Watership Down characters

Also known as Hazel-rah

Appears from the start

A young rabbit, neither large nor especially strong, but calm, fair-minded, and a natural leader. Trusting his brother's foreboding, he gathers a small band and leads them away from their warren in search of safety. He wins the loyalty of the others through good sense and concern for every member of the group, and they come to look to him as their chief.

Also known as Hrairoo

Appears from the start

A small, nervous rabbit and Hazel's brother, the runt of the litter, gifted with an uncanny sense of things to come. Overwhelmed by a vision of terrible danger closing on their home, he cannot make the warren's leaders listen, and his fear sets the whole journey in motion. His strange insight repeatedly warns and saves the band.

Also known as Thlayli

First appears in chapter 2

A large, powerful rabbit who once served in the warren's guard, blunt, quick-tempered, and brave. He joins the group early and becomes its main fighter and protector, willing to face danger head-on. Beneath his gruffness he is fiercely loyal, and his strength and nerve prove vital to the band's survival.

First appears in chapter 4

A clever and inventive rabbit whose quick thinking repeatedly rescues the group from trouble. Where the others see only obstacles, he works out solutions, such as using a floating piece of wood to carry the weaker rabbits across a river, showing a grasp of ideas unusual among his kind.

First appears in chapter 4

A swift-running rabbit and the band's finest storyteller, who keeps up the others' spirits by reciting the old tales of the rabbit folk-hero. His speed and his gift for a well-told story both come to serve the group at important moments on their journey.

First appears in chapter 6

The legendary trickster prince of rabbit folklore, the hero of the stories the rabbits tell one another for comfort and courage. He appears not in the events of the journey but in the tales woven through it, a figure of cunning and daring who outwits stronger enemies by wit rather than strength, embodying the qualities the rabbits most admire.

First appears in chapter 6

A sleek, well-fed rabbit from a strange warren the travellers come upon, who invites them to stay. Oddly melancholy and evasive, he and his companions live in unusual comfort and speak in a subdued, fatalistic way, avoiding any mention of where members of their warren go when they disappear.

First appears in chapter 15

A captain of the guard from the warren the band left behind, once a stern figure of authority there. He survives the destruction of that warren and, after a desperate journey, finds Hazel's group, arriving battered and near death. He confirms the truth of Fiver's vision and afterward becomes a steadfast member of the new warren.

First appears in chapter 18

A black-headed gull, injured and unable to fly, whom the rabbits find and nurse back to health on their hilltop. Gruff and impatient but grateful, he repays them once he recovers by scouting the surrounding country from the air, bringing back news of nearby farms and warrens that the rabbits could never gather on their own.

First appears in chapter 32

The enormous, scarred, and fearless chief of a large, tightly controlled warren, who rules it by force and iron discipline. Unusually strong and utterly without fear, he keeps his rabbits crowded, marked, and forbidden to leave, and he responds to any defiance or escape with relentless pursuit and violence.

First appears in chapter 34

An intelligent, strong-willed doe in the crowded, oppressive warren ruled by force, who chafes under its harsh restrictions. Quietly rebellious and trusted by other does, she becomes a key ally to the rabbit who comes among them as a spy, helping to organize and lead an escape.