The High King

Taran, once content to call himself only an Assistant Pig Keeper, returns home from his travels to learn that the Death Lord Arawn has seized Dyrnwyn, the one sword capable of destroying him, and is massing his undead Cauldron Born army to finally conquer the free peoples of Prydain. Taran rallies the scattered kingdoms, princes, farmers, and old companions from earlier books alike, into a single desperate alliance and marches on Arawn's stronghold at Annuvin. The war costs the alliance dearly: the High King Math is killed, and Taran's oldest and steadiest friend, the loyal old warrior Coll, dies defending the homestead where Taran grew up, losses the book does not soften for its young readers. Taran ultimately recovers the sword Dyrnwyn himself and, with unexpected help from the once villainous sorceress Achren, confronts and destroys Arawn, ending the Death Lord's threat for good. In the aftermath, the enchanter Dallben reveals that Taran, an orphan of unknown birth raised on a small farm, has been the prophesied High King of Prydain all along, and rather than departing with the other immortal companions for the paradise of the Summer Country, Taran chooses to stay behind and rebuild a mortal, imperfect Prydain himself, marrying the strong willed princess Eilonwy, who gives up her own magical heritage to remain at his side.

Reading it means arriving at the end of a five book journey that began with Taran as an impulsive, status hungry boy, and the payoff depends on having followed him that far. Taken on its own the battle sequences move quickly and the losses land hard, and Alexander, drawing throughout the series on the Welsh Mabinogion, closes with real cost rather than an easy victory, which is part of why the Chronicles of Prydain are still handed to readers moving on from fairy tale endings toward more demanding fantasy.