Smith of Wootton Major

This collection includes two of Tolkien’s best fairy stories. The world of Faery is the setting for Smith of Wootton Major. The preparation of Great Cake to mark the Feast of Good Children was a human, cheerful occasion, but other less material powers were at work and the world of man and of Faery met and blended in a strange, haunting union.

Leaf by Niggle is an apt and beautiful illustration of Tolkien’s theory that fairy stories about the Faery have either own literary value and should not be seen either as academic exercises or as stories written specifically for children.