Samkim

Samkim was one of the Central Protagonists in the Book Salamandastron he was the Warrior of Redwall before Matthias.

Samkim was a squirrel orphan of Redwall Abbey, and good friends with Arula the molemaid. One night during a thunderstorm, he narrowly avoided being skewered by the Sword of Martin the Warrior as it fell from the weathervane. All of the Redwallers were very puzzled by this incident. Brother Hal the Recorder worked through the night, searching through old volumes to find the reason why the sword would be on the weathervane. When he finally found the answer, he was anxious to tell Samkim and Arula, but he was killed by an arrow accidentally shot by the stoats Dingeye and Thura before he could let anyone know.

An excited Samkim got up early that morning, and raced downstairs to see the sword. Unfortunately, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. As the young squirrel stared in horror at the body of Brother Hal, he stumbled over Dingeye's bow, and picked it from the ground. Friar Bellows walked in at that moment and immediately jumped to the conclusion that Samkim had murdered Brother Hal.



In order to prove his innocence, Samkim went into Mossflower Woods with Arula to find the stoats who had also taken Martin's sword. Samkim finally retrieved the sword from the evil fox Dethbrush after a duel at the Great Inland Lake; however he lost it again after killing the Deepcoiler. The sword was later retrieved by Mara, who gave it to Samkim on Marlfox Island, which was un-named at that time. He was able to bring the sword back safely to Redwall. He also wrote a riddle in his later seasons containing directions to Marlfox Island, which was used by Songbreeze Swifteye, Dannflower Reguba and Dippler to go retrieve the tapestry of Martin the Warrior. The riddle was included in the journal of Abbess Vale.

Trivia

 * Samkim was named for Redwall fan Samantha Kim. She wrote to Brian Jacques at his radio show at the BBC and they became pen pals. Mr. Jacques suggested he name a new character in a book he was writing after her, Samkim. In their letters, Miss Kim told the author how much she loved the way the mole characters spoke. Twenty-five years later, Miss Kim and Mr. Jacques finally met at a reading he was giving in NYC, where Miss Kim currently resides. She was the first in line to have him sign her book, Salamandastron.


 * Samkim was the first squirrel to wield Martin's sword.