The Book of Three

“‘You are barely on the threshold of manhood, and I have a certain responsibility to see that you reach it, preferably with a whole skin. So, you are not to leave Caer Dallben under any circumstances, not even past the orchard, and certainly not into the forest—not for the time being.’ ‘For the time being!’ Taran burst out. ‘I think it will always be for the time being, and it will be vegetables and horseshoes all my life!’”

Master Dallben sets the rules for Taran, his adolescent charge. Taran aches to be a hero like the famous Prince Gwydion, but Dallben, who is centuries old, must lay down the law. He knows Taran will have to learn Dallben’s wisdom for himself through hard experience. This passage establishes the protagonist’s great need to become a hero and suggests there are dangerous adventures awaiting the boy.

“In some cases […] we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”

Dallben knows that Taran is impulsive and impatient. He plants in the boy’s mind an idea to help him during his quest—that the process of the journey is more important than the destination.

The adult world is far different from that imagined by an ambitious 13-year-old, and Taran’s heady fantasies of heroism may well prove false. Taran will need the ability to learn from his failures if he expects to have successes. In that respect, it’s more important to be curious than certain.

“Well, that is one of the three foundations of learning: see much, study much, suffer much.”

Coll notices the burns on Taran’s hands and knows the boy has tried to open the Book of Three volume without permission and received a hot shock as a result. Reading and study are vital, but there’s a different education learning through suffering: It teaches a person an important lesson about life in a vivid way that gets etched into memory.