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A review by misterjay
The Foundling: And Other Tales of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
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.