Lloyd Alexander, author of the Chronicles of Prydain, the Westmark Trilogy, and a number of other fantasy works for children, has died of cancer at the age of 83. It is his version of the Horned King who came to mind when I first read the G.K. Chesterton quote about fairy tales telling us not that monsters exist, but that they can be beaten. I vividly remember reading the Chronicles, battered paperback copies from the local branch of the county library, some with the Disney covers and some with the rather grimmer paintings of the Cauldron Born menacing Taran, when I was around 10 years old. I also remember not realizing how deeply involved I was until the last page of The High King, when Alexander pulls the camera back and talks about the characters fading into history, then into myth, until people argued over whether Eilonwy and Taran and Gurgi and the rest had ever even existed. I stared at that page for a long time, thinking about how real the characters had been and oozing tears, and I wondered whether growing up was worth the trouble.
Thanks forever to Mr. Alexander, and may he find himself "in a place of brightness, a place of refreshment, a place of repose, where all sickness, sighing, and sorrow have fled away."
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A couple of years ago some friends were wondering where their children come up with names for their grandchildren, such as Taran. Now I can't speak to spelling, but that's how it sounded. I said, "Oh, that's the name of the Assistant Pig Keeper in Lloyd Alexander's series." "Who?" they said. Only someone both you and your grandchildren should read. It's a noble name.
He did sneak quite a bit of Welsh mythology into unsuspecting young minds. When I later read Emma Bull's "Falcon," the "Lord of Annwn, I'll send you a boy hero" line seemed completely familiar.
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