May the Goddess guard him. May he find his way to the Summerlands. May his friends and family know peace.

So sorry to hear that Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall Series, has died.

Set at the pastoral Redwall Abbey in the misty English past, the books are written for children 8 and up. They center on the triumph of good over evil — specifically the hard-won victories of the abbey’s resident mice, badgers and squirrels over the marauding rats, weasels and stoats that perennially threaten their peaceable kingdom.

There are quests and riddles; cunning treachery and chivalric derring-do; and, in a feature that became a hallmark of the entire series, groaning boards spread with sumptuous feasts, lovingly described.

Redwall is a big favorite of G/Son's. It might seem odd for a Witch to introduce her grandson to a series of books set in an abbey, but the Redwall books (and the related series of animated movies) are never overtly religious, just overtly good, while being honest with kids about things like evil and death and struggle. And the female characters are kick-ass. The descriptions of the feasts at Redwall are written by a man who loved the Earth and its bounty and who would, I think, have agreed that all acts of love and pleasure are rituals of the Goddess. Son says that, no matter how large the meal, if he asks G/Son, "So, is THIS a feast?" G/Son always says, "No," because the meal isn't a proper Redwall feast.