Blackavar - Cowslip's Warren (The Warren of The Snares)

Cowslip's Warren (The Warren of The Snares)

• Cowslip: Although he is not a Chief Rabbit, his strange warren is usually referred to as "Cowslip's Warren" because he is the first resident therein that Hazel's rabbits meet. Cowslip is laconic and almost too refined, with great size and a strange scent, perhaps from a life of superior food, and he seems typical of his fellows. As Fiver soon discovers, a farmer leaves vegetables out so that he can trap rabbits coming and going, but this is a severely taboo subject in the warren, and Cowslip and his fellows refuse to talk about it, and instead pretend that all is well. Cowslip later refuses to help or even acknowledge Bigwig, when he is trapped and nearly killed by the farmer's snare. When Holly, Bluebell, and Pimpernel later happen into the area, Cowslip leads an attack upon these last surviving Sandleforders. However, while the locals have remarkable cultural sophistication (even art), they are woefully unskilled at fighting, and succeed in killing only the sickened Pimpernel. His warren—a harvesting ground of rabbit meat for a human—goes down in lapine history as being "bewitched". In the TV series, Cowslip becomes angered by Hazel's warren when they help a group of his rabbits escape from his warren, and even helps Woundwort to get his revenge on them, however, as he himself states, "I'm a plotter, not a fighter" and he uses both sides for his own gain. Later he trades his seer, Silverweed, to Woundwort in exchange for the destruction of his escaped rabbit's warren.
• Nildro-hain: Strawberry's mate in Cowslip's warren; she is killed by a snare, following which incident Strawberry escapes to join Hazel's band. Her name is Lapine for "blackbird's song"—birdsong being one of the many un-rabbitlike qualities that her warren adopts due to its unnatural lifestyle.
• Silverweed: The local equivalent of a storyteller, Silverweed recites disturbing poetry which makes Fiver fearful and wary. Because he talks in poetry and riddles, he is the only outlet through which the other rabbits in his warren can confront their morbid situation. In the television series, he is given a new backstory, in that he is a seer with mental abilities similar to Fiver, in particular possessing the ability to see into another rabbit's heart by touch. He is traded to Woundwort to help him seek his destiny, but later ends up on Watership Down and becomes a good friend of the rabbits there, even sacrificing most of his youth to help save the warren from Woundwort.
• Laburnum: An artist, he made the shape on the wall of El-ahrairah. He does not appear in the book or TV series, but he is mentioned by Strawberry when he shows the shape to Hazel. Although his taking the time to make a shape of El-ahrairah and even his name (which in Lapine means "Poison-tree") are considered extremely un-rabbit-like, his art is seen as old-fashioned, since the warren in which he lives has long since abandoned values such as cunning and survival.
• Kingcup: Another rabbit who was killed by a snare. When the eleven rabbits who left Sandleford arrive, Strawberry looks for him but does not find him in his burrow. Realizing what happened to him, Strawberry removes all traces that any rabbit ever lived in that burrow.
• Betony: A rabbit whose doe sings like a robin.
• Strawberry: A former member of this warren (See above listing for this character under Watership Down Rabbits).