Watership Down: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

It is a May evening in the lush English countryside. Several rabbits nibble at the grass and flowers which grow on the hill outside their warren. All is calm, quiet, and tranquil. Two smallish, ordinary rabbits—both yearlings—make their way over the sloping hill. The larger of the rabbits has a “shrewd, buoyant air” about him; his companion is a good deal smaller and “less at ease” in the world, and has wide, nervous eyes. As the two rabbits prance by, two other rabbits gossip about them: the small, nervous rabbit, Fiver, was the runt of his litter; the larger rabbit is his brother Hazel.

Fiver suggests to Hazel that the two of them go down to the brook. He senses a “queer” energy about the warren this evening. Hazel agrees, excited to look for cowslips, a “delicacy” among rabbits. At the brook, the two happen upon some cowslips and begin eating them when two members of their warren’s Owsla, a police-like guardian force made up of the strongest rabbits in the warren, approach and remind them that good food and flowers like cowslips are for the consumption of Owsla only.

As Hazel and Fiver hop away, Hazel expresses his dissatisfaction with life in the Sandleford warren. He swears that if he ever joins the Owsla, he will treat his fellow rabbits with decency. The two head across a culvert to the other side of the brook and look for some food there. Hazel sees that two heavy posts have been erected on the other side of the brook—at its foot is a stamped-out cigarette. Fiver begins whimpering with fear, telling Hazel that he knows now what his “queer” bad feeling has been—something terrible is coming, and this sign proves it. Fiver looks out at the field and declares that it is covered with blood. Hazel assures Fiver it is only the light of the sunset and urges Fiver to pull himself together.

Hazel suggests they head back to the burrow, but Fiver is afraid to. Hazel promises Fiver that he will protect him from any danger. The two return home and head underground as the sun sets. Though they could not read the sign, the narrator reveals what it said: a construction company is soon developing six acres of land surrounding the Sandleford warren into “high class modern residences.”