Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal. He had returned sooner than was expected, but none too soon for those that awaited him. ‘Daddy!’ she cried. ‘Where have you been? Your star is shining bright!’”

a b c d e f g h Long, Josh B. (2021). "Faery, Faith, and Self-Portrayal: An Allegorical Interpretation of Smith of Wootton Major". Tolkien Studies. 18: 1–38. doi: 10.1353/tks.2021.0007. Because of the star upon his forehead Smith had access to the land of Faery. He went there when he could as a learner and explorer. Smith journeyed far and saw the Sea of Windless Storm, the King's Tree, the Outer and Inner Mountains, and the Vale of Evermorn where he was allowed to dance with the Elven maidens. One of the Elven maidens and the Queen of Faery called Smith " Starbrow" for the star they plainly saw upon his forehead. Brutal Honesty: Alf is diplomatic with Nokes during his apprenticeship, but after Nokes retires he tells him what a vain, lazy bastard he thinks he actually is. a b Flieger, Verlyn; Shippey, Tom (2001). "Allegory Versus Bounce: Tolkien's 'Smith of Wootton Major' ". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 12 (2 (46)): 186–200. JSTOR 43308514.

Tropes included in the tale:

He stood before her, and he did not kneel in courtesy, for he was dismayed and felt that for one so lowly all gestures were in vain.” 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. The Road to Middle-earth · The Keys of Middle-earth · The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion · This tale is magical and enchanting but for me it seemed incomplete. Well, a little unresolved. A young boy gets to enter the wonderful world of Fay; he is chosen especially for it, but when he gets there he doesn’t do a great deal. I mean, talk about a wasted opportunity! I would have done so much more over there. 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).

Smith of Wootton Major was the unplanned by-product of J.R.R. Tolkien’s attempt to write an introduction for a new edition of the Scottish writer George MacDonald’s short story, The Golden Key. Re-reading the story however, he found himself out of sympathy with what he felt was MacDonald’s preachy treatment of fairies and fairy story. 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”.This is the Realm that Tolkien called variously Fayery or Faërie or Faery – the spelling varied, but not the meaning – and which, he maintained, holds within it: ‘the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and … mortal men, when [they] are enchanted’. He might have been describing his own last story, which is not about the Faery realm, but about Smith’s experiences while he is there. He is precisely a ‘mortal man’ who is ‘enchanted’ by the power of the fay star on his forehead. 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. Alf, 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. The Cook let Smith decide who would receive the star the next, and Smith chose a boy named Tim. At the Feast Smith saw Tim swallow his piece of cake, and noticed how the boy changed – became merrier and radiant. Thus, the journey of the star and its new owner began. Update this section! Long presents his own religious interpretation, likening the story's Faery Queen to the Virgin Mary, with the lilies "near the lawn" as her symbol; Alf as Christ; the Great Cake perhaps as a Twelfth-cake for Epiphany; Nokes as a fool or "a kind of anti-Tolkien"; Smith, a " lay Christian". [9]

Acid Reflux Nightmare: Nokes dismisses his meeting with the Faery King as this, which ironically grants his wish of becoming thinner, since he's afraid to eat anything that might bring a recurrence. Although the author himself called Smith of Wootton Major‘an old man’s book, already weighted with the presage of bereavement’, the story has much more to offer its readers than J.R.R. Tolkien’s farewell to his art. It follows admirably the criteria he established for fairy tales in his important essay On Fairy-stories, perhaps his clearest statement of the principles that informed his creativity. Here he reminded readers that while fairy stories are stories about ‘the realm or state in which fairies have their being’, they are not primarily concerned with fairies, but with ‘the aventures of men in the Perilous Realm or upon its shadowy marches’. The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays · Beowulf and the Critics · Tolkien On Fairy-stories · Anyway, I'm keeping this one brief; they were entertaining charming tales. There was a bit of a moralistic tinge to them like traditional folktales but also that whimsical charm we all love. I can see the more general influence he inherited from the tradition of fantasy (folktales) and his influence on future authors like Le Guin or Gaiman. Illustrations were golden. In addition, Long sees Shippey's identification of birch and oak with philology and criticism as correct, but differs about what Tolkien wanted to say here. In Long's view, the birch "represents the sharp critique of most of his philological colleagues who supposed that Tolkien had squandered years of his life on a worthless piece of fantasy literature—a place he didn’t belong, or so they thought." In other words, he writes, the dispute was inside the philological community; far from fighting literary criticism, Tolkien had done much to heal the split between the critics and the philologists at Oxford. [9] Visit to Faërie [ edit ]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. The Fair Folk: The Land of Faery is dangerous even to Smith; at one point when he ventures into forbidden territory a storm drives him out. However, the elves that he meets are basically benign. Faery is a made up magical country, which only a person who possesses faystar, may visit. Smith is the one. “ Some of his briefer visits he spent looking only at one tree or one flower”, but with his interest growing, he continued going there, and each time went far and far. In longer journeys he had seen things of “ both beauty and terror that he could not clearly remember nor report to his friends, though he knew that they dwelt deep in his heart”. Fabbro, come dicevamo, rappresenta forse lo stesso Tolkien nell'atto di ritirarsi da Faerie, cioè dai reami della sua immaginazione, e di lasciare la sua pietra scintillante perché qualcun altro possa riceverla.