First edition front cover; the illustration extends over the spine to the back cover.
Author
J. R. R. Tolkien
Illustrator
Pauline Baynes
Language
English
Genre
Fantasy novella
Publisher
George Allen & Unwin
Publication date
9 November 1967[1]
Publication place
United Kingdom
Media type
Print (hardback & paperback)
Preceded by
The Road Goes Ever On
Followed by
Bilbo's Last Song (posthumous)
Smith of Wootton Major, first published in 1967, is a novella by J. R. R. Tolkien. It tells the tale of a Great Cake, baked for the once in twenty-four year Feast of Good Children. The Master Cook, Nokes, hides some trinkets in the cake for the children to find; one is a star he found in an old spice box. A boy, Smith, swallows the star. On his tenth birthday the star appears on his forehead, and he starts to roam the Land of Faery. After twenty-four years the Feast comes around again, and Smith surrenders the star to Alf, the new Master Cook. Alf bakes the star into a new Great Cake for another child to find.
Scholars have differed on whether the story is an allegory or is, less tightly, capable of various allegorical interpretations; and if so, on what those interpretations might be. Suggestions have included autobiographical allusions such as to Tolkien's profession of philology, and religious interpretations such as that Alf is a figure of Christ. The American scholar Verlyn Flieger sees it instead as a story of Faërie in its own right.
^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.
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