Smith of Wootton Major

“The book has a haunting quality, characteristic of the best of the ‘deeper’ folktales. It is a beautiful, memorable story.” Times Educational Supplement

“It may be compared to the most delicate miniature but it is one of a rare kind: the more closely it is examined the more it reveals the grandeur of its conception. Whoever reads it at eight will still be going back to it at eighty.” New Statesman

“A tremendously valuable volume with important new insights into Tolkien’s way of working. It’s also a beautiful hardcover edition of the story.” Mythprint

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over 60 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.

Verlyn Flieger, Ph. D. is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Maryland specializing in myth studies and comparative mythology. She teaches a sequence of graduate and undergraduate myth courses that offer Celtic, Arthurian, Hindu, Native American, and Norse myth. Concentrating on modern fantasy with a special focus on the works of JRR Tolkien, Professor Flieger’s publications include Question of Time: JRR Tolkien’s Road to Faerie, the winner of the 1998 Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Studies; Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien’s World; Tolkien’s Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth co-edited with Carl Hostetter and winner of the 2002 Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Studies; and her fictional works Pig Tale and The Doom of Camelot: “Avilion: A Romance of Voices.” Professor Flieger is co-editor with Douglas A. Anderson and Michael Drout of Tolkien Studies, a yearly journal devoted to scholarly examination of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien.