Watership Down by Richard Adams

First published: 1972; illustrated with maps

Type of work: Adventure tale

Themes: Animals, family, friendship, and nature

Time of work: The late twentieth century

Recommended Ages: 15-18

Locale: The Downs near Newbury in Berkshire, England

Principal Characters:

• Hazel, the leader, or chief rabbit, of the homeless bucks who establish a new warren on Watership Down
• Fiver, the brother of Hazel, who possesses second sight
• Thayli, or Bigwig, the biggest and strongest of the Watership Down rabbits
• General Woundwort, the tyrannical rabbit who rules the warren at Efrafa and seeks to destroy the Watership Down Warren
• Kehaar, a wounded gull whom the rabbits of Watership Down befriend
• Hyzenthlay, a doe from Efrafa, who runs away with nine other does to join the rabbits of Watership Down

The Story

On the simplest level of interpretation, Watership Down is an adventure story, and the fact that the majority of the characters are animals only adds to the fascination that captures the reader from the opening line. The anthropomorphic premise of the work is so natural, so skillfully done that the reader instantly identifies with one or more of the principal rabbits and thus is quickly drawn into the story.

In a vision, Fiver sees the destruction of the warren in which he was born. He persuades his brother, Hazel, to convey his apprehensions to their chief rabbit, who rejects the dream as nonsense. The brothers, however, resolve to leave, and they take several friends with them, including Bigwig, a large and belligerent fellow; Blackberry, an intellectual; Dandelion, a master storyteller; and Pipkin, a small and timid rabbit.

After a series of adventures, the refugees are welcomed into a warren where the rabbits are sleek, large, and indolent. Almost too late they discover that Fiver’s premonitions about the warren are true. The inhabitants are fed by a man who snares them for their meat and pelts. Saving Bigwig from one of the traps, Hazel and his companions flee toward the Downs and safety. Once on Watership Down, they dig a splendid warren which they call the Honeycomb. They also discover a sea gull with an injured wing whom they befriend and nurse back to health. Kehaar becomes a valuable member of the community as a scout and airborne warrior.

A warren with no does, or females, is doomed to extinction, and the rabbits decide to try to free some caged rabbits at the nearby Nuthanger Farm and persuade them to join the new warren. Although they succeed in this mission, two does are not enough. Hazel thus sends an embassy to the great warren at Efrafa to secure more does, unaware that it is ruled by a dictator named General Woundwort. His ambassadors are barely able to escape with their lives, but Hazel is undaunted and is determined to secure does from Efrafa through a trick.

Because of his size and bravado, Bigwig easily infiltrates the Owslafa, or Council Police of Efrafa, which keeps the rabbits of that vast warren in complete subjection. Then he meets the doe Hyzenthlay, and together they plan a daring escape with a number of discontented female rabbits. Guided by Kehaar, they rendezvous with Hazel and his companions. When cornered by the general and his crack troops, however, they make good their departure from Efrafa aboard a small boat, which they set adrift on a trout stream not far from the general’s warren.

An enraged Woundwort follows the Watership Down rabbits to their warren and lays siege to it. When the invaders from Efrafa breach the outer defenses, Hazel, accompanied by Dandelion and Blackberry, seeks help from an unlikely source. They free the dog at Nuthanger Farm and lure him to the Downs, where he scatters the invaders and attacks Woundwort. The general vanishes, and no trace of him is ever found. The rabbits from Efrafa, who do not flee, however, surrender and eventually are absorbed peacefully into the warren on Watership Down. In time, a new settlement is established halfway between Watership Down and Efrafa by rabbits from both warrens. All three groups prosper, learning to live with one another in peace and harmony. The book ends with the death of Hazel, old and honored by countless generations of rabbits.

Context

Watership Down was Richard Adams’ first, and certainly his most popular, novel. That success surely results in part from his descriptions of the area surrounding Newbury, which are gleaned from his own memories. Originally conceived to amuse his two daughters, Watership Down was first marketed in England as juvenile fiction, while the first American edition was aimed at a more general reading public. Because of its several levels of interpretation, it has enjoyed a wide audience and has received almost universal praise from critics.

Adams’ concern for nature is also evident in his second and third novels. Published in 1974, Shardik explores the reasons why and how human beings choose their deities. In this case, it is a giant bear who shares none of the benevolent qualities of Frith, the god invoked so often by the rabbits in Watership Down. In his third novel, The Plague Dogs, published in 1977, Adams deals with the controversial practice of using animals for scientific experiments. A fourth novel, The Girl in a Swing, published in 1980, departs from Adams’ usual subject matter and deals with human relationships as well as the supernatural. While his later works have been well received by the critics and the public alike, they have not enjoyed the same attention accorded Watership Down.

Watership Down is an unusual work for a number of reasons, not the least being the fact that the characters are real rabbits, not merely animals in human dress. While the themes that bind the novel together are universal ones, the situations are immediate and concern only the rabbits. Life moves in its daily pattern, the seasons change, and the people in the novel are totally oblivious to the drama of life and death that is occurring all around them. The real value of Watership Down is that the reader is allowed to view this spectacle not on human terms but on those of the kingdom of Lapine.

Bibliography

Anderson, Celia Catlett. “Troy, Carthage, and Watership Down,” in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. VIII (Spring, 1983), pp. 12-13.

Jordan, Tom. “Breaking Away from the Warren,” in Children’s Novels and the Movies, 1983.

Pawling, Christopher. “Watership Down: Rolling Back the 1960s,” in Popular Fiction and Social Change, 1984.