King Glagweb is a minor antagonist in the book Salamandastron, the fifth book within the Redwall novel series. He is the cruel ruler of a tribe of toads who has been infamous for enslaving whatever creatures are captured for him by keeping them locked up in a pit to be kept and fed until his Feastday where he eats his victims. He is known for being a cannibal, even eating the weaker ones of his own kind if he has no captives.
History[]
King Glagweb and the tribe of toads he has ruled over are known for being cannibals. He would have his toads capture whatever creature they come across and deliver them to him as foodslaves. He would usually have them be imprisoned in a mud pit where they are to be kept and fed until his feast day where he devours his victims. If there are no captives, he even retorts to eating the weaker ones of his own kind along with his tribe, this resulting in stories being made about King Glagweb and his band. He was heavily implied to have killed Log-a-log's shrews before, being his and his group of shrew's longtime enemy who has kept his shrews in his pit so that he could eat them.
At one point, he had captured a whole group of 40 shrews, six of whom he had his band take out and killed while having the rest be given a temporary reprieve and put into the mudpit he usually puts foodslaves in. A bit later, he would make a trade with a lizard named Swinkee, who had an unpleasant encounter with a female badger named Mara and her hare friend named Pikkle due to them having entered his cave and unintentionally ripped off his tail due to him ambushing them, where he would give him swampflies and marshworms in exchange for Mara and Pikkle as foodslaves, having a toad capture them and bring them to him. He then forces them into a pit with his trident and his guards along with the other shrews who would ally themselves with Mara and Pikkle before having his guards keep and feed them until his feastday which would then be their turn.
Since dawn, King Glagweb had been peering over the edge of the pit, watching Mara intently as the guards heave a massive load of tubers and roots down to the captives, there being some fruit among it -- a few apples, some half-ripe hazelnuts, and late strawberries. Pikkle then points out to Mara about how Glagweb has been watching her in particular, resulting in Mara telling Glagweb to go away and insulting him. Glagweb responds by silencing her and flung a hazelnut savagely at her, warning her that he will punish her when the time comes. Mara, however, flung the nut back, scoring a direct hit on Glagweb's nose, challenging him to come down there and punish her himself while insulting him. Glagweb then declares to Mara that he will eat her heart to which Mara merely mocks at before she flung a pawful of slime, which splattered into his open mouth. After the guards hurled pebbles down at the creatures in the pit, Glagweb, in an insane rage spitting slime as he croaked venomously at her, tells them that now that they've angered him, he will kill them as soon as possible, promising to make their deaths so slow and painful they will plead to be eaten before the toads had gone.
King Glagweb then returns with the toads, waving his trident as one sends a grass noose over Nordo's shoulders, declaring that now they will eat them one by one and attempt to pull him up only for Pikkle to grab Nordo's footpaws and Mara along with several shrews to wade forwards and seize the rope, pulling it, prompting the toads to attack themselves to the rope and haul frantically as Glagweb shouts at them to heave, engaging in a tug-of-war with the creatures in the pit. This would be ended by a couple of young shrews, Scraggle and Wikk, who climbed over the heads of the others and attacked the rope with their bare teeth while the creatures in the pit throw a volley of mudballs at them before Scraggle and Wikk cause the rope to snap and the toads on top to stagger back and land in a heap on Glagweb. Glagweb cruelly thrust at them with his trident before summoning several toad archers, having one shoot an arrow at Scraggle, which ended up hitting his paw, before commanding them to kill them all.
All of a sudden, a whole group of Guossom shrews led by Log-a-log shot arrived and shot arrows at the toads, striking one toad guard in the throat with one, engaging in battle against them while Mara and the rest whirled stones upward with as much speed and force as they could muster. King Glagweb turned back and forth, trying to divide his attention between the prisoners in the pit and the advancing Guossom shrews as the shrews drove the toad masses backwards mercilessly, pushing them into the flames of their own cooking fires as they did. While several shrews had been slain by the toads, the losses on King Glagweb's side were far heavier, causing the toads to lose heart and while they still fought on, they were pushed into retreat by the ferocity of the Guossom attack. Soon, Mara managed to leap out of the cave she had been slinging from, heaving and throwing anything that came within reach of her paws, managing to glimpse the snarling features of King Glagweb for a second before he retreats from the edge.
Mara then climbs out of the pit with two tridents which she used to send two toads hurtling into the pit before chasing after Glagweb who hobbled and hopped through the swamps as toad warriors less ponderous than himself passed him on both sides as they fled from the wrath of the Guossom fighters. Glagweb yelled at them for deserting him and ordered them to come back and help him while spitting at the toads before chancing a look back to see Mara coming after him. His throat bulged with terror as he tried to go faster only to freeze with horror when she hurtled forward at him. After this, Log-a-log and several of his crew came dashing up as Mara lifted Glagweb from the ground bodily with both her paws locked around his throat while he dangled helplessly, croaking feebly as his legs tried to reach the ground and take Glagweb from her, telling her to leave him to them since he is their longtime enemy and they will deal with him.
Log-a-log then drags Glagweb forward while shrew warriors gathered round the pit edge, snarling and spitting at all about him. Log-a-log, however, ignored his anger as he unceremoniously kicked him down into the pit he had placed his victims in before two shrews loosed something from the mouth of a sack into the pit. Log-a-log proceeds to condemn Glagweb for his actions, telling him that he ended up in the same pit he kept his shrews in so that he could eat them and that other creatures are flesh-eaters too. He reveals to him that what they unleashed into the pit was a pike which is only half-grown, but fierce and sarcastically suggests to Glagweb to eat him since once he is hungry enough, he is going to try and eat him, calling it justice before leaving Glagweb to his fate as the toad recoiled to the side of the pit, trying to avoid the ominous dorsal fin that stuck out of the muddy water as the pike cruised the pit bottom, looking for food.