Smith of Wootton Major
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"Smith of Wootton Major", first published in 1967, is a short story by J. R. R. Tolkien. The book is intended to explain the meaning of Faery by means of a brief story about a cook and his cake. The story is about a boy who gets a fay-star in a slice of cake from the Master Cook during the Twenty-Four Feast, and explores Faery until it is time to hand on the fay-star.
The book was originally called "The Great Cake", but the title was changed to "Smith of Wootton Major" in an attempt to suggest an early work by P.G. Wodehouse.
The story was first published in the Christmas edition of "Redbook" magazine, New York on # 23 November 1967 but without the illustrations by Pauline Baynes that appeared in the published book.
It is sometimes published in an omnibus edition with "Farmer Giles of Ham", another Tolkien novella with illustrations by Pauline Baynes.
It is not directly connected to the Middle-earth legendarium, although both Faery and Valinor are lands outside of the normal world and they may be one and the same.