Taran Wanderer (the Chronicles of Prydain, #4)

The fourth book in Lloyd Alexander's five-volume Chronicles of Prydain, this novel follows Taran, an Assistant Pig-Keeper, as he leaves the enchanter Dallben's farm to discover his true parentage. Prydain is a land inspired by Welsh legend, where the evil Arawn Death-Lord hoards stolen secrets in his realm of Annuvin while Prince Gwydion and the High King Math defend the free peoples.

At Caer Dallben in springtime, Taran confides to Dallben that he wishes to marry Princess Eilonwy, who is away learning to behave as royalty, but cannot ask for a princess's hand as an unknown foundling. Dallben admits he cannot reveal Taran's origins and grants him leave to search. Gurgi, Taran's loyal, shaggy companion, insists on joining. That night Taran plans secretly to visit the Marshes of Morva and ask the three enchantresses Orddu, Orwen, and Orgoch, beings as powerful as Dallben from whom no secret is hidden.

At Orddu's cottage, the enchantresses toy with the companions but suggest the Mirror of Llunet in the distant Llawgadarn Mountains, which might show Taran what he seeks. Orddu distinguishes between the bravery of fighting alongside a war leader and the quieter courage of seeking one's own answers, a remark that puzzles Taran.

Heading southeast toward the fortress of King Smoit, the companions enter Cantrev Cadiffor, one of the regional districts governed by local lords. Warriors serving Lord Goryon steal Taran's stallion Melynlas and knock Taran unconscious. A farmer named Aeddan intervenes and shelters them. Aeddan's plight illustrates common folk's suffering: Arawn stole Prydain's ancient agricultural secrets, and Aeddan has staked everything on a single field tilled by hand. At Goryon's stronghold, Taran outwits the prickly lord and reclaims Melynlas. That evening the companions shelter with Lord Gast, who hoards his food despite styling himself generous. There Taran reunites with Fflewddur Fflam, an old friend who is both a bard and a minor king. Fflewddur rides the giant cat Llyan and carries a magical harp that snaps a string whenever he exaggerates.

At Caer Cadarn, King Smoit welcomes them and describes the Free Commots, a land of self-governing craftsmen. When Goryon steals Gast's prize cow Cornillo, Smoit rides out to intervene. Taran saves Smoit from drowning after the king is swept over a waterfall, and Smoit promises him any favor. But the rival armies trample Aeddan's sole remaining field. Smoit jails the quarreling lords, and Taran claims the promised favor: He frees them on the condition that they restore Aeddan's field, gives Cornillo to Aeddan, and devises a fair division of the mixed herds. Smoit, a childless widower, privately offers Taran the throne of Cadiffor, but Taran declines, insisting he must first learn his identity.

Traveling northeast, the companions discover a fragment of polished bone in a hollow oak. Soon they encounter Doli, a dwarf of the Fair Folk, a hidden magical people. Doli has been transformed into a frog by an evil wizard named Morda, who has gained unprecedented power over the Fair Folk and plans to enslave all of Prydain. At Morda's lair, hidden behind a wall of living thorns, the companions are captured. Morda reveals he took a powerful gem from the dying Princess Angharad, Eilonwy's mother, and uses it to transform Fflewddur into a hare and Gurgi into a mouse. Before Morda can transform Taran, mouse-Gurgi gnaws through his bonds. Taran discovers that Morda hid his life force in the bone fragment, which corresponds to the wizard's missing finger. With Llyan fighting Morda and mouse-Gurgi retrieving the fallen bone, Taran snaps it in two. Morda dies instantly and all transformations reverse.

Taran is drawn to the gem's vast power but gives it to Doli, recognizing it is not rightfully his. Doli reveals that Taran's battle horn, a gift from Eilonwy, holds one remaining summons to the Fair Folk, and teaches Taran the three notes that will activate it.

The companions next encounter Dorath, leader of a roving mercenary band, who traps them. Taran considers sounding the battle horn but refuses to waste its single call. In single combat, Dorath cheats and takes Taran's sword. Deeper in the hills, Taran returns a stray lamb to Craddoc Son of Custennin, a herdsman who walks with a limp, living alone in a desolate valley. Craddoc claims Taran is his lost son, taken as an infant by Dallben. Taran admits to Fflewddur that he resists the claim not because it is implausible but because he cannot surrender his dream of noble birth. He sends Fflewddur to verify the story, then stays to help Craddoc through the seasons, rebuilding the farm.

When Craddoc falls from a cliff ledge in winter, Taran experiences a terrifying impulse: If Craddoc dies, his obligations end. Horrified, he climbs down to help. The dying Craddoc confesses he lied; his real son died at birth, and Craddoc deceived Taran because he needed the young man's strength. Taran sounds the battle horn, and Fair Folk mountaineers rescue them, but Craddoc dies of his injuries. After weeks of delirium, Fflewddur returns with Dallben's confirmation that Taran is not the herdsman's son. Consumed by shame at his impulse to abandon Craddoc, Taran resolves that pride will come from what he may become, not from what he was born. Adopting the name Taran Wanderer, he heads for the Free Commots.

At the riverside farm of Llonio Son of Llonwen, an optimistic farmer who trusts luck and whatever his nets and baskets bring him, Taran leaves Craddoc's flock and learns that luck is simply sharpening one's eyes and wits. In the Commots, Taran apprentices with three masters. Hevydd the Smith teaches him to forge a sword: Taran's first beautiful blade shatters, but his second, ugly and sound, rings true. Dwyvach the Weaver-Woman teaches him to weave; his second cloak far surpasses his first. Both offer him permanent places, but Taran recognizes neither craft is truly his. At Commot Merin, Taran meets Annlaw Clay-Shaper, the master potter, and his heart leaps at the spinning wheel. He apprentices through the summer, but by autumn he realizes with anguish that the potter's gift is also denied him.

Delivering Annlaw's pottery to the small Commot Isav, Taran discovers Dorath's band raiding nearby settlements. He organizes the defenders and volunteers alongside Gurgi. The ambush succeeds, scattering Dorath's company. Back in Merin, Annlaw reveals that local lore places the Mirror of Llunet in a cave at the foot of nearby Mount Meledin. Taran rides to the cave and kneels before a shallow, gleaming pool. For a few moments he sees his own face, and something more. Then Dorath appears, now alone, and stamps the pool to pieces. In the ensuing fight, Dorath swings the sword he stole from Taran, but it shatters against the blade Taran forged. Dorath flees.

The Mirror is destroyed, but Taran tells Annlaw what he glimpsed: strength and frailty, pride and vanity, courage and fear, a little wisdom and much folly. He saw a man like any other, yet unique. He knows who he is: himself and none other. Any stream would have shown the same image, but he needed the journey to understand it. True kinship, he concludes, has nothing to do with blood, and birthright must be earned. Taran returns to Caer Dallben carrying the sword he forged, the cloak he wove, the bowl he shaped, and the friendships of the Free Commots. As he and Gurgi ride from Merin, a wind rises from the hills, driving scattered leaves homeward, and Taran follows it.