#prydain

Custom bookmarks, front and back, commissioned by the spouse of a big fan for her Christmas set of the anniversary editions. Bonus lenticular bookmark for The Black Cauldron.

Jody Lee's cover for the Dell Yearling edition of Taran Wanderer, the fourth novel in Lloyd Alexander's excellent and award-winning series The Chronicles of Prydain.

This five-part series is always marketed to children and young adults, but it's on the same level as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, just not so lore-heavy, so adults will love it too.

The series is based on Welsh mythology, and has plenty of great characters and battles. A particular favorite character of mine is Gurgi, the furry guy in the foreground, who is ALWAYS hungry and has a great love for "the crunchings and munchings."

Disney first acquired the rights to the books in 1973. It took them until 1985 to release The Black Cauldron, a dismal adaptation of the first two books. The animated film received very mixed reviews and was a commercial flop that almost ended Disney's animation department.

Unfortunately, Disney re-acquired the book rights in 2016, with the goal of producing live action film versions of the tales. Little to no progress has been made on that project in the last ten years as far as I know.

Deeply enchanted with the fact that Taran's memories of Eilonwy are his most precious treasure — precious enough to rival actual in-world rare magical artifacts

The five-volume Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander, began in 1964 with The Book of Three, and saw new entries — The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer — appear annually until finishing with The High King in 1968. They’re set in a fantasy version of Wales, and draw from Welsh mythology, but the story is very much the tale of an assistant pig-keeper named Taran who, as he grows from boy to man, seeks adventure, finds responsibility and learns the terrible cost of glory. It’s one of the first works of fantasy I read as a kid and honestly, I don’t think any others, except Earthsea, have measured up in terms of emotional weight (and their refusal to indulge in power fantasy or other cliché). I re-read them recently and that remains true. You ought to read them if you haven’t. They’ll change you, I bet.

I love drawing Taran......................

Here's a sketch of him +Kaw I did in Ms Paint! :)