Summary
Taran is an assistant pig-keeper at Caer Dallben. He is eager to be a glories hero, and reluctant to be a pig-keeper. Coll and Dallben are his kinsmen, and also his teachers.
One day, all the animals near Caer Dallben escape. Coll commands Taran to ask the oracular pig, Hen Wen, the most valuable pig in Prydain. But Hen Wen escapes into the forest. While Taran is looking for her, the Horn King and his troops attack. The hero Gwydion rescues Taran at the last moment.After he saves Taran, he decides to help Taran to find the pig.
On their trip, they meet Gurgi. He leads them to the Horn King and because of that,both of them are captured by his soldiers. The soldiers take them to Avren’s castle. There, Taran is seperated with Gwydion. He meets a girl called Eilonwy and she helps Taran escape the castle. They also save a bard, Fflewddur, accidently,minking he is Gwydion.Although Taran is upset,he decides to travel to Caer Dathyl with Eilonwy, Fflewddur, and Gurgi. He believes he can finish the things that Gwydion had wanted to do there.
Some bad things happen on their trip: Gurgi breaks his leg and nearly dies,and some wolves attack them, but another hero, Medwyn, saves them. He cures Gurgi in a secret valley and gives some food and weapons to them when the group leaves. Later, they are captured by the dwarf soldiers of an underground kingdom.After a long talk with their king, he consents to let them free and gives them some food, weapons, and a guide to Caer Dathyl. The guide’s name is Doli. The most interest thing is, they find Hen Wen there and Taran swears he won’t lose her again.
To knowling Doli’s lead, they arrive at Caer Dallben in two or three days. On the way, Taran finds a gwythaint, the scouts of Annuvin, and Annuvin is Prydain’s enemy. Doli objects to saving it, but Taran saves the gwythaint anyway. Doli is right,it is gone the next day and the troops of the Horn King discover them. Fflewddur and Doli fight with them,while Gurgi searchs for Hen Wen because she is gone again. Taran and Eilonwy fight with the Horn King. Taran and Eilonwy are nearly killed. In the last moment, Taran uses the emporer’s sword that Eilonwy took from castle and kills the Horn King,though he faints, too.
When Taran awakens, he finds he is in Caer Dathyl.Also, he finds Gwydion is still alive. He explains that he wasn’t in the castle when it fell. To celebrate the fact that the group is alive, everyone gets what they wanted. For Taran, he wants to go back to Caer Dallben. After all the adventures, Taran is very happy Gurgi and Eilonwy can stay with him at Caer Dallben.
My Thoughts
This book has some good parts and bad parts. I will talk about the setting, plot, characters, and the ending.
The setting is good in some parts. There are two countries in the book, Prydain and Annuvin. They are enemies and because of that relationship, it makes the story more exciting. The group have to avoid Annuvin’s soldiers in their trip. Doli doesn’t agree to take care of the wounded gwythaint because it is the enemy’s scout. However, the bad part of the setting is that some of the places don’t mean anything to the plot though there are about thirty or more pages in the book spent describing them. For example, the groups spend several days in a secret valley just waiting for Gurgi and it doesn’t seem to help them prepare for the battle ahead.
There is a big problem with this story’s plot. The problem is that the plot is too tight. If you don’t follow the story closely, you won’t know what is happening now, why it happens, or even where the group is and why they are there. Take an example: after the group leaves the secret valley, only two pages later and they are captured by dwarfs. From that point on you I found that the speed of the book was too fast.Maybe it is because the length of the book is short. Any way, this is a big problem.
The characters in this book are terrific. Every character has their special place, strange habits,and they behave in different way. As for Taran,if he makes mistakes, he will say it is his fault; but not Doli. He won’t admit his faults and he isn’t kind to other people. When Taran finds the gwythaint, he wants to save it but Doli doesn’t. As for Fflewddur, his harp strings always break when he is talking. After the group escapes from the castle, when they are discussing their plan, his strings break again and again. Luckily, he gets a harp string that won’t break as a prize in the end. As for Eilonwy she has a strange habit: She always says “That was like... ...” or ”It is the same... ...” For example ”It was like eatting someone after he gave you things to eat.” She said when Fflewddur was reluctant to eat the lunch that Medwyn made. At last, I’d like to talk about the ending of the book. I think the battle between the Horn King and Taran is too short.When Taran uses the emporer’s sword, he uses the flame of the sword and finishes the Horn King in one attack. Still, there are some good parts in the ending as well. There are some surprises. For example, that Gwydion is alive. Not only that,all the answers to the mysteries become known. The castle fell because Eilonwy took the emporer’s sword and the power of sword was the life of the castle. Also, the man who brought Taran back after he fainted was Gwydion. He found the group because he found a hurt gwythaint and followed it. Then he found the group that had taken care of it. So that is why he could save Taran.
What I Learned
After I finished reading, I realized I had learned a lot of things from Taran. The most important thing that I learned from Taran that the a glories of a hero aren’t always such a big deal. When Dallben asks Taran how it feels to be a hero, he says he doesn’t feel anything special. Contrarily, Taran feels happy that everyone of his companions is safe. He is also happy to live with Gurgi and Eilonwy. So I learned to not be too proud of my successes. The thing that we can be proud of is the experience itself. I also learned from the English in this book, which is important,too. Reading and thinking in English at the same time is important when you are reading an English book. The good thing about reading a book in English is that you can learn and remember new vocabulary very quickly. Initially, I made many marks while I read this book. But as I read more and more, the marks became less and less. The mark meant I didn’t know the meaning of a word. This means that I improved my vocabulary by reading this book. Maybe I made the same mark twice, and that reminded me that I have to work harder on my reading skills.
To sum all of my opinions , I would suggest that people read books often. The length of this book was short, so one could finish it in just a few weeks. Therefore, if you don’t have much time to read a book, it would be a good choice. You can read it in your free time, when you are in the bathroom, on the way to work, on the train, or on the way to school. If you want to improve your English, not only this book, but any book in English will help you improve greatly.
