Watership Down (Continued)

   The Storyline

The Sandleford warren that Hazel and his group lived in was run by the Chief Rabbit, Threarah.  When Hazel and Fiver tell him of Fiver’s “vision” of evil and destruction coming, and the need to emigrate, he scoffs at it.  But Bigwig is persuaded and leaves with Hazel’s group (Dandelion, the story teller, Pipkin, the timid rabbit, Speedwell, Hawkbit, Buckthorn, Acorn, and Silver who also had been on of the police force).

The captain of the police, Holly, comes to arrest them but Bigwig fights him and wins.  So the journey to the place Fiver has seen in a vision begins with all bucks.

Hazel’s troupe comes to another warren that is very different - it does not even have a Chief Rabbit.  The rabbits there are friendly but detached, even sad, and though they are big they are not fighters.  It seemed like a good place to relocate but Fiver becomes  very agitated and refuses to stay because he sees disaster coming, much to Bigwig’s consternation.  But Bigwig changes his tune when he is caught in a man-mad trap and it becomes evident that men are grooming this warren for their own gain.  Hazel’s group flees the “warren of snares” and Strawberry, a good sized rabbit, joins them in their journey.  After five days of leaving Sandleford they find Fiver’s vision place, Watership Down.

Hazel has the bucks learn new ways of seeing things, like digging burrows which is doe’s work.  Then captain Holly shows up half-dead, along with Bluebell (a comic always making jokes) to join up with them.  He tells how the Sandleford warren was destroyed by men putting poison in the burrows, which caused white blindness” and then shooting them when they went above ground.  And also how he had to fight the rabbits at “the warren of snares”.

One of the new principles applied at Watership Down was to do good to those in need because some day they may be of help.  One day they come across a large white bird, Hehaar, and nurse him back to health.  Hehaar in return locates a heavily populated warren for them where they might get some does to come to Watership Down.  Holly, Silver, Buckhorn and Strawberry are sent on a mission for this purpose.  In the meantime, Hehaar tells Hazel about the Nuthanger farmhouse down the hill with hutch does, so Hazel concocts a plan to bring them to the warren.  Three does are secured (Clover, Boxwood andHaystack) but Hazel is shot in the leg in the process and left for dead.  Fiver’s clairvoyance gift again comes into play and Hazel’s life is saved.  His wound further contributes to the meeknes of his leadership style.

Holly’s team arrives back with a horror story about General Woundwort’s concentration camp of a warren called Effafa, and how they were imprisoned and providentially escaped (the locomotive story of page 215). 

Chief Rabbit Hazel, along with Blackberry hatch a secret plan to go back to Efffafa and bring back does.  Fiver is alright with the plan and even volunteers to go along.  This is the greatest adventure in the book and takes the whole second half to tell it. 

When Hazel returns safely from Effafa with more does, Watership Down now has 16 bucks and 10 does and life becomes natural and good - that is until General Woundwort arrives with a large police patrol.  But you will have to read the book to find out what happens.  I probably have told you too much already. 

Watership Down is a great read and good movie material.  In fact, a movie was made of it in 1978.  A  DVD of it today sales for up to $96.00 at Amazon.com because it has become such a collectors’ item.
Stories Within Stories

Richard Adams intersperses the religion of the rabbits throughout the novel with sophisticated stories about their Creator, Frith, a sun god, and how the first rabbit, El-ahrarian (“he of 1,000 enemies“) uses his cleverness to foil the plans of his enemies with the help of his sidekick, Rabscuttle.  In one story, El-ahrarian is a kind of messiah figure in that he is willing to suffer hardship and even sacrifice his own life to save his people. 

These “religious” stories are quite interesting and add to the fantasy world Adams has created with his human-like rabbits.  One story tells about the Black Rabbit that is a corollary to our Angel of Death.  There is also an afterlife the rabbits have to look forward to.  Rabbits even pray to Frith.  Adams throws in some rabbit poetry for good measure.
       Lapine Language

Richard Adams gives a Lapine Glossary at the back of the book to help the reader keep track of the rabbits’ terminology.  When rabbits go above ground to feed, it is called “silfray”.  Their hard pellets are called “hraka, enemies are called “elil, “Ni-Frith” is noon and “Inle” is moon or darkness.  The strongest rabbits in a warrren are called “owsla”.  Rabbits hopping along are described as “lolloping”.
        Conclusion

I hope I have whetted your appetite to read Watership Down.  Or if you have read it before that you would want to read it again.  Better yet, plan to read it to your children, and again to your children’s children - for this is a timeless story.