Notes
Smith of Wootton Major, a short story by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Published on 9 November 1967.

The text is illustrated throughout by Pauline Baynes.

Details of all British editions of Smith of Wootton Major can be found at TolkienBooks.net.

Publisher’s Promotional Blurb
No, we are not publishing THE SILMARILLION yet! Professor Tolkien is still writing this book and we will let you know when we have a date for its appearance, but on the 9th November we are publishing SMITH OF WOOTTON MAJOR – a mid-winter tale, half homely, half fay. The setting of Tolkien’s new story is the village of Wootton Major, where the office of Master Cook was exalted once in twenty-four years by the preparation of a Great Cake to mark the Feast of Good Children. Although the merry-making over which the Cook presided was human and hearty, other, less material powers were exchanged during the ceremonies, and for some the world of man and the world of faery met and blended in a strange, beneficent conjunction. Pauline Baynes has illustrated this little book, which costs 7s. 6d. net and will be available from your usual retail bookseller. It is an ideal present for a Christmas stocking, or for those who deserve something more than a card.