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Taran (character)
Taran is a fictional character from Lloyd Alexander's '' The Chronicles of Prydain'' series of novels. Serving as the series's central protagonist, he is first introduced as the assistant pig-keeper at Caer Dallben charged with the care of Hen Wen, the oracular white pig. With dreams of becoming a great hero, over the course of the series, his character matures as he is drawn into the war against Arawn Death-Lord and his champion, the Horned King. During his journey, he befriends Princess Eilonwy, a young girl his age, Fflewddur Fflam, a wandering bard and minor king, Gurgi, a wild creature between animal and man, and the dwarf Doli. Upon the conclusion of the series, Taran is crowned High King of Prydain and marries Eilonwy. Appearances in literature Background and characteristics Taran is a young man in late adolescence, who lives with the enchanter Dallben and the aged warrior Coll. He is charged with taking care of the oracular pig Hen Wen and throughout the series is kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Chronicles Of Prydain
''The Chronicles of Prydain'' is a pentalogy of children's high fantasy Bildungsroman novels written by American author Lloyd Alexander and published by Henry Holt and Company. The series includes: ''The Book of Three'' (1964), ''The Black Cauldron'' (1965), ''The Castle of Llyr'' (1966), ''Taran Wanderer'' (1967), and ''The High King'' (1968). ''The Black Cauldron'' earned a 1966 Newbery Honor, and ''The High King'' won the 1969 Newbery Medal. The five novels take place in Prydain, a fictional country ruled by a High King who oversees several minor kingdoms. The setting is based on Wales and inhabited by creatures and characters inspired by Welsh mythology and folklore. The series follows the protagonist Taran, a youth of unknown parentage living on a farm with an old enchanter named Dallben and a farmer named Coll. Taran, who dreams of being a great hero, is named "Assistant Pig-Keeper" and tasked with helping to care for and protect Hen Wen, a white oracular pig magically emp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Black Cauldron (film)
''The Black Cauldron'' is a 1985 American animated dark fantasy adventure film directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions in association with Silver Screen Partners II and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 25th Disney animated feature film, it is loosely based on the first two books in ''The Chronicles of Prydain'' by Lloyd Alexander, a series of five novels that are, in turn, based on Welsh mythology. Set in the mythical land of Prydain during the Early Middle Ages, the film centers on a wicked emperor known as the Horned King, who hopes to secure an ancient magical cauldron that will aid him in his desire to conquer the world. He is opposed by young swineherder Taran, the young Princess Eilonwy, the harp-playing bard Fflewddur Fflam, and a friendly wild creature named Gurgi, who seek to destroy the cauldron to prevent the Horned King from ruling the world. The film is directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich, who had directed Disne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indiana University Press
Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 new books annually, in addition to 39 academic journals, and maintains a current catalog comprising some 2,000 titles. Indiana University Press primarily publishes in the following areas: African, African American, Asian, cultural, Jewish, Holocaust, Middle Eastern studies, Russian and Eastern European, and women's and gender studies; anthropology, film studies, folklore, history, bioethics, music, paleontology, philanthropy, philosophy, and religion. IU Press undertakes extensive regional publishing under its Quarry Books imprint. History IU Press began in 1950 as part of Indiana University's post-war growth under President Herman B Wells. Bernard Perry, son of Harvard philosophy professor Ralph Barton Perry, served as the first d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Horn Book Magazine
''The Horn Book Magazine'', founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietresses of the country's first bookstore for children, The Bookshop for Boys and Girls. Opened in 1916 in Boston as a project of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, the bookshop closed in 1936, but ''The Horn Book Magazine'' continues in its mission to "blow the horn for fine books for boys and girls" as Mahony wrote in her first editorial. In each bimonthly issue, ''The Horn Book Magazine'' includes articles about issues and trends in children's literature, essays by artists and authors, and reviews of new books and paperback reprints for children. Articles are written by the staff and guest reviewers, including librarians, teachers, historians and booksellers. The January issue includes the speeches of the winners of the Boston Glo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition (OCR), and stored in its digital database.The basic Google book link is found at: https://books.google.com/ . The "advanced" interface allowing more specific searches is found at: https://books.google.com/advanced_book_search Books are provided either by publishers and authors through the Google Books Partner Program, or by Google's library partners through the Library Project. Additionally, Google has partnered with a number of magazine publishers to digitize their archives. The Publisher Program was first known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2004. The Google Books Library Project, which scans works in the collections of library partners and adds them to the digital invent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
McFarland & Company
McFarland & Company, Inc., is an American independent book publisher based in Jefferson, North Carolina, that specializes in academic and reference works, as well as general-interest adult nonfiction. Its president is Rhonda Herman. Its former president and current editor-in-chief is Robert Franklin, who founded the company in 1979. McFarland employs a staff of about 50, and had published 7,800 titles. McFarland's initial print runs average 600 copies per book. Subject matter McFarland & Company focuses mainly on selling to libraries. It also utilizes direct mailing to connect with enthusiasts in niche categories. The company is known for its sports literature, especially baseball history, as well as books about chess, military history, and film. In 2007, the ''Mountain Times'' wrote that McFarland publishes about 275 scholarly monographs and reference book titles a year; Robert Lee Brewer reported in 2015 that the number is about 350. List of scholarly journals The following ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Black Cauldron (novel)
''The Black Cauldron'' (1965) is a high fantasy novel by American writer Lloyd Alexander, the second of five volumes in ''The Chronicles of Prydain''. The story continues the adventures of Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper, as he joins in a quest to capture the eponymous Magical Cauldron from Arawn Death-Lord. For 1966 it was a Newbery Honor book, runner-up for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". The book provided a title and many elements of plot for the 1985 Disney animated feature '' The Black Cauldron''. Origins The series was inspired by Welsh mythology and by the castles, scenery, and language of Wales, which the author experienced during World War II combat intelligence training. At one stage of planning it was a trilogy with titles ''The Battle of the Trees'', ''The Lion with the Steady Hand'', and ''Little Gwion''. Plot summary More than a year after the defeat of Arawn Death-Lord's army and death of his warlord the Hor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taranis
In Celtic mythology, Taranis (Proto-Celtic: *''Toranos'', earlier ''*Tonaros''; Latin: Taranus, earlier Tanarus) is the god of thunder, who was worshipped primarily in Gaul, Hispania, Britain, and Ireland, but also in the Rhineland and Danube regions, amongst others. Taranis, along with Esus and Toutatis, was mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan in his epic poem ''Pharsalia'' as a Celtic deity to whom human sacrificial offerings were made. Taranis was associated, as was the Cyclops Brontes ("thunder") in Greek mythology, with the wheel. Many representations of a bearded god with a thunderbolt in one hand and a wheel in the other have been recovered from Gaul, where this deity apparently came to be syncretised with Jupiter. Name and etymology The Proto-Celtic form of the name is reconstructed as *''Toranos'' ('Thunder'), which derives through metathesis (switch of sounds) from an earlier *''Tonaros'', itself from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stem for 'thunder', *''(s)tenh₂- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mabinogion
The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created c. 1350–1410, as well as a few earlier fragments. The title covers a collection of eleven prose stories of widely different types, offering drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy and humour, and created by various narrators over time. There is a classic hero quest, "Culhwch and Olwen"; a historic legend in "Lludd and Llefelys," complete with glimpses of a far off age; and other tales portray a very different King Arthur from the later popular versions. The highly sophisticated complexity of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi defies categorisation. The stories are so diverse that it has been argued that they are not even a true collection. Scholars from the 18th century to the 1970s predominantly viewed the tales as fragmentary p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooch
A brooch (, also ) is a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments, often to fasten them together. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with vitreous enamel, enamel or with gemstones and may be solely for jewellery, ornament or serve a practical function as a clothes fastener. The earliest known brooches are from the Bronze Age. As fashions in brooches changed rather quickly, they are important chronological indicators. In archaeology, ancient European brooches are usually referred to by the Latin term Fibula (brooch), fibula. Ancient brooches Brooches were known as Fibula (brooch), fibula (plural fibulae) prior to the Middle Ages. These decorative items, used as clothes fasteners, were first crafted in the Bronze Age. In Europe, during the Iron Age, metalworking technology had advanced dramatically. The newer techniques of casting, metal bar-twisting and wire making were the basis for many n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magic (paranormal)
Magic, sometimes spelled magick, is an ancient praxis rooted in sacred rituals, spiritual divinations, and/or cultural lineage—with an intention to invoke, manipulate, or otherwise manifest supernatural forces, beings, or entities in the natural, incarnate world. It is a categorical yet often ambiguous term which has been used to refer to a wide variety of beliefs and practices, frequently considered separate from both religion and science. Although connotations have varied from positive to negative at times throughout history, magic continues to have an important religious and medicinal role in many cultures today. Within Western culture, magic has been linked to ideas of the Other, foreignness, and primitivism; indicating that it is "a powerful marker of cultural difference" and likewise, a non-modern phenomenon. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Western intellectuals perceived the practice of magic to be a sign of a primitive mentality and also commo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dyrnwyn
The Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain (Welsh: ''Tri Thlws ar Ddeg Ynys Prydain'') are a series of items in late-medieval Welsh tradition. Lists of the items appear in texts dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.Jones, Mary"Tri Thlws ar Ddeg Ynys Prydain" From maryjones.us. Retrieved June 16, 2009. The number of treasures is always given as thirteen, but some later versions list different items, replacing or combining entries to maintain the number. List The various treasures (''tlws'') include vessels or utensils for food and drink (hamper, cauldron, crock and dish, horn and knife), objects relating to weaponry (sword, whetstone) and to transport (halter, chariot), clothing (coat, mantle) and still other items (stone and ring, chessboard). Most of the items are placed in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North", the Brittonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and Northern England; some early manuscripts refer to the whole list specifically as treasures "that w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
