now five-volume series. The High King included a map illustrated by Evaline Ness, who also did the cover art for the original novel editions. While writing the series, Lloyd Alexander also published short stories taking place in Prydain, occurring before the events of the novels. This included Coll and His White Pig (1965) and The Truthful Harp (1967), both being 32-page picture books illustrated by Evaline Ness. The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain was published in 1973 as a collection of six new short stories of Prydain, illustrated by Margot Zemach, with a reproduction of a map from The High King illustrated by Evaline Ness. It was dedicated to "Friends of Prydain, who promised to read more if I would write more." In the collection, Alexander remarked "popular demand makes a splendid pretext" for a return to the fictional world of Prydain but not for covering the same ground, hence his decision to make the stories prequels. The Prydain Chronicles Omnibus (1991) comprises the five novels and the material of the original edition of The Foundling, but not the stories of the first two illustrated picture books. In 1999, Holt and Company published an expanded edition of The Foundling that included the original book's material while adding the short stories (but not the illustrations) of Coll and his White Pig and The Truthful Harp, along with a new "Prydain Pronunciation Guide" with entries for 49 proper names. The Pronunciation Guide was included in later editions of the main five novels, as was Ness's map. In 1999, Alexander explained to Scholastic students: "The High King was the final logical development of the first four books in the Prydain Chronicles. It was not an easy book to write, but at least I was building on a foundation that I had already made. I never considered a different ending..." He added that after writing The Chronicles of Prydain for seven years, "the characters were as close to me as my own family... I wept at the end – to see Taran confronted with such a brutally difficult decision." Setting Once ruled over by the evil sorceress Queen Achren, Prydain is now under the authority of the just High King, a member of the family known as the Children of Don, descendants of Lady Don and her consort, Belin. The High King and his warriors, known as the Sons of Don, are based