I know I’ve been writing a lot of “something wonderful” posts about books lately. I promise to write about something else in my next post of this sort. But because I associate Smith of Wootton Major with Christmas (I’ll explain why later), this feels like an appropriate time to write about it.
Smith of Wootton Major is essentially a 50-page fairy tale by J.R.R. Tolkien. Those 50 pages include illustrations by Pauline Baynes, best know for her illustrations for The Chronicles of Narnia. As in fairy tales, the characters are not complex and the story is simple. This is not The Hobbit, but I’m a sucker for a good fairy story. If you go in expecting that, you’ll find Tolkien’s tale enchanting.
The story opens with a wintertime feast, The Feast of Good Children, held once every 24 years. The highlight of the feast is the Great Cake, an opportunity for Wootton Major’s Master Cook to show off. Nokes, the village’s Master Cook, is incompetent; he relies heavily on his odd apprentice, Alf. When the time comes for Nokes to make the Great Cake, he decides to top it with a fairy queen, “a tiny white figure on one foot like a snow-maiden dancing.” Alf is clearly displeased with Nokes’ notion of fairies. He’s even more displeased that Nokes won’t take him seriously when he claims a star in the spice box is “from Faery.” The one thing Nokes and Alf agree on is that the star belongs in the cake, along with other trinkets and coins. It is swallowed by a boy, who becomes the eponymous hero.
It is this feast that makes me think of this book every time Christmas rolls around. The children and the cake topped with a balletic fairy queen remind me of The Nutcracker. And just as the Kingdom of Sweets is opened to Clara after she rescues the Nutcracker, the doors of Faery are opened to Smith soon after he swallows the star. He develops the habit of leaving his work and family behind to venture into Faery from time to time. Tolkien gives us tastes of Smith’s dreamlike journeys without ever allowing us to follow him completely.
When he first began to walk far without a guide he thought he would discover the further bounds of the land; but great mountains rose before him, and going by long ways round about them he came at last to a desolate shore. He stood beside the Sea of Windless Storm where the blue waves like snow-clad hills roll silently out of Unlight to the long strand, bearing the white ships that return from battles on the Dark Marches of which men know nothing. He saw a great ship cast high upon the land, and the waters fell back in foam without a sound. The eleven mariners were tall and terrible; their swords shone and their spears glinted and a piercing light was in their eyes. Suddenly they lifted up their voices in a song of triumph, and his heart was shaken with fear, and they passed over him and went away into the echoing hills.
I cannot tell you much more without spoiling the story. There are discoveries and loss and a final conflict between Nokes and Alf. The story won’t have you on the edge of your seat. But it is thoughtful and beautiful, and I love it.
You will often find Smith of Wootton Major paired with another novella, Farmer Giles of Ham. Although the latter book does not enchant me the way the former one does, it is definitely worth reading. It’s very different from The Smith of Wootton Major. A humorous story with a flawed hero, Farmer Giles of Ham doesn’t feel the least bit like a fairy tale. It’s lively and lots of fun, and because of that, you may like it the best of the two stories. As for me, I think it’s an enjoyable read, but it’s Smith of Wootton Major that calls to me every year as Christmas approaches.