Lloyd Alexander  The Black Cauldron
      Holt
      Reviewed 6/65
The chronicles of Prydain, begun in The Book of Three, are continued here, but each book is complete in itself. At the end of the earlier story, Taran and his companions have escaped from the powers of evil and have reached Caer Dallben. At the beginning of the new book, a council of warriors meets and determines to find and destroy the great cauldron in which are created from the stolen bodies of the slain the dread Cauldron-Born, “the mute and deathless warriors” who serve the evil Lord of Annuvin. Taran’s faithful companions will not be left behind, and again they prove their devotion as they travel through the Marshes of Morva, meet and escape from three ugly enchantresses, and find the Black Cauldron only to discover that its destruction depends on the greatest courage and sacrifice. The same kind of engagingly fantastic nonsense lightens this story as it did the first one; but the overtones here are more truly heroic. The reader’s involvement is intense as the excitement leads up to the climactic meeting of tragedy and triumph. An exalting experience for the fortunate children whose imaginations are ready for great fantasy. R.H.V.