Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition

I’m going to admit right off the bat that maaaaybe this shouldn’t have been my very first book to read by Tolkien. Being sort-of a cynic about fantasy, I probably had no business picking this up. But it’s such a charming, tiny little book I couldn’t resist! Written a decade or so after Lord of the Rings, this book seems to be an allegorical-ish fable about fairies. I’m not actually sure, but this edition has a helpful forward, afterward and essay to help explain what Tolkien might have meant when he wrote about a boy who accidentally eats a fairy-star which ends up granting him access to the fairy-woods. It feels disjointed and impersonal, lacking magic or mystery that I would expect from a tale about fairies. The most show more fascinating part about Smith of Wootton Major isn’t even the story. It’s the inclusion of Tolkien’s unfinished draft introduction for a friend’s book. In it, he explains how he doesn’t even like introductions:

"The author meant to speak direct to his reader, and did not want any one else to interfere, telling the author to notice this or that, or to understand that or this, before the tale has even begun. You should be free to notice and like (or dislike) this and that for yourselves at first, without help or (very probably) hindrance. So do not pay any attention to me."

K. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ show less

In the village of Wootton Major, The Feast of Good Children is held every twenty-four years. Twenty-four children are invited and the feast ends with an extraordinary Great Cake. During one of these celebrations, a very special ingredient is hidden in the cake. A young boy swallows it, only finding it months later when it makes itself known. It's a star, but not just any star, it's a star that grants him entry to the Land of Faery.

It's a short but lovely story written quite beautifully. It's definitely an adventure even if it shares traits with The Lord of the Rings; there isn't really much happening other than his exploring of the Land of Faery. That's the adventure. Perhaps not exciting but both heart-warming and gut-wrenching as show more it's more or less a metaphor about growing old and losing more and more of that creativity and the colourful imagination. By the end of the story, the man has to give back the star. He can still enter Land of Faery but is unable to discover anything new; he can only visit the parts he's already seen. But even without that metaphor, it's a nice little fantasy story. Not that I was expecting anything less from Tolkien himself. He sure knows how to write a good story. show less