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Watership Down

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Watership Down
First edition cover
AuthorRichard Adams
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy novel
PublisherRex Collings
Publication date
November 1972
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages413 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBNISBN 0-901720-31-3 (first edition, hardback) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Followed byTales from Watership Down 
For other uses, see Watership Down (disambiguation).

Watership Down is the title of Richard Adams's first and most successful novel. Rejected 13 times before being published in the United Kingdom by Rex Collings Ltd in 1972, it has never since been out of print.[1] The novel is about a group of rabbits and is named after Watership Down, a hill in the north of Hampshire, England. This is also the area where Adams grew up. The story is based on a collection of tales that Adams told to his young children on trips to the countryside.

The story is a heroic fantasy with sapient rabbits in their natural environment. They are depicted as having a culture, including a language (Lapine), proverbs, poetry and mythology. Several chapters present pieces of rabbit lore. Many editions also include an appendix of Lapine vocabulary.

Watership Down has been made into an acclaimed classic film and a television series.

Plot introduction

Watership Down tells the story of a group of rabbits who — against the wishes of their Chief Rabbit — escape from their threatened warren. The story follows their subsequent adventures. They find sanctuary in a warren on the down (for which the book is named), but the story continues after this.

Plot summary

The real Watership Down, near the Hampshire village of Kingsclere, in 1975.

In the Sandleford warren, Fiver, a young runt rabbit who is a seer, receives a frightening vision of his warren's imminent destruction. When he and his brother, Hazel, fail to convince their chief of the need to evacuate, they set out on their own with a small band of others who heeded the warning, and barely manage to elude the Owsla, the warren's military caste. What follows is a perilous journey in which the band faces dangers of all varieties from all directions. While they eventually find a peaceful new home at Watership Down, they have new problems that will lead to a deadly conflict with the neighbouring warren called Efrafa, a police state led by the despotic General Woundwort.

Characters in Watership Down

Most of the rabbits in the book have a distinct personality.

The original group that leaves the Sandleford warren, all bucks, consists of the following. (The names are the forms that most commonly appear in the book. These are mostly nicknames: where they have an original "Lapine" name, it is given in parentheses along with its meaning in that language.)

Hazel's rabbits

  • Hazel, the leader, eventually Hazel-rah, the Chief Rabbit. Quiet, but has a talent for bringing out the best in his followers. Unlike most chief rabbits, Hazel is not particularly large or strong but rather wins the other rabbits' devotion by making quick, intelligent decisions. Sometimes the leadership can get to his head, but, conversely, the idea of leading intimidates him.
  • Fiver (Hrairoo, "Little Thousand"; hrair is any uncountable large number, and since rabbits can only count to four, the fifth kitten in a litter is the thousandth), Hazel's little brother. Small and weak but also the seer of the group. He has prophetic dreams and can sense all sorts of danger.
  • Dandelion, the storyteller (an important job in lapine society) and fastest runner of the group.
  • Blackberry, the thinker and problem-solver. Blackberry is able to understand complicated concepts, such as boats and latches, that the other rabbits cannot begin to fathom.
  • Bigwig (known in Lapine as Thlayli, meaning "Fur-head"), the best fighter and the strongest rabbit of the group. A member of the Owsla (military elite) of Sandleford warren. Receives his name from the unusual thickening of the fur around his ears.
  • Silver, with silver fur. The main fighter besides Bigwig, and also a member of the Sandleford Owsla. He is also the nephew of the Threarah, Sandleford's Chief Rabbit. In the movie when they were crossing a river to escape a dog he helped Bigwig push a board across the river with Fiver and Pipkin on board because they were too tired to swim.
  • Buckthorn, also a fighter, and known for being stolid and dependable.
  • Pipkin (Hlao, "Depression in grass" affectionately Hlao-roo), small, timid and weak but also very loyal to Hazel. He often worries about things that no one else worries about.
  • Speedwell, Acorn, Hawkbit, who are foot soldiers and followers rather than officers. Hawkbit is a heavy, misfortune-prone rabbit, described by Hazel as being "a rather slow, stupid rabbit". Speedwell the more optimistic of the three, and Acorn the dim-wit of the three."

They are later joined by:

  • Strawberry, from Cowslip's warren. He joins Hazel's expedition after losing his mate, Nildro-hain, to the snares his warren had become accustomed to. He overcomes his spoiled ways and manages to pull his weight with the rest, becoming a valuable adviser in the construction of the warren at Watership Down.
  • Holly, former Captain of the Sandleford Owsla and a master fighter and tracker. Like Bigwig, a born second-in-command.
  • Bluebell, the jokester, a rabbit of the Sandleford warren who ends up following after and protecting Holly on his journey to Watership Down. Makes jokes when things get bad, so they don't seem as significant.
  • Three hutch rabbits: one buck, Boxwood, and two does, Haystack and Clover. (Another buck, Laurel, is left behind).
  • Blackavar, Efrafan rebel and prisoner. He was rejected from the Efrafan Owsla despite his expert tracking skills. Tried to escape but caught. As punishment the Efrafan Council tore up his ears and he is paraded through feeding times as a warning during his imprisonment.
  • Ten Efrafan does that leave their birthplace, only eight of which survive. Most notable among the does are:
    • Hyzenthlay ("Shine-dew-fur," Fur shining like dew), who is the leader of the rebellious does in Efrafa and has some of the abilities of a seer.
    • Thethuthinnang (Movement of Leaves).
    • Vilthuril, who later becomes Fiver's mate and the mother of his kittens, including one who, by the end of the book, has started to show prophetic abilities of his own.
    • Thrayonlosa, dies during the escape.
  • Groundsel, Thistle, and three other Efrafan bucks who surrender and join the warren following Efrafa's failed attack. Groundsel later becomes the first Chief Rabbit of the new warren between Efrafa and Watership Down.

Non-rabbit allies

  • Kehaar, a migratory black-headed gull whose injured wing forces him to take refuge on Watership Down. He later befriends the rabbits and helps in many unexpected circumstances. He is an especial friend to Bigwig. Kehaar possesses a strange accent of his own (most likely Norwegian), wherein "B" is altered to "P", "W" to "V", "J" to "Y", "TT" to "DD", and sometimes "I" to "EE" (so that "Bigwig" is pronounced "Peegveeg"). He cannot pronounce the name "Dandelion" and so refers to the rabbit of that name as "Meester Dando". In addition, Kehaar is somewhat gregarious and coarse-mouthed, talking often but with somewhat ungrammatical sentences and the use of the expression "Damn".
  • The unnamed mouse whom Hazel saves from a kestrel. He returns the favour by warning the warren of the Efrafans coming to attack them.
  • Lucy, the young girl who finds Hazel after he has been attacked by her cat.
  • Dr. Adams, the doctor to whom Lucy shows Hazel. He and Lucy later set him free. Richard Adams' father was a country doctor, and this character is an homage to him. In the foreword of the book the author writes that the humans in the book (Lucy, her parents, their farmhands) do not really exist, but he does not mention Dr. Adams.
  • Unidentified engine driver, whose train goes by at just the right time to save some of the Watership rabbits from Woundwort.

Enemies

  • General Woundwort, a tyrannical Chief Rabbit and founder of Efrafa. Woundwort is obsessed with control, which he believes to be the only successful means of safety. He is also impatient and bloodthirsty, desiring no outcome to occur but the one he has set himself to accomplish. Eventually, he is killed or driven away by a dog; later generations associate him with the Black Rabbit-- the symbol of death-- and use him to warn disobedient youngsters against mischief.
  • Vervain, Woundwort's lieutenant and commander of his Owslafa.
  • Campion, a Captain of Owsla; a superb tracker and leader of Woundwort's Wide Patrols.
  • Chervil, a "mark" Captain of Owsla in Efrafa under whom Bigwig serves.
  • Bartsia, an Efrafan Owslafa member in charge of the prisoner Blackavar. Bigwig permanently injures his leg while freeing Blackavar during the breakout.
  • Charlock, an Efrafan Captain of Owsla who led the pursuit of Holly, Silver, Buckthorn, and Strawberry during their escape; he is killed by a train.
  • Mallow, a "mark" Captain of Owsla in Efrafa, one of Woundwort's best officers who, with Campion, was with Woundwort when he defeated the warren at Nutley Copse. Bigwig accidentally leads a fox onto his Wide Patrol, killing him.
  • Cowslip, a member of a warren of rabbits (known later by Hazel's group as the Tharn Warren, or Warren of the Snares) who are 'harvested' for food by a human.
  • Betony and Kingcup, two rabbits mentioned in Cowslip's warren. Betony is a family rabbit that Blackberry shares with while Kingcup is mentioned by Strawberry who calls him for a meeting in the warren's great burrow.
  • Silverweed, a rabbit of the Warren of the Snares. He was a poet, and told the Sandleford rabbits a song when they arrived at the warren. He terrified Fiver: "I can smell him from here. He terrifies me."
  • Snowdrop, a Council member at Efrafa. An elderly rabbit, Snowdrop is referred to as "old Snowdrop". He appears to have been a close advisor of Woundwort and much of the warren's success was down to Snowdrop's ideas.
  • Nelthilta, a rabbit who was going to escape Efrafa with Bigwig and the other does, but then betrays them and tells the council members everything.
  • Various elil (predators) who are the enemies of all rabbits. Elil are termed '"the Thousand" or "U embleer hrair", the stinking (as in a fox) thousand.
  • Humans are also sometimes thought to be an enemy of Watership Down, though they serve mainly to forward the plot. A good example would be the construction crew who destroys Sandleford to make way for a housing development.[citation needed]

Woundwort, Vervain, and Ragwort are named after English plants found in Watership Down where the story is set, as are many other names.

Characters in rabbit lore

  • El-ahrairah (literally Elil-hrair-rah, the "prince with a thousand enemies") is the folk hero at the centre of most of the rabbits' stories. As time passes the adventures of real living rabbits are transformed into fantastical tales of El-ahrairah. (El-ahrairah and his stories resemble Odysseus and his travels to some extent.)
  • Rabscuttle, El-ahrairah's best friend and companion in adventure.
  • Black Rabbit of Inlé, the rabbit grim reaper. A servant of Frith who ensures that all rabbits die at their appointed time.
  • Frith, literally "the sun", is a god-figure who created the world and promised that rabbits would always be allowed to thrive.
  • Prince Rainbow, a demigod-figure who communicates between El-ahrairah and Frith. He is always trying to beat El-ahrairah at his own devious games.
  • Hufsa, a strange rabbit from another country that is a spy for Prince Rainbow.
  • Yona, a hedgehog who gossips a lot, gets El-ahrairah into trouble and helps him trick Prince Rainbow. The word also means "hedgehog" in general in the Lapine language.
  • Hawock, a pheasant who also helps El-ahrairah trick Prince Rainbow.
  • Rowsby Woof, a dog who El-ahrairah tricks.
  • King Darzin, a king, species unknown, who El-ahrairah also tricks.

Major themes

The religious subtleties in the book may either parody or parallel Western religious concepts. Similarities between the Lapine folk hero El-ahrairah and the Trickster of folk mythology are apparent. The exaggeration of the heroic feats of El-ahrairah and the progressive attribution of new feats to his symbolic character, the recognition of the Sun as the god Frith in the absence of a scientific explanation of nature, and the attribution of random accidents to divine providence (such as the train death of the Efrafans on the railway track) are notable in light of the cultural development of folk religion. Another arguable theme of the book is that the author is attempting to communicate many elements of human society and government through the rabbits, whose many scrapes with 'foreign' warrens and their different cultures are very much like our human wars for land or power, or simply because of differences one culture might find arguable.

The Private Life of the Rabbit

Adams wrote in an American edition that his take on wild rabbit behaviour was much influenced by The Private Life of the Rabbit by British naturalist Ronald Lockley, although Adams had already written the story in its essentials when he discovered Lockley's work. The book, first published in 1965, detailed a three-year study of wild rabbits in the United Kingdom. Lockley observed behaviours used by Adams in his books, including warrens run by Chief Rabbits who fought other rabbits off; solitary bucks who are integrated into warren life; and does who reabsorb unwanted embryos prior to an inconvenient birth. After being out of print for many years, The Private Life of the Rabbit was reissued in the USA by Buccaneer Books in 2006.

Literary significance and criticism

Watership Down is notable as an ensemble story, with multiple protagonists who each serve a useful function under quietly competent leadership. Although Adams has always stated that the book was intended to be a children's story, many fans see the book as a political allegory attacking fascism and appeasement as Animal Farm attacked Stalinism. This opinion is supported by a plot involving visits to two other warrens whose political philosophies are depicted as antagonistic and repugnant. One of these is known only as Cowslip's Warren: the rabbits there grow fat on food left out for them by a local farmer, yet it is common knowledge (but never openly said) that the farmer has wire traps set out to catch the rabbits; these rabbits accept the risk of sudden death for the benefit of an easy life. The other is Efrafa, ruled with a merciless iron fist by the powerful General Woundwort who becomes the story's principal antagonist.

Myxomatosis (or in Lapine terminology, "The white blindness"), a terrible and highly infectious rabbit disease, is referred to early in the book. It was a threat that could have destroyed the Sandleford warren if not for the tough but reasonable leadership of the chief rabbit, who cast out any rabbits showing signs of sickness. The original impetus for General Woundwort keeping the Efrafan warren under tight control is to guard it against the dreaded illness. However, his strict measures went over the top and the Efrafan rabbits found themselves living under a military dictatorship where they couldn't even leave the burrows without presence of guards. The underlying message (as it's often interpreted) is that societies overrun with fear are more susceptible to accepting leadership that purports to offer safety in place of liberty.

Adams has gone so far as to state that the personalities of the two principal hero rabbits, Hazel and Bigwig, are based on fellow officers he knew while a paratrooper during World War II.

The overall storyline resembles that told in Homer's Odyssey; for example, the events in Cowslip's Warren can be compared to the Lotus Eaters episode (Book IX) in The Odyssey. This is confirmed by the quotation at the head of Chapter 13 from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lotos-Eaters":

In the afternoon they came unto a land
In which it seemed always afternoon.
All round the coast the languid air did swoon,
Breathing like one that hath a weary dream.

There are also similarities to Virgil's Aeneid. In the Aeneid a band of fugitives, lead by reluctant leader Aeneas, escape the destruction of Troy and journey to Italy, where they found a new city. On the way, they survive a storm and nearly decide to stay in Carthage. On arrival in Italy, they battle with the native inhabitants, due to Aeneas' desire to take the king's daughter as a wife. Eventually, Aeneas defeats the Italians' leader, Turnus, in single combat, Lavinia moves to the Trojan's city and a new city is set up composed of a mixture of Trojans and Italians.

Comparisons have also been made to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Awards and nominations

Watership Down has become a modern classic and won the Carnegie Medal in 1972.

  • In 2003, Watership Down came 42nd in a public vote for the 100 greatest books of all time taken by the BBC.[2]

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Main articles: Watership Down (film) and Watership Down (TV series)

In 1978 the book was adapted as an animated film, directed by Martin Rosen. The violence portrayed led many reviewers to caution that the film is not for very young children, with the liberal blood and depictions of combat and death between the rabbits. The film generally follows the plot of the book with a few omissions. In the movie version, does are seen leaving the Sandleford warren with Hazel and the others. However, only bucks leave in the novel. The character of Violet, a doe attacked by a hawk in the film, seems to have been created just for the shock of a death within the party. In 1999, an animated television series, Watership Down, was also co-produced by Martin Rosen. Like the book, the animated series detailed General Woundwort's terrible upbringing, which twisted his outlook; the movie presented the General simply as an antagonist. Also, while the film used adult voices, the animated series has "child" voices for some characters.

A picture book of the animated film was also produced, titled The Watership Down Film Picture Book. Two editions of the book were published, one a hard-cover, the other a reinforced cloth-bound edition. The contents include multiple stills from the film linked with a combination of narration and extracts from the script, as well as a preface written by Richard Adams and a foreword written by Martin Rosen. The First American Edition is copyrighted 1978 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc, 866 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022. This book seems to be extremely rare.

The song "Bright Eyes", written by Mike Batt and sung by Art Garfunkel, was released as a single with a video of scenes from the film. The song was a UK no. 1 hit. The song was re-released in 2000 by Stephen Gately as a double A-side with 'A New Beginning'. Stephen had sung the cover of Bright Eyes for the TV Series. However, he wasn't as successful with the song as Art Garfunkel was.

As a major 20th century novel, Watership Down has inspired many references in popular culture. These include references in television (e.g. The Goodies, Lost), cinema (e.g. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Donnie Darko), literature (e.g. The Stand), and music (e.g. America, Atomship).

In addition to these (and many other) references, it was the major inspiration for the role-playing game Bunnies and Burrows, and has been credited by George Lucas for providing inspiration in creating a "fictional universe" in Star Wars.[3]

The mechanical designer of Mobile Suit Gundam: Advance of Zeta a Zeta Gundam side story featured in Dengeki Hobby Magazine; features Mobile Suits consistently named after words and characters in Watership Down. These include Mobile Suits, Booster, and Armor Units named "Fiver," "Hazel," "Hrududu," "OWSLA," "Bigwig," "Dandelion," "Woundwort," "Hazel Rah," and "Hyzenthlay." Furthermore, rabbits play a large thematic role in the story design-wise (crests and decals include a caricatures of rabbits in various poses holding or wearing relevant mecha equipment).

Sequel

One sequel, Tales from Watership Down, has been published. It takes place after the events in Watership Down, but does not continue the main plotline. Instead, it is a collection of short stories taking place after Watership Down and involving some of the same characters, also telling stories like "The Fox in the Water" which Bigwig hears Bluebell telling to three-four does during the siege of Watership Down, and many more tales of "El-ahrairah"

Editions

There have been over 300 editions of Watership Down in English — these are just a few of the ones known.

UK editions

  • ISBN 0-14-030601-3 (Puffin, paperback, 1973)
  • ISBN 0-14-003958-9 (Penguin, paperback, 1974)
  • ISBN 0-14-036453-6 (Puffin Modern Classics, paperback, 1993)
  • ISBN 0-14-118666-6 (Penguin Modern Classics, paperback, 2001)

U.S. editions

Translations

  • Chinese: 魔幻的瓦特西普高原 (Rabbit's Special Watership Down)
  • Czech: Daleká cesta za domovem (The Long Way Home)
  • Danish: Kaninbjerget (The Rabbit Mountain)
  • Dutch: Waterschapsheuvel (Watership Hill)
  • Finnish: Ruohometsän Kansa (Folk of the Grass Forest)
  • French: Les Garennes de Watership Down (The Warrens of Watership Down)
  • German: Unten am Fluss (Down by the River)
  • Hebrew: גבעת ווטרשיפ (Watership Hill)
  • Hungarian: Gesztenye, a honalapító (Hazel, the Founding Father)
  • Italian: La collina dei conigli (The Rabbits' Hill)
  • Japanese: ウォーターシップ・ダウンのうさぎたち (Watership Down no Usagi-tachi, "The Rabbits of Watership Down")
  • Korean: 워터십 다운의 토끼 (Woteosip Daunui Tokki, "Rabbits of Watership Down") and 워터십 다운의 열한 마리 토끼 (Woteosip Daunui Yeolhan Mari Tokki, "Eleven Rabbits of Watership Down")
  • Norwegian: Flukten til Watership (The Escape to Watership)
  • Polish: Wodnikowe wzgórze (Aquarius Hill)
  • Portuguese: Era uma vez em Watership Down (Once Upon a Time in Watership Down)
  • Brazilian Portuguese: A Longa Jornada (The Long Journey)
  • Russian: Обитатели холмов (Dwellers of the Hills)
  • Serbian: Брежуљак Вотершип/Brežuljak Voteršip (Watership Mound or Watership Ridge)
  • Slovenian: Vodovnikova vesina (Watership Down)
  • Spanish: La Colina de Watership (Watership Hill)
  • Swedish: Den långa flykten (The Long Escape)
  • Ukrainian: Небезпечні Мандри (The Dangerous Travel)

Notes

  1. ^ Interview: Richard Adams BBC Berkshire, via bbc.co.uk, 2007-03-16. Retrieved on 2007-08-12.
  2. ^ The Big Read: Top 100 bbc.co.uk, April 2003. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
  3. ^ The Unemployed Writer (2007-02-27). "The Influences Behind George Lucas's Star Wars Trilogies". Associated Content. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
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