In Memory of Lloyd Alexander
June 26, 2007 by Veronica Mitchell
They were white, hardbound books with colorful pictures of swordsmen and horses on the cover. I still remember the corner of the elementary school library where I could find them. The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King - I met the hero in the first book, a young pig-keeper with dreams of greatness, and I knew how he felt. Doesn’t every little girl know she was meant to be famous?
Taran was an orphan, convinced he must be the child of royalty, deserving a grand destiny. The last two books in the series have stayed with me the longest. In Taran Wanderer he wanders the kingdom, apprenticing himself in succession to a blacksmith, a weaver and a potter. His swordmaking skills excel those of his master, as does his talent for weaving. His true love, however, is pottery. He finds a passion for it, but discovers, unlike the first two, that he has no genius for it. His skills, disappointments and newfound wisdom find their resolution in The High King.
Alexander’s novels ushered me into difficult adult truths I might have learned the hard way without him. Our calling and our dreams are not the same thing. We are not always best at what we love. Sometimes a servicable weapon is more powerful than a romantic one. Sometimes dreams get in the way of success. People of good will and common goals still disagree, sometimes irrevocably. Violence corrupts, even in a just cause, but the just cause must be pursued anyway. Sometimes a person’s responsibilties are more important than their desires. Sometimes what other people need must come before what we want.
All these truths Alexander presented to me in a way that left me with hope and the beginnings of wisdom, rather than resignation.
Lloyd Alexander died on May 17, 2007. I have wanted to write this post ever since, but all my drafts seemed too imperfect to be a tribute to him. Then I realized that the imperfect words of a grown-up might be the best tribute after all.
What astonishes me is how routinely those truths are deliberately and consciously denied. This one, I think, is the most profound: “Violence corrupts, even in a just cause, but the just cause must be pursued anyway.”
a tribute needn’t be brilliant, just heartfelt and true. You wrote a wonderful tribute.
Wow. This is a wonderful tribute. It left me which a slight ache that I haven’t read these books and a desire to head over to Amazon.com and order them all–NOW. (Which I can’t do, but I really, really want to.)
I’ve never read his books either, but like Mary-Lue, think I might.
Beautiful post. The Book of Three is my mother’s favorite book ever.
Thanks for that tribute. I only discovered these books as an adult, my husband grew up with them and bought them for me, when we met. He has just been reading the whole series to our son, who I hope will gain all that insight from them too. Taran was one of the names we considered calling him too, in the end another name won though. I must go and read them all again.
Oh wow, thank you for posting this. I didn’t realize he had died. How did I miss that?
I loved the Taran books when I was a kid, and recently had the pleasure of rereading the first few. They are equally good from an adult’s perspective.
Oh, I didn’t realize he had died either. I read and re-read those books many times and look forward to sharing them with my boys when they’re a bit older.