wrong and he does manage to remain sane most of the time as well.
External Links[]
- Gulo the Savage on the Villains Wiki
- Gulo the Savage on the Redwall Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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Books Mossflower Mattimeo Mariel of Redwall Outcast of Redwall The Legend of Luke Lord Brocktree Rakkety Tam TV Series | ||