Revisiting Prydain

I recently finished re-reading the Prydain Chronicles, a five-book series by Lloyd Alexander, written in the 1960s. It’s my second time reading through the series. The first time was 30-40 years ago, so I’d forgotten almost the entire storyline and most of the characters. (Thus, I could enjoy it anew!) I did remember the main protagonist is Taran the Assistant Pig-Keeper, and one of his adventure companions went by Fflewddur Fflam, a Welsh-sounding name. The author admits that the legends of Wales inspired his book. Not unlike Jasper Fforde, and it was thanks to Fflam that I immediately recognized Fforde’s Welsh roots!

Of the five books, the most famous is likely the second book, The Black Cauldron, which earned a Newberry honor and was also adapted into a Disney animation in the 1980s. The final book, The High King, is a Newberry medalist. The fourth book, Taran Wanderer, is very different from the others. I vaguely recall finding it the least interesting in my first reading (as a teenager), but this second time around it’s the one that struck me the most as I’ve looked back and thought about adulthood, and as I interact with college students mostly aged 18-22 in their journeys to adulthood. In the book, Taran wanders the land learning different crafts to find out what suits him, and learning who he is as a person. It made me think about the craft of teaching!

Each book is quite short, the adventure is brisk, and I enjoyed the quirks of the main characters, particularly Taran’s three main companions. Fflewddur is enthusiastic but prone to stretching the truth, and whenever he does, strings on his (magical) harp break and he has to constantly make repairs. Eilonwy comes up with the funniest analogies for any situation. Gurgi’s loyalty is unmatched and many of his sentences end in a rhyming couplet – he has a voracious appetite and is constantly looking for ‘munchings and crunchings’.

I can see how Tolkien’s world may have influenced some of Alexander’s writing. There is magic in the world but it’s of the more subtle Tolkien-esque variety rather than the more overt role in, say, the Harry Potter series or Feist’s Magician series. I enjoy the descriptiveness of the landscape scenes, the interesting character development, and that the author doesn’t have to use big words to convey a deep theme about growing up and the struggle between good and evil. It’s more challenging, in my opinion, to write tighter and shorter stories, rather than have a sprawling series with too many characters, too many twists, and gets burdened down by its own backstory (think Jordan’s Wheel of Time or Martin’s Game of Thrones). When you’re writing for kids or teenagers, you need to do a much better job, and Alexander certainly succeeds.

Revisiting Prydain made me look for other books by Lloyd Alexander. I just started on Time Cat, about a boy and his magical cat who can time-travel, thus allowing the pair to pop into different eras of history and meet some famous characters (before they were famous). It’s a little like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, except no historical characters are collected and stolen from their own timelines. Rather the boy and his cat help nudge things along in history. My choice was likely subtly influenced by playing Chrononauts this past weekend and enjoying being a time-traveler!