Lloyd Alexander wrote a rich and full series with the Welsh-inspired Chronicles of Prydain. This is a colorful land with even more colorful characters and he adds to the world-building with this set of short stories.

"The Foundling" is easily the strongest standalone tale of the lot, with "The Rascal Crow" and "The Sword" as solid honorable mentions. Other stories do well to introduce the future cast or provide hints to characters' origin stories. Some of these are really fun like "The Truthful Harp," and some are really dull and basic like "The True Enchanter."

Ultimately, this volume is a mixed bag in terms of quality. In terms of content, if you are a fan of the series this is still good reading. Even though this collection is chronologically slated as a prequel series, I would still recommend reading it after the main story line; best to go by publication order here.