Dear Diary.... (from the journals of Eilonwy)

I have had many adventures in my life, and have been through a great deal of turmoil, but one adventure stands out in my mind as the greatest.

It started when I was little, I guess. The way things work in life is this: everything happens for a reason. I was sent to live with an evil queen, named Achren, who was supposedly my aunt but I don’t believe it. She was too terrible to be a relative of mine. Anyway, “my parents died and my kinsmen sent me [to her] so [she] could teach me to be an enchantress” (819). Only, as fate would have it, I did not become one. I sort of ended up becoming a hero, or at least an assistant to a hero.

One day, I was outside playing with my bauble, when I saw a boy locked in the dungeons. I went over to talk with him, and though it would be really funny to play a trick on Achren by letting him free! I though he was slow, a little dumb at first. Only later did I realize he was very far from being stupid. I let him loose, and led him through the twisting tunnels under The Spiral Castle where we both almost died. We found our way by helping each other, and in those tunnels I first realized that this boy was special. He said to me, “There was no reason for you to put yourself in danger” (823). He cared about me, and I was pretty happy about that. We found our way out of the tunnels, and when I saw that horrid castle burning to the ground, I decided to join him on his mysterious journey.

I found a very intriguing thing on our small journey. It was sword, and it was named Dyrnwyn. I had an inclination that this weapon was extremely important, so I guarded it with my life. Taran kept trying to unsheathe it, but I would always catch him. I never thought the sword would end up being quite as important as it was, but I knew there was a reason I found it. I still remember its inscriptions: “Draw Dyrnwyn, only though of royal blood, to rule, to strike the…” The rest had been long ago worn away. But we found out exactly who was to be stricken by this mighty sword.

Who would have ever imagined the adventures a girl like me would go on with an assistant pig keeper such as Taran? We met some great friends along the way, like Gurgi, Ffleweddur Fflam, and Medwyn, and we met some really scary enemies too. Those black cauldron warriors almost had our necks! I imagine I always seemed so confident to everyone else, but really, I was worried and there were times I thought we wouldn’t make it.

We did. We did exactly what was meant for us to do. We made it to Caer Dallben with Hen-Wen, the pig, and we saved her, just like we were probably always destined to do. I stayed with Taran at Caer Dallben, and we had many more years of great times together. The day I met that stupid pig-keeper in the dungeon, I never imagined it would have turned out like this. I thought I rescued him that day, but it turns out, he actually rescued me!