The Black Cauldron (novel)
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Lloyd Alexander |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Evaline Ness |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Chronicles of Prydain |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Holt, Rinehart and Winston |
Publication date | June 1965 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 224 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-8050-0992-2 (first edition, hard) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| OCLC | 302887 |
| LC Class | PZ7.A3774 B1 |
| Preceded by | The Book of Three |
| Followed by | The Castle of Llyr |
The Black Cauldron (1965) is a high fantasy novel by Lloyd Alexander, the second of five volumes in The Chronicles of Prydain. For 1966 it was a Newbery Honor book, runner-up for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children".[1]
The story continues the adventures of Taran "Assistant Pig-Keeper" as he joins in a quest to capture the eponymous magical kettle from Arawn Death-Lord.
The book provided a title and many elements of plot for the only Prydain film, the Disney animated feature The Black Cauldron released in 1985 (below).
Origins
The series was inspired by Welsh mythology and by the castles, scenery, and language of Wales, which the author experienced during World War II combat intelligence training.[2][3]
At one stage of planning it was a trilogy with titles The Battle of the Trees, The Lion with the Steady Hand, and Little Gwion.[4]
Plot
The story opens at Caer Dallben where Dallben the enchanter has raised the orphan Taran from infancy. It is early autumn more than a year after the defeat of Arawn's army and death of his warlord the Horned King (The Book of Three).[5]
Prince Gwydion has called allies to a council hosted by Dallben. Evidently the Black Cauldron is active, generating more of the undead "Cauldron-Born" army from men who are disappearing. Gwydion proposes to capture it. King Morgant will lead an attack Annuvin after a small party led by Gwydion has parted company to enter by a mountain pass known only to Coll.[6] At that point three will remain behind with pack animals: Adaon, the adult son of chief bard Taliesin; Taran; and Ellidyr "Prince of Pen-Llarcau", who is arrogant, wiry, strong, and threadbare. Ellidyr disdains Taran for his place on the farm and his unknown parentage. Taran envies Ellidyr for his noble birth, despite Dallben's counsel that that youngest son of a minor king has only "his name and his sword".[7] Both are dismayed to share a role with no chance for glory.
Beside the feud between young men, all goes smoothly until Gwydion's company finds that the cauldron has disappeared! That company rejoins the rearguard in haste because the Hunstmen of Annuvin have been deployed. Meanwhile, the uninvited Princess Eilonwy and man/beast Gurgi have caught up with the quest from behind. Gwydion and Coll are scattered but, thanks to Doli of the Fair Folk, all others find refuge underground in a Fair Folk waypost maintained by Gwystyl. From Gwystyl and his pet crow Kaw, they learn that the cauldron has been stolen by the three witches Orddu, Orwen and Orgoch, who reside in the bleak Marshes of Morva.[a]
When they depart the waypost, Ellidyr rides southward,[a] determined to retrieve the Cauldron heroically. For his safety with the Huntsmen abroad, Adaon leads the others in pursuit: Taran, Eilonwy, Gurgi, Doli, and the wandering bard Fflewddur Fflam. When they are attacked and scattered, Adaon is mortally wounded and Taran inherits his brooch, whose gift and burden is prophetic dreams and visions. With its guidance, he gathers and leads all but Doli toward the Marshes. From the fringe he both leads his small party through and leads a pursuing band of Huntsmen to their deaths.
Orddu and her sisters explain that Arawn once paid them a great price to borrow the cauldron; they retrieved it only when overdue. In their way, they welcome friends of "Little Dallben"[8] but they decline even to reveal it. Eventually and reluctantly, Taran barters the brooch of Adaon. Now the companions try to destroy "their" cauldron but learn from the witches that can be achieved only by a living person who knowingly and willingly climbs in to die. Instead they resolve to take it home to Dallben.
They lose the heavy and cumbersome cauldron at the ford of river Tevyn. Ellidyr discovers the impasse and offers to help if they will credit him for the whole enterprise. Taran agrees, yet Ellidyr rides off with the cauldron alone when they have freed it. Soon the companions meet the army of Morgant, who welcomes them into his camp. Unfortunately, he is a traitor. He shows Ellidyr beaten and bound, and the cauldron waiting to generate his own undead legion. He will spare them if Taran will enter personal service. Later, Doli arrives invisibly and cuts everyone's bonds. Ellidyr determines to rush the cauldron and make the sacrifice himself. Although wounded, he is able to force himself into the opening and it shatters.
Gwydion, King Smoit, and his army defeat Morgant in battle. The story closes as Taran, Eilonwy, and Gurgi take leave of Gwydion at the verge of Caer Dallben.
Adaptations
The Black Cauldron was loosely adapted by Walt Disney Productions and released in 1985 as Disney's 25th animated feature film. The Black Cauldron film was based primarily on the first two Prydain novels with elements from the others. It was the last Disney film produced before corporate reorganization created Walt Disney Feature Animation (later Walt Disney Animation Studios) as a separate division within the company, and the first to be rated "PG" rather than "G" in the United States by the MPAA. Disney's adaptation of The Black Cauldron was a commercial failure whose gross receipts did not match production cost.[9]
Lloyd Alexander's reaction was twofold: "First, I have to say, there is no resemblance between the movie and the book. Having said that, the movie in itself, purely as a movie, I found to be very enjoyable."[2]
The movie inspired a 1986 computer video game with the same title. A computer role-playing game of unknown origin was made in 2001 based on the book.[10]
Notes
- ^ a b
According to maps by Evaline Ness, the witches live on the opposite fringe of the Marshes, near the south coast of the southwestern tip of Prydain, far from people and Fair Folk.
• Ness prepared one map of Prydain for each of the five novels. The last, best-informed, and largest scale map illustrates book five, The High King (1968), and the expanded edition of The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain (1999).
References
- ^ "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922-Present". Association for Library Service to Children. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
- ^ a b Lloyd Alexander Interview Transcript (1999). Interview with Scholastic students. Scholastic Inc. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
- ^ About the author (1973). The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain, Henry Holt and Company, first edition, page [88].
- ^ Lloyd Alexander: A Bio-Bibliography by Jacobs and Tunnel [clarification needed]
- ^ The Black Cauldron, pp. 5, 15.
- ^ Decades earlier, an owl and a stag had taken the farmer Coll by that route to recover his pig, the oracular Hen Wen. See the picture book Coll and His White Pig, also published in 1965.
- ^ The Black Cauldron, p. 22.
- ^ "The Foundling" tells of Dallben, raised from infancy to manhood by the witches. The Foundling and Other Tales from Prydain.
- ^ Stewart, James B. (2005). DisneyWar (1st ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 68–70. ISBN 0-7432-6709-5.
- ^ "The Book of Three at Moby Games". Retrieved 2011-08-14.
- Citations
- Alexander, Lloyd (1999). The Black Cauldron. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-6131-2.
- Alexander, Lloyd (1999). The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain. Enlarged edition. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-6130-4.
- Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: a bibliographic survey of the fields of science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction through 1968. Volume 1: Who's Who, A-L. Chicago: Advent:Publishers. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.
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