(no subject)
I had this really crappy whiny entry up about how stressed out I am. I'm going to post something else instead because those posts suck.
My recent travels through the int4rwubz have landed me, for at least a little while, at the journal comic of this one guy...it's mildly entertaining for the most part, and today I happened upon this entry. If you look really carefully at the pictures of the books, you might recognize two of the covers as the first and last books of the Prydain Chronicles, a series that I personally loved as a child. The characters and story are loosely based in Welsh mythology, but Lloyd Alexander (<--author) also just made a bunch of stuff up, and it all works just fine as far as I'm concerned.
I actually remember vividly the first time I finished that series. It took me a while to start because my mother recommended the second book to me since it was a Newberry Award winner or something, so naturally I didn't want to read it at all. But when I finally did I couldn't put it down. Soon I found the other four books and went through them as quickly as I could.
The book ends with the main character vanquishing all evil but declining his seat on the boat that will bear away to the Golden Land the nobility and all the heroes who played an important part in the defeat of Arawn Death-Lord. Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper of Caer Dallben, thus becomes High King of all Prydain...because SOMEBODY has to stay behind and do that job. So the final paragraph or so explains about how the story was told and retold so many times that the people weren't entirely sure whether it was history or fable. "And in time, only the bards knew." ...that's the last line. I remember when I got to that one my eyes welled up with tears and I whispered aloud "It IS true...I know it's true!" The next day I rushed home from school, remembering that I was excited to do something that I had been doing for the last few days. When I walked in the door I realized I was excited to read more of the Prydain Chronicles...but I had finished them.
Anyway...I don't meet many people who know what those books are (or maybe I just don't bring them up enough. They are definitely worth a read, even if you're too old for that sort of thing...at least I think so.) So when I do meet somebody, or see something like that comic that mentions them as something that used to inspire them as a kid, it makes me really happy. Because I guess I feel like for each person that knows the story of Taran and Eilonwy, and Gurgi and Fflewdur and Dallben and Doli and Gwydion, that's one more reason to believe in it. And it's one more person to keep us all from forgetting them.
My recent travels through the int4rwubz have landed me, for at least a little while, at the journal comic of this one guy...it's mildly entertaining for the most part, and today I happened upon this entry. If you look really carefully at the pictures of the books, you might recognize two of the covers as the first and last books of the Prydain Chronicles, a series that I personally loved as a child. The characters and story are loosely based in Welsh mythology, but Lloyd Alexander (<--author) also just made a bunch of stuff up, and it all works just fine as far as I'm concerned.
I actually remember vividly the first time I finished that series. It took me a while to start because my mother recommended the second book to me since it was a Newberry Award winner or something, so naturally I didn't want to read it at all. But when I finally did I couldn't put it down. Soon I found the other four books and went through them as quickly as I could.
The book ends with the main character vanquishing all evil but declining his seat on the boat that will bear away to the Golden Land the nobility and all the heroes who played an important part in the defeat of Arawn Death-Lord. Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper of Caer Dallben, thus becomes High King of all Prydain...because SOMEBODY has to stay behind and do that job. So the final paragraph or so explains about how the story was told and retold so many times that the people weren't entirely sure whether it was history or fable. "And in time, only the bards knew." ...that's the last line. I remember when I got to that one my eyes welled up with tears and I whispered aloud "It IS true...I know it's true!" The next day I rushed home from school, remembering that I was excited to do something that I had been doing for the last few days. When I walked in the door I realized I was excited to read more of the Prydain Chronicles...but I had finished them.
Anyway...I don't meet many people who know what those books are (or maybe I just don't bring them up enough. They are definitely worth a read, even if you're too old for that sort of thing...at least I think so.) So when I do meet somebody, or see something like that comic that mentions them as something that used to inspire them as a kid, it makes me really happy. Because I guess I feel like for each person that knows the story of Taran and Eilonwy, and Gurgi and Fflewdur and Dallben and Doli and Gwydion, that's one more reason to believe in it. And it's one more person to keep us all from forgetting them.