Tales from Watership Down is a collection of 19 short stories by Richard Adams, published in 1996 as a follow-up to Adams's highly successful 1972 novel about rabbits, Watership Down. It consists of a number of short stories of rabbit folklore, followed by several chapters featuring many of the characters introduced in the earlier book. There hasn't been a film adaptation of this book, but it did come out 3 years before the TV series came out.
Like its predecessor, Tales from Watership Down features epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter and a Lapine glossary.
Plot[]
Tales from Watership Down is in three parts: the first consists of five traditional tales of El-ahrairah and two more modern rabbit stories, the second contains four episodes recounting events that befell El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle on their return from visiting the Black Rabbit of Inlé, and the third contains eight chapters dealing with the Watership warren in the months following the events of the original book.
Five new characters were introduced: Flyairth, a doe who threatens to undermine the stability of Watership Down; Sandwort, a disrespectful young buck who eventually changes his ways; Coltsfoot, a depressed buck whom Fiver befriends; Stonecrop, an escaped hutch rabbit; and Nyreem, an Efrafan doe with an injured leg. Although most of the characters remain static from Watership Down, Hyzenthlay, a doe, rises to the position of Co-Chief Rabbit with her mate, Hazel.
About the chapters[]
The introduction states that the first five stories, about El-ahrairah, are "traditional stories, which all rabbits know" (an exaggeration, as not all the rabbit characters are familiar with the stories). "The Rabbit's Ghost Story" is told by Coltsfoot, a rabbit from Efrafa. "Speedwell's Story" is a nonsense story.
Part II contains four more stories about "El-ahrairah and his stalwart, Rabscuttle".
Part III "further tales of Hazel and his rabbits, which took place during the winter, spring and early summer following the defeat of General Woundwort." The stories in Part III are closely connected, each following directly from the previous one.
Chapters[]
Part I:
- The Sense of Smell
- The Story of the Three Cows
- The Story of King Fur-Rocious
- The Fox in the Water
- The Hole in the Sky
- The Rabbit's Ghost Story
- Speedwell's Story
Part II:
- The Story of the Comical Field
- The Story of the Great Marsh
- The Story of the Terrible Hay-Making
- El-ahrairah and the Lendri
Part III:
- The Secret River
- The New Warren
- Flyairth
- Flyairth's Departure
- Hyzenthlay in Action
- Sandwort
- Stonecrop
- Campion
- Lapine
Reception[]
Tales from Watership Down received decent, but less positive reviews compared to the first book. A common complaint was that the book does not really push the overall narrative of the series forward, instead being a collection to expand the mythology of the rabbits. While this was the purpose of the book, it is not what many readers wanted after experiencing the first novel. Additionally, it was also harder for readers to be aware of what sort of content the book was going to have in the 1990s.
Audiobook[]
A 6 hour audiobook narrated by Simon Vance was released on June 13, 2023. The art is the same illustrator from Watership Down: The Graphic Novel.
This seems the second time the book has been adapted into an audiobook, as Clive Mantle read one in 2015.
Trivia[]
- On his Reddit AMA, Adams commented, "I've often thought Tales from Watership Down was overlooked. There is a very good ghost story there for instance."
Gallery[]
Watership Down media |
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Print media Watership Down (1972) • Tales from Watership Down (1996) • The Graphic Novel (2023)
Animated media Film (1978) • TV series (1999-2001) • Miniseries (2018)
Video games Unten Am Fluss (2001)
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