Tolkien Forums

As I was saying here, I will attempt to start a few topics concerning Tolkien's books that might interest readers. I am posting now a review of 'Smith of Wootton Major', the edition put together by Verlyn Flieger (which I consider the best there is - available on Amazon.co.uk).

This book was first published by Allen & Unwin in 1967, in a hardcover edition with illustrations by Pauline Baynes.

 The story talks about the adventures of a man (Smith) in the fabulous land of Faery. The plot is as follows (taken from Wikipedia):

Spoiler

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.

 

 The star was not found at the Feast, but was swallowed by a blacksmiths son. The boy did not feel its magical properties at once, but on the morning of his tenth birthday the star fixed itself on his forehead, and became his passport to Faery. The boy grew up to be a blacksmith like his father, but in his free time he roamed the Land of Faery. The star on his forehead protected him from many of the dangers threatening mortals in that land, and the Folk of Faery called him "Starbrow". The book describes his many travels in Faery, until at last he meets the true Queen of Faery. The identity of the King is also revealed.

 

 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 edition from this review uses a facsimile of the first edition text, complete with the images by Baynes which make the story all the more delightful. Following the story itself is a short but well-written commentary by Verlyn Flieger, placing the story in a larger context. After this come some texts written by Tolkien himself: an explanation on the beginnings of this story, a rather detailed chronology and genealogy of the characters (things which are not detailed in the story itself, but which, once known, add depth to the text) and also an essay with the same name (Smith of Wootton Major), where Tolkien delves into some of the aspects of the tale: allegory, motifs and character typology. This essay also furthers the knowledge of the story and makes the reader more aware of the deeper layers of understanding which 'Smith...' has. After that comes a reproduction of the first extant version of the text, which was originally written by Tolkien both in typescript and then in manuscript. In this section of the book, Flieger treats the issue in a very elegant way, reproducing the facsimile of the original text on the left page and the transcription on the right page.

 There are some disadvantages with the facsimiles in the last section: since Tolkien used A4 sized paper to write them and the book is roughly in A5 size, it means the reproduction comes across rather small and is pretty hard to read; the second part of the text, which is in manuscript, is even more difficult to make out because of this. On the other hand, a close inspection pays off, because the transcription silently incorporates the changes made to the typescript and manuscript, while on the left page you'll be able to see all corrections made by Tolkien himself (if you can read the small type).

 The final section of the book contains notes: these cover in more detail different issues glossed in the main body of the book (such as names which are just mentioned, or themes, or even language). The only disadvantage with these notes is that they are nowhere signalled in the previous text itself. As such, the reader might not be aware that a certain topic has received a more detailed explanation at the end of the book; and the best solution (albeit somewhat inconvenient) is to glance over the notes when beginning to read each new chapter and see if there are any notes for topics in that chapter, and to what pages they are linked.

 In a nutshell, the quality of the book greatly outweighs the drawbacks, and for a person interested to know more about this little jewel in Tolkien's opus, this edition is perhaps the definitive acquisition.

Here are a few photos of the book:

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