The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain is a collection of short high fantasy stories for children by Lloyd Alexander and illustrator Margot Zemach.

[9] The author then cited "many readers of all ages" and explained that "popular demand makes a splendid pretext" for return to Prydain, but all the stories (six) explore prehistory, "before the birth of Taran Assistant Pig-Keeper".

[10] The expanded Foundling in 1982 collected all eight stories, while the 1999 edition included an old map of Prydain by Ness and a new pronunciation guide as well.

[5] The hags Orddu, Orwen and Orgoch find a baby boy in a basket by the marsh, name him Dallben, take him in, and raise him to youth as a willing helper without knowledge of the outside world.

He meets the dwarf again, and his anger earns him a short lecture, but Doli says that all his earlier attempts to lose or destroy the stone have failed because he does not really wish to be parted from it.

She is not impressed by two who labor at genuine sorcery and falls in love with one who speaks in "common, quiet words" and admits, "I only helped you imagine these things to be more than what they are."

They all explain how their kinds will help resist, while Kadwyr the crow taunts them one by one, for he believes he is both safest and most capable, with his sturdy nest, speed aflight, keen eye, and sharp beak.

He gives time to pressing business, pleasant feasts, and policy of state, and slays the shepherd in a rage when Amrys admonishes him in court.

Horsemen steal his white pig Hen Wen and he follows on foot until he must rest under a hazelnut tree, whose fruit he eats.

He rescues a baby owl and learns from its father that every nut he has eaten is "a day given you to understand the speech of birds and animals".

They find Hen Wen captive in a pit of Annuvin, where the owl and stag lead away the hunting birds and horsemen of Arawn.

As he wanders, he gives his cloak to a poor man, saves a child from a river in flood, and rescues from ambush a lord who had beaten him.