Gonff the Mousethief



Gonff the Mousethief was a protagonist in the books Mossflower and Luke the Warrior. Gonff was very sneaky, mischievous and a good tactician. Gonff was a survivor of the Invasion of Mossflower back about twenty years before the events take place. A wildcat lord named Verdauga and his children, Tsarmina and Gingivere, and his massive army of rats, ferrets, weasels and stoats came from the Northlands and ambushed Mossflower. Seeing a nation of untrained fighters, Verdauga quickly suppressed all rebellion, and he was victorious in his campaign. However, he was no longer cruel when he conquered, he said woodlanders could live free, with no tax, as long as they were loyal to him. Verdauga put down several rebellions in the following years.

Gonff's parents were in the rebellion, and they were killed. Gonff liked Gingivere, because of his judicial nature, and wanted him as ruler if Verdauga made a choice. Gonff was fair, and was only a thief to support the squirrel family that he befriended. Gonff was strategic, and he thought of an escape even if the Council of Resistance in Mossflower didn't take him out.

As predicted, the Corim group didn't want Gonff free because they thought all thieves were bad. However, their leader told them that if it weren't for Gonff they'd have starved to death long ago, and so they made a plan to free the Mousethief. Gonff got a note through the prison window from the group. By this time he had met Martin, a young mouse who had also been imprisoned for defying Verdauga's daughter Tsarmina. Martin was taken to Gonff and he liked the plan to escape. So Martin and Gonff got out through Gonff using lockpicks, and Martin asked Gingivere, who had been imprisoned and framed by his sister for killing their father, if he could help him for standing up to him. Gonff was impatient, and said that he would return to help Gingivere. They walked straight into Tsarmina, and after a flight and fight around the castle, Gonff got Martin into the woodlands and they escaped to the Corim.

The Corim leader, Bella, a badger, wanted to know of her son, Boar, so Gonff and Martin and Dinny the Foremole decided to go to the Salamandastron mountain, home of the badgers, and see if he was there. They found him, defending the mountain from sea rats. Returning to Mossflower, Gonff led the attack on Kotir fortress with the rebels. The moles sank Kotir. Martin faced Tsarmina and killed her. With the war over, Gonff stopped being a thief.

In The Legend of Luke, Gonff was one of the members who went to the Northlands to find the caves where Martin had lived. On the way, Gonff and Martin did many good things, such as freeing baby squirrel Chugga from the Flitchaye. Gonff liked mischievous types such as himself, such as Garroway, the queen of the otter holt. Also Gonff was taken to the hedgehog tribe, who lived out on the sand dunes. Finally at the Tall Rocks on the Northland coast, Gonff learned the truth about Martin's past. He freed the land from many vermin on his return. Gonff and Martin came back with their friends Folgrim the otter and his brother, who lived at Redwall with the Mousethief and Martin until their deaths.