The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [56]
When Allan Quatermain and his friends finally cross over the great mountain barrier, they have similarly reached the halfway point of their story. They have at last left behind the torturing heat of the desert, and they find themselves looking down on the breathtakingly beautiful, lush countryside of Solomon's lost kingdom, ringed by blue mountains. They are greeted by the natives as gods, and led along a great, ancient highway to the capital, where they find that the country is under the evil sway of the tyrranical King Twala, and his hideous old henchwoman, the witch Gagool, hundreds of years old.
They discover that their mysteriously regal companion on the journey, Umbopa, is in fact the true king of this land, returning to claim his throne from the usurper Twala; and again, like other heroes, they have to face three ordeals. In the first they fall into Twala's power, while attempting to rescue the beautiful Foulata, a local girl who has become attached to them. By cunning use of the almanac predicting a lunar eclipse, they terrify Twala's followers and make `a thrilling escape from death. Second is the great battle between the followers of Twala and those of Umbopa, which culminates in the tyrant's death. Thirdly, the climax to the whole story, is their journey with Gagool into the series of vast, mysterious caves in the heart of the mountains, which turns into a combination of `visit to the underworld', `overcoming the monster"' liberating the treasure from the dark enclosing space' and `thrilling escape from death' all in one. In one cavern they find the petrified corpses of the kings of the land, sitting round a stone table. In the last they come across the legendary treasure of Solomon, the richest hoard of diamonds the world has ever known, shining in the darkness. At this point, Gagool, the `guardian of the treasure, creeps back `like a snake' and `with a look of fearful malevolence' swings shut the great stone door - but in the process crushing herself to death. The heroes are trapped in the eternal darkness and prepare to die. Only in the nick of time, like Aladdin trapped in his treasure cave, do they miraculously find a way out: threading their way, like Theseus, through the labyrinth of secret passages which lead them at last up and out into the cool, fresh air of the mountainside.
When the little band of male rabbits arrives on Watership Down, they are at much the same halfway point of their story as Aeneas and the Trojans when they arrive in Italy. They have reached their goal, but they must now face the task of finding some female rabbits with whom they can found a lasting community; and the rest of the book tells of their tremendous struggle with the fearful Efrafa, a warren some way off which is run like a totalitarian prison by the grim tyrant General Woundwort, where it just happens that a group of young female rabbits are imprisoned, led by the beautiful and intelligent Hyzenthlay. There is a'thrilling escape', when these young `rabbit princesses' are liberated. General Woundwort, as Avenger, comes hot in pursuit with a band of Efrafan thugs, to `reclaim his own'. There is a great battle back on Watership Down, with Hazel and his friends seemingly trapped in the `dark enclosing space' of their warrren. But just when all seems lost, Hazel ingeniously manages to enlist the