Watership Down: Chapter 31 Summary & Analysis

Shortly after the conclusion of the story of the King’s lettuces, Darzin himself found out about El-ahrairah’s deception. He began quietly scheming as to how he would get back at El-ahrairah, and when word of this reached the trickster himself, he warned all his people to be cautions, especially when they were out alone.

One afternoon, while leading a group of rabbits back from a sojourn away from the warren, Rabscuttle became lost in a fog and was taken in by King Darzin, who forced Rabscuttle to sleep in a prison hole and do hard labor every day. El-ahrairah vowed to rescue his friends and set some does to dig a tunnel which would empty in Rabscuttle’s quarters. Soon they were able to rescue El-ahrairah’s companion right out from under the noses of his guards.

This infuriated King Darzin, who began planning a war against El-ahrairah and his people. Darzin’s soldiers could not get into El-ahrairah’s warren, but they laid siege to the burrows and attacked any rabbit who went up to silflay. After many rabbits starved and died, El-ahrairah called out in desperation to Lord Frith and stated he would do anything to ensure his people’s survival—he would even drive a bargain with the Black Rabbit of Inlé, who is, in the rabbit world, death personified in rabbit form.

El-ahrairah formed a plan to seek out the Black Rabbit—in spite of his fear of the legendary spirit—and offer him his own life in return for the safety of his people. El-ahrairah knew that there would be no cheating the Black Rabbit—his trickery would have no power in its realm. The only way El-ahrairah would return from the Black Rabbit’s domain is if he were to fail.

That night, El-ahrairah’s Owsla attacked King Darzin’s forces to create a diversion during which El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle slipped out of the warren and began their “dark journey.” They at last came to a desolate, misty place. They hopped into the fog and soon came upon a huge rabbit hole—at the mouth of which stood the Black Rabbit itself.

Pipkin becomes frightened of the story, and he and Fiver head off to eat some grass. Bigwig urges Dandelion to resume his story, and to not leave out a single detail.

El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle fled down the rabbit hole, but at the bottom encountered none other than the Black Rabbit. The Black Rabbit asked El-ahrairah why he had come, and El-ahrairah replied that he had come to give his life in exchange for the lives of his people. The Black rabbit told El-ahrairah he did not make bargains, and El-ahrairah immediately began thinking of ways to trick the Rabbit into taking his life.

The Black Rabbit welcomed El-ahrairah as his guest and invited him to play a game of bobstones. El-ahrairah lost, and to pay his stakes, was forced to sacrifice his tail and whiskers to the Black Rabbit’s Owsla. El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle returned to their cold, stony burrow, and, despite his fear, El-ahrairah continued thinking of a trick which would serve him.

The next evening, El-ahrairah went back to play another round with the Black Rabbit, but the Black Rabbit said he would rather tell stories than play bobstones. El-ahrairah said that if he could tell a story as good as the Black Rabbit’s, the Black Rabbit would have to accept his bargain. The Black Rabbit accepted these terms, and then told a horrible story of fear and darkness to which El-ahrairah could make no response. As payment, El-ahrairah offered up his ears. That night, Rabscuttle begged El-ahrairah to give up, but El-ahrairah continued scheming. 

The next evening, the injured El-ahrairah dragged himself back towards the Black Rabbit’s burrow. A member of the Owsla urged him to return home and give up lest he contract one of the many horrible rabbit diseases which were bred in the tunnels of the Black Rabbit’s warren. Rather than leave, though, El-ahrairah crouched in a strange burrow and waited to become ill.

When he again dragged himself from the hole and confronted the Black Rabbit, the Black Rabbit realized the depths of El-ahrairah’s desperation at last and agreed to save his people. Unbeknownst to El-ahrairah, at that moment, a strange but horrific confusion and terror befell King Darzin and his soldiers and drove them away from El-ahrairah’s warren forever.

El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle left the Black Rabbit’s warren and began to make their way home, but the journey was difficult and long. They did not return home for three months, but when they got there, they found that all of the rabbits were healthy and happy. Rabscuttle, not recognizing any of his friends, asked to see a fellow member of the Owsla, was told that the rabbit had died in “the fighting” long before he himself was born.

El-ahrairah returned above ground, where he encountered Lord Frith, who had brought him new whiskers, ears, and a tail. Lord Frith adorned El-ahrairah with his new parts and told him that wisdom, sometimes, did not come easily. As Dandelion ends the story, Pipkin interrupts to announce that a fox is coming towards them all.