Smith of Wootton Major" is a late work by J. R. R. Tolkien, about a smith who received, when a young child, a magical star that let him travel in the Land of Faerie. I feel like pretty much from top to bottom this story is about greed. While Giles is considered to be good to his people, and well liked, he is also still tempted by the gold of the dragon. Albeit, not as grossly as the king and his court. But there were things he did not forget, and “ they remained in his mind as wonders and mysteries that he often recalled”. One of such memories was an occasion when he “ came at last to a desolate shore and saw a great ship cast high upon the land, and the eleven mariners passed over him and went away into the echoing hills”.

The book began as an attempt to explain the meaning of Faery by means of a story about a cook and his cake, and Tolkien originally thought to call it The Great Cake. It was intended to be part of a preface by Tolkien to George MacDonald's famous fairy story The Golden Key. [1] Tolkien's story grew to become a tale in its own right. Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-04-928037-3. After my sixth reading, it still grabs me as (usually) only real fairy tales do. Most modern fantasy seems so contrived. Tolkien had a grasp for what really works. Smith's tenth birthday was in the June following the winter when he had been at the Feast. On that day Smith arose before dawn and went outside. Feeling unusual, he began to sing and the fay-star that he had eaten fell out of his mouth. Without a thought he clapped his hand to his forehead and there the star stayed. While the star went mostly unnoticed it wrought changes in him that the villagers appreciated: His eyes had a shine to them, his voice became beautiful, and his work as a smith became very skilled (the best between Far Easton and the Westwood). This expanded edition includes the original illustrations by Pauline Baynes as well as notes concerning the writing and revisions of the original. An excellent companion for "On Fairy Stories"* from The Tolkien Reader, since Smith of Wootton Major is just such a fairy story.

Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (9 September 2012). "Our Collections: Pauline Baynes". Too Many Books and Never Enough. Archived from the original on 2 June 2015 . Retrieved 25 July 2023.

Smith "never bakes a Great Cake"; Tolkien "never produced a major full-length work on medieval literature" Tolkien himself called it “an old man’s book, already weighted with the presage of bereavement”, and taking their cue from him, many have read Smith’s surrender of the star as Tolkien’s farewell to his art.” On one such journey climbing into the Outer Mountains he came to “ a deep dale among them, and at its bottom lay a lake, calm and unruffled though a breeze stirred the woods that surrounded it”. In that dale “ the light was like a red sunset, but the light came up from the lake”. Then from nowhere a wild Wind rose to him, and “ it swept him up and h ung him on the shore, and it drove him up the slopes whirling and falling like a dead leaf”.Possession of the star also enables Smith to make journeys into Fairyland in a magically suspended time-warp that does not count as the ‘real’ time of the village. Only his family is aware of his absences, and even they do not know where he has wandered. In the perilous land that Tolkien called Faery, Smith sees events transpire to which he has no key, sees wonders unfold that he does not understand, and stumbles into dangers of which he is unaware. Trespassing on the dangerous Lake of Tears, he arouses the Wild Wind, but is sheltered from its wrath by a weeping birch. The tree warns him to go away, telling him outright that the Wind is hunting him and that he does not belong in the Faery land.

The fay-star in Smith of Wootton Major allowed its wearer to enter Faery. Eärendil’s device, featuring a Silmaril as a shining star, was painted by Tolkien around the same time. Tolkien had arranged teaching at the University of Leeds into an A-scheme (literature) and a B-scheme (philology);The village of Wootton Major was well known around the countryside for its annual festivals, which were particularly famous for their culinary delights. The biggest festival of all was the Feast of Good Children. This festival was celebrated only once every twenty-four years: twenty-four children of the village were invited to a party, and the highlight of the party was the Great Cake, a career milestone by which Master Cooks were judged. In the year the story begins, the Master Cook was Nokes, who had landed the position more or less by default; he delegated much of the creative work to his apprentice Alf. Nokes crowned his Great Cake with a little doll jokingly representing the Queen of Faery. Various trinkets were hidden in the cake for the children to find; one of these was a star the Cook discovered in the old spice box. Scull, Christina; Hammond, Wayne G. (2006). The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide. Vol."Chronology". HarperCollins. p.711. ISBN 978-0-618-39113-4.

Though nobody noticed the star on the Smith’s forehead he himself was always aware of it, as he knew that this star gave him an ability to enter Faery. He used to go for the walks to this magical country, and each time he discovered there something new, and each time the picture in front of his eyes was different and never repeated. He was warriors coming to the strand from a ship, or dreadful big trees, or beautiful valleys. Once he witnessed wild wind which wanted to take him away. A little birch helped Smith, but the Wind took all her leaves and she was sadly crying standing before Smith naked. She asked him to leave and never return. Smith had not entered Faery for many years since then. a b c d e f Flieger, Verlyn (2001). "Pitfalls in Faërie". A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien's Road to Faërie. Kent State University Press. pp.227–253. ISBN 0-87338-699-X. During the Feast everyone enjoyed the Cake, and children were happy to find those trinkets in their slices of the Cake, but none of them found the star. The Cook thought that is was not made of silver, and must have melted in the Cake. But it had not, one of the boys had swallowed it without noticing. Years passed, and the day when the boy turned ten years old, the star came out of his mouth. He was astonished when saw her, and put it on his forehead, where it clung. Since that time the boy showed great abilities in singing.Smith of Wootton Major is not connected to the Middle-earth, except by the thematic "Faery" motif of the traveler who journeys to a land that lies beyond the normal world and is usually beyond the reach of mortals. (Smith can thus be likened to Beren in the realm of Thingol, or Eärendil journeying to Valinor, or Ælfwine's visit to Tol Eressëa.) Smith of Wooton Major" is probably the best example of a faerie story in Tolkien's entire corpus. While it exists in a different universe than LOTR, it is essential reading for those seeking to understand Tolkien as a writer. I genuinely believe that “Smith” will give the reader a better understanding of LOTR. “Smith” was one of the last things the professor wrote. And, Tolkien himself described it as an "old man's tale.” At first glance the story seems like an illustrated children’s book, but the story itself is incredibly mature. You can almost feel an old man’s hiraeth for a time that no longer exists. The story explores growing up while maintaining a connection to Faerie, and delves into profound themes like grace, social hierarchies, and family responsibilities. Farmer Giles- it was just a snortfest for me. From now on, if I were to ever learn Latin or Latin names for things, I'm going to use the phrase, "Or in the vulgar tongue-". That, and I desperately want to commission a Dragon tail cake for my next birthday. The Annotated Hobbit · The History of The Hobbit · The Nature of Middle-earth · The Fall of Númenor The time came for another Feast of Good Children. Smith had possessed his gift for most of his life, and the time had come to pass it on to some other child. So he regretfully surrendered the star to Alf, and with it his adventures into Faery. King of Faery, who had become Master Cook long before, baked it into the festive cake once again for another child to find. After the feast, Alf retired and left the village; and Smith returned to his forge to teach his craft to his now-grown son.