'Watership Down' by Richard Adams, Chapter One
Part One, Chapter 1: The Noticeboard
Adams includes footnotes at the end of each chapter, explaining key terms in the world of the rabbits.
Fiver's name:
1. Rabbits can count up to four. Any number above four is hrair—“a lot,” or “a thousand.” Thus they say U Hrair—“The Thousand”—to mean, collectively, all the enemies (or elil, as they call them) of rabbits—fox, stoat, weasel, cat, owl, man, etc. There were probably more than five rabbits in the litter when Fiver was born, but his name, Hrairoo, means “Little Thousand”—i.e., the little one of a lot or, as they say of pigs, “the runt.”
The 'Owsla'
2. Nearly all warrens have an Owsla, or group of strong or clever rabbits—second-year or older—surrounding the Chief Rabbit and his doe and exercising authority. Owslas vary. In one warren, the Owsla may be the band of a warlord: in another, it may consist largely of clever patrollers or garden-raiders. Sometimes a good storyteller may find a place; or a seer, or intuitive rabbit. In the Sandleford warren at this time, the Owsla was rather military in character (though, as will be seen later, not so military as some).
'Watership Down' by Richard Adams
New Zealand