Book Review

(Re-upload. I finished these some time before the previous entry but it got deleted by mistake) 

The Chronicles of Prydain, Lloyd Alexander

I was inspired to get this set after seeing something regarding the Disney movie, The Black Cauldron. Something about how it didn’t do well at the box office, and it didn’t. I remember when it came out but I don’t think we got that one and I only remember bits and pieces of it. Perhaps it was mishandled. Anyway, I was wondering if it was based on a book, and low and behold, I found five books with The Black Cauldron being the second of the series. The name Prydain sounded familiar and I remembered that my friend Jenny, had recommended the Prydain series some time ago, so I took a chance on ordering the whole series since it wasn’t overly expensive anyway. 

I’ve since had a chance to wonder-why is it sold so cheaply? This is an excellent series, and should better known that what it appears to be. Of course, I’m always late to the table on such things so maybe it’s more popular than I’m aware. It’s a YA high fantasy series that channels the spirit of Tolkien’s Middle Earth sagas. It’s also plainly a strong influence for British writer J.K. Rowling when she was composing the Harry Potter universe, since Prydain is not so subtly steeped in a Welsh setting and written during Rowling’s childhood years. It could almost be the young adult version of the Lord of the Rings series, except it’s less complex, quicker paced, and not as heavy with more humor infused into it. And the method Alexander employs to develop the characters is the same layout Rowling chose for Harry Potter. She follows Harry’s growth from year to year, as Alexander follows main character, Taran’s growth from the time he’s, perhaps, 15 until his early 20’s. His age and the time passed isn’t as clear in this story. But with each entry he gains experience, wisdom, and the tales have less and less of a children’s tale feel to them. 

The first entry, The Book of Three, is the lightest of the stories. It introduces the characters around a kingdom with a very rich background for as simplified and child friendly as the writing is. Prydain was once ruled by and evil enchantress, Achren, that was overthrown by an even more evil Enchanter, Arawn.  He’s struggling for power against the rightful High King of the land and the smaller kingdoms, cantrevs, that pledge loyalty to him. Adopted Taran lives with an old farmer and powerful enchanter on a farm with a prophesying pig, dreams of battle and glory. He is thrust into the chance to find it when the pig is scared away by the dark forces hunting it and he goes to retrieve her. But it doesn’t give away too much at once, which is something I appreciated in the Potter series and others of its ilk. The pig does no prophesying in this book. Nor do you find out the old farmer is a retired warrior. The Book of Three that is owned by the old wizard isn’t even explained to any kind of satisfaction. But along the way to find the pig, Hen Wen, the world is build and he meets the important characters that will accompany him through is adventures and growth. He teams with a bard named Fflewddur Fflam (obvious Welsh influence on spellings, lol) who is a king by birth but prefers to travel the country practicing his art with a harp that forces him to be truthful since he has a tendency to embellish his stories. Love that harp. The heir to the kingdom of Prydain under the High King befriends him and a scraggly simpleton kind of creature called Gurgi, the comic relief and sort of Gollum element only he becomes the most loyal pet-type of person. He also meets the co-main character Princess Eilonwy who is beholden to Achren at first but an enchantress in her own right who becomes an invaluable equal partner to Taran challenging his views of her station as a woman and a lady in need of protection and to be bound to her castle. It was the 60’s after all. But what I love most about Eilonwy is the similes and comparisons that Alexander afforded to this character. It’s such a smart and funny way of teaching proverbial truths that are more heavy handed and poetic in adult centered novels. Just a few examples, I can’t resist: 

"If you stop now, then you've given up Adaon's brooch for nothing! That's worse than putting a necklace on an owl and letting it fly away!"

"He helped us – he certainly did that, just the way a robber helps you tidy up your house!"

"The only thing you have to decide is how we shall escape from this tent. If you're thinking of anything else, you're wasting your time. That's like wondering whether to scratch your head when a boulder's about to fall on it."

"It's silly," Eilonwy added, "to worry because you can't do something you simply can't do. That's worse than trying to make yourself taller by standing on your head."

"I can't stand people who say 'I told you so.' That's worse than somebody coming up and eating your dinner before you have a chance to sit down."

These phases pepper her dialogue throughout every book she appears in and I had to start wondering after a while how Alexander could keep coming up with all of them. She’s a wonderful character. The voice of wisdom. She’s probably still too secondary for modern tastes, but for my part she’s just right. The characters are rounded out with Doli a dwarf of the Fair Folk who wants nothing more than to be able to turn himself invisible. A wish granted that he would later regret to much ongoing advantage and humor. 

Anyway, like all good prolonged series, even though there’s an overarching enemy that must be dealt with in the end, each book has separate antagonists that must be defeated to wrap up each part of the story. The antagonist in this book is the Horned King, one of Arawn’s captains who is a large menacing force commanding an army of undead warriors of undefeatable strength. The team dispatches the Horned King with the help of the old wizard, Dallben and sends the enemy retreating for a while, but it’s only the first of many battles. The end is happy and everyone survives.

The second book, The Black Cauldron, raises the stakes by placing the characters in closer proximity to the primary antagonist. It has a darker tone and real tension between Taran and a new character, Ellidyr, a young man with the title of Prince but who has no kingdom, is impoverished and has an enormous chip on his shoulder about it. Several cantrevs get together to plot an assault on Arawn’s castle to capture and destroy the magic cauldron that is used to create his undead super-soldiers. Taran is entrusted with more responsibility as he grows and begins to see the hardship of finding adventure and glory and the dark side that drives the wayward prince. The politics of the land grow more complicated as well as you see that not all cantrevs are loyal to the High King; Arawn has allies as well. Taran gets a new friend, a crow named Kaw, a wonderful plot device allowing long distance spying and communication. With his friends old and new, and butting heads with Ellidyr the whole way, he finds the cauldron and learns hard lessons about the prices that are paid for gaining your desires from three witches of the Marshes of Morva. Their presence is an exhilarating addition. He also sees first hand the sacrifice that is necessary to win this battle. The ending is bittersweet and begins adding depth to the series. I can see how the Disney treatment of the story could leave it lacking in substance.

The Castle of Llyr turns its attention to Eilonwy. The wizard Dallben decides that she is to be sent to the Isle of Mona for a proper upbringing as a princess. She’s also arranged to be married to the Prince of Mona, Rhun who is a hilariously irritating buffoon, lacking the life experience to be a king and is a drag on Taran’s progress as he needs eventually needs to rescue Eilonwy from Achren who wishes to reclaim her hold on the princess. It’s a new and different layer of growth for Taran as he must swallow his jealousy and resentment of the silly and immature Rhun who is thrust on him for mentoring before Eilonwy is kidnapped and accompanies him on his journey. Unlike Ellidyr, Rhun is actually an affable young man with nothing but the best intentions, so neither Taran nor the reader has just cause to hate this character. Taran also recognizes that Rhun’s right to be wed to Eilonwy is legitimate since he is of a high, noble birth and he, Taran, has no known pedigree. It’s a lesson in maturity and accepting that you can’t always have things your way in life. Of course, Eilonwy has no real interest in Rhun, although she remains polite to him and engaged after the events of this book, but not submitting to a marriage right away because she always follows her own rules first. Rhun also learn some lessons along the way, gaining Taran’s grudging respect. The introduction of Llyan, an enchantedly overgrown, wildly dangerous, female cat who becomes Fflewddur Flam’s protective beast, is so wonderful and special. In the end Eilonwy renounces her enchantress powers to break Achren who wanted to use Eilonwy to strengthen herself and overthrow Arawn to rule all of Prydain again. Again, this Eilonwy is most likely too much of a damsel in distress trope for modern preferences that wouldn’t approve of her opting out of a more powerful presence, but I think she’s the perfect female influence for young women as she’s used throughout the series when lessons for young girls are needed in the narrative.

The fourth book, Taran Wanderer, is probably my favorite. It’s very sedate compared to the action driven narratives of the first three. It’s actually quite a chance for an author to take with a series that is geared towards tweens and teens. It is also a story for Taran alone; Eilonwy doesn’t appear in this entry and Alexander apologizes for it. Distraught after his last adventure with Rhun and Eilonwy, Taran asks for permission to seek out his heritage and find out once and for all if he could possibly be qualified to ask for Eilonwy’s hand in marriage. And as the title indicates, he wanders to and from various cantrevs, with a vague notion of seeking The Mirror of Llunet, a pool of water in the mountains that, legend has it, can reveal his bloodline to him. He learns lessons in leadership, patience, hard work, being observant of your surroundings, and honor. He finds himself mediating peace between two warring cantrevs. His hopes are dashed by a poor hermit pretending to be his father but he learns to overcome the resentment after he learns the truth. He tries to find a way of applying himself in the world in the Free Commots, a series of enclaves that have no king, but are collectively loyal to the High King of Prydain. Therein he learns many different skills from many different tradesmen and women as he procrastinates in his original quest for the Mirror. But he must also help Doli and the Fair Folk battle an evil sorcerer that has been terrorizing them as well as a gang of criminals that terrorize the Commots, all of which push him to his goal. His goal which shows him nothing and is destroyed before he can examine the pool anyway. But he comes away from the experience at peace with his common heritage and a much better person for all the experience he gained with his life teachers. Like I said, kind of risky for a book aimed at teenagers, but it’s too compelling to put down. And as an adult, I could feel the lessons in a different way than young adults would.

The High King is the conclusion and final battle with Arawn. The way it’s laid out makes me smile with satisfaction to know that the way the final HP novel was handled derived so much influence from this book. Arawn pulls a power move by stealing the magic sword of the High King’s heir and secures an alliance with another powerful cantrev in order to overthrow him and any of the loyal people left in Prydain. The book brings back characters and plot devices that were unique to other books to help defeat the evil enchanter. From a corrupted, enemy bird that Taran captures and nurses in the first book coming back to help, to the magic sword itself which was discovered in much mystery in the first book and is directly related to the defeat of the remaining undead soldiers. Hen Wen is shown prophesying. Eilonwy comes back from Mona where Rhun is now king. They both participate in the battle where Rhun valiantly (and conveniently) sacrifices himself having finally become a man and worthy king. Even Achren has a part to play. Taran loses many friends, all carefully chosen deaths by Alexander and all helping to elevate Taran to a position of leadership and glory that he is now comfortable in, if not entirely delighted with like he thought he would be when he dreamed of glory as a boy on his farm. And the end was taken straight from Tolkien. All of his friends are given the opportunity to go to a place of peace and immortality.  He is given the opportunity as well. But he remembers the promises that he made and chooses to stay to try to honor them. That’s when the Book of Three is explained as having a prophecy of a new High King of unknown birth one day to rule the land. The three witches return in this one and the previous book to help seal Taran’s fate. Eilonwy is given the chance to move on as well but she chooses to stay with Taran, (choosing a mortal life.. Arwen anyone?) marry him, and become queen of the land that they will have to labor hard to rebuild. And they do.  And it’s a wonderful end to the story.

I recommend this set to anyone who loves the fantasy genre who maybe hasn’t heard of this series or has forgotten. Don’t even hesitate, just get all five books. Not one of them is disappointing.