Prepare yourself for some off-the-cuff book talk as I tackle another middle-grade book, chapter by chapter,
to learn if this is truly a treasured tale worthy of a place of honor in the fortress fiction.
Lloyd Alexander's The Book of Three Chapter Three was great. It's really interesting. A lot of fun stuff happens in it.
One of the things that I find most interesting that's most at the top of my mind is the similarities between Gergi and Gollum.
Gergi is a creature of Lloyd Alexander's invention. I don't believe he's based on anything from the Mabinagian or anything from Welsh mythology.
He very well may be, but I don't think he is. He is a creature, a hairy creature who has the smell of a wet wolfhound and who seems to be ape-like.
I believe his feet are described as having dexterity similar to his hands, which would mean that he's kind of like a chimpanzee kind of guy.
I believe he's a white-haired white-furred. He also mentions that he's so hungry because he's been looking for crunchings and munchings that his stomach is full of hair.
I think he's plucked off of his stomach and eaten because he's so hungry. That's how desperately hungry this creature is.
He speaks about getting vittles from Prince Gwydion, and he suggests that perhaps he be given tauren to eat.
I think that's because tauren said that he would hit him on the head. He didn't say he'd kill him, but tauren did not do well with Gergi initially.
It was not a good first meeting. However, Gergi did jump down from a tree, I believe, and I think he was throttling.
Tauren is what I believe actually happened, but regardless, Gwydion stopped it quickly. Gwydion knows this creature, Gergi, and he speaks to him and looks for information from him.
I don't know if Gergi is being coy or if his mind is that erratic or that addled, that out of order, as is his body, so to speak.
But he actually forgets because at some point he says, was there a piggy? Gwydion is talking to him about the location of Henwin, and Gergi mentions that there are many people seeking the pig.
So he kind of starts with that, offering information like, hey, if I give you information about where this pig is, will you please give me luncheings and cruncheings for poor Gergi?
Anyway, he's a very charming character, but he did just try to kill tauren in their initial meeting, and then he wanted to eat him, and yet I find him charming.
There's something sad and sympathetic about Gergi, and I think mostly it's Gwydion's response to him because tauren is kind of like, what do we need this guy for? And let's just hit him, let's kill him, whatever.
I don't think he actually suggests killing him at this time, but he's pretty close to it. He definitely does not value Gergi and doesn't have an appreciation for him, which Gwydion does seem to have,
and it might seem surprising to you as the reader if you're in the mind frame of somebody like tauren, that this great prince who isn't so great, but I guess he's a hero and a warrior, he is having sympathy and he's talking to this Gergi and he seems to care about him to some extent.
He pities him, he even says that despite the fact that Gergi said he wanted to eat me, darn, and whatever else, that he is kind of a sympathetic character, somebody to pity rather than to hate and want to kill.
It's very interesting. Gwydion seems to have a lot more going on than you would initially think. He's not some meathead hero, he's like this thoughtful hero, and tauren, despite the fact that he doesn't like the way he looks, he doesn't look like a great hero or look like a great prince or lord among men,
he appreciates what Gwydion is able to do because Gwydion cautions him, he tracks Henwin's location, and on the way from looking at what her last location was, he is able to find, or that's where they end up finding Gergi, but tauren looks past the man, looks past the trappings of Gwydion,
and sees who he is as the person, what he's capable of, and he does have an admiration for that. Which is an interesting setup, because shortly after that happens, or that was told to us in the narrative after we see that, we learn that Henwin was once in the lands of Anuvin Deathlord, I believe is what he's called, or is it Aron?
Anyway, she was in a bad place, she was where the bad people are in this story, I don't remember all the names, the Welsh names are hard for me, even though these are like anglicized Welsh names for the most part, they're a little tough for me, so sorry, my daughter's probably cringing if she's listening to this right now because she knows the books quite well.
Anyway, so Henwin was actually rescued from this other place by a warrior long ago, I think, and he's this great warrior, and tauren is fascinated by this, he had no idea that Henwin had once been held in the Dark Lands or by the Dark Lord, and he's absolutely shocked by that, and being that Henwin was at Caer Dolvin, where Dolvin, this powerful wizard,
is able to read the signs that this oracular pig gives them, these visions of the future, there's a suggestion that perhaps this Dark Lord that she was with wanted to do the same with her, and he almost implies, Gwydion does, that she was like tortured or just endured very much hardship there, and thankfully she was, and for her sake,
you know, mercifully for her sake, she was released from that place, and then taken to Caer Dolvin, and here comes the shocker for tauren, it was actually Kull who rescued her, he was this great hero who rescued her from this place on this great adventure, and he's shocked by that, and part of his response is, but he's so bold, and Gwydion, I don't know if Gwydion actually laughs or if it was just me that laughed, and it felt like Gwydion was like,
calmly, or amused, but patient with him, and he says something along the lines of like, do you think a hero's quality is determined by the length of his hair, or by him having any hair at all, and I don't know if that means Dolvin's been bold forever, or for a very long time, or what, but that was a very funny moment, and it also reinforces this idea that tauren doesn't know what a hero is, he doesn't know what a man is, he has his ideas of what they are, and he also has
these preconceived notions about who and what is worthwhile, and what that looks like, and the fact that it has a particular look that you can just see and measure up somebody with your eye, and not through, not with, not after, taking the time to get to know them, then do you only truly know who they are, and I find it to be very interesting, I really do feel like there is a theme, whether it's the theme for the entire book, the entire series, or what, that things are not always what they appear, it seems a little
bit weak to state the theme like that, but we have Gurgi, who appears to be evil, a vicious monster, and yet Gwydion says, maybe we have pity on him, we have Kaal, who tauren knows can wield a sword, and yet he cannot imagine him being this great hero because he's bald, and that's strange, and then we have Gwydion, who, in whose appearance tauren is disappointed, because he doesn't look like the great hero, the great prince, the great lord among men, but in fact,
he sees that there's something of the wolf about him, and this is a compliment, he looks like a lean wolf tracking his prey when he's going, trying to track the signs of Henwin, and he sees his quality in that, you know, his horsemanship, and in his wisdom to tell tauren, don't rush ahead as you all want to do, and ruin the tracks here so that I cannot read them, and we are no, you know, then we will ruin our chances of finding Henwin before the Horned King, and it's really interesting,
he also has the ability to draw a map, and make a fairly accurate map from what I understand, or at least it's a map that has all the necessary pieces in it to give tauren the understanding he needs, of we know Henwin won't be, you know, this is the map, this is where Henwin will not go, because she'll want to avoid this, and we may have to go here at some point, but you know, this is where we are, and this is where she's likely to be in between all of that, so he has intelligence and wisdom, and he has
maturity and a gentleness too, that one might not expect, as well as these more fierce qualities that a boy would admire in a prince and a warrior, and I really like that, I really like how it's telling all this stuff, he even gives us a warning about a place that they'll try to avoid later, and a villainess who is as beautiful as she is deadly, or as deadly as she is beautiful, either way, she's really beautiful, she's really deadly,
and it's not a good match, and it's a good match for her, for, you know, killing hapless fools who should come across her and be taken in by her beauty, but anyway, we get another hint there, so in addition to meeting Gergi, in setting up more, or reinforcing this idea of things are not always what they appear, and showing us that tauren really is woefully unprepared for this world, and how you can't just take it on the surface level,
we also have a showing of death in Gwydion, that he has been on adventures, and he has traveled, and he knows things that other men do not know, and that tauren certainly does not know, because he's been through things that they haven't been through, and that's really fascinating, and really, almost inspiring, inspiring and beautiful, and in an interesting way, it doesn't tell you who he is, but that tells you more about who he is than telling you what, at least in this format. What did you think of the chapter? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I don't want to forget this, if you want to read the book, if you're interested by what I've had to say about it, you can look in the show notes where you can find, where you can get the book for free to listen to it. This is fully legal free, not, you know, stealing it free. So a couple places, if you want to purchase it, you could buy it on Audible, or many audiobook formats, or places like
Kobo, sorry, Kobo, I had a blink there. You can get it from Cloud Library, I originally listened to it on Cloud Library for free, all five audiobooks are there. There is a sixth as well, but we won't talk about that right now, or you can get it, you know, used or new, anywhere in paperback format. I don't know about a hardcover edition, but definitely it would be worthwhile if you like Lord of the Rings, if you like Narnia, I would say you can probably just buy this, it's really good. Spoilers, I've been through the whole series, that's why I'm covering it,
chapter by chapter, because I want to enjoy and indulge in the great storytelling that Lloyd Alexander gives us. And anyway, yeah, so you can get it there for free, or sorry, you can buy it those places, but you can get it free from Cloud Library, for example, or check your local library to see if they have an audiobook version of it as well. I prefer audiobooks, it's much easier for me for other circumstances, for different reasons in my life. But if you prefer to read on paper, then definitely there's lots of places you can get, you can probably check out the series from the library, or like I said, you can get it at a reasonable price for most good retailers.
If you enjoyed my commentary on this book, I think you will enjoy my stories. Head over to grobugs.com to find out about my latest middle grade novel featuring magical bugs fighting monsters. Find a link in the show notes or go straight to growbugs.com. That's G-R-O-B-U-G-S.com. So grow without a W, right? grobugs.com.