Abbey Keys

Lore & Background

The Abbey Keys are a cherished artifact of Redwall Abbey, passed down through generations of Gatekeepers. They are not only functional but also symbolic, representing the abbey's role as a sanctuary for all creatures of Mossflower Wood. The keys are often used in times of siege or celebration, and their loss or theft is considered a grave misfortune. Notable bearers include Brother Alf and later, Sister Sage.

Reader's Guide

Methuselah (Arabic: Matūshalaḥ) is also mentioned in Islam in the various collections of stories of the pre-Islamic prophets, which also say he was an ancestor of Noah. Furthermore, early Islamic writers like Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham always included his name in the genealogy of Muhammad. The Book of Moses, a 19th-century Mormon text, says that after Enoch and the City of Zion were taken up to heaven, Methuselah stayed behind; this was so that God's promises to Enoch – that he would always have descendants on earth and that he would be an ancestor of Noah – would be fulfilled.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints further teaches that Methuselah was a prophet. Some biblical literalists claim that Methuselah's long lifespan can be explained by a better diet, or a hypothetical 'water vapor canopy' protected the earth from radiation before the Flood. Others claim theological causes: humans were originally to have everlasting life, but sin was introduced into the world by Adam and Eve, and its influence became greater with each generation, before God progressively shortened human life, particularly after the Flood.

The Catholic Encyclopedia says 'Certain exegetes solve the difficulty to their own satisfaction by declaring that the year meant by the sacred writer is not the equivalent of our year.' Some believe that Methuselah's extreme age is the result of an ancient mistranslation that converted 'months' to 'years', producing a more credible 969 lunar months, or 78½ years, however this would also mean Enoch fathered Methuselah at the age of 5 using numbers from the Masoretic Text.

Donald V. Etz suggested that the Genesis 5 numbers 'might for convenience have all been multiples of 5 or 10'. Ellen Bennet argued that the Septuagint Genesis 5 numbers are in tenths of years, which 'will explain how it was that they read 930 years for the age of Adam instead of 93 years, and 969 years for Methuselah instead of 96 years, and 950 years for that of Noah instead of 95 years'... 'Surely it is much more rational to conclude that Noah lived 50 years instead of 500 years before he took a wife and begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth...' and then lists the Septuagint total ages with decimal points: 93.0 for Adam, 91.0 for Cainan, 96.9 for Methuselah, 95.0 for Noah, etc. As mentioned this would mean that Enoch became a father at the age of 6.5 and that the other antediluvian patriarchs did so at implausibly young ages.

Yigal Levin states that these long lifespans are intended simply to speed the reader from Adam to Noah. Claus Westermann states they are intended to create the impression of a distant past. Some versions of the Sumerian King List mention a character named Ubara-Tutu who seems almost identical to Methuselah. He was the son of En-men-dur-ana, a Sumerian mythological figure often compared to Enoch, as he entered heaven without dying.

Ubara-Tutu was the king of Sumer until a flood swept over his land. Although the ages of Methuselah and Ubara-Tutu are different, they both died in a Great Flood. Babylonian writer Berossus also claims that, prior to the events of Babylon's flood myth, kings could live for tens of thousands of years, which bears some similarity to Genesis 5. In Forever Young: A Cultural History of Longevity, Lucian Boia says that the Bible's portrayal of Methuselah and other long-lived figures features 'traces of the Mesopatamian legends' found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, where Gilgamesh rules Uruk for 126 years, and his ancestors are said to have ruled for several hundred years each.

Boia also notes that tales of kings who lived for thousands of years can be found in both Hindu and Chinese mythology, and that the Bible is comparatively 'restrained' in depicting early humans as being able to live for hundreds of years, rather than thousands. Boia notes that following the Flood, the Bible depicts its characters' lifespans as gradually diminishing; Noah's sons lived between 400 and 500 years, while Abraham died at 175, Moses died at 120, and David died at 70, an age that the Bible portrays as old for David's time.

Boia compares early biblical figures and their vast lifespans to the people of the Golden Age in Hesiod's poem Works and Days, whose bodies are perpetually youthful.

Did You Know?

• The keys have been lost and recovered multiple times throughout the history of Redwall Abbey.
• They are one of the few artifacts that appear in multiple books of the Redwall series.
• The design of the keys is said to be inspired by medieval European monastery keys.