How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
There is a rabbit saying, "In the warren, more stories than passages"; and a rabbit can no more refuse to tell a story than an Irishman can refuse to fight. Hazel and his friends conferred. After a short time Blackberry announced, "We've asked Hazel to tell you about our adventures: how we made our journey here and had the good luck to join you." (14.103)
There are lots of examples in the book of how storytelling is natural to rabbits, as we hear here, provided we're not distracted by the offensive Irishman line. Also, one great thing about stories—besides the fact that they're easy to pack and carry from warren to warren—is that you can update stories to tell your own history.
Quote #5
"Very nice," said Cowslip. He seemed to be searching for something more to say, but then repeated, "Yes, very nice. An unusual tale."
"But he must know it, surely?" muttered Blackberry to Hazel.
"I always think these traditional stories retain a lot of charm," said another of the rabbits, "especially when they're told in the real, old-fashioned spirit."
"Yes," said Strawberry. "Conviction, that's what it needs. You really have to believe in El-ahrairah and Prince Rainbow, don't you? Then all the rest follows." (16.5-8)
We laugh whenever we read Cowslip's rabbits' reactions to Dandelion's storytelling—they're such jerks trying to find something nice to say. (Somehow, whenever jerks try to be nice, they only ever highlight their jerkiness.) It's clear from their reaction that the El-ahrairah stories don't mean much to these rabbits. So it follows that these rabbits don't share the same values (or the same sense of community), which will be made even clearer later, when Cowslip leaves Bigwig to die in a trap. Stay classy, Cowslip.
Quote #6
"You felt it, then? And you want to know whether I did? Of course I did. That's the worst part of it. There isn't any trick. He speaks the truth. So as long as he speaks the truth it can't be folly—that's what you're going to say, isn't it? I'm not blaming you, Hazel. I felt myself moving toward him like one cloud drifting into another. But then at the last moment I drifted wide. Who knows why?" (16. 29)
Fiver may not make a lot of sense to us when he talks about freaking out over Silverweed's poem, but that's what we've come to expect from Fiver. What's curious about Fiver's freak-out is that he accepts the poem as a sort of truth and still freaks out over it. How do you deal with a truth that freaks you out? Probably by making tracks in the opposite direction.