What's in a name?

[Chuckman]

This can be our gathering area for name suggestions.

I suggest one of our cities be named Watership Down.

Cities :

Watership Down
Stalingrad


Units :

Scouts :

Dandelion
Buttercup
Daisy
Thistle
Crocus
Rose

Warriors :

Parsley
Chive
Tarragon
Rosemary
Thyme
Oregano
Basil
Dill
Marjoram

Archers :

Spearmen :

Axemen :

Swordsmen :

Chariots :

Horseback Riders :


Galleys :

Triremes :



Workers :

[Nugog]

Stalingrad

[RobWorham]

Scouts :

Dandelion
Buttercup
Daisy
Thistle
Crocus
Rose
...
..
.

[RobWorham]

Warriors :

Parsley
Chive
Tarragon
Rosemary
Thyme
Oregano
Basil
Dill
Marjoram
...
..
.

[Nugog]

Warrior:

Thumper.

[Lancer]

I'm ok with all of these suggestions. However when I was a warrior if someone had called me 'Rosemary', well that would have been bad.

[RobWorham]

Were you a cuddly killer though???

Actually, no need to answer that.........

[Methos]

Originally posted by Nugog
Warrior:

Thumper.

I like this one! Also, don't forget Bugs.

[RobWorham]

Watership Down rabbits

* Hazel – Fiver's older brother; he leads the rabbits from Sandleford and eventually becomes Chief Rabbit. He is shot and almost dies, but is saved by his brother Fiver. At the Watership Down warren, he mates with Hyzenthlay from Efrafa, and the two become co-Chief Rabbit. At the end of the novel, he dies of old age and is taken away by El-ahrairah to join his Owsla.

* Bigwig – A large ex-Owsla officer. His name is Lapine is Thlayli, which means "Fur-head" and refers to the shock of fur on the back of his head. Resilient and powerful, he survives both a snare and an attack by General Woundwort, and infiltrates Efrafa to rescue Hyzenthlay and Blackavar, among others.

* Fiver – A small, runt rabbit; his Lapine name is Hrair-roo, which means "Little-five" or "Little-thousand" (rabbits are stated to be capable of counting only up to four, so there are no specific numerical fixes beyond four). He is a seer, and his visions of the destruction of the Sandleford warren led him to leave, along with his brother Hazel and several other rabbits. He saves Hazel's life when he is shot, and inspires Hazel to set up the release of the Nuthanger Farm dog, which saves the Watership Down warren.

* Blackberry – A clever buck rabbit with characteristically black-tipped ears. He is the often capable of understanding concepts that the other rabbits find incomprehensible; he realises that wood floats, and the rabbits use this twice to traverse on water. In the television series, Blackberry was made a doe and falls in love with Campion.

* Dandelion – A buck rabbit, notable for his storytelling ability and speed; he is instrumental in luring the Nuthanger Farm dog up the hill to scatter the Efrafans near the end of the book. He is voice acted by Richard O'Callaghan in the film and Phill Jupitus in the television series.

* Pipkin - A young and rather timid buck rabbit, who constantly looks to Hazel for guidance.

* Silver - A large rabbit with grey fur (hence his name) and the Threarah's nephew. He was a member of the Sandleford Owsla but decided to desert along with Hazel's band. His stoid reliability have served Hazel at those times when Bigwig's hot-headedness is more a hindrance than help.

* Speedwell, Acorn, Hawkbit, and Buckthorn - Other fugitives from the Sandleford Warren.

[RobWorham]

Sandleford rabbits

* Holly – The captain of the Sandleford Owsla. He tries but fails to arrest Hazel and his group when they leave Sandleford. Later, when men poison-gas the Sandleford warren to exterminate the rabbits, he manages to escape and eventually finds the Watership Down rabbits, though he is ill and exhausted. Following his harrowing escape, he subjugates himself to Hazel and follows him loyally.

* Bluebell - A member of the Sandleford Owsla, and the only Sandleford rabbit besides Holly to join Hazel's band. Bluebell is a compulsive joker whose chattering has often kept the others running, for good or for ill, when physical exertion takes its toll.

* The Threarah – The Threarah (also known as "Lord Rowan Tree", since "Threar" is Lapine for "rowan tree") is the Chief Rabbit of the Sandleford warren. He dismisses Fiver's warning as an attempt by Fiver to increase his status in the warren. He later gives the order to have Bigwig arrested, but when Bigwig and the rest of Hazel's party escape, he decides that they are not worth chasing after. He dies in the destruction of Sandleford.

* Toadflax - A rabbit of the Sandleford Owsla who tried to arrest Bigwig.

* Pimpernel - When Holly and Bluebell escaped from the Sandleford warren, Pimpernel was with them until they reached Cowslip's warren. The rabbits there killed him.

[RobWorham]

Hutch rabbits

* Clover – A strong and active Angora doe, who provides the Watership Down warren with its first litter.

* Boxwood – A "black and white Himalayan" buck, and Haystack's mate.

* Haystack – A Himalayan doe who is Boxwood's mate.

* Laurel – A "short-haired black Angora" buck, he fails to escape the farm and consequentially doesn't join the Watership Down warren.

[RobWorham]

Cowslip's warren

* Cowslip – Although he is not a Chief Rabbit, his strange warren is usually referred to as "Cowslip's Warren" because he was the first resident that the Watership Down rabbits meet. He 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. 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 refuses to help or even acknowledge Bigwig, who was trapped in a snare. When Holly, Bluebell, and Pimpernel later happen into the area, Cowslip leads an attack upon these other surviving Sandleforders. However, while the locals have remarkable cultural sophistication (even art), they are woefully unskilled at fighting. His warren - a harvesting ground of rabbit meat for a human - goes down in rabbit-history as being "bewitched".

* Strawberry – Nildro-hains' mate. After Bigwig is freed from the snare, Strawberry chases after the Sandleford rabbits and asks to join them, which they eventually allow him to do, and he becomes a valuable advisor in the construction of the main chamber at the Watership Down warren. Later, while some of the Watership Down rabbits go to Efrafa, he acquires a new mate in the form of one of the hutch does that had been taken from Nuthanger Farm.

* 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.

* Silverweed – The local equivalent of a storyteller, Silverweed recites disturbing poetry which makes Fiver fearful and wary. 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 mind by touch.

[RobWorham]

Efrafa rabbits

* General Woundwort – The Chief Rabbit of Efrafa. He is a hard and brutally efficient rabbit, who was orphaned at a young age, and founded the Efrafa warren. He attacked the Watership Down warren, and, after fighting (and losing to) Bigwig, was thought to have been killed fighting the Nuthanger Farm dog, but he lives on in rabbit legend as a bogeyman.

* Hyzenthlay – A doe; she is one of the the representative leaders of a group who unsuccessfully tried to convince General Woundwort to extend the warren due to overcrowding. Later, she and several other Efrafan does escape while Bigwig distracts the guards. In Tales from Watership Down she mates with Hazel and the two rule the warren as co-Chief Rabbits.[1] In the television series adaptation, Hyzenthlay was renamed Primrose.

* Thethuthinnang - Hyzenthlay's friend and also one of the leaders of the Efrafan does.

* Groundsel - A general in the Efrafan army. He was captured at the end of Woundwort's raid on the warren at Watership Down and later was allowed to join the warren. In the end, he becomes Chief Rabbit of a new warren between Watership Down and Efrafa.

* Campion – A captain of the Owsla; he is a brave and a skillful leader, and respected by General Woundwort. He takes over the warren of Efrafa after Woundwort's disappearance, and agrees that Efrafa and Watership Down can co-exist in peace. In Tales from Watership Down, the final chapter is devoted to Campion; he eventually dies on patrol after a fight with a pair of cats. In the television series, Campion falls in love with Blackberry, now a doe, and settles with her in Watership Down.

* Vilthuril - One of the escaping does. Eventually she becomes Fiver's mate.

* Blackavar – A rabbit with very dark fur. He tried to escape from Efrafa when he was prevented from joining the Owsla, but when he was apprehended by Campion, his ears were slashed to ribbons and he was kept in solitary confinement. When he was liberated by Bigwig, he quickly proved himself as an expert tracker and ranger, and Hazel came to trust and rely upon him. In the book, Blackavar survives the climactic battle with the Efrafans, but in the film he is shown being killed by Woundwort himself. He was voiced by Clifton Jones in the feature film and by Stephen Gately in the television series.

* Vervain – The head of the Owslafa (Council police) in Efrafa. He is a large and bullying rabbit, more used to dealing with prisoners than with active combatants, and dislikes his peer Campion. After the loss of Woundwort and the battle for Watership Down, elil kill half of the retreating survivors including Vervain, but he had already lost heart and his sense of purpose. His name comes from an alternative name for verbena, a type of small flowering plant found in England.

* Chervil – An Owsla officer assigned to show Bigwig around the warren when he "joins" Efrafa. Like Vervain he is something of a bully, and has severe contempt for the "lesser" Efrafans. He is very mean to Blackavar in particular. When Bigwig escapes with the does, he attacks and injures Chervil. In the film, Chervil is voiced by Derrek Griffiths (who is misidentified in the credits as voicing Vervain, who has no speaking lines). His name is also mispronounced as "Sherbil."

* Nelthilta – A young doe, spirited and rebellious but not especially smart. When she thinks she's going to escape with Bigwig's group she can't resist taunting an Efrafan officer, whereupon she is arrested and forced to confess to the Council, nearly ruining the whole plan.

[RobWorham]

Mythological rabbits

* The Black Rabbit of Inlé – He appears in fictional rabbit folklore as a sinister phantom servant of the Great Frith; he is the rabbit equivalent of a grim reaper in human folklore and similarly ensures all rabbits die at their pre-destined time.

* El-ahrairah – A rabbit trickster folk hero, who is the protagonist of nearly all of the rabbits' stories. He represents what every rabbit wants to be: smart, devious, tricky, and devoted to the well-being of his warren. A complex folklore was created around him in both Watership Down and Tales from Watership Down. In Lapine, his name is a contraction of the phrase Elil-Hrair-Rah, meaning "prince with a thousand enemies".

[RobWorham]

Other

* Kehaar – A black-headed gull who is forced, by an injured wing, to take refuge on Watership Down. He is characterized by his frequent impatience, guttural accent and unusual phrasing. Eventually, after Hazel and the others befriend him, he flies over the countryside in an attempt to discover other warrens where the rabbits might find does to mate with. He discovers the Efrafa warren, and after helping the rabbits he flies back to the sea to rejoin his colony, though he frequently returns for a visit. According to Richard Adams, Kehaar was based on a fighter from the Norwegian Resistance in the Second World War.[2] In the film adaptation, Keehar was supplied with a memorably pompous East-European accent by Zero Mostel. In the television series, Kehaar is voiced by English comedian Rik Mayall.
* Mouse - A native of Watership Down. Hazel's warren does him a good turn when they shelter him from a threatening bird of prey. He is deeply grateful and later, although he does not understand the situation, he tells the Watership Down rabbits, after their friendly extraction of dissidents from Efrafa, that other rabbits are approaching their warren. Hazel correctly surmises that they must be the Efrafa Owsla coming to retaliate for the raid and without the mouse's warning, they would have taken the Watership Down warren completely by surprise.