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Title: The Book of Three
Series:
The Prydain Chronicles #1
Author: Lloyd
Alexander
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Fantasy
Pages: 110
Words: 47K
From
Wikipedia.com
The youth Taran lives at Caer Dallben
with his guardians, the ancient enchanter Dallben and the farmer and
retired soldier Coll. Taran is dissatisfied with his life, and longs
to become a great hero like the High Prince Gwydion. Due to the
threat posed by a warlord known as the Horned King, servant of the
evil Arawn Death-Lord of Annuvin, Taran is forbidden from leaving the
farm and charged with the care of Hen Wen, the oracular white pig.
When Hen Wen inexplicably panics and escapes, Taran follows her into
the Forbidden Forest. After a long, fruitless chase, he is attacked
by a host of horsemen galloping toward Caer Dallben, led by the
Horned King himself. Taran manages to escape, but drops to the
ground, wounded. He awakes to find his wound treated by Gwydion, the
crown prince in Prydain's ruling House of Don, who has been
travelling to Caer Dallben to consult Hen Wen. Gwydion, determined to
find the pig, takes Taran along with him. Guided by Gurgi, a hairy
humanoid living in the forest, they reach the Horned King's camp, and
learn that his target will be Caer Dathyl, the home castle of the
House of Don. Gwydion determines to warn the royal court, but the
group is attacked by Arawn's undead Cauldron-Born soldiers, who
capture Gwydion and Taran, and take them to Queen Achren in Spiral
Castle.
The sorceress asks Gwydion to help her
to overthrow Arawn—her former apprentice and consort who usurped
her throne and claimed the Iron Crown of Annuvin for his own—and to
join her in ruling Prydain together. When Gwydion refuses, he is
imprisoned, but not in the same place as Taran. Princess Eilonwy, who
was sent by her kinsmen as a young girl to learn enchantment from
Achren, visits Taran's dungeon cell, and agrees to free first his
companion, and then him. While travelling through a labyrinth of
tunnels to join Gwydion and his horse Melyngar outside the castle,
Taran and Eilonwy steal weapons from a tomb. As they emerge into the
woods, Spiral Castle collapses; they later learn that this is because
the weapon Eilonwy has taken is the legendary sword Dyrnwyn. Eilonwy
has misunderstood Taran's request to free his companion, for the man
waiting outside is not Gwydion, but another former prisoner of the
castle: Fflewddur Fflam, a king by birth but a wandering bard by
choice. The three search the ruins, then mourn Gwydion's presumed
death, and decide to take up his task to warn Caer Dathyl.
Rejoined by Gurgi, but pursued by the
Cauldron-Born, the group is driven far east of their northward
course, and ends up in the underground realm of the Fair Folk, who
have rescued Hen Wen. The Fair Folk's King Eiddileg grudgingly agrees
to let Taran have her back, re-equip their party, and provide a
guide, a dwarf called Doli. On their journey to Caer Dathyl, against
Fflewddur and Doli's advice, Taran rescues an injured fledgling
gwythaint, one of the great birds of prey that Arawn has enslaved.
The gwythaint recovers quickly and escapes overnight, shortly
followed by Hen Wen, who flees just before the Horned King's army
spots them all. Fflewddur, Doli, and Gurgi stand to fight, while
Taran and Eilonwy go ahead on Melyngar, with the Horned King in
pursuit. On the top of a hill, the Horned King attacks them, and
breaks Taran's sword on the first blow. Taran seizes Dyrnwyn from
Eilonwy, but lacks the "noble birth" needed to draw it.
White flame burns his arm, and throws him to the ground. Just before
losing consciousness, Taran sees another man in the trees and hears
an unintelligible word. The Horned King's mask melts and he bursts
into flame.
When Taran awakens, he learns that the
man who destroyed the Horned King was Gwydion, who had been with
Achren at another stronghold when Spiral Castle fell. After
withstanding Achren's torture, he learned to understand the hearts of
all creatures, and was able to communicate first with the gwythaint,
and then with Hen Wen after finding them in the forest. From the
oracular pig he learned how to destroy the Horned King, by saying his
secret name. Recognizing his nobility, Eilonwy gives Dyrnwyn to him,
while Taran and his companions are to receive treasures from Caer
Dathyl in recognition of service to the House of Don. Eilonwy
receives a ring made by the Fair Folk, Gurgi a wallet of food that
cannot be depleted, Fflewddur a golden harp string that can never
break, Doli the ability to turn invisible (which he unusually lacks).
Taran—who in the course of his adventures has realized that Caer
Dallben is where he most wants to be—asks only to return home.
Gwydion accompanies him back to Caer Dallben, along with Eilonwy, Hen
Wen, and Gurgi, who take up residence there as well.
SEPARATOR
I read this multiple times in middle and highschool (grades 6-12 for
you non-Americans) and then once again in 2006. But as was my wont
back in those days, I don’t really give a synopsis and I didn’t
review each book individually. So I wanted to go into this and read
all 5 books on their own and see what I thought of them now.
I am still very pleased with how much I enjoyed this. What struck me
the most though on this read was just how derivative of Tolkien this
was. Part of that may be because Alexander was using a lot of the
same base material as Tolkien, but I really think he modeled a lot of
his writing on Tolkien. And for this series, I am perfectly ok with
that. I’ll explain why in the next paragraph (just in case you
decided to stop reading and go off in a huff, which is something I’ve
been known to do once in a while, hahahahaha).
This is a strictly middle grade series. It is meant for tweens and
middle teens. By the time someone hits their late teens, I think it
might be too late to “introduce” this to them. It was also
written for that age group. While it doesn’t pander and is still
well written, it takes into account the mental and physiological
differences between a child and an adult. Kids need books written FOR
them and Taran and Eilonwy represent children in the purest sense. I
would give this to a tween long before I’d give them the Lord of
the Rings. LotR is meant for adults and while children can read it,
they simply aren’t quite ready for it. So give them Prydain and let
them become familiar with the old legends and mythologies.
The cover I have used here is not the cover I grew up with. That’s
fine but I like the original better. I think I will showcase all the
older covers on the final book review, so I can talk about it as a
whole separate issue instead of cluttering up each review with
essentially the same paragraph of blather :-D
★★★★★