The Golden Carrots
The Golden Carrots are a myth that is popular among Wererabbits and Rabbitfolk. Some include it as part of the El-Ahrairah myth cycle. Like many other mythological foods in folk tales and epics, they are said to be the ideal food. In some tales, they have healing, magical, or restorative powers, while in others, they are said to bestow immortality. To the Bunny Peoples, they are somewhat akin to ambrosia or the Fruits of Immortality.
Summary
There are many legends of golden carrots, especially among the Rabbitfolk and House Lapin. They often have slightly different characteristics. This one is Queen Sable Aradia's favourite:
When El-Ahrairah and Rabscuttle returned from Inlé, they found that the world had moved on without them. Generations had passed in their warren. While some still lived who remembered the war that had driven them to their desperate attempt to bargain with the The Black Rabbit, to most, it was a mere footnote in history.
Many have told of how Frith visited El-Ahrairah in his burrow after his terrible journey, and made a gift to him of new ears, new whiskers, and a new tail to replace those he had lost, and that these were touched with a hint of starlight. But while this healed El-Ahrairah's wounded body, it did not heal his spirit.
While they were permitted to stay by the warren of their birth (for of course they could not hide their smell,) El-Ahrairah was no longer The Chief Rabbit, and Rabscuttle was no longer Owsla. They were outskirters, regarded by some as slightly mad, perhaps. Bigger rabbits did not bully them, since word of where they had been soon spread, and they were regarded with grudging respect — but nobody sought them out for conversation, either.
This, as nothing else had, brought the legendary trickster low. For how could they talk about what they had been through? And if they couldn't do that, how could they talk about anything? Once widely known for his charm, his wit, his gregariousness, El-Ahrairah spent much of his time curled up in his burrow, alone in the dark, or wandering the nearby hills with only Rabscuttle for company.
Rabscuttle, too, was not unchanged by the horrors they had seen, the terrors and suffering they had witnessed. Nightmares plagued him so that he and El-Ahrairah could often not sleep in the same burrow, as they had been accustomed to. He would scratch and kick and squeal sometimes until El-Ahrairah bit him to wake him up.
"My lord, this can't continue," said Rabscuttle at last.
"I'm no longer lord of anything," El-Ahrairah said. "But you're right, this cannot continue." For even he realized how much he was in the grip of his despair, and he was disgusted with himself. He forced himself to stand up. "But it seems, my friend, that I have run out of tricks. All I really want to do is rest safe here in my hole. I'm weary to the marrow of my bones. Do you have any ideas?"
"Yes," said Rabscuttle immediately. "I think we should search for the Golden Carrots."
El-Ahrairah cocked one ear. For it was said that when Frith sank to the earth to sleep each night, for just a moment, His golden rays would blaze their brightest. And sometimes those rays would impart a little bit of Frith's light into whatever they touched. Like the Golden Carrots.
Twice as big as a carrot should be, but tender like a young garden carrot in June. Juicy and so sweet they tasted like honey. Shining with a spark of Frith's light, even in the deepest dark. Able to cure all that ailed a rabbit, even the White Blindness or a sickness of the soul.
Or at least, that was what El-Ahrairah and Rabscuttle had heard.
But, where to find them? For it was also said that one never knew where Frith would lay His head. West, yes, but how far? El-Ahrairah had barely made it home to his warren after the travails of Inlé. He was not ready for another long journey.
"Let me think on it," he said, and he went to the highest point on the warren grounds and looked over the strangers of his warren, and he ate dandelions and watched Frith set in the hills to see if he could think of where Frith might be going to ground. Surely, in their journey to and from Inlé, which was at the edge of the world, they must have seen the place?
Rabscuttle joined him on the fifth day. "Have you any ideas yet, my lord?" he asked.
"No," said El-Ahrairah, "but I suppose we shouldn't let that stop us. Come on, old friend. Let's start the journey and see where it takes us."
So El-Ahrairah and Rabscuttle headed off into the wilderness, and where they wandered, or how far, no one can say. But at every garden they found, they stopped and searched for the Golden Carrots. And they found nothing except elil. They were pursued by dogs, cats, farmers, foxes, stoats, even a hrududu that chased them over a field like a hawk. Some of these stories are tales for another time.
After a thousand days, they came to a place that smelled familiar. Sniffing about, they found they were in a garden that was not far from their own warren.
They were back where they had started.
Perhaps a lesser rabbit may have gone tharn then from despair. But not El-Ahrairah. "It seems we misheard the tales," he said to Rabscuttle. "Perhaps we should have gone the other way."
Rabscuttle was much cheered. This was the El-Ahrairah he had once known, the irrepressible scamp that was his master and his dearest friend. They scuffled playfully.
It was then that another rabbit approached them, a rabbit who smelled familiar. She did not take her time, like a stranger, allowing herself to be noticed. She scampered up to El-Ahrairah and nuzzled him with joy.
"Grandfather!" she said. "You've come back! We thought something awful must have happened to you! You've been terribly missed!"
El-Ahrairah was genuinely surprised. "I wasn't sure anyone would even notice we were gone," he said.
"What? Grandfather, why in Frith's name would you think that? Do you think I don't remember the stories you used to tell me of your adventures? How you and Uncle Rabscuttle fought the soldiers while I ate a few mouthfuls of quackgrass at a time in the war? How you used to put your body at the door of my burrow so I could stay warm? You should come with me. You would be proud, grandfather! We have tricked the farm dog into thinking we are ghosts, and so he won't bother us. There's flayrah to be had."
So El-Ahrairah and Rabscuttle followed her into the garden, and there they found the Golden Carrots, which had been right there waiting for them all along, as soon as they had the heart to see.
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Golden Carrots by Pixabay/Sable Aradia
Date of First Recording
Earliest recordings of Golden Carrots as a magical food date to the Early Middle Ages in Lapin literature
Date of Setting
In the time when the world was made
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El-Ahrairah as seen in Sable Aradia's vision by Tempest Kwake
Historical Basis
Recently, El-Ahrairah's Garden at The Warren has managed to produce golden-coloured carrots that seem to emit some sort of golden bioluminescence. The carrots are larger than typical for their species and remarkably sweet. While it seems unlikely that they are imbued with the rays of Frith, they appear from initial inspection to be charged with Literomantic Power, likely as a side effect of the extreme Literomantic activity at the Warren. Literomantic scholars have proposed that their existence at least suggests that they may have indeed existed before, when literomancy was more common. Studies are underway to determine if these carrots do have any healing properties.
Frith by Pixabay
Frith (one example of a religious symbol) by Pixabay
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Author's Notes
This story was written in homage to Richard Adams' classic novel, Watership Down, and is told in the style of the rabbit folklore that was such a feature in the novel, which I love with all my heart.