Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain: The Black Cauldron

[lunabee34]

thelastgoodname and I are discussing Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain series and the next book up is The Black Cauldron. Feel free to chime in if you've read or want to read this book. SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

The Black Cauldron

Favorite quotes:

Gwydion Manhood may not be all that you believe.

Adaon I have learned there is greater honor in a field well plowed than in a field steeped with blood.

Taran to Ellidyr You boast of your name. I take pride in my comrades.

Dalben to Taran about his new sword Its powers? Like all weapons, only those held by him who weilds it.

Eilonwy That's often the trouble with magical things. They're never quite what you expect.

Gwydion to Taran You chose to be a hero not through enchantment but through your own manhood.


Things that Interested Me

1. This is definitely a coming of age story, but one that celebrates childhood and looks at adulthood through a bittersweet lense. Taran longs to be a man, and all the men around him consistently warn him that manhood will bring him sorrow. In fact, we see this idea echoed by the other characters constantly. For instance, Doli can finally become invisible as he's always dreamed, but he finds it so uncomfortable he doesn't really want to be invisible.

2. A theme that's run through both books so far and that I believe will continue to be featured in the upcoming novels is pleasure in the simple beauty and richness of life. Coll says in both books that he prefers farming to any heroics; Adaon says the same; and Taran feels that way as well by the book's close.

3. Taran has no surname. This is a huge deal in a land where a name means everything. He is son of no one. I think the following books are going to have to address this issue. Will he end up being someone of noble birth or will the books end with him as a nameless Assistant Pig Keeper?

4. OMG Taran is totally Simon from Firefly in that scene where he asks Eilonwy to gird him with his sword. What is up with these stupid, stupid boys? LOL

5. I found myself emotionally affected at many points in this book: Adaon's death; when all the others offer up what they own to Orwen, Orgoch, and Orddu so that Taran won't have to sacrifice the brooch; Ellidyr's sacrifice. I thought this book was vastly superior to the first. I felt like I was inside Taran's head more. It was longer too, which may have helped with that. I also think that the darker tone of the book drew me in more.



I checked for Prydain fanfiction and came up empty handed, thelastgoodname. A google search yeilded nothing, fanfiction.net doesn't list fic for that fandom, and lj has two communities which don't include fanfiction. The lj communities didn't look all that exciting to me, but they are thecauldronborn and prydain if you're interested.

On to The Castle of Llyr!!!! Although it may be a few days before I can begin it as I have to Interlibrary loan it.

Comments

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

You are clearly a better and more giving person than I am, for cutting the spoilers.

I really liked Adaon, and I was not shocked but deeply saddened when he died. He seemed like the perfect foil to Ellidyr, and I think Ellidyr could have learned a lot more from Adaon (especially if Adaon hadn't been quite so preoccupied with his impending death and all).

And for all that Taran is so upset at being merely an Assistant Pig-Keeper (or rather, for all that he wants more out of his life, and thinks that he can achieve more), he seems very content with his life. There is a contrast between the end of The Book of Three, when he tells Gwydion (I think, or maybe Coll) that he wanted so badly to return home, and once he did return, he found it smaller than when he left, and the end of The Black Cauldron, when Taran "gallops" toward Eilonwy, Gurgi, and Hen Wen's impending bath. It's not just that he is deciding to make his own way (without the superpowers of the brooch, and without individual honor, as when he swears to Ellidyr), it's that he is deciding the kind of man he wants to be, often with intent.

The name thing is becoming clearer as the books go on. In fact, the blurb for Taran Wanderer, the fourth book, at the back of the library copy reads, "Taran's long and lonely search for his identity among the hills and marshes, farmers and common people of Prydain," which goes a long way toward your second point, about farming and the simple life. But Taran's entire identity is as Assistant Pig-Keeper, it's the only thing he's given as introductions in this book. I think he is Taran of Caer Dallben a few times, but not nearly as much as Assistant Pig-Keeper. But then, given that all the kings who we're supposed to like (Fflewddur!) don't like their hereditary jobs, perhaps there is an individualistic streak going on here, as well as a "friends-positive" motif.

I loved the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone (or whatever the Welsh equivalents are), Orwen, Orgoch, and Orddu. I wanted to see more of them; hopefully, Dallben will share some more conversational exposition with us about that.

And I like that Ellidyr was also given emotional growth that was believable, not that was perfect and neat. [Yeah, of course he was going to die, that was a given, but I like that he insisted he was going to bring the Cauldron to Gwydion and that he was unlike Morgant.]

Once more, the book was about 200 pages short. I wanted to know more about the Crochan, and why the Three (they are the three from the Book of Three, right?) stole it (back? did they create it in the first place?). But I'm liking the series more, now that I've adjusted to the writing style.

[Alas about the fic. I'll write the Gwydion/Gurgi if you do the dark!fic Gwydion/what's her name (I can't even remember these names, much less spell them).]

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

The Foundling does go into more depth about Orgoch, Orwen, and Orddu. One of the stories, the titular one in fact, is the story of the three of them finding Dallben among the marshes. I'm glad you've given me names for the three of them....Maiden, Mother, Crone. I was thinking of them as the three Fates from Greek mythology. Orgoch was incredibly frightening to me. I gather that Alexander wanted us to think she was interested in eating young Dallben and then Taran and his companions, but some of her sister's (?) comments led me to much darker places. I think you're right that they are the three of The Book of Three.

The three did create the Crochan; they allowed Arawn to take it (but he paid a price which is not specified in this book). They took it back from him because he reneged on the deal. He was only allotted its use for a specified amount of time and he sought to keep it past that. What I want to know is WHY the three women made the Crochan? For the same reason God made the Wisdom tree in Christian mythology? Just to be a temptation?

Heeeeee..... alright. As long as you don't hold me to a timetable, I shall endeavor to write Gwydion/Achren if you can manage to write Gwydion/Gurgi and their lustings and thrustings. LOL

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

Right, then, The Foundling will have to be added to the list. Actually, I couldn't decide who they were, but Maiden-Mother-Crone made sense with the changing to young women that Taran saw. Also, the switching of identities every day; I think somewhere the Greek Fates do that (or yearly, or something).

I'm amazed that Alexander thought anyone would think Orgoch was talking about merely eating for food those young boys; nope, it's really all about the sexual abuse in these books, isn't it.

As for why the three made the Crochan, didn't they say they were more concerned with what is, rather than what should be? Maybe they were investigating what comes after death, or maybe it was punishment for some stupid soldier saying, "I'll fight even after I die." That's something Alexander doesn't do very well: give enough leeway that there is room to play with motivations. There are too many questions to even begin, I think.

I know "lol" is often used as shorthand, and rarely actually means, laugh(ing) out loud, but I very much laughed out loud when I read your "lustings and thrustings." Because that's now going to be the title of my Gurgi/Gwydion story (and I think I almost even have a plot for it; but don't worry about a timetable, because these things go at their own pace, don't they).

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I laughed myself when I typed that. Glad I could amuse you!