On the Real Watership Down
Efrafa: the Crixa
The centre of General Woundwort’s oppressive warren.
Efrafa grew up round the crossing-point of two green bridle-paths, one of which (the east-to-west) was tunnel-like, bordered on both sides by a thick growth of trees and bushes. The immigrants, under Woundwort’s direction, dug their holes between the roots of the trees, in the undergrowth and along the ditches. From the first the warren prospered. Woundwort watched over them with a tireless zeal that won their loyalty even while they feared him. When the does stopped digging, Woundwort himself went on with their work while they slept. If a man was coming, Woundwort spotted him half a mile away. He fought rats, magpies, grey squirrels and once, a crow. When litters were kindled, he kept an eye on their growth, picked out the strongest youngsters for the Owsla and trained them himself.
He would allow no rabbit to leave the warren. Quite early on, three who tried to do so were hunted down and forced to return.
As the warren grew, so Woundwort developed his system to keep it under control. Crowds of rabbits feeding at morning and evening were likely to attract attention. He devised the Marks, each controlled by its own officers and sentries, with feeding-times changed regularly to give all a share of early morning and sunset—the favourite hours for silflay. All signs of rabbit life were concealed as closely as possible.
Chapter Thirty Four—General Woundwort
“I’ve come to bring you all out of Efrara…”
Efrara … such a miserable place to be in both the novel and the film versions of Watership Down. Ruled by the obsessive, authoritarian General Woundwort with a ‘tireless zeal’ (Chapter Thirty Four, General Woundwort), escape is never a realistic option for its inhabitants until Bigwig shows up. Yet, for all of his singleminded agression, Woundwort did an excellent job of concealing Efrara from humans and animal predators.
Facing north at the Crixa.
The heart of Efrafa is the Crixa, the meeting point of two footpaths. This gave Woundwort the opportunity to divide up Efrafa into separate quarters, on the advice of council member Old Snowdrop. In Chapter Thirty Four we learn:
‘the runs and burrows of the various Marks were not connected underground, so that disease or poison, if they came, would spread less readily. Conspiracy would also spread less readily. To visit the burrows of another Mark was not allowed without an officer’s permission. It was on Snowdrop’s advice, too, that Woundwort at length ordered that the warren was not to extend further, on account of the risk of detection and the weakening of central control.’
In real life the Crixa is contained inside the Harroway Belt of trees, where the Harroway (an ancient track otherwise known as the ‘Old Way’) bridle path is intersected by the Jack Mills Lane byway. As a location it is most photogenic when looking along the Harroway on the west-east axis as the trees form a broken tunnel. I imagine it is extremely lonely here in bad weather and across the darker months, though as my two visits to Efrafa were made in good spring weather I passed some small groups of walkers.
I found it interesting to seek out the Near Hind Mark’s quarter, the section of the Efrafan warren where Bigwig was appointed as an Owsla officer. This is the south-western quarter of the complex. From here I was able to nudge my way out into the field beyond the trees and see the view Hyzenthlay and the other does would have at silflay. It’s the same vista as the escape route to the River Test, although the ‘great pasture field that lay between the warren and the iron road’ was planted up with steadily growing oilseed rape plants.
The view Hyzenthlay had down to the Iron Road and the Great Arch, albeit obscured by the hedgerow.
Gallery
Facing south; the Near Hind Mark holes would be to the right.
East or west along the Harroway. I can’t recall which!
The Near Hind Mark holes area.
