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Generations of youngsters have struggled in vain to pronounce the names in The Chronicles of Prydain, a five-book series of fantasy novels by the late American author Lloyd Alexander. Based (very) loosely on the Mabinogion and taking place in the fantasy world of Prydain, which bears no small resemblance to Wales, the novels feature a series of epic adventures in a land of High Fantasy, but place more emphasis on the protagonist's growing maturity and his journeys into manhood.
Long ago the land of Prydain was a rich, and prosperous land, renowned for its craftsmen who knew many great secrets about shaping metal and firing clay. Arawn, the local Evil Overlord, would have none of that, and using his cunning and trickery he stole away those wonderous treasures and secrets and locked them away in his fortress, Annuvin, where they would serve no one. The once fair land fell into decay and surely would have fallen under Arawn's power had not the mighty and heroic Sons of Don arrived in Prydain and united its people in an alliance against Arawn's dark power. Years have passed and the Sons of Don have maintained peace, but there are those who fear that the people have grown too reliant on their new rulers, the lesser lords constantly feud with each other for foolish and petty reasons, and Arawn is still lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Enter the protagonist, Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper to the oracular pig Hen Wen. A boy seemingly in his early teens who was orphaned at as an infant, Taran is thrust into the conflicts between the Sons of Don and Arawn as they struggle for the rulership of Prydain. Taran is an ambitious, headstrong youth who initially leaps at any call to adventure and believes himself capable of great things, but in truth he often finds that leading a heroic life of adventure is not all as romantic and exciting as he would have thought. Over the course of the novels, however, Taran grows from a callow, stubborn youth into a genuinely wise and noble young man, and in the end, learns the hard way what it truly means to be a hero.
Joining Taran on his adventures are his loyal group of lovable companions, whose interactions are one of the most enjoyable parts of the series:
Eilonwy: An enchantress and princess who talks constantly in similies and serves as a romantic interest for Taran. She's also a Tsundere and a bit of an Action Girl. One of the earliest modern examples of a Rebellious Princess.
Fflewddur Fflam: A loud-mouthed bard and King who has a tendency to theatrically exaggerate accounts of his own adventures. He carries a magical harp whose strings break whenever he "colors the facts." (They break often.) His catchphrases are "A Fflam is (insert appropriate adjective here)!," and "Great Belin!"
Gurgi: A shaggy creature who speaks in rhyme. At first he has a tendency to be a Dirty Coward but he grows to become brave and loyal, and comes to admire Taran for his wisdom and call him "Master."
Doli: A member of The Fair Folk, a grumpy dwarf and Jerk With A Heart Of Gold. Complains a lot. He has the ability to turn invisible (by holding his breath), but hates to do so as it causes a horrible ringing in his ears.
Gwydion: The Wise Prince and mentor to Taran, a great warrior and war leader whom Taran looks up to and idolizes immensely. He leads the Sons of Don in their battles against the forces of evil.
And normally a book-specific Guest Star Party Member or two, such as Adaon and Ellidyr in The Black Cauldron, Prince Rhun in The Castle of Llyr and Glew in The High King.
The series contains five books as well as one anthology which also serves as a prequel:
- The Book of Three (1964)
- The Black Cauldron (1965)
- The Castle of Llyr (1966)
- Taran Wanderer (1967)
- The High King (1968)
- The Foundling and Other Tales From Prydain (1973)
Disney produced a movie version of The Black Cauldron in 1985, which notably blended elements from the first two books. It is perhaps best forgotten by fans of the novels. (However this hasn't stopped it from becoming extremely popular among a certain fandom who love the fact that it's the single darkest Disney movie ever made.)
This series includes examples of, or the sources for:
- Abandoned By The Cavalry
- Action Girl: Eilonwy frequently proves more capable than Taran, especially in the early books.
- Adaptation Decay: The 1985 animated film.
- A Father To His Men: King Smoit. He even offers to adopt Taran when he hears he's looking for birth parents.
- Alas Poor Villain: Achren post-book three.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Huntsmen of Annuvin, Arawn's Elite Mooks, who have sworn a blood oath of bondage to his will.
- Averted with the Gwythaints, Arawn's spies, who serve Arawn out of fear.
- An Aesop: Taran frequently learns important life lessons, although this is done more subtly and gracefully than many instances of this trope.
- Androcles Lion: Taran nurses a fledgling Gwythaint back to health in the first book. In the finale of the final book, it finally returns the favor.
- Anticlimax Boss: Arawn
- The Aragorn: Gwydion
- Artifact Of Doom: The titular Black Cauldron of the second book.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Played straight, especially with Prince Gwydion and King Smoit. In a land like Prydain, you only become royalty by being able to kick everyone else's ass.
- Ascended Fanboy: Taran
- Awesome Moment Of Crowning: Taran at the end of the series.
- Aw Look They Really Do Love Each Other: Taran and Eilonwy, constantly. (Also Fflewddur and his harp.)
- Badass Beard: King Smoit is known for his long fiery red beard.
- Badass Teacher: Do not screw with Dallben.
- Badass Pacifist: King Smoit will wreck your shit if you disturb
his partying the peace.
- Bald Of Awesome: Coll. Much to Taran's shock, who apparently thought being a hero required fine hair. During The High King, Coll even goes without a helmet.
- Battle Couple: Taran and Eilonwy again.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Inverted with Achren, who is as wicked as she is beautiful. And for further inversion, her beauty fades after her sort-of face turn in books four and five.
- In fact, Lloyd Alexander uses this trope against us: both Morgant and Pryderi are presented as attractive, when in fact they both turn out to be bad guys.
- Big Badass Wolf: Brynach and Briavel
- Big Damn Heroes: Gwydion is in love with this trope.
- Big Fun: King Smoit
- Berserk Button: Do not judge Eilonwy based on her gender. Don't call her a "little girl" or suggest she stick to "women's work."
- And do not insult her in front of Taran.
- Bishounen: Adaon
- Bittersweet Ending: Arawn is defeated, but Prydain has been ravaged by war, many heroes have fallen, and Taran and Eilonwy give up eternal life to stay in Prydain to help rebuild. It is implied, at least, that they went on to lead happy and fulfilling lives.
- You forgot to note that because Taran chose to stay, he was made High King. And that Eilonwy married him and became Queen. And they did a good enough job about it that bards wrote songs about them.
- The Blacksmith: Hevydd
- Blessed With Suck: Doli and his invisibility powers, which make his ears ring and hurt.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Fflewddur. King Smoit even more so.
- Book Of Shadows: The titular Book of Three.
- Brainwashed: Eilonwy in the third book.
- Catch Phrase: Almost every important character besides Taran has at least one.
- "Taran of Caer Dallben, I'm not speaking to you!"
- "Great Belin!"
- "A Fflam is always..."
- "Munchings and crunchings."
- "Deliver us from fools and assistant pig-keepers."
- "When I was a giant..."
- "My beard and bones!"
- Character Development: THE reason these books are so good.
- Taran, who grows from a stubborn, witless child to a wise and noble leader.
- Also Eilonwy, who starts out rather bratty and temperamental, growing into a mature and compassionate person by the end of the series. Some of her development is off-page, however, since she does not appear in the fourth book.
- In fact, almost every major character gets some important development, but Taran and Eilonwy are the most noticeable since the books span their adolescence.
- Chekhovs Gun: The ring Eilonwy receives at the end of the first book ends up coming quite in handy in the finale.
- The Chessmaster: Arawn. (Also Morgant and Pryderi).
- Cloudcuckoolander: Eilonwy, while still managing to be the only person in the group with any common sense.
- The Chosen One: Completely averted. Prophecies in Prydain are not preordination, merely possibility.
- Clipped Wing Angel: Arawn turns into a snake and is beheaded in one blow by Taran.
- Coming Of Age Story: Well, the whole series, but especially the fourth book, which is pretty obviously the turning point where Taran finally takes his long-overdue levels in badass.
- Complete Monster: Dorath
- Conservation Of Ninjutsu: The Huntsmen of Annuvin literally become stronger when one of their number is killed.
- Consummate Liar: Fflewddur. Ironically, his most outrageous claim (that he's actually a king) is the only one that proves true.
- Cool Horse: Gwydion's horse, Melyngar, in the first book, Melynlas for the rest of the series.
- Cool Old Guy: Coll
- Cool Old Lady: Dwyvach, the weaver woman.
- Cowardly Lion: Gurgi means well, but whines and cowers when he feels threatened and runs at the first sign of danger with no regard for his companions. Fortunately, he grows much more brave and loyal as the series goes on.
- Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: Gwystyl deliberately hides his competence and badassery so well that he can come across like a weiner while helping Taran and his crew break into a castle.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Taran drawing Drynwyn in the final book, and slaying the Nigh Invulnerable Cauldron-Born in a single blow.
- Also, when Taran fights Dorath, he uses a sword he forged himself, while Dorath fights with the sword he stole from Taran (which was given to Taran at the beginning of The Black Cauldron. Taran's new blade proves so much better that it actually shatters the old one.
- Curb Stomp Battle: The Battle of Caer Dathyl.
- Cursed With Awesome: Glew turns himself into a giant and gets trapped in a cave he's too big to manoeuvrer through.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dallben, usually when Taran is acting childish.
- Death By Newbery Medal: The High King.
- Designated Hero: Taran's foolhardiness and obsession with his own glory in the early books lead many readers to wonder why we are to cheer him on. He gets better.
- Desperately Looking For A Purpose In Life: Taran Wanderer
- Distressed Damsel: Eilonwy occasionally, especially in The Castle of Llyr. Half the time she ends up either saving herself or saving her intended rescuers.
- Disproportionate Retribution: King Smoit is like to cave a few skulls in over petty arguments.
- Doomed Hometown: Averted: Caer Dallben goes untouched by evil for all five books. Not only that, when a villain finally does show up to torch the place, he gets his ass kicked.
- The Dragon: The Horned King
- Dreaming Of Things To Come: in The Black Cauldron
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In the land of Prydain, everything comes at a high price.
- Elite Mooks: The Huntsmen and the Cauldron-Born.
- Everythings Better With Princesses: Eilonwy
- Everyone Can See It: The entire group seems to be aware of Taran's feelings for Eilonwy except Taran himself.
- Evil Is Sexy: Achren. Yes, in a kids' series, the most gorgeous woman around (and the first one to seem to show Taran any kind of sexual consideration)) is the wicked witch.
- Evil Overlord: Arawn is a classic example.
- Evil Sorcerer: Arawn Deathlord and Queen Achren
- Face Heel Turn: King Morgant
- The Faceless: Arawn Death-Lord, partially because of his Shape Shifting talents. Menwy the Bard is the only mortal on record to have seen Arawn's true face.
- The Fair Folk: A bit of a subversion, they had no particular liking for men but were willing to work with them against Arawn.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Lloyd Alexander loves to take readers on cultural visits. Prydain is heavily based on Welsh mythology, especially evident in the character names.
- Fearless Fool: Taran, at first. He learns a more suitable reaction to danger as time goes by.
- Fiery Redhead: Eilonwy
- Five Man Band: The role each character plays in the band varies from book to book.
- Flaming Sword: Dyrnwyn
- Flowers For Algernon: Adaon's broach has this effect on people, particularly Taran. He gives it up in order to get the Black Cauldron.
- Friend To All Living Things: Medwyn
- Gene Hunting: Taran Wanderer is a mix of this and Walking The Earth
- Genre Savvy: Fflewddur, occasionally. He's Wrong Genre Savvy almost as often, though.
- Giant Flyer: The gwythaints. It turns out that they aren't Always Chaotic Evil, though.
- God Save Us From The Queen: Achren
- Gondor Calls For Aid: The premise of much of the final book.
- Guest Star Party Member: Adaon, Ellidyr, Glew, Coll, and Llassar.
- The Hecate Sisters: Orddu, Orwen, and Orgoch are a textbook case.
- Heel Face Turn: Achren (Or possibly Boxed Crook.)
- Heroes Want Redheads: Eilonwy has red-gold hair. Most artwork depicts her as blonde, however.
- Heroic BSOD: Taran, following the death of Craddoc the shepherd.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ellidyr in The Black Cauldron, Rhun and Coll in The High King. Maybe Achren, depending on your point of view.
- Heroic Wannabe: Taran, in the first two books.
- Honor Before Reason: A recuring theme. A major part of Taran's growth is learning when to put aside his honor.
- Horse Of A Different Color: Llyan, a small wildcat who grew to the size of a horse through the use of potions. She eventually adopts Fflewddur and allows him to ride on her back.
- Hypnotize The Princess: Heavily influences the plot of The Castle of Llyr.
- I Just Want To Be Normal: Eilonwy in The Castle of Llyr.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The relatively inexperienced heroes are more than a match for hardened enemy soldiers.
- Debatable. Taran is, while not really incompetent, hardly too successful in his early fights. He gets captured by the Cauldron Born in The Book of Three, gets saved by and then ass-kicked by Ellidyr in The Black Cauldron, and gets beaten one on one by Dorath in Taran Wanderer (to be fair, Dorath cheated). Meanwhile, while the ordinary mooks aren't too impressive, the Cauldron Born and the Huntsmen are quite effective enemies.
- Implacable Man: Arawn employs entire implacable armies. The Cauldron-Born cannot be slain by any mortal craft and carry out their tasks without tiring and without question or remorse. The Huntsmen of Annuvin are feared and renowned for pursuing their prey relentlessly, and fatigue means little to them. They can be killed, but that just makes them mad.
- Informed Ability: Many characters are said to be enchanters, but they rarely if ever use these abilities. Possibly justified with Eilonwy as she claims she never finished her training.
- And she destroys any hope of mastering her magic in the third book.
- Reading the final book, it seems that at least part of why actual displays of full-force magic are so rare in the series is that Prydain-style spell-casting has Nightmare Fuel results when fully unleashed.
- Intimate Healing: Not quite, but for a kids' story, the way Achren touches Taran's wound in the first book is rather...at least, suggestive.
- It Is Pronounced Tro PAY: Not actually an example of this, but if you're not familiar with Welsh and its charmingly quirky spelling, you'd be fooled.
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Good old Doli
- Journey To Find Oneself: The whole point of Taran Wanderer.
- Keystone Army: The Cauldron-Born
- Kid Hero: Taran
- Kill Em All: Many, many characters died in the last book, The High King. Perhaps for this reason it's left off many a school reading list that contains the other four books in the series. This is despite the fact that it won a Newbery Medal...
- Jumped At The Call: Taran in the first two books.
- Just Eat Gilligan: Suggested numerous times by Fflewddur of Glew.
- Lie Detector: Fflewddur's harp, though it only detects Fflewddur's lies.
- The Load: Taran himself in book one. Rhun in book three. Glew in book five.
- Load Bearing Boss: Half the architecture in Prydain appears to be held up by villains. Both Spiral Castle and Llyr collapse after Achren is defeated, and Annuvin is destroyed when Arawn is slain. Also, Dyrnwyn is a load-bearing sword.
- Luke I Am Your Father: Craddoc to Taran, turns out not to be true.
- Too Dumb To Live: Glew
- Left For Dead: Happens to Gwydion with surprising regularity, usually allowing him to go off and do something just as or even more badass than Taran's group elsewhere.
- Lord Error Prone: Prince Rhun in The Castle of Llyr. He shapes up considerably in The High King.
- The Messiah: Taran slowly evolves into this.
- Mega Neko: Llyan
- Metaphorgotten: Eilonwy's similes fall somewhere between this and Malaproper.
- Mirror Of Llunet: The Trope Namer!
- Mordor: Annuvin
- Motor Mouth: In the first three books, Eilonwy talks so much that it annoys the villains to the extent that, on an occasion when everyone else is merely tied up, Eilonwy is Bound And Gagged; in the fifth book she's a bit more subdued.
- Nakama: Taran, Eilonwy, Gurgi, Fflewddur, and Doli are the central members.
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Arawn Death-Lord, The Horned King
- Nigh Invulnerable: The Cauldron-Born, and Morda. At least until their respective weaknesses are discovered....
- No Man Of Woman Born: A prophecy states that the Big Bad will be vanquished only when such things as "rivers burn with frozen fire" and "night turn to noon" occur. Some characters set a fire to melt a frozen waterfall and the burning logs are carried on top of the ensuing deluge, while another uses magic to light up an entire valley in the middle of the night.
- Non Human Sidekick: Gurgi
- And Hen Wen, upon occasion.
- Kaw as well
- Not Quite Dead: Gwydion
- Not So Different: Taran and Ellidyr. They both learn better.
- The Obi Wan: Taran is lucky enough to have three; Gwydion, Dallben and Coll. And only one of them dies.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Gwystyl
- Offstage Villainy: Sure, his subordinates and armies are out in full force, but Arawn himself just can't be assed to actually do anything until the final pages of The High King.
- Older Sidekick: Fflewddur to Taran & Eilonwy.
- Oracular Urchin: Hen Wen is a non-human variant.
- Orcus On His Throne: Arawn, despite being the nigh-omnipotent "Death Lord", works primarily through proxies like The Horned King, Morgant, Mag, Achren and Pryderi and only leaves Annuvin once just to screw with Gwydion's head.
- Out Gambitted: Pryderi thinks he is tricking Arawn into serving him. He isn't.
- Papa Wolf: Gwydion can get this way when his companions are threatened.
- Patronymic: In Prydain, men use patronymic naming, and women use matronymic naming. Taran's lack of such a name troubles him greatly and is a driving force for much of his story.
- Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits: Taran and his friends.
- Rags To Royalty: High King Taran
- Reader Punch: Coll's death.
- Rebellious Princess: Eilonwy, who started this trend nearly thirty years before Disney, making this Older Than They Think.
- Not only that, she was also Disney's first rebellious princess!
- Redemption Equals Death: Ellidyr, Achren
- Retired Badass: Coll, who once single-handedly fought his way into Annuvin to save Hen Wen.
- Rhymes On A Dime: Gurgi likes to speak with rhyming pairs of words ("smashings and gnashings", "crunchings and munchings", etc.)
- The Rival: Ellidyr
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Almost every important character is royalty. They also tend to be totally badass.
- Scaled Up: Arawn is a particularly bad case of this.
- Self-Disposing Villain: King Pryderi
- Shape Shifter: Arawn
- Soul Jar: Morda has one of these.
- Stay In The Kitchen: Taran harbors some unfortunate ideas about women in his youth. Some time spent as the apprentice of the spry Dwyvach Weaver-Woman helps him learn better.
- Many characters wish Eilonwy would stick to womens' tasks, out of concern for her safety. Naturally, she will not hear of it.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Eilonwy dresses as a boy in order to fight alongside the men in the final battles.
- Talking Animal: Kaw
- Talks Like A Simile: Eilonwy
- Tear Jerker: A half dozen in the last book, easily.
- Ted Baxter: Ellidyr treats the main characters with much contempt and responds violently if anyone so much as thinks about impugning his honor. However, it's explained that he is like this because he is from an old yet impoverished noble family, and his father and elder brothers squandered their house's money and good name.
- The Starscream: A bit of a twist, current Big Bad Arawn was in fact The Starscream to former Big Bad, Achren. Twisted back in that Achren turned right around and Starscreamed back at him.
- The Only One Allowed To Defeat You: Gwydion to the Horned King, although he accepts that he himself might die in the attempt.
- Treacherous Advisor: Magg. Fflewddur, being Genre Savvy, is suspicious of him immediately.
- Trickster Mentor: Dallben
- Tsundere: Eilonwy
- The Unchosen One: Taran literally stumbles into the middle of the war.
- The Unreveal: We never learn who Taran's biological parents are. They're probably nobody we know, though.
- Also, We never really learn who/what Arawn really is. After he's killed, he reverts to his true form which ends up lying face down on the floor, but before anyone can go near him, his fortress starts to crumble and everyone has to split.
- Unusual Euphemism: Dorath threatens Eilonwy by claiming he will "remove her charms". Hey, it's a kid's book after all.
- Vain Sorceress: Achren
- Walking The Earth: Taran in Taran Wanderer.
- War Is Glorious: Adaon will tell you this is not the case. "There is more honor in a field well plowed than in a field steeped in blood."
- Warrior Poet: Adaon and Taliesin
- We Can Rule Together: Achren makes no secret of the fact that she wishes to make Gwydion her consort, and offers him several chances to join her. Unfortunately for her, Gwydion is a Celibate Hero.
- Much to Taran's shock and disbelief, Gwydion makes this offer to him near the end of the series. It's Arawn in disguise.
- Well Excuse Me Princess: Eilonwy rarely stops criticizing Taran, but it doesn't disguise her obvious affection for him.
- Well Intentioned Extremist: Pryderi
- Wild Hair: Fflewddur and Gwydion.
- Wild Mass Guessing: The evil king who's soul is sealed in the Black Cauldron in the Disney movie of the same name is believed to be Arawn... But this doesn't really count.
- Will They Or Wont They: Dragged out until the very last page of the final book with Taran and Eilonwy. They Do, of course.
- Eilonwy lampshades the whole situation with her response to Taran's marriage proposal: "Well, indeed. I wondered if you'd ever get round to asking. Of course I will, and if you'd given half a thought to the question you'd have already known my answer."
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Taran, starting in book four, but by this point he's pretty well earned it with by making numerous painful sacrifices.
- Warrior Prince: Gwydion is the most obvious example.
- The White Prince: Prince Rhun. Taran himself also has shades of this.
- The Wise Prince: Gwydion
- Also Adaon in book two - not exactly a prince, but the son of the Chief Bard, and otherwise fulfills the archetype perfectly.
- Xanatos Sucker: Pryderi
- You Suck: Taran is clearly meant to invoke this, but he also teaches us what we can achieve if we are willing to learn from our mistakes.
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