Student Essay on The Telling of Myths in Richard Adams' Watership Down

The Telling of Myths in Richard Adams' Watership Down by Richard Adams

Essay

In Watership Down there were a lot of myths and stories told. Myths relaying the rabbits beliefs, and stories of the past. The author chose some of these myths to be told at a certain time, suitable to what was going to happen next in the book.

One instance of this was when the warren rabbits were going to Efrafa to retrieve does. When the rabbits were in the woods just outside of Efrafa, Dandelion was chosen to tell one of his stories. Since Bigwig was to embark on his great mission soon, he chose the story. Bigwig wanted Dandelion to tell the story of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inlé. This story was about El-ahrairah sacrificing himself for his rabbits. His rabbits were under attack, and stuck in their warren, with no food or water. They were just miserable. So El-ahrairah decided to go to the Black Rabbit of Inlé. The Black Rabbit of Inlé is similar to our "Death." El-ahrairah was willing to give his life up, in return for his rabbits to be freed from all the madness back at his warren.

This story was told at exactly the right time, because little did the rest of the rabbits know, Bigwig was about to take one of the biggest risks of his life, in order to retrieve does for his warren. Just like El-ahrairah did for his warren.