General Woundwort

"In combat he was terrifying, fighting entirely to kill, indifferent to any wounds he recieved himself and closing his adversaries until his weight overbore or exhausted them." ~Richard Adams, author of Watership Down.

General Woundwort is a savage, powerful rabbit who is the chief of the warren Efrafa.



Watership Down backstory up to Efrafa
In the Sandleford warren, Fiver, a young runt rabbit who is a seer, receives a frightening vision of his warren's imminent destruction. When he and his brother Hazel fail to convince their chief rabbit of the need to evacuate, they set out on their own with a small band of rabbits to search for a new home, barely eluding the Owsla, the warren's military caste.

The travelling group of rabbits find themselves following the leadership of Hazel, previously an unimportant member of the warren. They travel through dangerous territory, with Thlayli (a.k.a. Bigwig) and Silver, both former Owsla, as the only significantly strong rabbits among them.

Fiver's visions promise a safe place in which to settle, and the group eventually finds Watership Down, an ideal location to set up their new warren. They are soon reunited with Holly and Bluebell, also from the Sandleford Warren, who reveal that Fiver's vision was true and the entire warren was destroyed by humans.

Although Watership Down is a peaceful habitat, Hazel realises there are no does, thus making the future of their new home uncertain. With the help of a seagull named Kehaar, they locate a nearby warren, Efrafa, which is overcrowded and has many does. Hazel sends a small emissary to Efrafa to present their request for does. While waiting for the group to return, Hazel and Pipkin successfully raid the nearby Nuthanger Farm to rescue a group of hutch rabbits there, returning with two does. When the emissary returns, Hazel and his rabbits learn Efrafa is a police state led by the despotic General Woundwort; Hazel's rabbits barely return alive. However, the group does manage to identify an Efrafan doe named Hyzenthlay who wants to leave the warren and can recruit other does to join. Hazel and Thlayli devise a plan to rescue the group of rabbits from Efrafa to join them on Watership Down.

Thlayli's plan
Thlayli and Hazel, along with help from Kehaar and a geinus rabbit named Blackberry, devise a plan to "rescue" several does from the police state warren of Efrafa. Thlayli is sent to Efrafa, and Woundwort immediately promotes him to the Owsla's (military caste)ranks for his strength and rugged fighter's appearance. He then manages to contact several does and a maimed rabbit named Blackavar and tells him his plan to escape Efrafa.

On the day they are suppossed to escape, one of the does is captured by the Owsla, and betrays Thlayli's plans to Woundwort as Thlayli jumps one of the Owsla and gathers the does and Blackavar. They are chased by Woundwort and his patrol to a river, where a boat is docked and the other rabbits are waiting. Kehaar attacks Woundwort to buy Thlayli time, and they barely manage to escape on the boat.

The seige of Watership Down
Days later, the rabbits of Watership Down are alerted of the prescence of Woundwort and a patrol from Efrafa who are approaching Watership Down. Woundwort demands that they hand over Thlayli and the does, or he will kill every buck in the Watership warren.

Hazel, Watership's chief rabbit has all the rabbit holes filled in. When the siege starts, Woundwort and his patrol would have to dig into the warren. Thlayli was ordered to guard one of the tunnels as Hazel and Dandelion hatch a plan to lure Nuthanger Farm's dog (encountered earlier in the story) to Watership Down to chase off the Efrafans.

Woundwort's patrol eventually manage to dig their way in, and Woundwort moves into a narrow tunnel where he is ambushed by Thlayli. They fight, both becoming seriously maimed, and eventually, Woundwort leaves the tunnel, afraid to attack Thlayli again. Woundwort asks Thlayli why he wouldn't move, as he could send one fresh rabbit after another to attack him, to which he responds that his chief rabbit (Hazel) instructed him to guard that particular run. This startles Woundwort, who thinks that a chief rabbit would have to be stronger than Thlayli. Just then, Hazel's ruse succeeds and the dog chases of and kills many of the Efrafans. Woundwort attacks and beats up the dog, and never was seen again, though it was presumed that he lived.

Personality
In spite of his cruelty, Woundwort is charismatic, inspiring intense loyalty among his military Owsla. He is willing to face many dangers himself, fighting animals such as cats and stoats and inspires them to do the same; the General's refrain is that such animals "aren't dangerous." He seems to feel more comfortable fighting threats than running from them. He is capable of keeping his courage and wits about him when danger and the unexpected occur. However, he is suspicious to the point of paranoia and inflexible; even when Efrafa faces a desperate situation because the population continually increases beyond the warren's ability to contain it, he refuses to allow further digging to expand living space or any of its inhabitants to leave, and Efrafa appears on the verge of explosion or collapse.

Woundwort, being the savage brute he is, lives by a concept of "power from strength", believing that leadership be given to the strongest rabbits. This is seen in the scene when Woundwort discovers that Thlayli is not Watership's chief rabbit, and Woundwort is afraid of a rabbit that could be stronger than Thlayli.

Afterstory
General Woundwort lives on in the minds of the Watership rabbits of later years as a kind of supernatural bogeyman:

"And yet there endured the legend that somewhere out over the down there lived a great and solitary rabbit, a giant who drove the elil (predators) like mice and sometimes went to silflay (eat) in the sky. If ever great danger arose, he would come back to fight for those who honored his name. And mother rabbits would tell their kittens that if they did not do as they were told, the General would get them - the General who was first cousin to the Black Rabbit (the Grim Reaper of rabbits) himself. Such was Woundwort's monument: and perhaps it would not have displeased him."