The Book of Three
Series: The Prydain ChThe Prydain Chroniclesonicles, Book 1
By: Lloyd Alexander / Narrated by: James Langton
Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
James Langton makes this special… but MEEEE? I bring it to Life!!!
It’s like this, see… Waaaaaay back when, whenst I was but a li’l git of a girl, my fifth grade teacher read The Book of Three to our class, and I was enCHANted! Had my mom take me to the library downtown, and I deVOURed the entire Prydain Chronicles, read them over and over and over. And when I was all grown up and working with little boys? I read the series to them before bed. These books were a hit with them, and meeee? I was a TOTAL hit, knocking out Taran and Eilonwy and Gurgi and Prince Gwydion like there was no tomorrow!
So I happily snapped up the audiobooks, and…?
I discovered that m’ fifth grade teacher and I had aaaaallll the WRONG pronunciations for the names and the places (To give me my due, I DID get Spiral Castle right, tho’ how one can mispronounce Spiral would be beyond my scope of imagination)! And as the Foreword is read by the eminent Lloyd Alexander himself, pronouncing Prydain and Taran and the friends his own way, I can’t very well ding James Langton, now can I?
All that said, I must bow down to Mr. Langton because what could have been a resounding disappointment was rather just plain special. The fights! The chivalry! The earnest jumping into nettle bushes to save a companion! The scuttling beneath a (Spiral!) castle and coming into a barrow of the dead! All here, all done so very verrrry well by Langton. It was truly a delight to be reintroduced to the companions of my childhood in such a manner.
Taran is bored, so very bored at Caer Dallben where it’s just him and Coll and Dallben and farm animals. Oh, and Hen Wen the oracular pig. After deciding his lot in life is one of complete drudgery, Taran is bestowed the title of Assistant Pig Keeper by Coll who takes pity on him and who jazzes things up a bit. From thence onward, Taran oh so proudly introduces himself as Taran Assistant Pig Keeper.
When trouble strikes Caer Dallben and The Horned King and his dastardly men ride against the farm, Dallben must speak to Hen Wen to determine what the matter is at hand, how to address it, what is to happen. Alas, all the animals know evil is afoot and all take flight: The bees swarm, the chickens flutter off, and Hen Wen? She bursts from her enclosure despite Taran’s best efforts. As Taran has been ORDERED to secure Hen, he sees no other choice but to take off after her, even if it means running into the forest, which he has been forbidden to do.
And so it is, there’s The Horned King and his riders, there’s Prince Gwydion, Gurgi. Soon, after an attack by the deathless Cauldron Born (Bodies of the slain who’ve been reanimated by the vile Arawn), there’s Spiral Castle and the wicked Queen Achren (And I got the pronunciation of HER name right, so huzzah!), the chatterbox Eilonwy who CONstantly butts heads with Taran, and there’s the rescue of Fflewddur Fflam, a kinda sorta Bard of the Harp whose harp strings WILL snap when he rather… colors the facts a bit… which is, like, a LOT.
I could NOT believe the poor reviews of this, boo-ing it most soundly for not being Lord of the Rings. But pleeeeeeze! It’s not trying to be! This is basic enchantment and delight meant to engage younger readers, yes, but oh my good golly gosh! Does the older reader, errr… Listener…? delight to meet their Inner Princess, their Inner Assistant Pig Keeper, or what?! This is fantasy at its best, a journey wherein Good battles Evil, and where sometimes simple living brings answers to questions we never thought to ask. Nope, no Hobbits here, only Good Ol’ Doli the Dwarf who DESperately tries to make himself invisible when he’s really peeved (Which is constantly!), and only hairy, matted, faithful Gurgi who is shunned by man but who lost the wisdom of the animals.
It was delightful, and James Langton skimped not a single iota in the telling of this tale. It’s just that…? Wellll, Iiiiiiii did Gurgi’s voice to m’ boys a different way, and Iiiiii did Eilonwy a different way tooooo…
At the risk of patting myself on the back too heartily? Langton makes The Book of Three special. But me?
Dear Accomplice, I made it MAGIC…!
:)
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