Rabbit of Caerbannog
The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog is a fictional character in the Monty Python film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." The scene in "Holy Grail" was written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese. The rabbit is the antagonist in a major set piece battle, and makes a similar appearance in "Spamalot", a musical inspired by the movie. The iconic status of this scene was important in establishing the viability of the musical. In the film. The Cave of Caerbannog is the home of the Legendary Black Beast of Arrrghhh. This is guarded by a monster which is  initially unknown. King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his knights are led to the cave by Tim the Enchanter (John Cleese) and find that they must face its guardian beast. Tim verbally paints a picture of a monster so terrible as to have killed everyone who has tried to enter the cave, and warns them, "death awaits you all – with nasty, big, pointy teeth!". As the knights approach the cave and the rabbit, their "horses" become nervous, forcing the knights to dismount. Sir Robin (Eric Idle) soils his armour from the description of it, before everyone except Tim sizes it up  as merely an innocuous white rabbit. Despite the cave's entrance being surrounded by the bones of "full fifty men" fallen, Arthur and his knights no longer take it seriously. Ignoring Tim's warnings ("a vicious streak a mile wide!"), King Arthur orders Bors (Terry Gilliam) to chop the rabbit's head off. Bors draws his sword and confidently approaches it. The rabbit suddenly leaps at least eight feet directly at Sir Bors' neck and bites clean through it in a single motion, decapitating him to the sound of a can opener. Despite their initial shock, Sir Robin soiling his  armour again, and Tim's loud scoffing, the knights attack in force, but the rabbit injures several of the knights and kills Gawain and Ector with ease. The knights themselves have no hope of killing or injuring the rabbit. Arthur panics and shouts for the knights to retreat ("Run away!"). Sir Lancelot ask if taunting the rabbit could cause a mistake, Sir Robin asks if running away "more" would confuse it, and Sir Galahad suggest bows. Knowing they cannot risk attacking again, they try to find another way to defeat the beast. The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is  ultimately used to kill the rabbit and allow the quest to proceed. Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is a visual satire of the Sovereign's Orb of the United Kingdom, and may refer to the mythical Holy Spear of Antioch. The Holy Hand Grenade is described as one of the "sacred relics" carried by Brother Maynard (Idle). Despite its ornate appearance and long-winded instructions, it functions much the same as any other hand grenade. At King Arthur's prompting, instructions for its use are read aloud (by Michael Palin) from the fictitious "Book  of Armaments," Chapter 2, verses 9–21, parodying the King James Bible and the Athanasian Creed: Arthur then pulls the pin, holds up the Holy Hand Grenade and cries out "One! Two! Five!" Sir Galahad (Palin) corrects him: "Three, sir!" (Arthur's innumeracy is a running gag in the picture). Arthur then yells "Three!" and hurls the grenade towards the rabbit. The grenade soars through the air – accompanied by a short bit of angelic choral a cappella – bounces, and explodes. The killer rabbit is defeated, and the hapless knights errant continue on their quest. The noise also attracts policemen who were  investigating the murder of a historian by a mounted knight earlier in the film. Production. The rabbit scene was shot outside the Tomnadashan mine, a cave 4 miles (6.5 km) from the Perthshire village of Killin. For the 25th anniversary DVD, Michael Palin and Terry Jones returned to be interviewed in front of the cave but they could not remember the location. The rabbit was portrayed in the movie by both a real rabbit and a puppet. The name "Caerbannog", though fictitious, does reference real world Welsh naming traditions. In this case, the element "caer-" implies the presence of a  castle, as with Caerdydd (Cardiff) and Caerphilly, while "bannog" can have a variety of meanings, the most apposite here being "turreted". Antecedents. The tale of the rabbit has a parallel in the early story of the Roman de Renart in which a foe takes hubristic pride in his defeat of a ferocious hare: The idea for the rabbit in the movie was taken from the façade of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. This illustrates the weakness of cowardice by showing a knight fleeing from a rabbit. There is also a 1964 book about rabies infected rabbits "The Year  of the Angry Rabbit". Merchandise. The rabbit has been reproduced in the form of merchandise associated with the movie or musical. Such items include cuddly toys, slippers and staplers. The plush killer rabbit was rated the second geekiest plush toy of all time by Matt Blum of the GeekDad blog on Wired.com, coming second to the plush Cthulhu. Reception. The rabbit was declared the top movie bunny by David Cheal in "The Daily Telegraph". It also ranked high in an Easter 2008 poll to establish Britain's best movie rabbit, coming third to Roger Rabbit and Frank from "Donnie Darko . In popular culture. The rabbit is sometimes used as a metaphor for something which seems ostensibly harmless but is, in fact, deadly. Such hidden but real risks may even arise from similarly cuddly animals. The humour of the scene comes from this inversion of the usual framework by which safety and danger are judged. Four years after the release of the movie, Killer Rabbit" was the term used widely by the press to describe the swamp rabbit that "attacked" then U.S. President Jimmy Carter while he was fishing on a farm pond.