The Black Cauldron
- 224
- Pages
- about 4 h
- Reading time
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
In “The Black Cauldron”, a short, classic fantasy adventure for young readers, Taran begins to grow up. As book two of “The Chronicles of Prydain”, a series of five, it sends the Assistant Pig-Keeper on a quest to take the cauldron from Arawn Death-Lord, with magic and witches along the way. Some readers rank it below the other books of the series while still enjoying a return to it.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
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. It was a Newbery Honor book in 1966, runner-up for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children".
Reading order · The Chronicles of Prydain
Full order & progress →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.2 across 173 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 54% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Fantasy average of 8.0. That is how 8.1 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.2 | 24 | 14% |
| Hardcover | 8.2 | 149 | 86% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Black Cauldron?
It has 224 pages — shorter than 98% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Fantasy — with scores between 8.0 and 8.1, closest to this book.
