Alicia Brown's Blog

Happy April! This month marks four years since I started recapping the Prydain series on this blog, and in that time, my life has changed a great deal. I started the “Prydain project” to fill my soul with joy as an antidote to my frustrating and stifling day job. I eventually left that cruddy job for one I loved, stayed at the good job for two years and then accepted an even better opportunity.

My friend Jen clipped this from Seventeen magazine for me. I’ve been a passionate fan of The Who since I was in high school: when all of my peers were swooning over the New Kids on the Block, I was obsessively watching old Who music videos and the Ken Russell film version of “Tommy” — and nursing a huge crush on the golden-haired, steel-throated Roger Daltrey (never mind that he was old enough

I recently joined a book club — a phenomenal group of women that I feel privileged to know! — and this month’s selection was “Another Brooklyn” by Jacqueline Woodson. It’s a short book and can be read very quickly, but its language is so poetic that it really ought to be savored. Since I’m fundamentally unable to take my time with things, I rushed through it once and then read it again, knowing

Taran stays awake the rest of the night in silent thought, and whenever Taran spends a night in silent thought, I know he’s going to make a decision I’m not happy with. In the morning, everyone is preparing for the journey to the Summer Country, except Doli and Kaw, who are there to say goodbye to the others before departing for the realm of the Fair Folk. Taran looks at everyone assembled and

We fast-forward through the journey home: the Sons of Don bear Taran and his companions to Avren harbor aboard their golden ships, “with Kaw proudly perched on the highest mast,” and then they ride beneath the banner of the White Pig until they arrive at Caer Dallben. Taran sees Coll’s empty garden and grieves “for the stout grower of turnips, far distant in his lonely resting place.” Sob! You

Welcome back! Before the break in this action-packed chapter of The High King, Taran had just tried – and failed – to kill Arawn. He runs into the Great Hall where the rest of his companions are, “crying the warning that Arawn still lived and had escaped.” Achren is immediately all, “Escaped you, Pig-Keeper, but not my vengeance” and takes off running down the halls, with everyone else chasing

Taran is clinging helplessly to the side of Mount Dragon when the gwythaint sinks its talons into his shoulders and starts to pull him away from the cliff face. He sees its “head, deeply scarred by an old wound” and notices that its “blood-red eyes” carry a “strange gaze of recognition.” He suddenly remembers the gwythaint he saved from the thorn bush all the way back in Book 1. “Was this the

Welcome back! It’s been a while since we visited Prydain (in book form, anyway). As we approach the climax of the final book in the series, things have gotten much colder and darker for Taran and his friends… literally. They survived a deadly snowstorm only by burning Fflewddur’s treasured harp, while Llassar and the Commot warriors (I’d almost forgotten about them!) found shelter in a cave. And

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus, folks. I’ll be back with a new chapter recap next week, but in the meantime, I want to share some photos of my recent trip to Wales, on which Lloyd Alexander based much of Prydain's mythology and geography. I've always been fascinated with the history and language of Wales, especially after reading Sharon Kay Penman's Welsh Princes trilogy, so it was a dream come

The companions journey laboriously through Annuvin, leading their horses over the treacherous rocky terrain, which only Llyan manages with ease. Doli’s pace begins to slow down, and soon he starts to stagger and can’t catch his breath. Turns out he’s not as immune to the effects of Annuvin as he thought. Taran says they must stop for the day and let Doli recover his strength. Doli says they can’t