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kes7706's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
semperlunaris's review against another edition
3.0
A nice little set of short stories to further flesh out some characters/world building of Prydain. Could potentially be read as a stand-alone but would be better to read after books 1-5.
rchluther's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.0
Excellent companion to the Chronicles of Prydain. This is just a set of stand-alone stories (or fables) that enhance the world of Prydain. Highly recommend to any fan of the series or even just as fables to read to your young ones.
misterjay's review against another edition
5.0
Look, I’m not sure why I’m bothering to review the book. It is wonderful, phenomenal, enchanted and enchanting, gripping and electrifying and terrifying and a whole host of other emotions that I’m not even sure I can name. This book, The Foundling and Other Tales, is a bare handful of stories about characters, places, and themes we have read about in The Prydain Chronicles. As such, it is both familiar and yet wholly new and, and...
I first read this book when I was ten years old. It was a bit after I first discovered Prydain (through The Black Cauldron) and a little after I had hounded my local librarians into getting the entire series for me. It was after I had bawled my way through Taran Wanderer and The High King and found that I wanted to delve ever deeper into Prydain even though, well, you know.
So, I’m making a list of the stories with brief descriptions as a service to those who have never discovered Prydain - although to those I say, come back to this one last, after you’ve been through the muddy roads of Prydain and met a certain pig-farmer and a certain young lady - to whet the appetite with the nature of the stories contained herein.
They’re all fantastic, literally and metaphorically, and I’d give each of them five out of five stars only because six out of five is faintly ridiculous and such exaggerations detract from the absolute perfection of these stories. Go read them already.
The Foundling
A tale of gifts and their cost and about how a young man learned the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
The Stone
Sometimes you have to really want to let go of something in order to get rid of it forever.
The True Enchanter
A story about how words are more powerful than magic sometimes. Also, one of the best last lines in literature.
The Rascal Crow
A fable of a crow whose deeds come back to haunt him and how that teaches him nothing.
The Sword
The story of a fabled sword and how it comes to be tarnished.
The Smith, The Weaver, and The Harper
If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Here are three tales in one that tells you just how that might be so.
Coll and His White Pig
The tale of Coll and Hen Wen and what lengths Coll went to to keep her safe. Also, Dallben.
The Truthful Harp
Fflewdder Fflam. Enough said.
I first read this book when I was ten years old. It was a bit after I first discovered Prydain (through The Black Cauldron) and a little after I had hounded my local librarians into getting the entire series for me. It was after I had bawled my way through Taran Wanderer and The High King and found that I wanted to delve ever deeper into Prydain even though, well, you know.
So, I’m making a list of the stories with brief descriptions as a service to those who have never discovered Prydain - although to those I say, come back to this one last, after you’ve been through the muddy roads of Prydain and met a certain pig-farmer and a certain young lady - to whet the appetite with the nature of the stories contained herein.
They’re all fantastic, literally and metaphorically, and I’d give each of them five out of five stars only because six out of five is faintly ridiculous and such exaggerations detract from the absolute perfection of these stories. Go read them already.
The Foundling
A tale of gifts and their cost and about how a young man learned the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
The Stone
Sometimes you have to really want to let go of something in order to get rid of it forever.
The True Enchanter
A story about how words are more powerful than magic sometimes. Also, one of the best last lines in literature.
The Rascal Crow
A fable of a crow whose deeds come back to haunt him and how that teaches him nothing.
The Sword
The story of a fabled sword and how it comes to be tarnished.
The Smith, The Weaver, and The Harper
If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Here are three tales in one that tells you just how that might be so.
Coll and His White Pig
The tale of Coll and Hen Wen and what lengths Coll went to to keep her safe. Also, Dallben.
The Truthful Harp
Fflewdder Fflam. Enough said.
bkoser's review against another edition
4.0
Very short stories about characters from The Chronicles of Prydain, a series I'm excited to share with my children someday.
adamrshields's review against another edition
4.0
Summary: The Castle of Llyr is mostly a story about Taran coming to understand that he has feelings for Eilonwy. The Foundling and Other Tales is a book of short stories, more like Aesop's Fables, but designed to give context to the Chronicles of Prydain.
Every time my family goes to Disney, my wife paints our magic bands to be personalized. This year, I asked her to paint my band to the theme of Disney's Black Cauldron. Like most people, my wife had never seen the Black Cauldron movie. When it came out it was the first Disney animated movie to be PG and it is fairly scary. We watched 30 minutes or so together to give her a sense of the art and context for her to paint the band. I went back later and watched the rest of the movie and was yet again disappointed that the movie was not better. It was not awful, but it changed the story too much combining the stories of the Book of Three and The Black Cauldron. And I think that while Taran and Eilonwy were presented well, I was not really a fan of any of the other character's development.
I decided to go back and read the third book in the series Castle of Llyr because I had not read it for a while and I wanted to see if maybe I could read it aloud to my children. I have not found some good read-aloud for my kids for a while. But the first two books are too scary for my kids at this point and the third one is too dependent on the first two books for context to be able to jump into it directly with my kids.
I don't know when my kids will be ready to read the Chronicles of Prydain, but I do look forward to it.
I am not sure why, but I have never read The Foundling and Other Tales. I was just unaware of the book until I was an adult. And I am not sure why I did not pick it up when I read the series about a decade ago. But I did pick it up and read it in a sitting. It is less than 100 pages and it is not difficult to read. The style is more like Aesop's Fables than contextual short stories for Prydain. I am not completely satisfied. I like the story about Dalben being found by the three witches. But when Dalben finds Coll and his pig (Hen-wen) it does not completely make sense of the timeline of the Book of Three. Either Hen-wen is about 20 or so years old at the start of the Book of Three (to make sense of Taran living with Coll and Dalben since before he could remember) or there is something wrong with the timeline of when Taran came to live with them.
The rest of the stories are fine, but nothing that really adds much to the understanding of the rest of the series.
Every time my family goes to Disney, my wife paints our magic bands to be personalized. This year, I asked her to paint my band to the theme of Disney's Black Cauldron. Like most people, my wife had never seen the Black Cauldron movie. When it came out it was the first Disney animated movie to be PG and it is fairly scary. We watched 30 minutes or so together to give her a sense of the art and context for her to paint the band. I went back later and watched the rest of the movie and was yet again disappointed that the movie was not better. It was not awful, but it changed the story too much combining the stories of the Book of Three and The Black Cauldron. And I think that while Taran and Eilonwy were presented well, I was not really a fan of any of the other character's development.
I decided to go back and read the third book in the series Castle of Llyr because I had not read it for a while and I wanted to see if maybe I could read it aloud to my children. I have not found some good read-aloud for my kids for a while. But the first two books are too scary for my kids at this point and the third one is too dependent on the first two books for context to be able to jump into it directly with my kids.I don't know when my kids will be ready to read the Chronicles of Prydain, but I do look forward to it.
I am not sure why, but I have never read The Foundling and Other Tales. I was just unaware of the book until I was an adult. And I am not sure why I did not pick it up when I read the series about a decade ago. But I did pick it up and read it in a sitting. It is less than 100 pages and it is not difficult to read. The style is more like Aesop's Fables than contextual short stories for Prydain. I am not completely satisfied. I like the story about Dalben being found by the three witches. But when Dalben finds Coll and his pig (Hen-wen) it does not completely make sense of the timeline of the Book of Three. Either Hen-wen is about 20 or so years old at the start of the Book of Three (to make sense of Taran living with Coll and Dalben since before he could remember) or there is something wrong with the timeline of when Taran came to live with them.
The rest of the stories are fine, but nothing that really adds much to the understanding of the rest of the series.
pagesofash's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75