Hazel (Watership Down)

Hazel is a fictional rabbit, the central character in Richard Adams's fantasy novel "Watership Down". He is the brother of Fiver, and the two begin the book living in the warren at Sandleford. While they are at Sandleford, when Fiver predicts of disaster at their warren, Hazel believes him and helps Fiver organize some of the Sandleford rabbits to leave and find a new warren.

The other rabbits who escaped with him from Sandleford Warren choose him as leader because of his courage. Hazel was not the fastest, nor the strongest, nor the cleverest rabbit, but he was the most courageous. When General Woundwort came to attack Watership Down, Hazel set out alone to negotiate peace with Woundwort and his top Owsla. His leadership rested in his courage, his ability to utilize the abilities of others for the common good, and his ability to encourage the best in others. Hazel encouraged the fearful rabbits through the forest in their first night outside Sandleford.

The epilogue of the novel tells how Hazel wakes one morning in his burrow to find another rabbit beside him, wishing to speak with him. The other rabbit invites Hazel to "join my Owsla". The two go outside, where Hazel leaves his body "lying on the edge of the ditch" and follows the other rabbit away. The strange rabbit is never named. In the burrow, Hazel does not recognize it at first, when it asks whether he does, but then answers, "Yes, my lord. Yes, I know you", after noticing that "the stranger's ears were shining with a faint silver light," which identified the rabbit to him as El-ahrairah, a figure in rabbit mythology. In the film, the strange rabbit has the same appearance as the Black Rabbit of Inlé.

Hazel also appears in Adams's later book, "Tales from Watership Down". In this book he and (Hyzenthlay) act as chief rabbits and he takes charge of the warren more so than in the previous book.