Gwythaints

The Gwythaints are dragon-like creatures that serves the Horned King and they are minor villains in both Lloyd Alexander's fantasy book series The Chronicles of Prydain. and Disney's The Black Cauldron. They are a race of ferocious eagle-like creatures that were also once under the command of Arawn Death-Lord, the primary villain of the book series.

Description and Origins
The birds are actually larger than the largest eagle, with blood red eyes, curving beaks, and talons as sharp as daggers. Black birds of prey, Arawn captured them long ago and tortured them into his service; they serve out of terror. He keeps them in iron cages in his stronghold of Annuvin. Reminiscent in spirit to the Flying Monkeys of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, the Gwythaints are the eyes and ears of Arawn, spying and bringing information. They are not above attacking, however, and do so on several occasions.

Medwyn, a Noah-like character, explains, "Once, long ago, they were as free as other birds, gentle and trusting. In his cunning, Arawn lured them to him and brought them under his power. He built the iron cages which are now their prison house in Annuvin.".

The Fledgling Gwythaint
Taran, the protagonist of the series, takes Medwyn's word to heart, and when he finds an injured fledgling gwythaint, he builds it a small cage and nurses it back to health. The other companions want to kill it, but Taran refuses. Though it also seems to warm to Taran and also Princess Eilonwy, it escapes, and the companions fear that it will reveal their plans. Instead, it repays Taran's kindness by informing Prince Gwydion (who has the power of speech of animals) of their location, and helps them to resolve the novel's plot.

The Fledgling Gwythaint reappears in the fifth novel of the series, The High King. In a climactic scene, Taran is dangling precariously from a ledge on Mount Dragon when a gwythaint seems to attack. Amazingly, it is the same Fledgling Gwythaint, who instead rescues him and lifts him to the top of the mountain. He then attacks the encroaching Cauldron Born, and is tragically struck down after its noble actions. In addition, the Fledgling Gwythaint placed Taran exactly where the stolen sword Drynwyn had been hidden, again helping resolve the novel's main narrative. Taran's early kindness was repaid many times over.

Alexander's mother recalled he frequently brought home injured animals as a child; this perhaps was reflected in the story of the Fledgling Gwythaint.

Fate of the Gwythaints
Unlike the Fledgling Gwythaint, the other gwythaints are ruthless to the people and animals of Prydain. Besides the sense of oppression they developed, they attacked numerous characters in the series. They inform Arawn of the companions' plans in The Black Cauldron. In The High King, they attack and injure Kaw, the crow, as he spies on Annuvin, and they nearly kill the sorceress Achren, and she is only saved by an "army of crows" so great in number to drive away the eagle-sized gwythaints.

When Arawn is killed and his power destroyed, the gwythaints also die. Sadly, they do not return to their unspoiled state.

The Black Cauldron
In the Disney film The Black Cauldron, which is a loose adaptation of the entire series, the gwythaints are drawn to resemble wyvern. They serve as the Horned Kings minions and dragons. He sends them on missions to find for whatever he is looking. They manage to find Hen Wen when Taran acciedentally let her escape in the woods. Taran sees the gwythaints and tries to help hen Wen fand fight the gwythaints. However, because they are powerful,, one of them, hurts Tarans with it's claws They capture Hen Wen the pig and take her back to the castle. They are laters seen celebrating the capture of Hen Wen. along with Creeper, and theother henchmen. One of the henchmen gives the two gwythaints a a bone toeat. they all have fn until eerie noise occur. electricity fills the very front of the room. The Horned King appears. Later, when Taran and Hen Wen try to escape, Creeper, the henchmen and even the gwythaints try (without being ordered) to give chase. the gwythaints, who break ree of their chains tries to the wall give chase. however the gwythaints, who are not free from the chains the block on wall is connected to chains,. So, they fall down., forcing the henchmen to give up chase for a few seconds. Creepr and the henchman capture taran but not the pig who escapes in a moat. The gwythaints chained up to the wall, off-screen, They are later sent to follow Taran to find the Black Cauldron. they succeed. They are chained up again. One of them is killed when the Horned King's castle is destroyed and the other gwythaints is saved by creeper, off-screen. The gwythaint escapes with Creeper, laughing madly that the Horned is dead and that he cannot punish him, riding on his back and flies away.