''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 ''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Berkshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natura ...

''. It consists of a number of short stories of rabbit

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

, followed by several chapters featuring many of the characters introduced in the earlier book. Like its predecessor, ''Tales from Watership Down'' features epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter and a Lapine glossary.

Overview

''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 are 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 from ''Watership Down'' retain their roles, Hyzenthlay, a doe, rises to the position of Co-Chief Rabbit with her mate, Hazel.

Literary significance and reception

A reviewer for ''

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'' wrote that while it was a "lighthearted companion piece" to ''Watership Down'', it was "a little disjointed as a stand-alone volume". The book was praised by another reviewer at '' Salon'', who wrote: "The pure, unfamiliar feelings evoked in 'The Story of the Three Cows' and in the gory 'The Hole in the Sky'—just two of the stories here—persist for quite a while after you've finished reading them".

References

External links

*
Watership Down's Rabbits Hopping Along
' - review by Lisa Carden, ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'' (January 26, 1997) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tales from Watership Down 1996 children's books 1996 short story collections Children's short story collections Fantasy short story collections Watership Down Books about rabbits and hares Books about death Short story collections by Richard Adams Hutchinson (publisher) books