The Horned King
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The Horned King is a fictional villain from The Chronicles of Prydain and in The Black Cauldron film by Disney.
In the book series, he appears only in the first book, The Book of Three. He is Arawn's champion and the War Leader of Annuvin. The Horned King is described as a large man wearing armor (except for his arms, which are naked), a red cape and a skull masked helmet with the antlers of a stag. The antlers are obviously where he gets his name. Arawn sends him to capture the pig Hen Wen from Caer Dallben. Taran tries to fight him, but nearly dies. Gwydion is able to defeat him by using the Horned King's real name, which is never revealed.
The second book concerns itself with Arawn's desire to possess the Black Cauldron. The film The Black Cauldron combines scenes from the first two books, and uses the Horned King in place of Arawn. He looks quite different in the movie, the antlers remain, but he wears a red hooded robe. Instead of a normal human, he is a gnarled, blue-skinned creature with a skull-like face. In the movie, he searches for the title object, seeking to use its power to bring to life an army of undead soldiers. Deploying his Creeper, the dragonic gwythaints, and human soldiers, the King seeks out objects of magic to aid in his quest. He eventually accomplishes his goal, but is thwarted when Gurgi throws himself into the Cauldron. When he attempts to throw Taran to the Cauldron as well, he ends up being destroyed by the Cauldron's power.
| The Chronicles of Prydain |
|---|
| Characters |
| Princess Eilonwy > Fflewddur Fflam | Taran | Gurgi | The Horned King | Arawn | Gwydion | Dallben |
| Books |
| The Book of Three (1964) > The Black Cauldron (1965) | The Castle of Llyr (1966) | Taran Wanderer (1967) | The High King (1968) | The Foundling and Other Tales from Prydain (1970) |
| Other media |
| The Black Cauldron (film)>The Black Cauldron (film) | The Black Cauldron (video game) |
| Other |
| Caer Dallben > Cauldron-Born | Dyrnwyn |
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