August 2024 Recommended Reading and Viewing

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

August signals the last stretch of summer - it seems to have gone so quickly! These are tough times, but there's also reason to hope, so I'm feeling pretty good myself. For this month, I'd like to continue Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain and accompany it with a fantasy film that's always been a favorite of mine.

Reading: The Castle of Llyr (1966) by Lloyd Alexander

Set a little more than a year after the second book, this story finds Princess Eilonwy (who Taran finds himself falling in love with) being sent to the Isle of Mona to study being a proper lady, while also being possibly betrothed to a clumsy yet good-hearted prince. But it's more than just thwarted romance that's at stake, as Taran and his companions find that Queen Achren, Eilonwy's cruel sorceress aunt (last encountered in The Book of Three), is collaborating with the chief steward of Mona's kingdom to capture the princess and use her for her own ends. Personally speaking, this is the book I remember least, but to be fair, I had only read it once about a couple decades ago. It's still Alexander's great writing, mixing Welsh mythology with the story of the city of Ys from Brittany, and more of the backstory is revealed as well as furthering character motivations.

Trade: https://www.amazon.com/Castle-Llyr-Chronicles-Prydain-Book/dp/0805080503/
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Castle-Llyr-Chronicles-Prydain-Book-ebook/dp/B005KJV5E6/



Viewing: Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981)

Considered the first of Gilliam's "Trilogy of Imagination" (which includes Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen), this is a fine, funny family film in which a young boy with an abiding interest in history encounters a team of dwarfs, formerly employed by the Supreme Being of the Universe, who have stolen a map that shows holes in the fabric of space and time and intend to use it to steal treasure; unfortunately, the personification of evil (simply named Evil) desires the map to escape his confinement in the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness and usurp the power of the Supreme Being. It's an irreverent film, but it's got a good heart and great production value, filled with that trademark Monty Python-style humor (as well as featuring a couple Python alumni in cameos). I'd gladly return to it again and again, and I hope you will too.

DVD: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Bandits-Criterion-Collection-Connery/dp/B00NMUCHMY/
Blu-Ray: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Bandits-Criterion-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B00NMUCHNS/
4K: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Bandits-Criterion-Collection-UHD/dp/B0BYLLNMCM/
Amazon Video: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Bandits-John-Cleese/dp/B0040J2W1M/


Happy August, everyone!