#chronicles of Prydain

[70sscifiart]

As a kid, I spent quite a while staring at my family's tattered paperback cover for Lloyd Alexander's The High King, the fifth and final book in the high fantasy kid's book series 'Chronicles of Prydain.'

It's a visceral scene that pulls the viewer in like any cover should. Check out the fear in those bugging eyes. The ligaments of the knee. The ligaments on that Couldron-born zombie's neck. A lot of ligaments in this one! This image may have been my childhood introduction to the concept of ligaments.

The artist is the Belgian illustrator Jean-Léon Huens (1921-1984).

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[cosmicretreat]

These were the editions of The Chronicles of Prydain I checked out of the library and read as a kid.

[knoxrobbins]

The spirit of the vengeful king inside the cauldron probably isn't pleased to be used as a concoction bowl.

A Black Cauldron piece had been on the back-burner for a while. Disney's most notorious (full-length) animated movie based on Lloyd Alexander's book series, which if you proposed a live-action update today everyone wouldn't be against it. I leaned a little into early production and development designs for the characters while keeping them familiar.

[disneysnowprincess]

THE BLACK CAULDRON WAS HEAVILY FEATURED IN ONCE UPON A STUDIO!!!

I swear, there is a disney exec out there that secretly loves this movie and wants to give us crumbs whenever possible. Either that or they're trying to us the IP enough that people don't riot for them to relinquish their rights.

But Gurgi was sung to by Pocahontas, Eilonwy was included in the same shot as Snow White, Mulan and Asha!

In the final photo we can see Taran holding Hen, with Eilonwy and Fflewdur, then with the Horned King in the back. Gurgi is on the plane's wing and I believe the character to the right of him is in fact Creature. Like... WHAT. Y'all this is insane. So, so happy they are using this amazing series for what it's worth.

[ma-1-s]

"Perplexed, he looked upward. From the grating, a pair of blue eyes looked back at him."

-Book of Three 1964 (Chapter 6: Eilonwy) by Lloyd Alexander

[super-hero-confessions]

[book--brackets]

[whomst-the-hell]

books i was obsessed with between the ages of 8 and 11

[justjudethoughts]

"Two strongholds have stood against the Lord of Annuvin: a golden castle and a farmer's cottage." -Lloyd Alexander, The High King

I think that's my biggest take away from The Chronicles of Prydain. Like, I want to sit here and give you the most in depth literary analysis, but I can't — it's the type of Truth you can't quite articulate, but it's written in the marrow of your bones all the same. Because that's the point of these stories, isn't it? That there is nobility in the ordinary? That the common, everyday folks "keep the darkness at bay" like Tolkien said. That an assistant-pig keeper goes on wild adventures. That when Taran seeks to learn who he is, he goes from place to place, and meets commoners, and learns to work with his hands. He practices their trades and he finds deep beauty in it—for it is good to create. It is good to work. There is nobility in plowing fields, in forming pots from clay. More nobility, perhaps, than there is in going on daring adventures.

A dethroned, rejected, essentially orphaned princess has access to the most powerful enchantments in all of Prydain—and she gives them up to save her friends. Because power isn't worth it. Enchantments aren't worth it if everyone you love is dead.

Gurgi, a strange little humanoid creature, is looked on with scron by many. But his friends know that he is brave, and kind, and loyal. His friends know that he might not look like much, but he is indispensable. Because everyone is.

Because every single living being sucking in breath on this earth is important. Of low birth or of high birth, it makes no difference. Nobility comes from the actions of a man, not where he is from. And sometimes, the last fortress standing against evil is a farmer's cottage.

[gravewilt]

✦ princess eilonwy ✧

posting this cuz i decided ill drop it 😭😭 school's abt to start resulting to a decline in my motivation to finish any of my wips so :'D

[welshoot]

Twisted Wonderland and The Black Cauldron

This theory honestly seemed so far-fetched when I first came up with it before Twisted Wonderland got localized, but I felt like writing this so here we are.

There might just be a connection between Twisted Wonderland and  The Black Cauldron (film or novel). Before I get into the wild theorizing/analysis I would like to say that this post will contain major spoilers for the book and film of The Black Cauldron as well as for Twisted Wonderland, so proceed at your own risk. Also, this is going to be very long, so be forewarned

This entire theory comes completely from this image:

This is the mirror chamber from Twisted Wonderland, a room we seem to keep coming back to in terms of potential lore importance. I don’t really know why, but when I saw this image for the first time my mind immediately flew back to this:

I guess it’s something about the green stuff coming out the thing up top that reminds me of the titular black cauldron from one of Disney’s worst performing films, The Black Cauldron (1985). 

Now, The Black Cauldron (1985) is a bit of a dark spot on the history of Disney’s animated movies. All in all, it is generally forgotten and most everyone likes to pretend it doesn’t exist because of how poorly it performed when it came out compared to the amount of money Disney sank into it (at a $44 million it cost more than $40 million budget of The Little Mermaid [1989]). But, notably, The Black Cauldron (1985) also contains one of Disney’s most terrifying villains. The Horned King. 

Now, if you’ve never seen the movie or read the book, the Horned King intended to use the titular black cauldron to unleash an undead, immortal army and intends to become “A god between mortal men” (quote from the disney wiki page for the man himself). Interestingly, considering he’s wanting to amass an undead army, the Horned King is quite skeletal himself. Outside of that, there is very little known about this character. He is very mysterious, very evil, and is implied to have magical powers though he hardly ever uses them. An additional point of interest for the sake of this theory is the fact that the castle of the Horned King is in horrible shape. Sort of ramshackle if you will.

The film version of this villain is very different from the book version. The book version is not the primary antagonist, rather he is the antagonist's champion warrior until death. With that said though, he is still quite ominous. No one knows his name and his title comes from the horned mask he wears. In the book he doesn’t seem quite human and is rather bestial. Another potentially interesting point is that, in the film, his goons are identical to Maleficent's and he is connected to dragons.

Now, for this theory, the Horned King may or may not come into play, but the black cauldron itself is important. In both the book and the movie, the only way to destroy the black cauldron (and it is evil and needs to be destroyed so that the undead/immortal army can’t be made) is for a willing sacrifice to go into it and die. While in the movie, the sacrifice is saved this is not the case in the book.

Now, the whole undead immortal army thing makes me wonder about the overblot monsters. We know from Ignihyde that the blot monsters can exist after the death of their host which makes them a sort of undead immortal monster. They also seem to be wholly obsessed with magic, and the magic mirror of NRC is suggested to be incredibly unique and very magical. So, if the green thingie under the mirror is the cauldron, it might be possible that the overblots are happening to form an undead/immortal army that will obey whoever holds that mirror simply because they themselves want the magical power of the mirror. In such a case, the only way to stop such an army would be to destroy the cauldron (i.e. give it a willing sacrifice). The only question is, who?

In the Disney film, the willing sacrifice (who was brought back to life because it is a kid’s move, albeit a sort of creepy one) was Gurgi. He sacrificed himself so that the protagonist (Taran) wouldn’t sacrifice himself to save his friends. Gurgi was, simply put, an ever hungry, greedy about food, cowardly, and cheerful but annoying sidekick to the lead. It’s never really explained what, exactly, Gurgi is but h had blue eyes and was small and fluffy. Here’s a picture:

Now, we have to consider Grim here. Small animal companion, constantly hungry and greedy for food, fairly cheerful but with a penchant for being annoying, has blue eyes, and we don’t really know what he is. If the theory that each character in Twisted Wonderland has two inspirations (one heroic and one villainous) is true, then Gurgi may very well be part of Grim’s inspiration. And if that’s the case he would be a likely candidate for the willing sacrifice. If that is the case, the situation would probably have something to do with stopping the Prefect from sacrificing themselves (or something).  

In the book version of things the sacrifice is the jerkish, second prince Ellidyr. He is not revived and he sacrifices himself as a way of making atonement. Character-wise, he is the edgy character for the book, though notably he is also a more complicated character for the series. He is also incredibly strong for unexplained reasons, has a deeply hidden sense of honor, and if he sets himself a goal he will see it through. And, as a final character note, he is the foil to the protagonist of the tale.

Now, Ellidyr’s character can match up with several different individuals in Twisted  Wonderland, making it hard to say who any other potential willing sacrifice candidates might be. It could be Leona, a rather jerkish second prince, but he would need a specific reason. It could also be a tie-in to whoever’s hand the player took at the start of the game. However, there is one final option who is present simply due to the virtue of their placement in the story. The Prefect.

While everyone else has shades of villainy, the Prefect is implied to be the most upstanding person at NRC, though they may manipulate others if they feel forced (Octavinelle Chapter and forcing Leona’s hand into helping). As such, their position as outsider in a world with no identifiable way home and resident nice person does unfortunately put them squarely on the chopping block as a sacrifice. Especially since it is implied that they are becoming friends with the various characters at NRC.

There is also the idea of: does someone even want to create any army of overblot monsters? And, to be honest, I really don't even want to consider the implications of such a thing or go into to trying to figuring the who and why of that question, plus this post is already pretty long.

In the end, this is just a wild theory that I thought was rather intriguing since I personally think it would be very amusing if Twisted Wonderland made use of Disney’s black sheep movie in such a pivotal way for the plot. With that said, I highly doubt such a thing will come to pass, though I would find it incredibly amusing.

[highqueenofprydain]

Scarlet

The great door crashes into its frame, slammed by the hand of the silence that swells into the room. Only as the last echo ebbs away does she remember she is wounded, reeled back to reality by the flat, pittering sound of her own blood dripping upon the floor.

She raises her hands and stares at them, shining crimson streaming from multiple slashes across their surfaces, a pattern to drive any fortune-teller to madness. The idle thought breaks through her numb rage for an instant: imagine the reaction of one of those itinerant peddlers of cheap magic, asked to read the map of horror etched on her palm.

A long lifeline. She almost laughs, but it’s a bitter thing that fills her mouth with iron and salt, or perhaps she’s just bitten her tongue too hard again.

Her gaze wanders over the metal shards littering the floor, reflecting bits of the room like a shattered mirror. She sees her own face, a fleck of skeletal white against a field of scarlet drapery, and turns away from it, leaving the empty room to its silence.

She wraps her hands in her own skirts to keep from leaving a trail down the hall. The sliced flesh throbs and stings, welcome reminders that she still can feel something. It is a long time before she speaks a word…a charm with which she once could have healed such superficial wounds from the inside-out. Now, depleted, it merely closes what was open.

But better that, than bleed where anyone can see.

[fflewddur-feanorion]

I haven't read the Chronicles of Prydain in years, but I could never forget this guy! Fflewddur Fflam, everybody!

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Taran’s second temptation to abandon his quest is an interesting one, as it’s King Smoit offering to make the boy his heir. And it’s not something that comes out of nowhere. The offer comes after Taran both saves Smoit’s life and proves he is capable of good judgment, and Smoit himself points out that as he’s a childless widower he needs an heir. And given how one of the things Taran is hoping for is noble lineage so he can ask Eilonwy to marry him, this would indeed solve that problem in a way the witches’ advice of “just make up whatever” wouldn’t, as he would have real, acknowledged status as royalty. But he turns it down, for now at least, offer’s still on the table for later, as he fears he would always be haunted both by the lack of knowledge of where he came from and the knowledge that he gave up on it, and by extension himself, so soon.

[disneysnowprincess]

Some beautiful licensed art by Dave Perillo

[ma-1-s]

My older sister just got a new ipad a couple of weeks ago and she let me and my younger sister try using it. This is my first art I've sketch there with a stylus pen (also the first time, I usually draw with my thumb for digital art)

Here some assistant pig keeper and the daughter of Angharad, daughter of Regat fanart prydain fans! ❤️