34: Chapter 34. General Woundwort 

Scripted by John Ruths and Newell Fisher

The opening quotation is by the Prussian military tactician Carl von Clausewitz. It refers to the importance of a strong leader in any military enterprise. Because that is exactly what Efrafa is really. For the first time, we join General Woundwort in the present. We learn, almost straight away, about how hard Woundwort's life has been. Having seen his mother killed by a weasel in front of him, his rescue by the schoolmaster results in his almost killing his cat, when it tries tormenting him. Soon Woundwort escapes from the hutch he is kept in, survives on his own in the wild with no apparent problems, then forces his way into a warren, taking it over and killing the former Chief Rabbit and another rival. He departs the warren that he took over and already recognizes that he needs a bigger, better place to grow his powerbase. Wouldwort basically founded Efrafa with pretty minimal experience. He turns out to be a leader to be both feared and looked up to. He believes in the strength of numbers, forcing those attempting to leave to come back, which is seemingly unusual in the world of rabbits. He is intelligent, cunning, determined, and recognises talent. He exploits all of these things and selects rabbits for the Council based on what they can do for the warren. And he's also created a tiered social system where the best rabbits will likely be motivated for some upward mobility. Good ideas continue to surface and this is how Wide Patrols come into being. You could say that loyalty and fear are his main two methods. But where loyalty ends, fear will also do the job. Really, Woundwort's and the Council's initial ideas worked well and helped lead them to where they are now. But Efrafa is now overcrowded, as a result of his obsession with strength in numbers. Individual freedoms are traded for security, as happens in human societies all the time. This does nothing good for morale among the rank and file, and especially the does, who don't really get the social benefits that the Owsla, Council, and Owslafa, or Council Police, benefit from. Additionally, the Owsla are not, now, enjoying their normal prestige and there is a shortage of rabbits who might fill in. This is primarily because the tiered social system of Efrafa is also breaking down. Lack of freedom tends not to produce people with initiative. Yet this is exactly the trait that is needed for new recruits capable of getting into the Owsla. To make things even worse, the getaway of the WD Party, and the recent death of an Owsla Captain, due to Bigwig's actions with a fox, have made things worse. Woundwort knows that there is a large band of rabbits out there but beyond the Iron Road. So, our heroes are now a big issue for Woundwort and he has very limited information on them. He's not used to this. And then a stranger arrives, who we know to be Bigwig. Interestingly, I think that, in all his dealings with Efrafa, he is referred to as Thlayli, his name in Lapine. To rabbits in the story, this distinction would not exist, but it is an interesting subtlety for the reader. We are now well into the chapter, and we ended the last one with Bigwig heading out, so his re-introduction to the reader in this way is nicely done. During this chapter we are told none of Bigwig's internal monologue, Only Woundwort's. Bigwig is allowed to remain a mystery for just this one chapter. The Efrafans are somewhat, almost comically, taken aback. Here comes this sizable buck with a few battle scars who WANTS to join Efrafa. Bigwig almost has the Efrafans over a barrel. Of course they're going to take him! What they don't know yet is that Thlayli is here to work from the inside and take away as many does as he can. He's not only a spy, but a spy on a mission! The chapter ends with Bigwig having just received his scratch to join him to the Near Hind Mark within the warren.