Lapine Terms:
Bobstones: a traditional game among rabbits; it is played with small stones, fragments of sticks or the like. Fundamentally it is a very simple kind of gambling, on the lines of 'Odds and Evens.' A 'cast' of stones on the ground is covered by the player's front paw. The opponent must then hazard some sort of surmise about its nature-eg., one or two, light or dark, rough or smooth.
Crixa, the: the center of Efrafa, at the crossing point of two bridle paths
Efrafa: the name of the warren founded by General Woundwort
El-ahrairah: the rabbit folk hero, the name means "Enemies-Thousand-Prince" = the Prince with a Thousand Enemies
Elil: enemies (of rabbits) includes anything that would hunt a rabbit
Embleer: stinking, eg, the smell of a fox
Flay: food, eg. grass or other green fodder
Flayrah: unusually good food, eg. lettuce
Frith: the sun, personified as a god by rabbits. Frithrah! = the lord Sun-used as an exclamation
Fu Inle: after moonrise
Hlao: any dimple or depression in the grass, such as that formed by a daisy plant or thistle, which can hold moisture. The name of a rabbit
Hlao-roo: "Little Hlao" An affectionate diminutive of the name of Hlao, one of the rabbits
Hlessi: a rabbit living above ground, without a regular hole or warren. A wandering rabbit, living in the open (Plural: hlessil)
Homba: a fox (Plural: hombil)
Hrair: a great many; an uncountable number; any number over four. U Hrair = The Thousand (enemies)
Hrairoo: "Little Thousand" The name of Fiver in Lapine.
Hraka: droppings, excreta
Hrududu: a tractor, car, or any motor vehicle (Plural: hrududil)
Hyzenthlay: literally "Shine-dew-fur" = Fur shining like dew. The name of a doe
Inle: Literally, the moon; also moonrise. But a second meaning carries the idea of darkness, fear, and death.
Lendri: a badger
Marli: a doe. Also carries the meaning 'mother.'
M'saion: "We meet them."
Narn: Nice, pleasant (to eat)
Ni-Frith: Noon
Nildro-hain: "Blackbird's Song." The name of a doe
Owsla: The strongest or smartest rabbits (usually second-year or older) in a warren - surrounding the Chief Rabbit and his doe, exercising authority, the ruling clique. All warrens have an Owsla, but they vary from warren to warren. In one warren, the Owsla may be the band of a warlord; in another, it may consist largly of clever patrollers or garden-raiders. Sometimes a good storyteller may find a place; or a seer, or intuitive rabbit.
Owslafa: The council police (a word found only in Efrafa)
Pfeffa: a cat
Rah: a prince, leader, or cheif rabbit. Usually used as a suffix. E.g: Hazelrah = Lord Hazel
Roo: used as a suffixe to denote a diminutive. E.g: Hrairoo
Sayn: groundsel
Silf: outside, that is, not underground.
Silflay: to go above ground to feed. Literally, to feed outside. Also used as a noun.
Tharn: stupefied, distraught, hypnotized with fear. But can also, in certain contexts, mean "looking foolishg" or again "heartbroken" or "forelorn"
Thethuthinnag: "Movement of Leaves" The name of a doe
Thlay: fur
Thlayli: "fur-head" a nickname
Threar: a rowan tree, or mountain ash
Vair: to excrete, pass droppings
Yona: a hedgehog (plural: yonil)
Zorn: destroyed, murdered. Denotes a catastrophie
Rabbit Life
In General: A rabbit's life is simple, living at a warren, occasionally wandering, scouting, fighting, and raiding a garden. They play, tell stories, and from time to time, have adventures of their own.
The Simple Life: The simple life consists of not much, but most rabbits are usually in this catagory most of their life. You sleep underground in a burrow, usually with another for warmth, silflay when hungry, tell stories, play games.
Garden Raiding: Certainly one of the aspects of a rabbit's life is raiding a garden. It may be done for fun, for flayrah, for danger, or a little bit of both. Raiding a garden is a good test of a rabbit's skill. Some of the most wonderful flayrah can be found in a garden, carrots, lettuce and cabbage, anything!
Wandering: From time to time a rabbit may wander, becoming a hlessi. Whether to find a new home, start an adventure, or just wander, it is all the same; usually no underground cover, elil around, weather.
Scouting: A group of rabbits from a warren may patrol around a place whether at the request of the Chief Rabbit or a member of the Owsla, or just for the fun of it, and bring back information what was found.
Playing: Whether tussling outside or playing bob-stones, all rabbits play. A form of excersize, of enjoyment, nearly all the time someone may be found playing or to play with.
Fighting: Fighting over mates happens. The strongest or cleverest rabbit (or luckiest) ends up winning. But fighting occurs over disputes, against elil, and as a type of war against another group of rabbits. Over mates, a rabbit is rarely ever hurt seriously. But when a problem over a disput, elil, or war happens, a rabbit can be injured gravely, even killed.
Elil: Many have the impression that rabbits spend their life running from elil. Not true. Rarely will a rabbit have to run from one, they can usually see and smell it before it arrives, especially a fox, whose scent is overpowering. A stoat, weasel, ferret, or rat may be able to go into a warren through a hole, but others, like foxes, cats, hawks and the like cannot. But if any of the elil try, they will find themselves face to face with the Owsla.
Storytelling and Rabbit Lore
Storytelling is a big part of rabbit life. Their hero, El-ahrairah, is to them what Robin Hood is to the english and what your hero is to you. Many of their stories consist of the adventures of El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle, his faithful captian of the Owsla. Any and all storytellers are welcomed, poets included. If you are especially good at storytelling, you may find yourself a well-liked member of the warren, maybe even part of the Owsla for it.Here are a few characters included in many stories
El-ahrairah - The prince of the rabbits, their hero. Pronounced Ella, like the girl's name, the second part, hrair, rhymes with fair, and rah rhymes with spa. The two r's should be rolled.
Rabscuttle - Captian of El-ahrairah's Owsla, his faithful companion
Frith - the Lord of all the world. He is the sun, making his journey over the world each day. He often helps El-ahrairah by offering his wisdom
Prince Rainbow - servant to Lord Frith, he can either make things harder on El-ahrairah or help him.
Inle, the Black Rabbit - Inle is death, he is the one by whose command the rabbit does not see the gun or does not watch for a snare. When the stoat dances his hypontising dance in front of a rabbit, Inle is near. By his command does a rabbit die. He is not evil, he is just doing as Lord Frith commands, what needs to be done. But he will avenage a rabbit who was killed without his word.
Put together any story you like, whether it is about El-ahrairah or an adventure someone has had, or just made up about nothing.
[The Story][Lapine Glossary][Becoming a Seer and Chief Rabbit]
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