And Frith called after him, “El-ahrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you”
Above all, Watership Down succeeds in making the unexpected mythical. Not only does Richard Adams make the quest of a few common rabbits seem massive and epic, but he creates a surprisingly well thought out social construction for the rabbit community, complete with their own language, history, and myth. This passage, from the origin myth of the rabbits, never fails to give me shivers, which is a feat considering the novel’s subjects. To Adams, the mythical can be found in the most unexpected places, and anybody can become a hero, no matter their stature.
