50 pages • 1 hour read
Lloyd AlexanderThe Book of Three
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1964A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 19-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Secret”
Taran wakes in a pleasant chamber. His arm throbs. Beside him lies Hen Wen, who rises and greets him warmly. Eilonwy, sitting nearby, announces that she’s grateful he’s finally awake, as the waiting was dreadfully boring. She says the Horned King burned up and broke apart. His army also broke up and most of the soldiers ran away. The warriors of the Sons of Don routed the rest.
Fflewddur, Gurgi, and Doli enter and describe their battle with the ambush squad. They fought bravely, escaped, and hurried to Caer Dathyl. Taran thanks them. Eilonwy shoos them out.
One more guest appears: It’s Gwydion, dressed in a magnificent princely outfit. Hanging from his side is Dyrnwyn. He says Eilonwy was right to warn Taran away from the sword, which was thought to be a legend until she found it. When she took it from the Spiral Castle, this caused the castle to collapse. Gwydion draws the sword: It shines brightly. He sheathes it again. It’s truly his to wield.
He explains that Achren took him from the Spiral Castle to the keep of Oeth-Anoeth in the Annuvin hinterlands. Long ago, Achren gave power to Arawn, who then betrayed her. Achren begged Gwydion to defeat the evil king and take his place. Gwydion refused, so Achren locked him up in Oeth-Anoeth’s dungeon.
Gwydion withstood the prison’s torments until death itself gave its secrets to him. His powers grew immensely. He headed north until a gwythaint flew to him—he now can understand all animals—and it told him of Taran’s group journey. Gwydion searched for them until Hen Wen found him. She told him the thing that Arawn wanted from her, the secret name of the Horned King. To utter his name is to conquer him. The gwythaint led Gwydion to the Horned King, and Gwydion spoke the fiend’s secret name and slew him.
The white-bearded King Math honors Taran’s group at a ceremony in the great hall. Afterward, Gwydion offers gifts: Fflewddur gets a harp string that will never break but sounds the best of all. Doli acquires the power of invisibility. Eilonwy receives a precious gold ring set with a magnificent jewel from the Fair Folk. Gurgi gets a wallet with perpetual food.
Taran wants nothing except to return to Caer Dallben. Gwydion grants his wish.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Welcomes”
The group rides to Caer Dallben on magnificent horses. Taran’s horse, named Melynlas, is a “silver-maned stallion” from Melyngar’s family line (183). At the stronghold, the group receives an enthusiastic welcome, especially from Coll. A great feast is held in their honor. Taran shows Eilonwy the pig pen where it all began. She’s glad to see him home in such a lovely stronghold. He wants to ask her something but gets interrupted by a command to see Dallben.
Dallben assumes that Taran is proud of his heroism, but Taran says he simply made mistakes while the others performed the great deeds. Dallben points out that it was Taran who held the group together and got them where they needed to go. Everyone worked in harmony to achieve their goals. All of them are heroes.
Taran wonders if Eilonwy can stay. Dallben informs Taran that Eilonwy is a princess, but she might be persuaded to dally for a time. Taran runs to the pigsty, where he learns that Eilonwy already is preparing to move in.
He asks how she knew he’d want her to stay. Hen Wen grunts: “Hwoinch!”
Chapters 19-20 Analysis
The final chapters wrap up the story and explain several of its mysteries. The group travels to Caer Dallben, where Taran realizes fully the value of his home and his friends.
Despite her rather crisp attitude toward Taran, Eilonwy in fact loves him. Her caustic comments hide from him her sensitive heart. She’s vulnerable to him, and his “I’m the hero, you’re the assistant” attitude humiliates her. When she sits vigil with the unconscious Taran, she reveals her affection for him, and he finally realizes that she matters to him.
Gwydion grants gifts to the members of Taran’s group. A similar form of gift-giving is seen in The Wizard of Oz, where creatures receive gifts that make up for what they seem to lack. Each member of Taran’s group receives something appropriate—a robust harp string for Fflewddur, a food wallet for Gurgi, invisibility for Doli, and an escort back home for Taran. Unlike Dorothy, who wishes to go home in The Wizard of Oz but doesn’t make it in the wizard’s hot air balloon, Taran arrives home successfully.
Eilonwy receives “a ring of gold set with a gem carved by the ancient craftsmen of the Fair Folk” (181). Beyond its expensive beauty, the ring’s import isn’t explained. In later books, the ornament’s powers are revealed; thus, it’s an appropriate gift for a girl who’s fast becoming a wielder of magic.
Taran learns that heroism isn’t all romance and glory: It’s hard, stressful, often thankless work lined with danger. The outcome of the hero’s journey isn’t fated, but can be bitterly tragic and unfair. At the end of his quest, he just wants to go back home and be a boy. This completes his narrative arc and shows his transformation; at the beginning, all he wanted was to be a hero. Prince Gwydion knows full well just how heroic Taran and the others have been, and Dallben explains to the boy that his work, filled as it was with errors, was nonetheless a tremendous help to the forces of good. It will take time for Taran fully to understand this.
Meanwhile, Taran has gained the most important benefits of his trek, a new set of friends. Especially important is his budding relationship with Eilonwy, the rebellious princess of the Sea People and a friend for the ages, if only Taran can stop inadvertently insulting her. The prospects for this look good: He’s been through enough humiliation of his own to appreciate the virtues of kindness, understanding, and fair treatment, especially toward those who love him.
The Book of Three is both the story’s title and the name of a mysterious tome that sits ominously on Dallben’s desk. The volume’s title fits the novel as the story of three adventurers, Taran, Eilonwy, and Fflewddur Fflam. The real meaning of the title is saved for the sequel books, where it’s revealed, among other things, that the ancient volume contains a prediction that the future High King will be an unimportant commoner. Readers can easily guess who that might be (Taran, of course).
Related Titles
By Lloyd Alexander
