The Black Cauldron

Having watch the Disney movie inspired (loosely) by the first two of Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain books, I figured that I should get on and read book 2. The Black Cauldron is, as I expected, very different from the film. Pretty much the only thing they have in common is the cauldron itself. It does, somewhat to my surprise, have the three witches, but they are never called witches which is how I managed to miss them. They are sorceresses.

While the film is very loosely based on the books, the books are even more loosely based on actual Welsh legend. The cauldron is, of course, the Cauldron of Rebirth from the Second Branch of the Mabinogi. There it belongs to the dastardly Irish, but in Alexander’s book is belongs to Arawn, Lord of Annwn.

The basic plot is that Gwydion and a bunch of other leading nobles decide that they must wrest the cauldron from Arawn’s clutches before he manages to conjure a zombie army and conquer all of Prydain. Naturally they fail dismally (not least because one of them secretly wants to cauldron for himself), and it is left to Taran the Assistant Pig Keeper, and Princess Eilonwy to get the job done.

There is also a very annoying and arrogant young noble called Ellidyr who is there primarily because this is a middle grade book so there has to be some sort of moral lesson for our heroes to learn alongside a quest to be fulfilled.

The outrageously offensive caricaturing of the Tylwyth Teg continues in this book. I do hope that they didn’t manage to get hold of Alexander’s soul when he died, or the poor chap will be having a terrible afterlife.

Carping aside, it is a fun read, if very much geared towards a very youthful audience.

Title: The Black Cauldron
By: Lloyd Alexander
Publisher: Usborne
Purchase links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Bookshop.org UK
See here for information about buying books though Salon Futura