Groffgut is a major antagonist in High Rhulain, the eighteenth book in the Redwall novel series. He is the short-tempered, vengeful, and sadistic leader of a gang of water rats who terrorizes whichever innocent creature they come across as shown with their treatment of an osprey named Pandion Piketalon. When they get defeated for this with Groffgut himself getting particularly thrashed by a teenage mouse named Brinty for this, he seeks revenge against him for this along with the other Redwallers that partook in defeating them and tries to carry this out by means of attempts at getting into Redwall Abbey, their residence.
Biography[]
After having left the larger vermin bands with the gang, they wander up country in Mossflower seeking any opportunity to plunder, kill, or cause terror in hopes of establishing themselves as a feared vermin band. Though they had made patchy progress, Groffgut's confidence was growing daily. One day, as they relaxed by the shallows, fishing the limpid waters whilst others foraged for nests with eggs in them with Groffgut letting them do all the chores as he disdained such menial tasks and instead idly watching the smoke of the blue-grey campfire they set up blending amid sun shafts. one of his minions, Hangpaw, limped up from the shallows, displaying a small perch dangling from a line to show him he's got a fish. Not impressed since it's only a little one, Groffgut tells him to stick it on the fire and catch some big ones. Just then, another minion named Frogeye exclaims that he's caught an eagle with Plugtail, another of the gang, scurrying up to inform them of this. Shoving him to one side, Groffgut goes to investigate while grumbling that rats don't catch eagles and it's the other way around. When they had arrived, they see the big fierce bird he captured, being Pandion Piketalon, as Frogeye slammed his spearbutt into its body to topple it backward tail over crest and laughingly bragging about it.
Drawing his sword, which was in reality a broken scythe blade with a rope handle, Groffgut approaches the bird to inspect it with it being clearly unable to resist its injuries and gave the gang his verdict that it is an eagle. Hangpaw, a thin rat with a withered limb, asked what they're supposed to do with eagles to which Threetooth, lacking all but three fangs, responds that they eat them and Rashback proclaims that he didn't know they could eat them, Groffgut contemptuously telling him he can eat any beast once it's dead. When Frogeye proclaims that it is his eagle as he captured it and suggests that he doesn't want to eat it, Groffgut points at him with his sword and has him turn around to kick him and knock him flat before stamping a footpaw on his back, sneering that he's the chief around here. He orders Plugtail to get his rope around the eagle's claws and lash him tight. After he does so as the bird could only flap its wings feebly in protest, Groffgut issues his orders to the gang, declaring that they'll eat the eagle later and have a bit of fun with it first before having it be towed back to the camp.
There, they hang Pandion Piketalon upside down from a tree and light a fire under it while torturing it by hitting it with spearpoles, swinging it back and forth as the bird could only hiss feebly at its tormentors, much to Groffgut's sadistic enjoyment. He himself swings his crude sword at the bird, clipping a few of its throat feathers while taunting it cruelly about roasting it nice and slow through the fire. When Frogeye asks if he can have one of its legs as he's captured it, Groffgut snarled and aimed a kick at him, threatening to have one of his legs if he slays it too quick as he wants to drag out its death for his own twisted entertainment. However, a female otter named Tiria whirled a stone at the swordblade Groffgut had in his grasp and knocked it out, causing Groffgut to immediately go into an agonised dance as he sucked at the paw which was stinging from the reverberation of the strike. As Tiria revealed herself, whirling another stone in her sling as she shouted at him to get away from the bird, Groffgut stopped dancing, tears beading in his squinched eyes as he saw she was a lone otter, and ordered his gang to kill her to bits. When Frogeye leaped forward to thrust her with his spear, Tiria sidestepped it and swung the stone-loaded sling into his jaw as she gave a "Redwall" battlecry.
This summoned her allies, a teenage mouse named Brinty and a teenage mole named Tribsy, who charged out of the bushes, laying about heftily with their long staves while a teenage squirrel named Girry dropped down onto the bough which held the big bird and, leaping from there to the ground, scattered the smouldering fire with his axe. While Tribsy and Tiria fought off the other water rats, Brinty brought the butt of his staff straight into Groffgut's belly as he reached with his good paw for the sword before lambasting the gang chief mercilessly. The aftermath of the battle resulted in most of the rats fleeing for their lives and Threetooth and Frogeye stretched out senseless while Groffgut, who was still conscious, wailed and pleaded as Brinty whacked on at him in a frenzy, yelling at him with each blow he delivered with the intent of killing him for his torture before Tiria came in to stop him and help him calm down and come to his senses. As Tiria and Girry freed the bird and took it to Redwall Abbey, Brinty stood watch over Groffgut, threatening to break his skull if he moves before picking up his sword and flinging it into the stream as the rat gang chief lay there helplessly, glaring hatred at Brinty through his swollen eyes. Settling the bird more comfortably on the cart, Tiria goes to Brinty as he wielded his staff and nodded approvingly toward him for knocking all the fight out of Groffgut before turning the rat over with her footpaw and telling him that while they will let him live, she warns him to stay out of Mossflower or he won't get off so lightly next time, Brinty further emphasizing the warning by threatening to break his skull if he ever crosses his path again when he made as if to snarl with the gang leader never answering, only laying there with his whole body being one throbbing pulse of pain from the beating given to him by Brinty. Then, he spat contemptuously still glaring at the young mouse, leading to Brinty to take a step forward only for Tiria to pull him away, telling him she thinks the vermin's learned his lesson. As they went, Groffgut stared at them hatefully and when they were safely out of earshot, he muttered that he won't forget Brinty and swears to slay him nice and slow the next time they meet as revenge.
As his first attempt at revenge that winds up going poorly due to ineffective planning, Groffgut has his gang march up to the abbey where he attempts to slay Tiria the ottermaid by throwing a spear at her only for it to miss due to her bowing to a creature she was conversing with, leading to Tiria catching them as Groffgut shouts that it was the otter and that he missed her but it was the mouse that beat him up he wants to kill. Taking the opportunity, Tiria whirls her iron star Wuppit wildly and let it fly hard as the gang retreated, hitting the back of the last runner's head, downing and accidentally killing him. Afterwards, Groffgut leads his gang to the abbey they came from. Along the way, when seeing an otter named Banjon and a hedgehog named Brink pass by, he has his gang hide underneath an overhanging brey willow, getting them covered with slime and marsh debris and reeked with its stench. Frogeye complains about this to which Groffgut angrily clouts him over the head and explains that they would have gotten caught if they didn't jump in there as they had to hide. Rashback suggest that they could have fought them off due to there being eight of them, getting corrected by Plugtail saying there's seven of them as Hangpaw was slain when they ran away to which Threetooth suggested that he wasn't killed, leading to Groffgut trying to kick out at him only to miss, slip, and fall on his tail. As Obbler and Fleddy, the youngest two gang members, burst out into cackling laughs at Groffgut's mishap, Groffgut jumped outright, fuming and berating his gang and ranting, spitting mud, and venting his temper on them, sarcastically suggesting them to chase after the great big hedgehog and otter to which none of the gang felt like pursuing the issue further, knowing his violent temper. Instead, they sat silent, cleaning themselves up and avoiding their leader's angry stares. When Frogeye tried to calm the situation by suggesting they forget about the abbey and Hangpaw ang move on and find somewhere else for food, Groffgut bit him on the nose and kicked him in the stomach before waving his rusty scythe blade sword at the rest, threatening them into submission by declaring that they don't go anywhere unless he tells them so. He then declares that as the abbeybeasts have stolen their eagle, ambushed and battered them, killed one of their gang, and chased them until they had to jump into a bog and hide from them, no one does that to his gang and gets away with it, openly declaring hatred for the one who kept walloping him with a big pole. When Threetooth asked what they'll do, Groffgut, while jumping in the air twice to emphasize his words, tells him they'll get revenge before ordering them to go back to the abbey to make them sorry they ever messed with their gang.
During one of the nights, Groffgut and his gang lay in the ditch opposite the abbey's west wall, having passed the time there since midnoon, napping and eating food they had gathered along the way while Groffgut was thinking out his plans by focusing his attention on the abbey. Pointing his rusty makeshift sword at the west walltop, Groffgut tried to whip up the gang's enthusiasm by suggesting all the good stuff that's within. Threetooth responded that they have an eagle in there along with a big bird to which Groffgut contradicted him by blatantly lying that he showed them an eagle flying away just before it went dark. Knowing what he had seen, Threetooth said that it was a seagull, getting himself thrown on by Groffgut who gnawed on his ear for calling him a liar and repeated that it was an eagle. Sorry that he had spoken, Threetooth reluctantly agreed before Groffgut kicked him to one side and curled his lip in scorn at the other vermin, berating them for having gone soft on him and threatening to slay them with his rusty scythe blade while brandishing it under their noses and rallying them against their will. Afterwards, Groffgut explains his plan to them to sneak up to the wall where four of them, Groffgut, Frogeye, Rashback, and Plugtail, let Obbler and Fleddy climb up and stand on their shoulders. Next, the climber gets up onto Obbler and Fleddy's heads where all the climber does is sling his sword up on a rope and catch the top of the wall to pull himself over and open the big door to let them all in, making it clear he plans to have Threetooth be the climber. When Threetooth begins protesting as he backed down the ditch, Groffgut threatens to impale him with his blade and puts emphasis to this by ordering his gang to hold him tight, forcing Threetooth to comply. Thrusting his face close to Threetooth, Groffgut threatens him further before asking Plugtail for the rope they tied the eagle up with to knot it round his sword handle.
As Obbler and Fleddy asks him about the good stuff the place had, Groffgut, seeing this as an opportunity to fire his gang to great efforts albeit not being very good at speech making, affirmed it that there's lots of it. Obbler states that he hopes they have apple pies with Groffgut heartily telling him that they have enough pies for all of them. A moment later, he was sorry he had spoken as it seemed that the rest of his gang were fond of pies and each talked about their own individual favorite. Kicking the last speaker soundly, Groffgut orders them to get on with it. Creeping out of the ditch, they made it across the path into the shadow of the wall where they carry out their plan albeit with it turning out to not be as easy as it sounded as there were muttered complaints as soon as the two younger rats began clambering over the four who formed the bottom line. Groffgut gasped as his stomach was kicked hard and threatened to cut their ears with his sword if they don't shut up before ordering Threetooth to get up. Unbeknownst to them, they had been observed as soon as they left the ditch by Abbess Lycian as she stood up to pour tea for herself and a mole named Burbee, leading to her informing Oreal Gatekeeper, who shot off to the abbey and brought Skipper, Bring, Foremole Grudd, and his entire crew up to the west wall. As they were watched unaware, Groffgut continued ordering his gang to go up as they spoke of roasting the cook in his own oven if he doesn't cook good pies. This provokes Abbess Lycian to the extent of where she dealt Threetooth a mighty blow with her teapot which was still half full of hot tea when his head appeared over the walltop, causing him to fall backward with a shocked gurgle, plummeting down onto the rats below. She flings the teapot at them while yelling at them as they retreat before the crew could take a party down there and give them the beating of their lives and send them packing.
Panicked, dispirited, and chastened, the rat gang did not stop running until they were well into Mossflower Woodlands where they slumped on a streambank and panted for breath while nursing hot water scalds and spitting tea leaves. As the gang moaned while commenting on how good the stuff poured on them tasted and smelled, Plugtail, who had been lagging behind, tottered in to join the gang wit hthe teapot jammed on his head at a rackish angle, demanding that it be taken off his head while walking sideways into a tree trunk and tripping over Groffgut's paws. Groffgut, who was sitting with his back against the tree, dealt him a hefty kick, snarling at him to get it off himself as he's wounded. When Frogeye asks where he's wounded, Groffgut angrily declares it's none of his business. Still seated with his back to the tree, he muttered savagely his oath of vengeance against the Redwall crowd. Treetooth declares that it was a mistake trying to take a place that size and he's not going back anymore, leading to Groffgut springing up and waving the rusty scythe blade while chasing him and threatening him. As he chased him, the crew sees that his tail got cut off, which happened due to Plugtail, when the teapot landed on his head, dashing about madly trying to get it off as the rope and scythe blade that followed it got tangled about one of his footpaws and since Groffgut got in the way, the swinging blade slammed into his backside, severing his tail right at the root, much to the gang's amusement. Humiliated, knowing that he had to restore his potition with the others, Groffgut put on his darkest, most vengeful scowl, grinding out every word savagely, and swears a blood oat hthat before the season's out, he'll be wearing a cloak made out of the tails of them as they did to him and a necklace out of their eyeballs, with none of the gang daring to say a word as they knew he was in deadly earnest.
Later, when Brinty had driven a hostile gannet out of the abbey and saved its residents, Groffgut instantly seized the opportunity to get his revenge by leaping out of the ditch on the opposite side of the path brandishing a crude sword fashioned from a scythe blade and striking him down and killing him with one cruel slash, sadistically taunting him that he managed to pay him back. He turned to run but was impaled by the lance of Corriam that an otter Skipper had thrown true and hard at him. Groffgut could only stare stupidly at the lance sprouting from his chest before falling dead without a sound, receiving his karmic demise. His body would be pushed into the ditch amongst a the bodies of Plugtail and Frogeye which were being feasted on by the gannet that ate his body as well while the Redwallers mourned the death of Brinty, Tiria especially when she learns of his death.
