Watership Down

The injured doe dies during the night. The rabbits are too close to the humans; though not fully rested, they leave immediately on the long trek back to Watership. Hazel notices that Blackavar has regained his rugged Owsla spirit, and he proves invaluable. The does, meanwhile, enjoy the plentiful food along the way, as Bigwig had promised.

They stop at a stand of trees on a hill and build temporary burrows. Fiver and Blackavar have a bad feeling about the place, but the others want to begin mating, and Bigwig needs to rest. He argues rudely with Blackavar until Hazel stops them and declares the group can stop for a few days.

On the morning feed of the second day, a fox catches one of the does. The rest quickly head north. Bigwig apologizes to Blackavar, but the Efrafan can’t remember their earlier tiff. Hyzenthlay explains that, in Efrafa, a soldier whose suggestion is rejected quickly forgets he said it. Bigwig asks if she thinks that way. She replies, “I’m a doe” (504).

A Wide Patrol, captained by Campion, confronts them, but the patrol isn’t enough to defeat them, so it retreats. Late in the afternoon, Hazel’s group arrives at Watership. Campion’s patrol watches them from afar and returns to Efrafa to report their location.

The hot summer days pass slowly. The does enjoy digging new burrows, something forbidden at Efrafa. Blackavar and Holly become friends, patrol together, and get into nearby gardens. The hutch does are already pregnant. All 26 warren members seem content.

One afternoon, Dandelion tells the story of El-ahrairah’s attempt to steal a cabbage. A man owns a garden and has a guard dog named Rowsby Woof. The man cuts cabbages and carries them to the house. El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle try to steal one from the garden, but Rowsby chases them away.

The next night, El-ahrairah talks to Rowsby from behind a fence, saying he’s the Fairy Wogdog. He and Rabscuttle leave some meat as a token of faith. El-ahrairah says Dripslobber, queen of the dogs, will visit Rowsby if he goes to a road crossing and waits for her. The dog leaves; El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle sneak into the kitchen through a drain hole and dine on cabbage and parsnips.

The man returns early and brings Rowsby. The rabbits hide. It’s cold, and the man plugs up the drain hole, keeps Rowsby inside, and goes to bed. The rabbits are trapped.

From hiding, El-ahrairah again plays the Fairy Wogdog and tells Rowsby that a wicked rat spread a disease, and Queen Dripslobber barely escaped it. The disease will kill Rowsby’s master unless he barks frantically. Obediently, Rowsby barks until the man comes downstairs, opens the kitchen door, and goes outside looking for intruders. El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle escape. 

Speedwell reports that Clover has given birth to six kittens. Hazel, meanwhile, chats with the mouse he once saved from the kestrel. The mouse expresses happiness that Hazel has returned and his warren is large. He mentions a new group of rabbits approaching and assumes they’re Hazel’s friends. Hazel sends Holly and Blackavar to investigate. They return at a fast clip, stamping a warning, and most of the rabbits dive into the tunnels.

Holly says Woundwort’s forces are headed toward them. Blackavar suggests escaping, but Hazel and Bigwig insist on defending their turf. They go underground and fill in the entrance holes to slow the coming attack.

The invaders won’t conquer Hazel’s warren without losing rabbits. Knowing this, Hazel goes to meet Woundwort for a parlay.

Humiliated by the loss of does, Woundwort worries about regaining his stature until Campion returns with the location of Bigwig’s warren. Woundwort drafts and trains two-dozen rabbits to go with him, retake the does, and punish Bigwig’s raiders. They head for Watership and camp not far to the east.

Pretending he’s a representative of Bigwig, Hazel meets Woundwort. He suggests the two warrens combine forces, build new burrows in the land between them, and benefit together. Woundwort sees “the opportunity to show whether he was really the leader of vision and genius which he believed himself to be” (545), but he rejects the offer. Instead, he threatens to kill all the bucks if they don’t return the does and turn over Bigwig and Blackavar. Hazel limps back to his warren.

Woundwort’s soldiers hesitate about dangerous night work. They also fear attacks from the white bird. Two diggers breach a Watership hole and get seriously mangled by defenders. A second attempt fares no better.

Campion suggests a siege to starve the warren, but Woundwort prefers a fight that settles the issue once and for all. A previous action against a rebel warren required digging straight down into the burrows and cleaning them out, so Woundwort orders the same at Watership. They start two holes, both above the Honeycomb.

Underground, Blackberry says one of the holes will break through quickly. They discuss delaying tactics, but their situation seems dire. Bigwig, though, can’t wait to fight. Hazel has him strategize with a few of the others. Bigwig’s enthusiasm encourages them.

Fiver listens for something just out of earshot. He goes into a trance and speaks in a strange voice like that of Rowsby Woof. Hazel suddenly recalls the first day of their journey, when they were caught between a river and a loose dog. He orders Blackberry and Dandelion to follow him down to the farm of the hutch rabbits. Once there, he’ll gnaw through the rope that restrains the farmer’s dog.

While Woundwort’s soldiers continue digging into the Watership warren, Hazel, Blackberry, and Dandelion sneak off and make their way across the farmland below to Nuthanger Farm. Near the road, Blackberry hides in some bushes, ready to do his part. Hazel and Dandelion reach the farm at sunrise. Dandelion waits his turn to lure the dog while Hazel gnaws through the rope that ties the canine to his kennel.

One of the cats readies to spring on Dandelion. Hazel stamps a warning, Dandelion leaps away, and the cat misses. The dog wakes, sees Dandelion, and gives chase. His tie rope snaps, and he races after the rabbit. The kennel tips over, and Hazel sprawls, stunned, his bad leg throbbing. The cat leaps on him. It hisses, “Can you run? […]. I think not” (565).

The vertical shaft is ready. Woundwort jumps down through it and breaks into the Honeycomb. He calls for reinforcements. They find what appears to be a dead rabbit and no one else. The hall’s exit tunnels are blocked; Woundwort’s soldiers begin to dig them out. They find soft areas in the south wall, hear noises behind it, and dig there, too.

Behind the wall, Bigwig prepares to fight. He and Hazel scratch out a depression, and Holly buries Bigwig in it. The wall collapses, and Woundwort enters. From his hiding place, Bigwig rises up and clamps his jaws around Woundwort’s left foreleg. Woundwort rakes his claws across Bigwig, who kicks the general backward.

Woundwort rights himself and crawls forward. Bigwig hears Woundwort dragging his foreleg, so he attacks the other leg. Woundwart drops his huge bulk onto Bigwig, trapping him, and bites down on Bigwig’s ear. Bigwig strikes at Woundwart’s face, and the general tips over sideways.

The dog runs faster than expected, and Dandelion runs for his life. He reaches Blackberry and hands the chase to him. The dog follows Blackberry to a field, where it loses interest and bounds after other creatures. It works its way across the field, and Blackberry follows.

Dandelion catches up. Together, they move ahead of the dog, which again gives chase and follows them up the Watership hill. 

Bigwig, meanwhile, holds his ground. Even a dead rabbit is a major obstacle in the narrow tunnel. Behind him, Bluebell narrates a story to the does to help keep everyone calm. In the story, El-ahrairah tells a fox his fortune: He’ll soon be chased by dogs. 

Woundwort offers Bigwig control of an Efrafan Mark if he stands aside. Bigwig tells him to eat excrement. Woundwort slams into Bigwig, buries his teeth in Bigwig’s back, and begins to push him backward. Woundwort’s bloody nose, buried in Bigwig’s fur, can’t get any air, so he backs off.

He returns to the Honeycomb and orders his biggest, meanest Owsla, Vervain, to attack Bigwig. Vervain realizes that, for the first time, Woundwort has been beaten. He hesitates; Woundwort says they’re both ruined if they fail to kill Bigwig.

Bigwig moves down his tunnel toward them. Woundwort begs him to stand down. Bigwig says, “My Chief Rabbit has told me to defend this run and until he says otherwise I shall stay here” (585). Shocked, they realize Bigwig isn’t even the warren’s leader. A few frightened invaders slip away.

The dead rabbit rises up. It’s Fiver, out of his trance. Woundwort orders Vervain to kill him. Fiver stares a moment, then apologizes for Vervain’s imminent death. Terrified, Vervain runs up the escape tunnel.

Outside, Woundwort, his battle injuries obvious in the sunlight, gathers reluctant soldiers and begins to bark orders. They hear a scream and see Dandelion and Blackberry rush up the hill and dive into the warren. Campion appears and yells, “Run for your lives!” (589) Behind him bounds the farm dog. Rabbits scatter, but Woundwort holds his ground, snarling. The dog lunges at him.

Little Lucy Cane wakes in her farmhouse bedroom to a scream. She sees, through the window, a farm cat sitting on a bunny. She runs downstairs, shoos the cat, and picks up the bunny. Her father says she can’t keep a wild rabbit. She cries and says she only wants to show it to the doctor, who treats her like an adult when she brings him interesting things. Her father relents.

Doctor Adams arrives to check on Lucy’s mother. With him is the dog, its nose and leg scratched from a fight. The doctor looks after Mrs. Cane, then examines the rabbit, which has a scratch and a lame leg but otherwise seems ok. He drives Lucy and the rabbit to the hillside, where she sets the rabbit free.

On its way up the hill, the dog kills an Efrafan rabbit, then attacks Woundwort, who fights bravely. The dog kills one more Efrafan and carries its body back down the hill. Campion gathers the surviving soldiers, and they begin the trek back to their warren. Predators hear about the exhausted, defeated rabbits and close in. At each rest stop, another rabbit disappears—one is Vervain—and Campion leads only a half-dozen rabbits when he gets to Efrafa.

A handful of rabbits evaded the dog by hiding in the warren. They surrender to Fiver. Bigwig, seriously damaged, lies where he dropped, and some does lick his wounds.

Hazel returns. He tells Bigwig that they’ve won. Bigwig struggles to his feet, and they go outside. Hazel says he was brought back in a hrududu. Bigwig doesn’t believe it, but Hyzenthlay recalls having a vision of just that. Bigwig says that if Fiver believes her, then he will, too.

Winter approaches. Food is scarcer, and it gets cold, but burrows can be warm and snug. Fiver, more than ever, is entranced by the alternate world to which he’s attuned, yet he behaves kindly toward all and remains “devotedly attached” to his mate, Vilthuril. Three litters are born during autumn, an unusual number for that season. Included are Hyzenthlay’s four kittens and a group from Vilthuril. Summer fighting and fall babies—the year has been odd for rabbits.

Groundsel, one of the soldiers who joined Hazel’s warren, says Woundwort isn’t dead: “Did you see his body? No. Did anyone? No” (607). Meanwhile, Bigwig teaches Clover’s children about predators and how to evade them. He’s also “captain of a very free-and-easy Owsla” (608).

The rabbits dig new burrows to replace those damaged during the battle. Hazel and a few others walk across the grass and listen as Vilthuril tells her young an El-ahrairah story that involves long journeys, enchanted warrens, and a white bird. One of the children foresees a man on horseback; shortly, one rides past. Vilthuril says, “It’s Fiver’s blood, you know” (612).

Hazel lives for many years and has many children. He hears stories told about him but can’t always remember if they’re true. Groundsel, Strawberry, and Buckthorn start a new warren out on the downs, part Watership and part Efrafan rabbits sent by its new chief, the much-less-rigid Campion.

Woundwort’s legend grows, too: He becomes part scary cousin of the Black Rabbit and part avenging angel to the deserving. Perhaps such a reputation “would not have displeased him” (616).

One day, when he’s very old, Hazel is visited by a rabbit with silver ears. The visitor invites him to join his Owsla. Hazel accepts. They go outside. Hazel discards his body and follows the visitor, leaping effortlessly down to the woods and away.