I’m almost done rereading this book for about the third time. Still love it as much as I did the first time.
I did have some questions, though. I’ve done some wikipedia-ing but there were somethings I still had questions about. Do badgers really eat rabbits? In the book they did say that it didn’t happen too often and that it was usually small or wounded ones…but still. Wiki didn’t mention any rabbits in the badger diet, and the badgers don’t look all that much bigger than rabbits. Plus they seemed to eat a lot of small things like insects and tiny rodents. Rabbits seem so much larger. Is it more of a, “Well they’re probably not dangerous but they are one of the thousand so let’s be careful” thing?
Another question. I do know that rabbits live in warrens, but is any of that stuff about having an Owsla to do patrols and go on raids true? I’m kind of assuming it’s a bit of anthropomorphizing, but it would be awesome if it were.
Finally, in the El-ahrairah story about the king’s lettuce, when Rabscuttle wanders in among the children in the garden and no one notices him at first because he doesn’t look all that different from the children…is that meant to be sort of a joke? I mean, I assume that the king is human, or at least not a rabbit. I always thought it was sort of a cutesy/quirky type aside, but I was curious.
Hares, of course. That makes the most sense of all. Thanks, Brain Glutton.
I thought of one more. The scary warren with the rabbits who were in denial about the fact that they existed merely for the humans to pick off as they liked…do those exist, or did they? Not the whole rabbits being in denial–that, obviously, we can’t know about. But do people “keep” warrens like that, putting out food for the rabbits and keeping away the elil, and then snaring the rabbits as they like?
I think in the mythic time of the El-ahrairah stories, the various creatures were not as differentiated from one another as they now are. Originally I believe they were all the same–remember how Frith’s gifts changed each recipient. The king’s lettuce story happens after that, I believe, but still in the mythic time, so I conceived that the “races” were still somewhere between their original created forms and their modern ones. Rabbits were smaller than humans, and playful, thus child-like–but not so dramatically different.
I think that’s what I figured the first time I read it, actually. Before Frith gave them their gifts, there probably wasn’t a lot of difference, true, since their gifts were the things that basically define these animals for us now.
Badgers may not consider rabbits to be a main source of prey the way foxes (homba) do, but they are still ferociousand capable of hurting adult humans, let alone a small rabbit. Better safe than sorry when you’re a rabbit and make up most of the bottom rungs of the local food chains.
Dear God, no. Just … no.
I kinda like Spark240’s take on it.
It’s conceivable that at some point in human history someone’s tried it. Probably more than once, in different places and different times.
Gawd, I love that book…
Well, as I said in the OP, I didn’t think it was true. I wasn’t sure, though, since I know a lot of the basis for this book came from the Private Life of the Rabbit, a book which is considered to be one of the pivotal works on rabbits. (A phrase I never though I’d type.)
Before you go too much further with that thought, consider the “myths of El-Ahrairah” that Hazel overhears a doe telling to her kits at the end of the book. El-ahrairah isn’t a creature of the distant past; he lives in the eternal “now”.
I just finished re-reading this over the weekend. What a pleasure!
I don’t know anything about rabbit behavior. I sincerely doubt they have “patrol bunnies,” but I don’t think the question is inherently silly. Animals specialize and have different functions in their groups, so I could conceive of some rabbits in a warren serving as look-outs while others feed.
How did the rabbits mingle unnoticed with the king’s subjects? Magic. The story took place in a myth-time and myth-world where logic doesn’t necessarily apply and reality is bendable.
Yes, Chronos, new rabbit deeds continue adding to the legend of El-Ahrairah. It suggests in a way that all rabbits are part of El-Ahrairah. But I don’t think that translates to the stories being meant to take place here in this world at this time.
Can anyone explain to me why hills are called “downs” in England? And why this particular one is named Watership?
Thanks, Clark. I was afraid a lot of the questions might be stupid, so I put off starting this thread a few days. But then I figured, why not? I don’t think any of them were all that silly either, and it’s been a lot of fun revisiting Watership.
Btw…Has anyone seen the wiki articleof Watership Down?
Vandalism from one of those who subscribes to the theory that, “Any book where an animal is hurt or dies is EVIL AND BAD!!!”?
That’s what a rabbit warren was, originally. Rabbits aren’t originally native to Britain, and were kept like that for centuries – I think they didn’t become wild until some time in the 19th century. I don’t believe anyone farms rabbits in that way any longer, though.
Yeah, I don’t think rabbits do, but meerkats have lookouts like that, so the question’s not unreasonable.
Very cool, thanks for that. I love how I never thought I’d be all that interested in rabbits, and yet reading Watership Down makes me want to learn more about them. I even tried tracking down the Private Life of the Rabbit, but can’t seem to find a copy of it.
Judging from this photo, European badgers are cat sized on up. Also, it’s just a chance to show an awesome photo I came across while looking for a good badger size comparison.
Just like American rabbits don’t do the whole British “warren” thing, European badgers live in extensive setts consisting of generations of related badger families while American badgers are much more solitary and don’t dig the same labyrinths as their European cousins. I’d love to know the whole story behind the photo but I assume those are the European flavor of badger.
Oh wow. You remember the “How many would be scary?” thread? That would be the perfect accompaniment for it, for badgers. One badger might be cute (well, from a distance), but that looks like it would be scary to come home to. I think I can see why Hazel and Fiver and all (Bigwig, too) would be scared. I’d love to know the origins of that one, too.
