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More than a Rabbit Tale: Watership Down, by
Richard Adams
Here is a
story of love and courage and struggle, and a classic retelling
of the archetypal myth of the hero.
by Marilyn
Green Faulkner
 Watership Down is the story of a bunch
of bunnies that get crowded out of a field by a housing development
and have to find a new place to live. It is also a classic retelling
of the archetypal myth of the hero. It is also the most realistic
depiction of animals in a children’s book you will ever find.
It is a story of love and courage and struggle, and a publishing
phenomenon. Richard Adams, an English civil servant, wove the
tale to entertain his two daughters on a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon
one summer. The girls urged him to write it down, and the task
took him about two years, working in his spare time. After several
rejections it was finally published in 1972, with a run of only
2,500 copies, and was immediately hailed by critics and readers
as a children’s classic. By 1985 it was second on Penguin’s list
of all-time bestsellers with over five million copies in print,
and continues to be one of the most popular books ever written
for children or adults. Watership Down was the Harry
Potter of the seventies.
Irritated by the sentimental stories published for children and discouraged
by the permissive society of the 1960’s, Adams set out to create
a fictional world that combined everyday reality and mythical
ideals. The rabbits of Watership Down (a field in the
English countryside that becomes their eventual home) are not
cuddly or cute; they fight, eat, defecate, mate and generally
struggle to stay alive. Adams used technical information about
warrens and their ways (from R.M. Lockley’s, The Private Life
of Rabbits) to give the story a realistic feel. Since this
is a fantasy, however, these rabbits also speak, in a language
called lapin. Every language captures the unique cultural
characteristics of its speakers, and lapin is no exception.
We are given new words to describe activities and emotions unique
to rabbits. For example, the word tharn refers to the
stupefied, frozen fear that rabbits experience when faced with
sudden danger. Silflay means to go above ground to feed.
There may be no more than about fifty words of lapin in
the text, but the exercise of learning these words helps the
reader begin to think like a rabbit and fully participate in
the imaginative world of Watership Down.
Even with all the interesting facts and cool bunny language, why would
a fantasy tale about rabbits be so popular? It is, of course,
because this tale of rabbits tells us a great deal about what
it means to be human. As the rabbits journey they encounter various
predators; men, dogs, trains, and a whole warren of fascist rabbits
that are truly terrifying. Their struggles against these adversaries
mirror our own human conflicts. But above all, Watership Down has
a memorable hero named Hazel who wins not only the love and respect
of his followers, but ours as well. The adventure begins when
Hazel, a quiet, unassuming fellow (the lapin equivalent to a
civil servant, I suppose) wanders out to silflay one evening
with his cousin Fiver. Fiver has a gift – he can sense the future
at times – and he has a vision of destruction looming over the
warren when he sees a notice board go up in the field. Unable
to convince the chief rabbit that danger is imminent, Hazel persuades
a few rabbits to flee with him and Fiver in search of a new home.
Hazel becomes a Moses (with Fiver as his faithful Aaron) and
his character development taps into our collective recognition
of the heroic myth, described by Joseph Campbell:
“There is a certain typical hero sequence of actions which
can be detected in stories from all over the world and from many
periods of history. Essentially, it might even be said there
is but one archetypal mythic hero whose life has been replicated
in many lands by many, many people. A legendary hero is usually
the founder of something – the founder of a new age, the founder
of a new religion, the founder of a new city, the founder of
a new way of life. In order to found something new, one has to
leave the old and go in quest of the seed idea, a germinal idea
that will have the potentiality of bringing forth that new thing.” (The
Power of Myth, p.136)
This is
one of those books that creates a cult following. Interwoven
between the action scenes are stories from rabbit mythology about
the great El-ahrairah, the first rabbit. Adams creates not only
a physical, but also a spiritual and emotional world for these
rabbits that is truly believable. (In my research I found Watership
Down websites with painstaking studies of the religion, myths
and customs of the warren. It reminded me of those people who
show up at Star Trek conventions speaking Klingon to each other.)
It is no accident that the story inspires an almost religious
devotion in readers. Like Star Wars and, most recently, the Harry
Potter series, these tales create an alternative universe that
is more manageable than our own. The problems are difficult but
there is a hero to believe in who will lead the people and bring
peace and safety at last. We want to believe that the meek truly
will inherit the earth, that good will overcome evil and that
the last will one day be first, because in our hearts we know
that these are correct beliefs. Books that strengthen our faith
in these eternal truths are good for the soul. They are the most
moral tales, for they speak directly to our spirits. We love
Hazel for his leadership, Fiver for his spirituality and Bigwig
for his courage. These bunnies become real to us, and their journey
enlightens us about our own spiritual path. After all, rabbits
aren’t the only creatures that experience tharn. Fear
is common to all of us, and these tales give us hope.
Here is
a sample of Adams’s wonderful writing style, which combines realism,
fantasy, humor and pathos to a remarkable degree. Each rabbit
in the warren contributes something vital to the survival of
the group, and some of the most interesting passages are the
ones where the rabbits, with their limited intelligence, work
together to solve a problem they have never faced. In this case,
they are being chased by the evil General Woundwort and his army,
and actually figure out how to float downriver in an abandoned
boat. But, eventually, they are forced to swim to shore, something
most rabbits would rather avoid. Often when I read I ask myself
how I would describe a certain experience. What does it feel
like for a rabbit to swim in a fast-moving stream? Notice how
Adams gives us this experience through Hazel’s limited frame
of reference, which includes little more than weather, the earth,
and light and dark:
“There
was an instant shock of cold. But more than this, and at once,
he felt the pull of the current. He was being drawn away by a
force like a high wind, yet smooth and silent. He was drifting
helplessly down a suffocating, cold run, with no hold for his
feet. Full of fear, he paddled and struggled, got his head up
and took a breath, scrabbled his claws against rough bricks under
water and lost them again as he was dragged on. Then the current
slackened, the run vanished, the dark became light and there
were leaves and sky above him once more.”
If you
have a child or grandchild who likes to read, share Watership
Down together. I was rather reluctant to begin this book,
but so many club members recommended it that I took the plunge. It
took me about fifty pages to get involved in the narrative, and
by then I was hooked, and was as anxious as my son Blake to find
out what happened next. The sweet, final moments when, after
a long and courageous life, Hazel is called to the next world
are truly fine. Even without Fiver’s gift I can predict you will
shed tears, and that you will never look at a bunny in quite
the same way again.
Watership
Down is the July selection for the Best Books Club, an informal gathering
of readers who like the classics. I welcome your comments about
this or any other books you like. If you would like to be on
the mailing list, log on to the website at www.thebestbooksclub.com. Our
selection for August will be Vanity Fair, by William
Makepeace Thackeray.
Readers
Share Other Favorite Children’s Books:
We've read
many great books with our children--the Redwall Series, Robinson
Crusoe, The Wind in the Willows, and others, but one of the best
has been "The Bronze Bow" by Elizabeth George Speare. It was given the Newberry Medal several years ago, but I doubt it
would get one today--not because of the writing (it was wonderful!)
and the story (it kept my 7 year old begging for more), but it
has such a strong spiritual message. In
today's moral climate books involving Jesus Christ don't always
make it to the Award Winner's list. Reading
it was an emotional experience, especially towards the end. I
was in tears as I felt the incredible love of the Savior for
all mankind.
I will
probably read this with my kids again in a few years--it was
that good. Rosalie
-----
My favorite as a child was Anne of Green Gables. I enjoyed all eight books,
but the first was best. I felt it gave me a love for nature that
I never had before. And the way she survived such a sad childhood
was an inspiration as I had a very secure childhood. I also enjoy
the Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles. I loved Little Women,
and could hardly believe that Louisa M. Alcott hated writing
it and only did it to make money. She really wanted to write
adult books. I've read it several times so guess it's true.
Also loved the OZ books. In my late teens I loved the Jalna series by
Mazo Del La Roche. Still do, and read the entire series every
ten years or so. Beth
-----
Some
of the books that come to my mind, which I enjoyed when I was
between 10 and 14 years old, are: A Wrinkle in Time, The Light
in the Forest, My Side of the Mountain, Cheaper by the Dozen,
the "Little House" series and my first favorite (and
first "chapter" book only we didn't call them that
then) which I read in the fourth grade: A Swiss Family Robinson.
I think of these more as "youth" books. I also really
love the littler "children’s" books (or picture books)
and here are some of my favorites: The Giving Tree, Horton Hatches
the Egg, Conrad's Castle, anything by Mercer Mayer, Mr.
Willowby's Christmas Tree. Vic
-----
I love the Giving Tree. As a classroom
teacher, I read this book to my students where I taught mostly
fifth grade. Another book that I found touching for myself and
my school children is Where the Red Fern Grows. I could relate
to the main character so well because of my love of animals. Betty
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