Smith of Wootton Major
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Smith of Wootton Major, first published in 1967, is a novella by J. R. R. Tolkien. It tells the tale of a Great Cake, baked for the once in twenty-four year Feast of Good Children. The Master Cook, No
First edition front cover; the illustration extends over the spine to the back cover.
Black and white illustration, as requested by Tolkien, by Pauline Baynes of Smith and his family for the first edition, 1967.
Josh B. Long likens the Faery Queen with lilies to the Virgin Mary. Glazed terracotta plaque The Virgin of the Lilies, Della Robbia family workshop, 16th century
Leaf by Niggle
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"Leaf by Niggle" is a short story written by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1938–39 and first published in the Dublin Review in January 1945. It was reprinted in Tolkien's book Tree and Leaf, and in several late
Smith of Wootton Major
…this first idea into the published version. The story was republished in 2021 together with Farmer Giles of Ham, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and "Leaf by Niggle" as Tales from the Perilous Realm. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that "defeat hangs heavy" in the story, while Tolkien called it "an old man's…
"Leaf by Niggle" matches the structure of Dante's Purgatorio, and fits Dante's romantic theology. Here, Dante looks longingly at Beatrice (centre) as she strolls by the River Arno. Dante and Beatrice, by Henry Holiday, 1883