The High King

A week ago, I finished my first summer reading goal: to reread the Prydain Chronicles in memory of Lloyd Alexander.

TARAN WANDERER is still my favorite, and THE HIGH KING was particularly hard for me to read this time. At its heart, this book is about war and conflict, power and leadership, ultimate evil vs. uncertain good. Friends die. Hard decisions must be made. It's all a little too close to current events right now to be a comfortable read.

At least in this book, we have a thoughtful leader who struggles with the need to use violence to preserve culture -- the culture he learned in TARAN WANDERER in the Free Commots. "My way is not the warrior's way; yet, if I do not bear my sword now, there will be no place in Prydain for the usefulness and beauty of any craftsman's handiwork. And if I fail, I will have lost all I gained from you." And later, Coll says of Taran, "It is harsh enough for each man to bear his own wound. But he who leads bears the wounds of all who follow him." (If only.)

The end of the book is filled with themes so huge that it seems impossible that Alexander could pull it all off and pull it all together. Certainly this is why the book was a Newbery winner. There is the nod to the Arthurian legend when Taran rolls a boulder off the enchanted sword Dyrnwyn and defeats the ultimate evil. There is the Biblical loss of enchantment and eternal life when the Sons of Don return to the Summer Country and Taran must stay behind and Eilowny chooses to stay behind, forfeiting her magical powers. Hen Wen becomes an ordinary, rather than an oracular, pig.

And there is the bittersweet realization that one's greatest accomplishment is only a beginning:

"Evil conquered?" said Gwydion. "You have learned much, but learn this last and hardest of lessons. You have conquered only the enchantments of evil. That was the easiest of your tasks, only a beginning, not an ending. Do you believe evil itself to be so quickly overcome? Not so long as men still hate and slay each other, when greed and anger goad them. Against these even a flaming sword cannot prevail, but only that portion of good in all men's hearts whose flame can never be quenched."

Taran Wanderer

Book Four of the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander

This has forever and always been my favorite book of the series. It is bristling with stickie notes marking passages that speak to me. There are many pages with a corner turned down, indicating passages that have spoken to me.

In TARAN WANDERER, Taran leaves home in search of his true identity and in search of his parents. He is still a little obsessed with being born of noble blood so that he will be worthy of Eilowny, but by now, the reader (and Gurgi), at least, know that his nobility has nothing to do with his parents. He is engaged in the universal process of a person striving to become his own (noble) self.

Reading this book was a real surprise. I kept waiting and waiting for the part when Taran learns from the craftsmen of the Free Commots. In my memory, that was the whole book, but in reality it is only the final third! Before Taran gets to the Commots, he meets a king who rules with an iron fist who needs to learn compassion and mediation, and another who believes himself to be generous, but who is actually very stingy. "Indeed, is a man truly what he sees himself to be?" Taran wonders.

In two moments of foreshadowing, Taran learns that the people of the Free Commots are not beholden to any Cantrev Lord, rather they rule themselves. "Indeed, true allegiance is only given willingly," Taran muses. (Perhaps not the USA in actuality, but certainly the ideals of our country.) And Taran has an opportunity to mediate a conflict between the iron-fisted ruler and the not-so-generous ruler, showing a glimmer of leadership skills that will be a part of his destiny later on.

Here's more on the Free Commots: "...no man lords it over his fellows because he had the luck to be born in a king's castle instead of a farmer's hut. What matters in the Free Commots is the skill in a man's hands, not the blood in his veins."

And here's what Taran learns in the Free Commots:

"Life's a matter of luck. Trust it, and a man's bound to find what he seeks, one day or the next...Trust your luck, Taran Wanderer. But don't forget to put our your nets!" (Which I've also heard as "Trust Allah, but tie your camels!")

"Life's a forge! ...Yes, and hammer and anvil, too! You'll be roasted, smelted, and pounded, and you'll scarce know what's happening to you. But stand boldly to it! Metal's worthless till it's shaped and tempered!"

Life is "...a loom, rather, where lives and days intertwine; and wise is he who can learn to see the pattern."

"Craftsmanship isn't like water in an earthen pot, to be taken out by the dipperful until it's empty. No, the more drawn out the more remains. The heart renews itself, Wanderer, and skill grows all the better for it."

"Stale water is a poor drink. Stale skill is worse. And the man who walks in his own footsteps only ends where he began."

The quest for one's true self never ends. Because of that, this book remains timeless in its messages to those who seek to be more than they are at the moment.

The Castle of Llyr

Book Three of the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander

In THE BLACK CAULDRON, Taran had to learn to deal with the nasty, mean-spirited Ellidyr. In THE CASTLE OF Llyr he has to learn to deal with a nobleman who is a doofus. A nobleman who is a doofus who is also to be betrothed to Eilowny, Taran's beloved. So no matter how strong and brave and honorable Taran is, he believes all of those qualities to be trumped by an idiot who happens to be high-born. He must learn that "For a man to be worthy of any rank, he must first strive to be a man."

This book doesn't speak to me the way the others do, however, I know it is necessary in the scope of the series. Fflewddur gets his giant cat, Llyan. Eilowny is almost lost to Taran, but at the very end of the book, the reader is sure they will be reunited. And Taran seems to be done looking to others to discover who he really is and what he will really be. He is ready to look within.

Second Book Finished

If THE BOOK OF THREE is about Taran's impetuous immaturity and the continuous mistakes he makes, THE BLACK CAULDRON is about how Taran begins to learn to deal with others. His biggest challenge is Ellidyr, a nasty, spiteful, mean-spirited person who acts as a mirror, forcing Taran to look at and overcome his own worst tendencies.

In the end, Ellidyr turns it around and makes the ultimate sacrifice by jumping into the cauldron to destroy it. "He has lost all else, even his steed."

"Or perhaps gained all," Gwydion answered. " And his honor shall be certain." Gwydion goes on to say that a barrow will be raised for Ellidyr, and also for Morgant, who switched sides at the end and who would have used the cauldron for ultimate power. Taran is incredulous that Gwydion would honor Morgant.

"It is easy to judge evil unmixed," replied Gwydion. "But, alas, in most of us good and bad are closely woven as the threads on a loom; greater wisdom than mine is needed for the judging...I honor Morgant for what he used to be, and Ellidyr for what he became."

Worth remembering.

I had hoped for all five books of the Prydain Chronicles in the 48 Hour Reading Challenge Weekend, but two will have to do. The other three will go with me to Colorado.

First Book Finished

I'm not going to be able to read for 48 continuous hours, but over the course of the Challenge weekend, I hope to read all five of the books in the Prydain Chronicles by (and in memory of) Lloyd Alexander.

I wasn't 20 pages into THE BOOK OF THREE before I had to go get my stickie notes. I had forgotten how much wisdom Alexander packs into these books:

"In some cases, we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself." p.18

"Well, that is one of the three foundations of learning: see much, study much, suffer much." p.19

"The task counts more than the one who does it." p.31

"I have never known courage to be judged by the length of a man's hair. Or, for the matter of that, whether he has any hair at all." p. 36

"Every living thing deserves our respect, be it humble or proud, ugly or beautiful." p. 142

"Neither refuse to give help when it is needed, nor refuse to accept it when it is offered." p. 143


"Once you have the courage to look upon evil, seeing it for what it is and naming it by its true name, it is powerless against you, and you can destroy it." p. 211-212

"As for me, what I mostly did was make mistakes." Dallben's reply to this, in part, reads, "If you made mistakes, you recognize them. As I told you, there a times when the seeking counts more than the finding.

Does it truly matter which of you did what, since all shared the same goal and the same danger? Nothing we do is ever done entirely alone. There is a part of us in everyone else -- you, of all people, should know that." p. 217-218