Literature / The Chronicles of Prydain

aka: Prydain Chronicles

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

The Chronicles of Prydain is 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 journey 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 forces. 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 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, 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 similes 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. Even moments of modesty count against him) His catchphrases are "A Fflam is (insert appropriate adjective here)!," and "Great Belin!"

Gurgi: A shaggy apelike 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, taking the role of a Supporting Leader.

And normally a book-specific Guest-Star Party Member or two, such as Adaon the Warrior Poet and Ellidyr Prince Charmless in The Black Cauldron, Lord Error-Prone Prince Rhun in The Castle of Llyr and Glew in The High King, who takes over the Dirty Coward role from Gurgi.

The series contains five books as well as one anthology which also serves as a prequel:

1. The Book of Three (1964)
2. The Black Cauldron (1965)
3. The Castle of Llyr (1966)
4. Taran Wanderer (1967)
5. The High King (1968)
6. 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. In 2016 it was revealed Disney plans on taking another whack at the series with a live-action film being put into development.

Also, The Book of Three has a freeware game adaptation by Lysander86, the developer of A Blurred Line and Phantasy Star III remake; and an ongoing webcomic adaptation with exceptionally high-quality artwork by Saeriellyn, which started in 2015 and as of 2023 is about three quarters through the book.

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This series includes examples of or the sources for:

• Achilles' Heel: There are several invincible evils in Prydain, but there's always a catch.
  • The Cauldron-Born cannot be killed. Except by Dyrnwyn, and once one is killed, all of them are. Even Gwydion didn't know this.
  • The Horned King can be killed by someone who knows his true name.
  • Arawn Death-Lord has two weaknesses. He cannot leave Annuvin in his true form without dying. And when he shapeshifts, he's as vulnerable as whatever form he's adopted. It's prophecied that someone wielding Dyrnwyn will slay him, but it's unclear whether he's actually weak against it. He's shapeshifted into a snake when Taran cuts him in half.
• Action Girl: Eilonwy frequently proves more capable than Taran, especially in the early books.
• Adipose Rex: Averted by King Smoit of Cantrev Cadiffor, who is notably overweight but is also very muscular, just plain huge, and has Stout Strength in spades.
• An Aesop: Taran frequently learns important life lessons, although this is done more subtly and gracefully than many instances of this trope.
• All-Natural Gem Polish: In The High King, while going through a Fair Folk mine tunnel, Glew finds a large number of uncut gems that are sparkling, glinting, and glittering. (Homage is paid to the trope though: Doli comments that those stones are really worthless, and even the work of a jeweler wouldn't improve them much.)
• 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.
• Ambition is Evil: Played straight and subverted. Ultimately it all comes down to intent.
• Androcles' Lion: Taran nurses a fledgling gwythaint back to health in the first book. She returns the favor, twice.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Taran makes a subtle one of these in The Castle of Llyr, trying to help Eilonwy break free of her magically-induced amnesia.
• Anyone Can Die: Rhun's death was completely unexpected. It only gets worse with Achren, King Math, and especially Coll.
• The Apprentice: During his travels in Taran Wanderer, Taran briefly becomes the apprentice of three different crafters.
• Artifact of Doom: The titular Black Cauldron of the second book.
  • Inverted with the Book of Three. It will only serve good people with honorable and honest intent.
  • Similarly, Gwydion's sword, Dyrnwyn, can only be drawn (safely) by those of "noble worth." Taran (and others) initially think this means only one of the Sons of Don (due to the fact that they originally mistranslated that part of the inscription as "Royal Blood"), but in a critical moment Taran himself is able to draw the sword when his intention is pure (to defend someone else, not to attack in anger) and after undergoing Character Development in the fourth book, where he developed the personal nobility to wield the sword without falling to evil.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: 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.

• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The House of Don must take ship for the paradise in the West once Arawn dies. This includes Fflewddur, who's a cadet relation, and Eilonwy of the House of Llyr, though Eilonwy wishes her way out of it. Taran, Gurgi, Glew, and Hen Wen are also given the option of going, but Taran remains because he considers it his duty, and Eilonwy and Hen Wen stay with him. Gurgi also wants to stay, but Taran tells him to go and find happiness.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: A mild example. Nearly all of the character and place names are derived from Welsh mythology, but Alexander admitted to having completely made up the very Welsh-sounding Eilonwy.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Taran at the end of the series.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Llonio is, essentially, a medieval Gadgeteer Genius whom MacGyver would respect. He's able to come up with ideas on how to utilize all kinds of odds and ends, but he modestly calls it "luck."
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Taran and Eilonwy, constantly.
  • Also, Fflewddur and his harp.
• Babies Ever After: Averted with Taran and Eilonwy as there’s no mention of any issue after they marry. Hen Wen on the other hand has a fling with a visiting wild boar and has six piglets by the fifth book.
• Backup Bluff: King Rhun, during a fight where the air is full of smoke and confusion, races his horse from one side of the battlefield to the other, shouting orders to regiments of cavalry that don't exist.
• Badass Teacher: Do not screw with Dallben.

• Beauty Equals Goodness: Flip-flopped.
  • Inverted with Achren, who is as wicked as she is beautiful. And for further inversion, her beauty fades after her sort-of Heel–Face Turn in books four and five, possibly implying that a lot of it was magical glamour and she lost the power (or maybe just the inclination) to maintain it.
  • 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.
  • Eilonwy, however, is the trope played perfectly straight.
  • We have no idea whether Taran plays it straight or not because not a single aspect of his appearance is ever described in the whole series.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Eilonwy and Taran. Nearly every conversation-including the one where he proposes to her-are sarcasm contests.
• Big Bad: The Horned King in The Book of Three, Achren in The Castle of Llyr, and Arawn Death-Lord himself in The High King.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Achren is actively opposed to Arawn. Morgant tries to steal the Black Cauldron out from under both Arawn and Gwydion in order to go From Nobody to Nightmare. Morda is an Evil Sorcerer who plans to outmatch Arawn some day. Dorath, meanwhile, was just a Psycho for Hire bandit with an "everything burns" worldview; the companions often encounter him out of pure bad luck, yet he's always willing to make their lives miserable just for the hell of it. Pryderi...thinks he's playing Arawn for his own benefit, but isn't.
• Big Damn Heroes: This is Taran's tale, so Gwydion tends to appear as The Cavalry (or, more rarely, to be rescued by Taran's band). Medwyn's wolves also take this role, rescuing Eilonwy and Gurgi from Dorath's brigands just in the nick of time in the last book.
• Big Eater:
  • King Smoit, who doesn't seem to eat multiple meals so much as eat a single meal all day long.
  • Gurgi, who is always on the lookout for "munchings and crunchings".
• Big Fun: King Smoit again.
• Big Good: High King Math, son of Mathonwy, and Dallben the Enchanter. The ending implies that Taran and Eilonwy become this for Prydain.
• Bilingual Bonus: Several of the names of people and places. For example, "Hen Wen" means "old white [one] (feminine)" in Welsh. Gwydion means "born of trees." Averted with Eilonwy, which (as noted above) Lloyd Alexander invented for the books.
• Bittersweet Ending: Arawn is defeated, but Prydain has been ravaged by war, many heroes have fallen, the power of magic has been lost forever, and Taran and Eilonwy give up eternal life and are separated from nearly all of their friends in order to stay in Prydain to help rebuild. On the other hand, Taran becomes High King of Prydain and marries Eilonwy, and they lead happy and fulfilling lives and are such prosperous rulers that the bards write songs about them. And while the Lost Technology of the post-scarcity society Arawn stole burned with his fortress, Gurgi saved the scientific knowledge he once hoarded, giving mankind the wisdom to make their lives easier while removing the temptation to become lazy and complacent.
• The Blacksmith: Hevydd. Also, Coll. Hevydd teaches Taran to forge blades, but while Taran proves to be a talented smith, his heart isn't in it.
• Blessed with Suck: Magic is rarely something useful for the good guys; it's more likely to make their lives miserable (though sometimes in such a way as to enable Character Development).
  • Doli and his invisibility powers, which make his ears ring and hurt.
  • Also Fflewddur's harp, which is of excellent quality (and enchanted), but it's almost always in need of repair since the strings keep breaking every time Fflewddur stretches the truth.
  • The powers Eilonwy and her mother inherited provide the wielder with a lot of power, but they also did neither of the women any good. As an enchantress, Queen Angharad was expected to marry a man born with magical powers of his own and ended up banished when she decided to elope with a man who she loved, but who gained his magical powers from his own efforts and not birth. Eilonwy, meanwhile, only uses a magic spell once in the series, which doesn't even really work. She was kidnapped from her mother as a baby because Achren wanted to steal her powers, and ends up abducted and brainwashed in the third book, because of this plan. After that, she can't even use her powers, though she still has them. The last straw is in The High King, when she learns that her latent magic is still enough to mean she has no choice but to leave Taran and travel to the Summer Country, which she declares as being "worse than unfair" because she never asked for said powers. When Dallben informs her of a way to be rid of them, she does it without a second's hesitation.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: Very mild example. When Eilonwy first finds Dyrnwyn, she translates the inscription as "Draw Dyrnwyn, only thou of royal blood", which the party takes as an explanation as to why Prince Gwydion can draw it and Taran can't. Later on, it is revealed that while she was mostly accurate, she mistranslated the last part (although from the beginning Eilonwy says that everyone else is interpreting “royal blood” too literally). It actually meant something more like "noble worth,” and Gwydion's strength of character (and Taran's lack of it) was the reason behind who could draw the sword. After four books of Character Development, Taran becomes able to draw the sword, and his worthiness to do so is itself the proof that he, like Gwydion, is suited to be high king.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Fflewddur. King Smoit even more so.
• Boring, but Practical: How Dallben and Math describe a shepherd's staff, which is much less flashy than a crown but actually helps the wielder stand up straight.
• Born Lucky: Llonio gives this impression, in Taran Wanderer, but the lesson he teaches Taran is how to make his own luck.

• Break the Haughty: Taran is horrified to find out that his father is Craddoc the shepherd and views his new life as a prison sentence. His time working for Craddoc is what is truly responsible for convincing him that nobility comes from work and honor rather than royal blood and wealth. By the time Craddoc dies and confesses that Taran isn't really his son, Taran has acquired humility and is not ashamed to be a shepherd's son.
• Can't Argue with Elves: Averted. The Fair Folk are powerful and magical, sure, but they're not portrayed as much better than the humans, being prone to (often unjustified) Fantastic Racism, pettiness and whining about every little thing.
• Cassandra Truth: Seriously, Fflewddur really is a king. Granted, his kingdom is so small that he can leave his palace in the morning and be out of his kingdom by the end of the day, but he's a king nonetheless. Unlike most kings, he doesn't feel the need to exaggerate this and freely admits he doesn't like being in his kingdom, which is why he became a bard.
• Catchphrase: 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 -"
  • "Crunchings and munchings."
  • "Hullo, hullo!"
  • "When I was a giant..."
  • "My beard and bones!"
• Character Development: The reason these books are so good (well, one of the major ones, anyway).
  • 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, as 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.
• Changeling Fantasy: Zigzagged. Taran knows he's adopted from the start and hopes he'll turn out to be a prince ... but when he sets off to find out who he is (by learning who his parents were), he gets more than one answer. In fact, though at least two men (a poor shepherd and a king) both try to claim him as a son, his real parents are unknown, even to Dallben.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Admit it, you never saw the gwythaint coming in The High King - you thought that boomerang had returned four books ago!
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The coffer with the polished bone that Gurgi finds inside a hollow tree (because Kaw playfully dropped Fflewddur's harp key there) turns out to be Morda's Soul Jar. Even becomes a bit of an enforced Clingy Macguffin since, after Taran has Gurgi put it back because of Fflewddur's fear of "meddling with magic", Kaw goes back and takes it again.
  • The ring Eilonwy receives at the end of the first book ends up coming in quite handy in the finale.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Nearly everyone Taran befriends on his journey in Taran Wanderer comes back to help out in the campaign against Arawn in The High King, or gets killed tragically to provide more personal drama for the final conflict.
  • Back in Castle of Llyr, Glew mentioned in passing that he bought the "empty book" (actually containing the titular spells of Caer Colur) from a magician. Turns out as of the next book that that magician was Morda. Even better, it turns out the amulet he's using against the Fair Folk belonged to Angharad, Eilonwy's mother, something the careful reader could have guessed after seeing Eilonwy's own jewelry and the moon iconography mentioned for the House of Llyr, thus explaining the owner's previously-unknown fate. Although once the reader knows Morda had one magical item connected with the House of Llyr, it's easier to guess he'd have another.
• The Chessmaster: Arawn. (Also Morgant and Pryderi).
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Taran still seems to be a teenager when he is made a war leader, and eventually High King.
• Civil War: Like historical Wales, the various kings and lords of Prydain are always fighting somewhere in the kingdom. In addition, several of these kings side with Arawn against Math for their own benefit, up to and including Pryderi, the most powerful ruler in Prydain except for King Math.
• Clever Crows: The heroic Kaw the crow, who turns out to be an important ally to the heroes.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Eilonwy has many shades of this, and yet still manages to be the only person in the group with any common sense.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Arawn turns into a snake and is beheaded in one blow by Taran. Might also be a subversion, as he seems to be a normal-sized snake, not a giant one, and his shapeshifting was just as likely about concealment and escape.
  34. I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.
• Coming of Age Story: Taran begins as a teenager pig-keeper's apprentice, and throughout battles against the forces of the Dark Lord Arawn, grows into adulthood and becomes High King of Prydain.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: In a rare justification of the trope, every Huntsman of Annuvin is mystically bound to his fellow Huntsmen, and on his death, they each receive part of his strength.
• Consummate Liar: Fflewddur. Ironically, his most outrageous claim (that he's actually a king) is true: he's the king of a tiny, drab, miserable little land that even neighboring rulers don't covet.
• Cool Horse: Gwydion's horse, Melyngar, in the first book; her son Melynlas for the rest of the series; also Lluagor, Adaon's mare who eventually becomes Melynlas' mate.

• Cool Sword
  • Dyrnwyn, of course.
  • The blade Taran forges in Taran Wanderer is an example. It's a pretty ugly weapon, but it's actually better than his finely-shaped old weapon.
• 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.
  • The running away is somewhat justified though, in that Gurgi has no way to defend himself, particularly in the beginning and particularly against the sort of enemies that they always end up facing. When he runs away from a pack of Cauldron-Born (who are pretty much invulnerable soldiers) and later gets slated by Taran for doing so, Eilonwy's response is that while Gurgi's actions certainly weren't brave, they really weren't stupid either and that she couldn't see what possible use there would be in Gurgi standing there waiting to be killed
    • The above incident is doubly justified in that it occurs quite early on when Gurgi has only just met Taran and has no idea whether Taran will defend him (or even if he can defend him) or abandon him, especially given how Taran first treats him.
    • And let's not forget that Gwydion also orders Taran to run as soon as they first encounter Cauldron-Born. Gurgi just doesn't need to be told
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • Gwystyl deliberately hides his competence and badassery, and does it so well that he can come across like a wiener while helping Taran and his crew break into a castle.
  • Fflewddur Fflam is the less than popular king of a tiny kingdom and a minstrel who tells grandiose lies. By the end of the first book, we find out that he is also a deadly swordsman and a tried warrior. Amusingly, a prequel short story implies that most of the time, Fflewddur himself is unaware of his own badassery.
• Crown of Horns: In The Book of Three the chief villain is the Horned King, who wears a mask made out of a human skull with great antlers rising in cruel curves. He is a warlord who is Arawn's champion and the War Leader of Annuvin.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The second half of the Battle of Caer Dathyl. Pryderi's regular forces are marginally defeated, but the armies of Prydain can't stand against the Cauldron-Born.
• Cursed with Awesome: Glew turns himself into a giant and gets trapped in a cave he's too big to maneuver through.
• Deadpan Snarker: Dallben, usually when Taran is acting childish. Also Eilonwy, who combines it with a mixture of Politeness Judo and Passive-Aggressive Kombat.
• Deal with the Devil: NEVER make a deal with Arawn. Unlike most "devils", Arawn never keeps his end of the bargain.
• Death by Newbery Medal: The High King won a Newbery Medal and is a veritable named-character bloodbath. Even if none of the characters on the cover die. No, not even the Really Big Cat. The Black Cauldron, by comparison, won a Newbery Honor and only has a body count of three (plus horse).
• Dedication: The High King, the last book of the series, is dedicated "To the boys who might have been Taran and the girls who will always be Eilonwy."
• 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 likely to cave a few skulls in over petty arguments with his minions.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Dallben to Taran, over the Book of Three. Eilonwy to Taran, over Dyrnwyn. There are more (Taran's not the only one who meddles with things he shouldn't).
• 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
• Dragon Ascendant: Magg tries it when the heroes invade Annuvin and Arawn flees. Arawn's crown burns him to death.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Happens to Adaon and Taran in The Black Cauldron.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In the land of Prydain, everything comes at a high price.
• The Eeyore: Gwystyl of the Fair Folk is a gloomy, whiny fellow given to always believing the worst about everything.
• Elite Mooks: The Huntsmen and the Cauldron-Born.
• Everyone Can See It: The entire group seems to be aware of Taran's feelings for Eilonwy except Taran himself. Eilonwy herself lampshades this twice in the last book. Taran's crush on Eilonwy is fully developed by the middle of book 3; in fact, Achren uses it to torture him. What he has trouble figuring out is that, yes, the princess likes him back, pig-keeping and all.
• Evil Chancellor: In The Castle of Llyr, Magg is chancellor to the kindly King of Mona. Unfortunately for King Rhuddlum, Magg's real loyalty lies with the wicked Queen Achren, who has promised him a kingdom if he helps her kidnap Princess Eilonwy.

• Evil Tainted the Place: The land around Annuvin is deadly to the Fair Folk. Doli only avoids dying when it turns out his invisibility power shields him. Gwystyl, one of the most capable and badass of them all, became a wispy, endlessly-complaining wreck just from being close to the area for too long.
• Exact Words: Arawn loves to do this to his own men.
  • Pryderi was sent to kill Dallben and retrieve The Book of Three, and Arawn told him that "no man had ever died by [Dallben's] hands." He did not tell Pryderi that Caer Dallben was enchanted with a defensive spell that would immolate the farm and everyone in it if Dallben dies, or that the Book of Three itself would kill him if he tried to mishandle it.
  • Arawn promised Magg that "someday, he would wear the Iron Crown of Annuvin." Magg did. It turned white-hot and burned through Magg's head in the most gruesome death in the series - not that Magg didn't deserve to die, but it's hard to say that anyone deserves that kind of torture.
• Exit, Pursued by a Bear:
  • Dorath and his bandits are torn apart by wolves right before he "removes Eilonwy's charms."
  • Something similar happens to the Huntsmen, not long after. The heroes see them camping on the banks of a dried-up river and melt a frozen waterfall to flood them out. As soon as they climb to dry ground, a group of bears and wolves maul them to death.
• Extreme Omnivore: It's never explicitly stated, but it's heavily implied that Orgoch (of the Three Sisters) eats pretty nearly anything, including people.

• Fainting Seer: Hen Wen in The High King, including a combination of terrified refusal to pass on her visions, and bizarre, nonsensical prophecies before she goes into Heroic BSoD.
• The Fair Folk: A bit of a subversion, as they have no particular liking for men but are willing to work with them against Arawn. The king is grudgingly fond of Taran and even fonder of Eilonwy, and Doli has more affection for the entire group than he likes to admit.
• 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. Of course, this is no surprise to those who know that "Prydain" is the Welsh spelling of "Britain".
• Farm Boy: Taran is a young boy, profession assistant pig-keeper, who ran headlong into adventures (and a thornbush) when Hen Wen, his oracular charge, ran away from the Horned King. If his true parentage was noble, it's never revealed. He was found as a baby near a violent battle where nobody survived, so he was without rank or heritage, something which his foster-father took as a sign that he was the chosen child.
• A Father to His Men: King Smoit (who, we learn, is a childless widower). He even offers to adopt Taran when he hears he's looking for his birth parents.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: The final fate of Magg. He dons the Iron Crown of Annuvin, and it fuses to his head, turns white-hot, and burns him to death as he screams in agony.
• Fearless Fool: Taran, at first. He learns a more suitable reaction to danger as time goes by.

• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Adaon's brooch has this effect on people, particularly Taran. He gives it up in order to get the Black Cauldron.
• Forced Transformation: One of Morda's more frightening powers, as he demonstrates by turning Doli into a frog, Fflewddur into a hare, and attempts to do the same to the other heroes. It's also repeatedly implied to be within the powers of the three enchantresses of Morva.
• Friend to All Living Things: Medwyn, who apparently is Prydain's version of Noah.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Arawn. He was just some hapless dipshit until he became Achren's Starscream, swindled all her secrets from her, then usurped her and became the Lord of Death.
• Gene Hunting: Taran Wanderer is a mix of this and Walking the Earth.
• The Ghost: During The Black Cauldron, Adaon speaks often and fondly of Arianllyn, the girl to whom he is betrothed. She's never seen; in fact, the only thing the reader ever learns about her is that she was the one who gave Adaon his brooch.
• Giant Flyer: The gwythaints. It turns out that they aren't Always Chaotic Evil.

• Go Out with a Smile: Rhun doesn't even seem to realize he's dying. He excitedly talks about how it was his first battle. No one realizes until Taran comments sadly that he's stopped breathing.
• Gratuitous Princess: Eilonwy. Taran (and therefore the reader) does not learn that she is a princess until literally the last page of the first book — when Dallben mentions it casually. Eilonwy herself never drops so much as a hint, except when noting that "mine are the people of Llyr Half-Speech, the Sea King." Her royal heritage is a plot point in the third book, but otherwise, she never concerns herself with princessdom very much. Her informed princessdom is justified, in that she is Last of Her Kind, so in political terms her heritage is largely moot.
• Great Big Book of Everything: The titular Book of Three.
  • As Dallben reveals towards the end of The High King, this is quite literal, as it apparently covers the events of every possible timeline. As Dallben makes annotations at several points during the series, he's presumably noting which events actually take place for future reference.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • For the first four books in the series, Arawn Death-Lord is a powerful, malicious, off-screen presence.
  • There is also the mysterious master of Gwyn the Hunter. Gwydion himself knows almost nothing of him but believes he may be greater in power than Arawn.
• The Grim Reaper: Although Gwyn the Hunter isn't anything like the hooded and cloaked skeleton we're all familiar with, he seems to have the same role as the Reaper in the setting. (He isn't evil, though; Arawn, the "Lord of Death," fills that role.)

• Heel–Face Turn: Achren, possibly. Other interpretations suggest more of an Enemy Mine against Arawn.
• Heel Realization: Ellidyr comes to a version of this at the end of The Black Cauldron and atones with a Heroic Sacrifice.
  "The black beast you saw is a harsh master; its claws are sharp. Yet I did not feel them until now."
• Hellhound: The dogs of Gwyn the Hunter.
• Heroic BSoD: Taran, following the death of Craddoc the shepherd. Not just because Craddoc died, but that his first thought on seeing him was that he was finally free from his life as a shepherd. He was so ashamed and disgusted with himself for having ever had the thought that he never gets over it or forgives himself for it.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Attempted in the Book of Three. Taran knows that he can't draw Dyrnwyn, with Eilonwy constantly warning him that the blade will kill him. He eventually does to protect Gwydion and his friends, knowing that he will die. Gwydion even comments that the sword letting him live was a testament that one day he would be worthy of it.
  • Taran later gives up Adaon's brooch to pay for the Black Cauldron. He's more agonized about giving up one last remnant of his friend.
  • 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.
• Hijacked by Jesus: Arawn, the king of the Otherworld in the Mabinogion, is re-envisioned as an evil force similar to Tolkien's Sauron. You could also make a pretty good parallel between Gwydion and Jesus in The Book of Three. Alexander, at least, acknowledges in the author's note that Arawn is "considerably more villainous" in his version, so at least he's aware of the situation.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In Taran Wanderer, Taran finds that he cannot break the enchanted bone. It's only when Morda tries to take it from him, gripping the middle while Taran holds both ends, that it snaps. While this was an act of desperation, Morda really should have known better.
• Holy Is Not Safe: Dyrnwyn is clearly a holy blade, being the only weapon capable of killing the undead Cauldron Born or the Dark Lord Arawn, but it's also extremely dangerous to anyone insufficiently worthy who tries to draw it. Taran badly hurts himself trying to draw it at the climax of the first book, with Gwydion later telling him the fact that he even survived unsheathing it suggests he may one day, someday be worthy of actually wielding it.
• Honor Before Reason: A recurring theme. A major part of Taran's growth is learning what real honor means, and when other things must come before it.
• Horns of Villainy: The Horned King. Somewhat subverted, as the horns are part of a helmet he wears, not a part of the Horned King himself.
• 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.
• Humiliation Conga: Queen Achren. Starts off as a powerful sorceress and queen, and rules Prydain as an absolute tyrant. Later, she is overthrown by her more powerful protege and consort Arawn, and is moved to Spiral Castle. The castle is (unwittingly) destroyed by the heroes, robbing Achren of her powers, which she attempts to replace by controlling Eilonwy. She is also repeatedly spurned by the object of her affections, Gwydion. By the fourth book, she's a powerless refugee who works as a maid in Caer Dallben. Quite a long way to fall.
• Hypnotize the Captive: Heavily influences the plot of The Castle of Llyr.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Eilonwy and Taran will often claim that "No one makes fun of him/her but me!"
• Hypocritical Humor: Never tell Eilonwy to Stay in the Kitchen, especially in front of Taran. Unless you are Taran, apparently.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: The outlaw Dorath threatens to rape Princess Eilonwy and have her raped by his fellow brigands, and release her "when [she] shall be fitting company for pig-keepers." Subverted slightly in that Dorath never states precisely what it is he intends to do to her; he says instead that "perhaps [Taran] will even recognize [her] charms, whatever may be left of them." The dialogue is written just vaguely enough that the book's younger readers only know that Eilonwy is in danger, without knowing the specifics that might traumatize them. Older readers can ferret out Dorath's meaning for themselves, as Eilonwy did. It is possible that he had something else in mind, however.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Eilonwy in The Castle of Llyr, and The High King, where she accomplishes it.
  • Inverted by Taran at first, who yearns to be a hero.
• I Know Your True Name: Used by Gwydion to defeat the Horned King, but only in the background. It provides a bit of Fridge Brilliance, when this somewhat out of place logic is applied to the rest of the series. Gwydion claims that naming something is to imply mastery over it. No one knows Taran's true name, thus making him master of his own destiny.
• 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.
  • The major disadvantage of the Cauldron-Born is that they become weaker the further they are from Annuvin, and when the Black Cauldron is destroyed, Arawn has no means to make more.
  • The strength of the Huntsmen is that when one is killed, the rest of them become stronger.
• Impoverished Patrician:
  • Ellidyr is a prince, but his family squandered its wealth before he was even born. All he really has are his title and his horse.
  • There's really not much left of the kingdom that Eilonwy is the princess of, and all she personally has are the family name, some half-trained magic powers and an enchanted glowing sphere that's mostly useless to anyone except her. Unlike Ellidyr, she doesn't really care about her title at all and is content doing farm work as long as she's away from Achren and gets to be around Taran.
• Informed Ability: Many characters are said to be enchanters, but they rarely if ever use these abilities. Possibly justified with Eilonwy as she never finished her training, and she destroys any hope of mastering her magic in the third book. This gets completely averted for Dallben in Book 5, when he proves his power to Pryderi.
• Ingesting Knowledge: How Dallben got to be so wise. It was an accident (and a Mythology Gag).
• Insistent Terminology: The narrative always refers to Taran as an "assistant pig-keeper."
• Intellectual Animal: In Prydain, all animals seem to be intelligent and able to understand humans to an extent, though only Medwyn Speaks Fluent Animal with all beasts.
• 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.
• Is It Something You Eat??: Even The Hecate Sisters seem a bit fuzzy (sorry) about what Gurgi is, exactly.
  Orwen: So that's a gurgi. It seems to me I've heard of them, but I never knew what they were...
  Orgoch: What do you do with the gurgi? Do you eat it or sit on it?
  Orddu: I should think whatever you did, you would have to clean it first.
• It's the Journey That Counts: In Taran Wanderer, The Hecate Sisters send Taran off to find the Mirror of Llunet, which, if he looks into it, will reveal who he really is (something that Taran, who has no idea who his family is, desperately wants to know). It turns out that the magic mirror is just a particularly pretty puddle; it was the trials of looking for it that gave Taran a sense of who he really was, not looking into some magic mirror (also the former Trope Namer, as it happens).
• It Was a Gift:
  • At the end of The Book of Three, the main characters are given gifts that they will carry throughout the series.
  • In the middle of the fourth book, Taran Wanderer, Dorath demands Taran's sword as "payment" for the "protection" of his band of sellswords (who moonlight as brigands when they don't have an employer). Taran refuses because it was given to him by his guardian Dallben and first put on him by the girl he loves. After agreeing to fight Taran unarmed for possession of the blade, Dorath treacherously pulls a dagger and steals it. At the end of the book this proves to be symbolic, because Taran faces Dorath again, this time fighting with a sword Taran had forged himself, and when the two swords meet, it is the sword of his childhood that shatters.

• Jumped at the Call: Taran in the first two books. Also Ellidyr, who is essentially Taran's more hotheaded foil.
• Just Eat Gilligan:
  • Suggested numerous times by Fflewddur of Glew.
  • In the first book, Gwydion finds Taran to be so troublesome that he gives serious consideration to just dumping him back at Caer Dalben. Unfortunately, he must hurry to find Hen Wen (also, there'd be no story if that happened).
• Keystone Army: The Cauldron-Born. Kill one of them and they all die. Unfortunately, actually accomplishing this is effectively impossible for most of the series. Also becomes Fridge Brilliance, when they are not seen after the first book, but reappear in the fifth - they have to be kept hidden after Dyrnwyn (which actually can kill them) is rediscovered, but they can be sent out again after it is stolen from Gwydion.
• Kid Hero: Taran in the first book, though he grows older as the series progresses.
• Kill One, Others Get Stronger: This is the main distinguishing characteristic of the Huntsmen of Annuvin. Unlike the Cauldron-Born they can be killed, but when one of them is, its fellows gain its strength, making them more dangerous as their numbers dwindle.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Taran and Fflewddur Fflam, but most notably Fflewddur. When facing the giant wild cat, Llyan, Taran can't help but appreciate the magnificent creature and when Fflewddur had the opportunity to slay her, he didn't. Whether it was out of animal appreciation or cowardice or a mixture of both is never clear, but the end result is that Llyan becomes Fflewddur's mount and pet by the end of her debut book and he dotes on her every bit as much as she dotes on him.
• King Incognito:
  • Prince Gwydion travels around the countryside in common garb because he doesn't buy into the "clothes make the man" cliche; in The Castle of Llyr, he is deliberately disguised to avoid detection.
  • Fflewddur does much the same. He's not especially reticent about the fact that he's a king, but he also readily admits that he doesn't like the job of ruling and isn't as good at it as the chief steward he leaves in charge while he's living the life of a wandering bard.
  • Eilonwy is a Princess Incognito in the first book, never directly mentioning her status as heir to a royal dynasty (though she does say that she's "of the blood of Llyr Half-Speech, the Sea King"); somewhat justified in her case, as her ancestors' castle is a ruin and the kingdom no longer exists as such.
• Large and in Charge:
  • King Smoit is larger than life in every sense.
  • The Horned King is described as a "giant."

• Last Minute Hook Up: After five books of arguments and misunderstandings, Taran and Eilonwy get married at the very end of the last chapter of the last book. (It would have happened in the first chapter, but circumstances intervened just as Taran was about to propose.)
• Last of Her Kind: Eilonwy, the last descendant of the royal House of Llyr. As the last Princess of Llyr, she alone is heir to a sizable number of enchantments and magic powers, which reside in her by birth; but because her father was a non-magical commoner, she tends to refer to herself as being only "half an enchantress". This only really becomes relevant starting from the third book in the series, when she is returned to her ancient family castle, Caer Colur; having been kidnapped as an infant, she never realized the scope of her magical heritage.
  • Whatever Gurgi is, there don't seem to be any others like him.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: The High King is the only book in the main series to feature scenes not from Taran's point of view.
• Left for Dead: Happens to Gwydion with surprising regularity, usually allowing him to go off and do something even more badass than what Taran's group is doing elsewhere.
• Lie Detector: Fflewddur's harp, but it only detects Fflewddur's lies.
• Little People: Doli, Gwystyl, and the rest of The Fair Folk are smaller than humans in size.
• 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.
  • Spiral Castle collapses after Achren is defeated in The Book of Three, but it was more of a happy accident. Eilonwy removing Dyrnwyn (a load-bearing sword) from the forgotten underground barrow of the king who built Spiral Castle is what actually leads to its collapse.
  • Meanwhile, offscreen, Gwydion's success in resisting Achren's attempt to break him also destroyed the prison of Oeth-Anoeth, where she was having him tortured.
  • Caer Colur collapses after Achren is defeated in The Castle of Llyr, though this has nothing to do with Achren herself - it's a direct result of Eilonwy giving up her ancestral spellbook.
  • In a non-villainous example, Dallben claims that his home will be consumed with magical fire if he is killed, along with anyone foolish enough to kill him. He may have been bluffing about this; we never actually find out either way, though the fact that the Book of Three incinerates the man trying to steal it suggests that it is capable of doing so.
  • In The High King, Annuvin is destroyed when Arawn is slain.
• Lord Error-Prone: Prince Rhun is not overly proud, but certainly foolish and bumbling enough for two, and a Wide-Eyed Idealist to boot. He levels up in the final book.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Craddoc to Taran, but it turns out not to be true.
• Made of Shiny: The Golden Pelydryn, better known as Eilonwy's bauble.
• Magic Cauldron: The Black Cauldron, an important part of the early books, is an Artifact of Doom which generates Elite Mooks for the villains. It's inspired by the Pair Dadeni from Celtic Mythology, and is destroyed the same way.
• The Magic Goes Away: Following Arawn's death at the end of The High King the Fair Folk, the Sons of Don, and other magically-adept humans like Dallben use this as an excuse to leave Prydain, claiming they're no longer needed now that evil magic has been banished from the land. Eilonwy gives up her powers rather than leave Prydain out of love for Taran. Even magical animals and items like Hen Wen and Dyrnwyn lose their powers after Taran slays Arawn, though Hen Wen is implied to remain an Intellectual Animal.
• Magic Knight: Gwydion is, as of the end of The Book of Three, one of the strongest enchanters in Prydain and the wielder of Dyrnwyn. He usually fights using the latter, but can escape any prison and understand Hen Wen without the oracle sticks.
• Magic Mirror: The Mirror of Llunet is the object of Taran's quest in Taran Wanderer. Taran wishes to know of his parentage and so seeks this mirror which will show him who he really is.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The Mirror of Llunet. Taran believes it to be nothing but a beautiful puddle, but it's possible that it's more than that, as well. Or was, before Dorath stamped on it.
• Mega Neko: Llyan, the horse-sized cat who joins the companions in The Castle of Llyr.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: If you're a mentor for Taran, you might want to invest in life insurance before the fifth book. Llonio, Coll and Annlaw Clay-Shaper die, while Dallben and Gwydion return to the Summer Country.
• Metafictional Title: The Book of Three.
• Metaphorgotten: Eilonwy's similes fall somewhere between this and Malaproper. It's worse than being crawled on by hedgehogs!
• Modest Royalty: Most royals are upfront about who they are, but very few of them actually look royal. Taran thinks Gwydion is lying about his identity when they first meet because he looks nothing like he thinks a prince should. Eilonwy is so modest about her royal status that she only mentions it herself in her introduction and when hypnotized in the third book. And Fflewddur would much rather be a bard than a king; the only kingly thing he seems to particularly enjoy is granting boons.
• Monster-Shaped Mountain: Seen in The High King. Mount Dragon was so named because its peak was in the rough shape of a monstrous, crested dragon's head with gaping jaws, and on either side the lower slopes spread like unfurled wings.

• Motor Mouth: In the first three books, Eilonwy talks so much that it actually annoys the villains. It gets to the point that, on an occasion when everyone else is merely tied up, Eilonwy is Bound and Gagged. When she returns in the fifth book, she's a bit more subdued.
• Muggle in Mage Custody: Taran is the ward of the great enchanter Dallben, whom he regards as his master. Taran has no magical ability of his own and in fact has absolutely no idea why Dallben is the one raising him or where his real parents are; but he has nowhere else to go, and he sincerely loves both Dallben and his other (non-magical) guardian Coll, so he stays. Only at the end of the series is it finally revealed that Taran was an orphaned infant whom Dallben found and decided to raise in the hopes of fulfilling a great prophecy.
• My Girl Back Home: Arianllyn, Adaon's betrothed. He never makes it back to her, and the poor guy didn't even show a photo of her.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Arawn Death-Lord; Achren; The Horned King; Gwyn the Hunter.
• 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.
  • While not revealed until the very end of the series, there is a prophecy in the Book of Three that Arawn would be defeated by one "from no station in life". This is Taran, whose known heritage is limited to being the son of somebody on a massive battlefield in which everyone other than the infant Taran was killed, without any evidence as to who among the dead were his kin.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Several.
  • Gurgi. We're not exactly sure what he is, but he's definitely not human.
  • Hen Wen, upon occasion. The ending indicates that she'll remain with Taran rather than leave Prydain, so she becomes this to him permanently.

• Llyan, the big cat, becomes this for Fflewddur. She's big enough that he can ride her like a horse.
• In the second book there's also Islimach, Ellidyr's horse, who has been reared for this since birth. She's so devoted to him that when he performs a Heroic Sacrifice, she throws herself off the nearby cliff in despair.

• No Ontological Inertia:
  • Played with. Destroying the Black Cauldron does not kill the existing Cauldron-born, but using Dyrnwyn on just one of them slays them all.
  • Played straight with Morda, whose Forced Transformation of several of the heroes is instantly reversed upon his death.
• Noodle Incident: Orddu, Orwen, and Orgoch extracted one of Arawn's most prized possessions from the middle of his heavily defended fortress - somehow. They can't be bothered to explain, simply saying they had many options and it's hardly worth talking about after it's been done.
• Not Quite Dead: Gwydion, in the first book. He gets better.
• The Oath-Breaker: Breaking oaths is one of Arawn's most infamous habits. If this guy makes a deal, he WILL break it. No matter how little it might cost him to keep it. Or how much more dangerous NOT keeping it could be. And somehow, there are always more idiots willing to make deals with him.
• Offstage Villainy: Sure, his subordinates and armies are out in full force, but Arawn himself just can't be asked to actually do anything until The High King. However, he does his own dirty work in one of the prequel short stories.
• Older Sidekick: Fflewddur, an adult, to Taran & Eilonwy, who are young teenagers in the first book. Gwydion (also an adult, albeit a young one) is this too, but much less frequently.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Gwydion to the Horned King, although he accepts that he himself might die in the attempt.
• Only the Chosen May Wield:
  • Dyrnwyn which is a sword under the stone. The sword is capable of killing anyone unworthy of touching it just by drawing it from its scabbard. After it nearly kills Taran when he tries to draw it, Gwydion takes possession of it for the remainder of the series until Taran uses it to kill Arawn. This time Taran manages to unleash the blade without being injured by it, having proved himself worthy of its power.
  • The Book of Three likewise stings Taran when he tries to read it, though as Taran isn't evil (just a bit selfish and generally adolescent), it only burns his fingers. Pryderi grabs the Book, and since he is by this time lost to evil, it kills him with a lightning bolt.
  • The Iron Crown of Annuvin can only be safely worn by Arawn. Evil Is Not a Toy, Magg.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Dorath's threats to rape Eilonwy may have been metaphorical and vague, but they're the only thing in the series that truly scares her.
• 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, Magg, Achren, and Pryderi and leaves Annuvin just once to steal Dyrnwyn. It's Justified in that Arawn can be killed when he leaves Annuvin and takes a mortal shape, and would rather not risk his own life when he has a horde of Huntsmen, gwythaints, deathless Cauldron Born, etc. Arawn is also portrayed as more of a trickster or Old Scratch figure who prefers to get what he wants through manipulation and guile rather than overt shows of force.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Though technically zombies (in the sense that both are animated corpses), the Cauldron-Born are otherwise nothing like traditional zombies. They aren't even rotting, though their skin is grey, due to a lack of circulating blood. Their eyes are often described as being like stones.
• 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. (He gets really mad when Achren torments Taran in The Castle of Llyr.)
• Parental Marriage Veto: Eilonwy's parents. Gwydion mentions it briefly in the third book; the extra volume The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain gives the story of their romance in much greater detail. In summary: Angharad, Eilonwy's mother, was a highborn enchantress who rejected her snooty wizard suitors and instead fell for a humble storyteller. (Lloyd Alexander does love his bards.) The pair of them were exiled.
• Perpetual-Motion Monster: The cauldron-born are deathless zombies animated by the Black Cauldron. They do not eat, sleep, breathe, or get tired, and they feel no pain. However, they slowly run out of power the longer/further they are away from Annuvin.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Taran gives a memorable one to Morda, only for it to backfire since Morda is Nigh-Invulnerable.
• Prefers Rocks to Pillows: After having been stuck on Mona for ages, Eilonwy flops to the ground early in The High King and exclaims how much she's missed "comfortable" roots and rocks.
• Prince Charmless: Ellidyr. Slightly subverted in that there's absolutely no potential for romance between him and Eilonwy. In fact, he actually goes out of his way to insult her quite a few times in The Black Cauldron, introducing the reader to Taran's Berserk Button in the process.
• Princess Classic: Eilonwy appears to have become this briefly in the last book, only for she herself to lampshade how unnatural it is for her. She spends most of the rest of the book as a Sweet Polly Oliver.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Taran and his friends. Amusing since several of them are royals.
• Rags to Royalty: The story of High King Taran.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking:
  • The royals of Prydain as a result of Asskicking Leads to Leadership.
  • Averted, ironically enough, with Arawn. His greatest strengths were always trickery & deception.
  • Subverted every so often, depending on the situation. One notable instance is when Taran finds out about how two noblemen living in King Smoit's domain constantly are at each other's throats, causing damage to innocent civilians in the process. Smoit's usual solution is to try to knock sense into them and shove them in his dungeons. Taran suggests he try something different since it clearly isn't working. His proposed solution centers around humbling them and showing them the severity of the damage they've caused (making them serve as laborers for the farmer whose land they destroyed) as well as finding a third option for what to do with the prize cow they were fighting over (give it to the same farmer and have the cow's next, equally-valuable, twin calves be split between the two). Since the two noblemen are seen standing peacefully together at the end of The High King, it presumably left an impression on them.
• Reality-Writing Book: The Book of Three.
• Rebellious Princess: Eilonwy, who started this trend nearly thirty years before Disney, making this Older Than They Think. Not only that, but she was also Disney's first rebellious princess!
• Redemption Demotion: Justified in the case of Achren, as by the time of her Heel–Face Turn her powers have run out.
• Redemption Equals Death:
  • In The Black Cauldron, Prince Ellidyr, the resident Jerkass, spends most of the book putting Taran down for being lowly born and eventually betrays the party to satisfy his own lust for glory. At the end, he realizes the error of his ways and makes a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the Black Cauldron before it can be used on the heroes.
  • In The High King, Achren is a less clear-cut case; it's unclear whether she was genuinely redeemed or just involved in an Enemy Mine.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The gwythaints, servants of Arawn, have blood-red eyes.
• Refusing Paradise: In the end, Taran is offered the chance to sail to the Summer Country. He stays to help rebuild after the war and becomes the new High King. Eilonwy also decides to stay with him.
• Retired Badass: Coll, who once single-handedly fought his way into Annuvin to save Hen Wen.
  • According to The Foundling and Other Tales, he did have some help along the way.
• Retirony: In The Black Cauldron Adaon speaks several times of Arianllyn, the woman to whom he is betrothed. Guess what happens to him not too much later?
• Rhymes on a Dime: Gurgi likes to speak with rhyming pairs of words ("smashings and gnashings", "crunchings and munchings", etc.)
• The Rival: Ellidyr, to Taran. Ellidyr, being both royalty and physically powerful, is what Taran wishes to be, and Taran feels Ellidyr's good traits are wasted on such a person.
• Robbing the Dead: As sneaking through the tunnels spreading beneath Spiral Castle, Taran and Eilonwy find a barrow: a bunch of dead armored warriors guarding a figure lying on a central stone slab. Since they need weapons, Taran snatches a sword from a corpse's hand, and Eilonwy grabs the sword of the dead man on the slab. Almost right away, the whole castle starts shaking and crumbling down.
• Royal Blood: The sword Dyrnwyn can only be drawn by someone of "royal blood." However, Eilonwy also says that the phrase doesn't actually mean literal king's blood. It turns out to be a "Blind Idiot" Translation of an idiom, and a more accurate translation would be "noble worth."
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Roughly half of the important characters are royalty. They also tend to be totally badass.
• Running Gag:
  • A string on Fflewddur's harp breaks whenever he lies (which is often). The bigger the lie, the more strings break.
  • Eilonwy informing Taran, often, that she's not speaking to him. Except, of course, to remind him that she's not speaking to him.
• Sacrificial Lion: The death of King Rhun early in The High King establishes the raised stakes of this volume.
• Sand In My Eyes: In The High King, when Fflewddur sacrifices his harp for firewood, he comments that he's glad to be rid of it, and several strings break. He complains how it smokes, though it burns with very little smoke.
• Scaled Up: Arawn does this just before his death. Justified as he was trying to get out unseen, and almost succeeded.
• Schmuck Bait: The Book of Three. Taran, what is your fascination with this mysterious and forbidden tome?! Fortunately, the book seems to be sentient, and it punishes Taran's innocent curiosity with the equivalent pain of a few mere bee stings. King Pryderi, on the other hand, wants to steal the book and use its secrets to gain power, and he is not so lucky.
  • Reading into the backstory a bit, it turns out the Book of Three was a bit of Schmuck Bait for Dallben, too. Evidently, in Prydain, wisdom comes at a high price. It turned Dallben from a youth to an old man overnight.
• Self-Disposing Villain: King Pryderi. To elaborate, he attempts to steal the Book of Three from Dallben. The enchanter warns him that betraying his former allies and working with Arawn have marked him for death. He promptly has a Villainous Breakdown, tries to steal the Book, and the Book burns him to a crisp with a lightning bolt.
• Sense Loss Sadness: After giving away Adaon's brooch to the three witches, Taran notices he lacks the clarity and wisdom he had while he wore it.
• Sent Off to Work for Relatives:
  • Taran works Craddoc's farm thinking mistakenly that Craddoc is his real father.
  • Eilonwy is sent to the Isle of Mona to learn to be a lady, "working" at being a princess for several years.
• Shipper on Deck: Fflewddur is apparently this for Taran and Eilonwy, to judge by some comments he makes in The Castle of Llyr; he says he's basically been assuming they'll get together eventually. Taran doesn't take this revelation very well, angrily pointing out that he's of no station to marry a princess.
• Sinister Deer Skull: The Horned King is a monstrous warrior covered in blood-red body paint and wearing an antlered deer mask that conceals his face.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Ellidyr treats the main characters with much contempt and responds violently if anyone so much as thinks about impugning his honor. 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. Poor Ellidyr hasn't got much left except his pride and his horse.
• Solar and Lunar: The emblem of the House of Don is the sun, on account of the fact that the Sons and Daughters of Don are descended from the Lady Don and her consort, Belin the sun king. Meanwhile, the emblem of the House of Llyr (Eilonwy's all-but-extinct lineage) is the crescent moon; this is because they are descended from Llyr Half-Speech the Sea King, and the tides of the sea are governed by the phases of the moon.
• Solitary Sorceress: Taran and his friends journey multiple times into the treacherous Marshes of Morva to seek the counsel of the Three Sisters, Orwen, Orgoch, and Orddu, inscrutable witches of unspeakable power who like to play with people's lives.
• Soul Jar: Morda has one of these - he chopped his own finger off and stored his soul in it.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Eilonwy doesn't literally speak it, but her latent magical powers allow her to communicate with some friendly wolves who come to her aid in the fifth book.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Taran comes to love Eilonwy, but keeps pointing out that he can't properly court her unless he's royalty or noble-born. After all, her parents got exiled for marrying despite class differences. Eilonwy doesn't care, but the other nobles do. The point only becomes moot when after Arawn is overthrown, there is no royalty to enforce that rule and Taran chooses to become the ruler of Prydain to honor his promises to Rhun and Coll. Eilonwy gives up her magic to stay with him and become his queen.
• The Starscream:
  • In 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.
  • Pretty much everyone who works for Arawn becomes The Starscream at one point. It never ends well.
• Stay in the Kitchen
  • Like most of his notions when we first meet him, Taran's notions of women come from Prydain's equivalent of Chivalric Romance. Some time spent as the apprentice of the spry Dwyvach Weaver-Woman tempers this dramatically.
  • Many characters wish Eilonwy would stick to women's tasks, out of concern for her safety. Naturally, she will not hear of it.
• Stone Soup: How cooking works in Llonio's household in Taran Wanderer. He sends all his children to find ingredients, and whatever they bring back ends up in what can only be described as a sort of pancake-omelet.
• Stout Strength: King Smoit.
• Stupid Evil: Arawn is a compulsive backstabber who will backstab anyone who works with him, regardless of how little to gain or how much to lose he has. No matter how often it comes back to bite him, he never learns.
• Supporting Leader: Gwydion, except in Book 3 where he's part of the acting team.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Eilonwy is forbidden to follow the men into battle in The Black Cauldron because she's a girl, so she dresses as a boy in order to fight alongside Taran. By the time The High King rolls around, nobody really cares anymore because she's proven that she's a very competent fighter (and because they have learned that they just can't make her stay home). The fact that she has latent magical powers doesn't hurt anything either.
• Tag Along Kid: Taran starts out like this to Gwydion but quickly proves his worth. Later, Llassar becomes this to Taran but he too proves himself quickly.
• Talking Animal: Kaw. He can't speak in full sentences, but he can blurt out one or two words at a time when he feels like it.
• Talks Like a Simile: Eilonwy.
• Tap on the Head: Numerous characters get clonked on the head without any long-term effects.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Dallben, according to Pryderi, though Dallben doesn't confirm it (he only says that no man has ever died by his hand, and that Arawn has misled Pryderi with "half-truths").
• Token Evil Teammate: Achren, who goes from an evil queen to a refugee cleaning up Caer Dallben to helping the heroes take down Arawn.
• Tomboy Princess: Eilonwy. Trope Maker, anyone?
• Tome of Prophecy: The Book Of Three.
• Took a Level in Badass: Many characters, most particularly Taran and Eilonwy. However, Rhun should also be mentioned - in Book 3, he was The Klutz, but pulls off an excellent Backup Bluff in Book 5.
• Torture Always Works: Inverted. Achren took Gwydion to Oeth Anoeth to torture him into obedience, but when he was able to endure, the entire building melted and imbued him with power.
• Treacherous Advisor: Magg, chancellor to King Rhuddlum of Mona. Fflewddur, in one of his more clever moments, is suspicious of him immediately.
• Trickster Mentor
  • Dallben, although not antagonistic in the slightest, does otherwise fit the description.
  • Orddu. In Taran Wanderer she asks Taran if he's ever "scratched for his own worms." Months later he realizes what she meant.
• True Companions: Taran, Eilonwy, Gurgi, Fflewddur, and Doli are the central members.
• Tsundere: Eilonwy
• The Unchosen One: Taran literally stumbles into the middle of the war and becomes a Messianic Archetype and later High King of Prydain through sheer determination.
• The Unreveal: There are two characters whose origins and true nature are deliberately left unclear: Taran and Arawn. We never learn who Taran's biological parents are. And we never 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.
  • Though with Taran, the fact that it's not revealed, and in fact probably can't be revealed, is part of the point. He's not just the son of any two people, but all of Prydain, noble and common alike.
• Unwitting Pawn: Pryderi
• Vague Age: Everybody, really, but it's most notable with Taran and Eilonwy. It's generally understood that the series begins when they're prepubescent and ends around the time they reach adulthood; the only other clue to their ages is that Eilonwy is one or two years younger than Taran. In the last book, Dallben even keeps it deliberately vague by mentioning an event that happened around Taran's birth as having happened "as many years ago as you yourself have years."
• Vain Sorceress: Achren, who according to Eilonwy, "loves jewelry, but it doesn't become her one bit."
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After Achren is defeated in The Castle of Llyr, Magg opens the gates to the castle so the tide will destroy it, and flees.
• Walking the Earth: Taran in Taran Wanderer.
• Wandering Minstrel: Fflewddur's (largely unsuccessful) career as a bard before meeting the heroes. However, it was his own choice, since he finds being a failed bard much more enjoyable and fulfilling than staying in his dismal little kingdom.
• War Is Glorious: Opinions vary. King Smoit and Fflewddur Fflam would agree, but most of the other warriors regard it as a necessary evil.
  • 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."
  • Coll would agree, preferring to be known as a 'planter of turnips', despite the fact that he'd marched single-handedly into Annuvin to rescue Hen Wen.
  • At the start of The Book of Three, Taran believes this. It's one of the first ideas knocked out of his head by his adventures.
• War Is Hell: Taran slowly comes to realize this over The Book of Three and even more-so in The Black Cauldron. Then The High King rolls around and this trope gets taken up to eleven.
• Warrior Poet: Adaon and Taliesin.
• Warrior Prince: Gwydion is the most obvious example.
• 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.
  • Morgant offers to make Taran his war leader and spare the lives of his companions if Taran will serve him, threatening to turn them all into Cauldron-Born should he refuse.
  • Much to Taran's shock and disbelief, Gwydion makes this offer to him near the end of the series. The rule together part, that is, not the consort part. It's Arawn in disguise.
• Wedding Finale: The books end on what turns out to be Taran and Eilonwy's wedding day. Being medieval fantasy, however, the wedding is a simple matter of them joining hands and pledging their troth in front of some witnesses. It takes up approximately three sentences of exposition on the next-to-last page.
• The Weird Sisters: Orwen, Orddu, and Orgoch, three sisters who live in the Marshes of Morva, are hundreds of years old and masters of magic. All of them appear as young beauties at night and old crones in daylight. Each of them has their distinct personality, but oddly they also seem to take turns at being each sister and are able to swap their identities between them. When Taran visits them in The Black Cauldron, they are just weaving a magical tapestry. Alexander has it that they're actually the Trope Maker, and possibly the Ur-Example as well (Orddu, Orwen, and Orgoch are just their most recent forms).
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Eilonwy rarely stops criticizing Taran, but it doesn't disguise her obvious affection for him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Morgant in Book 2 and Pryderi in Book 5 both fit the trope.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Back in Fflewddur Fflam's kingdom, children would often play games and sports in his throne room because of ease of access, and they knew that he was far more likely to join in their games than to shoo them out of the castle.
• Wild Hair:
  • Fflewddur, with his perpetual halo of unruly, spiky blond hair.
  • In The Book of Three, Prince Gwydion is described as having "the shaggy, gray-streaked hair of a wolf".
• Will They or Won't They?: Dragged out until the very last page of the final book with Taran and Eilonwy. 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 has a brief period of this in The Black Cauldron, through magical aid. Gwydion predicts that if Taran manages to live long enough, he'll earn the real deal; sure enough, numerous painful sacrifices eventually lead to him fulfilling the trope by the end of Taran Wanderer.
• The Wise Prince:
  • Prince Gwydion is very knowledgeable and intelligent.
  • Adaon in book two is not exactly a prince, but the son of the Chief Bard, and otherwise fulfills the archetype perfectly.

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