I recently completed reading Watership Down by Richard Adams for probably the twentieth time, but the first time in about ten years. I first read the book at school in the late 1970s and loved it so much I bought my own copy and have regularly read it since. I first read it at a really troubled time in my life, having lost a sibling that year, and in hindsight I can see it was a source of comfort to me.
Having not read it for quite a few years I found myself being much more analytical as I read the story but also I just sat back and enjoyed the parts I have always loved. Re-reading is a weird thing. Some people never ever re-read a book because what’s the point if you know what’s going to happen? At one level we all know this but that doesn’t stop us being on the edge of our seats, wondering if it will turn out differently this time (of course that can’t happen).
I realised how often some of the dialogue and description in the book spring to mind in my everyday life. And also how familiar I am with Richard Adams’ classical quotes at the start of each chapter. This time I found I was more familiar with the source materials of some of these quotes, having read more widely in recent years.
This book has remained very popular in the fifty odd years since it was first published but many would not have read it. Who could care about a bunch of rabbits anyway? In my home country, Australia, rabbits are a feral animal and have caused immeasurable damage to crops and landscapes over the years since their introduction in the 19th century. But these rabbits are in England, their natural range, and while I always read the story as being about wild rabbits when I was younger as I matured, I saw a lot more in the interrelationships between the rabbits and their societies.
There are four rabbit warrens that serve as examples of societies in the book. Each is different with its own issues and problems but the rabbits of Watership Down work towards their own version of utopia. The four warrens:
Sandleford: traditional society, very British, when faced with the potential destruction of the warren, the Threarah (chief rabbit) says they should sit tight and hope for the best – “muddling through”, we know how that turned out.
Cowslip’s warren (Warren of the snares): outwardly bohemian utopia, ultimately a death cult. They have no enemies; food is provided without effort, but there is an air of depression hanging over the rabbits. A melancholy boredom. It may have been a comment on socialism/communism. The old saying goes: “those who would give up liberty for security, deserve neither.”
Efrafa: totalitarian dictatorship. Could be any authoritarian regime but hard not to see it as Hitler’s Germany. Woundwort = Hitler. While Hitler was not the physically impressive figure that Woundwort was, he also created the ‘dream’ of living safe from humans and it was the power of his dominant personality that kept the warren under his thumb. Vervain = Himmler. A bully whose power was dependent on Woundwort’s and evaporated with the loss at Watership Down. Campion = Rommel. An outwardly good guy working on the wrong side, respected by the enemy. Probably more analogies there but I won’t dig further. Adams served during World War II so it may have been on his mind.
Watership warren: an attempt at a meritocratic democracy. It’s no utopia yet but it’s the best they can do. Authority is rather decentralised with authority ultimately resting with Hazel but he is very consultative with his senior rabbits and makes sure the rank and file rabbits get involved. Everyone gets a voice but the senior rabbits ultimately decide.
While I hate to impose human attributes on rabbits it’s fun to look at the different warrens as commentaries on society. At the bottom of it all, it is still a story about real rabbits, not little animals in suits who drive cars and live in houses (Wind in the Willows style). There isn’t much the rabbits do that isn’t ‘natural’ apart from their communication. They physically don’t do things rabbits can’t do.
There are some questions that always come up when I read this story though. When Holly turns up at the foot of Watership Down after travelling from Sandleford’s destruction, another rabbit appears with him, who turns out to be Bluebell. At this point, Hazel notes that he is one of the rabbits who came to arrest Bigwig with Holly. That would have made him a member of the Owsla. But later on, when Holly is recounting his story, he remarks that Toadflax was the only member of the Owsla he had seen. Bluebell is a fun-loving, joking storyteller, unlikely to be a member of an Owlsa anyway. I wonder if it was just a mistake by the author.
What sort of creature was King Darzin in the stories? In The King’s Lettuce, Rabscuttle is able to sneak in with the younger members of the royal household as he looked similar and was the same size. That indicates Darzin might be a hare as hares are larger than rabbits but look similar. The author reportedly said that Darzin was some kind of beaver creature though.
In The Black Rabbit of Inle the end of the story is interrupted by the approach of a fox. At this point El-Ahrairah has been given his gifts and Frith says he has a gift for Rabscuttle but we never find out what it is. I guess it’s nice that just remains a mystery.
When Holly’s team is saved by the “fiery messenger” (train) on the embankment, they talk about it being something incomprehensible. The Efrafan rabbits, living closer by, knew what a train was, however. But given the railway line was only a couple of miles from the Watership Down warren, they would easily have heard regular trains along there, although they wouldn’t have known what it was. That’s just a quibble I thought of when reading it.
There were a number of other rabbits who escaped the disaster at the home warren – I always remember their names – Nose-in-the-air, Pine Needles, Butterburr and Ash. But they are never mentioned again. Holly collected Pimpernel, Toadflax and Bluebell and set off. I always wondered what happened to these others, but it’s not important to the story. The fate of Pimpernel is enough to make one cry.
When considering acquiring does (females) as “breeding stock” for the warren they sent Kehaar out where he found the hutch rabbits of Nuthanger Farm and the location of Efrafa. The Watership rabbits could have gone back to Cowslip’s warren of course and taken any does they wanted as the rabbits there were poor fighters and wouldn’t have resisted. But I think the risk of the snares, and the fact that the rabbits there were all ‘tainted’ made them look to the more dangerous Efrafa.
Many are familiar with the movie and not the novel so perceive the story as dark and scary for kids. The movie is certainly like this with much more blood and gore. The novel is very tense especially the Efrafa scenes and the final battle but otherwise is much less dark. I didn’t like the movie at all as it cut so much out of the story and also was a lot more violent. I saw it again recently and I didn’t like it still. I haven’t seen any other productions that have been made over the years.
I have never read any of Richard Adams’ other books. I know there is a sequel of short stories, Tales of Watership Down, but I’m not sure if I want to “ruin the magic” of the story I love so well. Shardik and Plague Dogs are other well-known works by Adams. I love the fact that this was Adams’ first novel, and he was a public servant at the time, breaking into novel writing at a relatively advanced age. These were just stories he used to tell his daughters on long drives around England apparently. He certainly did his research though and he shows off his knowledge of English plants and birds. Some may see this as technical waffle, but I absolutely love it. Many of the plants I had never heard of but now and again I will come across them and recall that I first read the name in Watership Down. Often the plant names will appear again in the book as the names of rabbits.
In any case it’s a book I love as much now after all these years, as I did when I first read it. Probably more now. Sorry for the long essay but I don’t see this book discussed much here although it is often mentioned in lists of people’s favourite books. I hope I have helped some of you re-live it and, barring spoilers, have encouraged others to read it for the first time.