Long before I fell in love with writing I fell in love with reading. Sometimes, honestly, I feel like I’m cheating on my first love when I settle into my office chair to start work on the latest manuscript. Back in my younger years I read an average of a book a day. That was when I was going to school full time and working a job after school 30 hours or more a week. Even now, years later, there are stories that I remember vividly. Some of them I remember so well and love so deeply that despite never having enough hours in the day I go back and read them again.
One series that I’ve done that with several times is Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain, including The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King.
By the time I first ran across those books I’d already read a great deal of fantasy. Most of what I’d run across was (or at least seemed to me) a recycling of what Tolkien had done better with The Lord of the Rings. There were exceptions, and quite a few of them, like Michael Moorcock’s Elric and Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and, of course, Robert E. Howard’s Conan, but the exceptions were mostly in the form of collected short stories. I loved them but there was something of a gap left that I was barely aware of.
And then I read The Book of Three. It started like so many of the stories I’d read, with a young boy on the cusp of manhood in a less-than-glorious position and hoping and dreaming of better things for himself. Better things that never quite seemed to come around. And then, his world is changed.
Prydain is very much its own place, but steeped in the traditional stories of Welsh mythology, stories I was familiar with, but never really all that taken by. Alexander’s writing changed all of that. His prose is direct. He seldom went into long and flowery descriptions, instead giving only small hints about what a character might look like and letting the reader connect the dots to find the hidden details. That stood out with me, because I have always preferred to draw my own conclusions on many things, and that includes what characters look like.
The story might have been the typical fare from when I started reading fantasy, it could have fallen into the very mold that drove me away from fantasy fiction for a while. The basic story I seemed to keep running across came down to this: lad dreams of adventure, laments the mundane existence, finds himself confronted by an Ancient Evil, and as the story progresses finds The Item Of Power that can save the world. Now, at that point, the lad becomes the Future Champion, if only he can somehow be kept safe by his new friends and the brave soldiers who will defend him until he can get where he’s going. Not all that much like The Lord of the Rings, but I can’t help seeing certain elements that keep creeping in. All of these things came up all too often and, if you were lucky, you could also run across the prophesy that demanded our hero alone could save the day.
There are some of those very elements in The Chronicles of Prydain, if I’m being honest. There are definitely a few similarities and I suspect Tolkien had his influence on Alexander, though I’ve no proof of it.
I said the story might have been the typical fare. Happily, it was not.
Instead—without giving away too much, I hope—Taran, the apprentice to a pig farmer who wanted so much more for himself, quickly finds himself deep above his head and drowning in chaos.
He does, in fact, run across a mythical Weapon of Power, and the very first time he tries to draw the blade he gets a serious lesson in humility. All the daydreams in the world have not prepared him to deal with a weapon that can only be drawn by somebody worthy of wielding it.
That is the moment that Taran’s real quest begins. Not the quest to defeat Arawn Death-Lord, though that is the name of the Ancient Evil in this particular case. No, his quest in a very real sense, is to survive growing up. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter deals with a similar crisis in the books that share his name. Stephen King and Peter Straub’s Jack Sawyer suffers the same ordeal in The Talisman. It is not a new concept. Coming of age stories are legion. The difference is in how the story is told.
Taran grows because he is physically maturing and because he is slowly, methodically, stripped of his innocence in many ways and forced to make choices that are, frankly, the sort that should be made by adults. Lloyd Alexander says, through the mouth of one of the wondrous characters in the books, that there are “Three principles of learning; see much, study much, and suffer much.” (That’s in quotations, but I am paraphrasing). Taran is forced to learn in order to become an adult. In order to, in time, be ready for fighting against Arawn and his legions of Cauldron Born, undead soldiers that obey without fear of pain, or death, or loss. Through the course of the tales it isn’t just Taran that makes the sacrifices, either. He learns through example. He learns through action, he learns, amazingly enough, in much the same way that real people learn. And we get to go along for the ride and learn vicariously through his eyes.
The fight scenes are well done, dark and brooding and violent. The scenes between Taran and the girl he’s slowly falling for are wonderfully handled and the cast of characters, some who live and others who die and leave a gaping hole for the lack of them, are vivid and brilliant.
Ultimately, Lloyd Alexander’s tales of Prydain were enough to make me come back and visit again and again and each time I laughed and I wept. Each time. No exceptions.
What an amazing feat! What wondrous tales!
What a powerful talent.
Lloyd Alexander’s tales were written and published when I was in diapers. Decades later they remain utterly timeless for me. I cannot recommend them enough.
James A Moore is the author of over twenty novels, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under the Overtree, Blood Red, Deeper, the Serenity Falls trilogy, Seven Forges, and its sequel, The Blasted Lands. He has twice been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award and spent three years as an officer in the Horror Writers Association.
Agree 100%. This series is underappreciated. In fact, I’m going to go read it again right now.
I’ve only read them a few times. I’m more likely to go for the huge cast epics.
But after reading them as a teenager I tucked them away on my bookshelf and told myself this is the first fantasy series I want to read to my kids someday. Obviously the later books have some more mature material than the first couple, but that just means I have to spread the readings out. My little girl is 3 now, they’re still on the bookshelf after several moves, and I can’t wait.
I did love the movie based on the Black Cauldron
I devoured this series when it was given to me at the age of twelve and though I have read it since, it has been far too long. Thank you for reminding me that I must track it down and re-read.
The Prydain Chronicles led me to the Westmark Trilogy, another excellent series and one that is responsible for an embarrassingly tall stack of notebooks in my closet filled with teenaged fanfiction.
Hmm. Now I must revisit that series too.
I loved them. I have read them to my kids, with mixed success. BC is too dark for younger kids (but great if you are into complex themes). CoL is a bit of a slog. But BoT, TW and HK are winners in any book.
I’ve been rereading this series lately because of the anniversary coming up next month. It was my favorite series as a kid. The ending to the High King still gives me chills and it set in motion of how I judge literature. Sometimes the easy way out isn’t the best way. Sometimes the hard path is the life we are meant to live.
Not enough crunchings and munchings!
I’m so glad someone mentioned this series. The Black Cauldron can still make me cry. It’s totally an under-appreciated series and between it and the Chronicles of the Cheysuli, it helped cement my love of fantasy far more than LoTR did.
I remember finding this series on a shelf during a Thanksgiving trip. It may have actually been the same trip my 10-year-old self saw “The Princess Bride” for the first time.
I always cite this, as well as Robin McKinley’s Damar Duology, as my entrance into spec fic. 21 years later, and this is where it started for me. I love this series so much.
There was a reread, well, set of reviews, of the Prydain books here last year.
I remember reading these books in the mid-70’s when I came across them in the YA SFF section at the Dolley Madison Library. They had the first edition covers, which were reminiscent of the LoTR paperback covers from the 60’s. It was around that time I encountered the Sword of the Spirits trilogy. This was all in the golden age, when I was 12.
Yes! I read these when I was 10 or 11, as did most of the kids in my class. Years later I read “Mabinogion” in college & was very struck by the similarities. Fortunately, when I brought up the Prydain books (whose names I couldn’t remember) with my prof. after class, she didn’t have a cow I’d mentioned them in the Serious English Dept. of Only Serious Literature. In fact, she tracked the titles down for me by the next class, which was damn seditious of her.
Taran Wanderer makes me bawl like a calf. So does the end of The High King. Eilonwy make me laugh. This still happens 30 years after I first read them.
I loved and read these books so much as a kid that the spines fell apart. So enamored of the books was I that when I found out that Lloyd Alexander lived not all that far away from me, I called him up on the phone. We lived in the same area code, so I knew I wouldn’t get into trouble for making a long distance phone call. His number was listed and I got it from information. (*Wink* to anyone old enough to understand what that last sentence means.)
On the phone Mr. Alexander was charming and indulgent to 11-year-old me. I asked him some questions about characters and told him about various favorite parts of the books. He seemed to have all the time in the world to talk with a gushing child reader. He took my name and address and sent me a kind note with a little pamphlet. It had hand-drawn pictures by the author. I wish I still had that note and pamphlet today, but alas, they were long ago mislaid. Still, his kindness and generosity will always mean that his works hold an even more dear place in my heart.
I was re-reading the series, so I waited until I’d finished The High King to post. It’s been something like 15 years since I originally read these books, and they’re significntly older than I am (some are twice my age), but I enjoyed them every bit as much now as I did 15 years ago.
Prydain Chronicles are one of my most beloved stories and I also like to read them from time to time ^^ read them when I was seven years old and I still have them next to my bed, with The Wizard of Oz and Grimms Brothers’ fairy tales =)
I have a quite huge library at home, but one of the shelves is in my bedroom, with all the books I loved since chilhood. Also, Neil Gaiman’s ones =)
I wish there was a really nice illustrated edition :_
I have my original copies of the books fromthe late 70’s/early 80’s. They’re falling to pieces from being read so much. I need to get a replacement box set.