Watership Down: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Dandelion begins the story of El-ahrairah. Long ago, Frith, the sun-god, made the world and the animals that would inhabit it. El-ahrairah, a rabbit, had uncountable wives and children, and his vast, sprawling brood ate so much grass that it grew thin the world over. Frith urged El-ahrairah to find a way to control his people—otherwise the sun-god himself would intervene. El-ahrairah countered that his people were the “strongest in the world” and should not be hindered. In response, Frith called a meeting of all the other animals and turned hawks, cows, foxes, stoats, weasels, and others against the rabbits, giving them a hunger to kill all of El-ahrairah’s brood. 

When El-ahrairah heard that all the other animals had received blessings, he was embarrassed that he had been too busy to attend the meeting and receive his. As Frith approached El-ahrairah dug a hole, hoping to avoid the god. El-ahrairah’s rump stuck out of the hole, though, and when Frith offered him his blessing, El-ahrairah told him to bless his bottom. Frith blessed El-ahrairah’s bottom, giving him a shining white tail and long, powerful back legs which enabled him to run faster than any other creature. In a kindhearted warning, Frith explained that though “all the world” would be the rabbits’ enemy, anyone who sought to harm El-ahrairah and his children would first have to face the daunting task of actually catching them.