Editing Smith of Wootton Major (section)

=== Visit to Faërie ===

Flieger opposes viewing ''Smith of Wootton Major'' as an allegory, instead seeking comparisons with Tolkien's other fantasies.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=309–319 "On the Cold Hill's Side"}}<ref name="Flieger Shippey 2001">{{cite journal |last1=Flieger |first1=Verlyn |author1-link=Verlyn Flieger |last2=Shippey |first2=Tom |author2-link=Tom Shippey |title=Allegory Versus Bounce: Tolkien's 'Smith of Wootton Major' |journal=[[Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts]] |volume=12 |issue=2 (46) |year=2001 |pages=186–200 |jstor=43308514}}</ref> She argues that the story had sufficient "bounce" that no allegorical explanation was necessary, and indeed that such explanation detracts from the story of travels in the land of "Faery" and the element of mystery.<ref name="Flieger Shippey 2001"/> She likens the "first Cook" to a whole series of "Tolkien's far-traveled characters", namely [[The Notion Club Papers#Time travel|Alboin Errol]], [[The Notion Club Papers#Structure and plot|Edwin Lowdham]], [[Frodo Baggins]], [[Eärendil and Elwing|Eärendil]], [[Ælfwine]]-Eriol "and of course Tolkien himself—all the Elf-friends."<ref name="Flieger 2001"/> <!--David Doughan also opposes the allegory view-->

Further, Flieger sees "thematic connections" between the story and the "dark power and ... echoes of a past too deep to forget" of his poem "[[The Sea-Bell]]" (1962, with a history going back to his 1934 "Looney"). The two works share a distinctive feature: a "prohibition against the return to Faërie."<ref name="Flieger 2001"/> She states, however, that the two works describe the prohibition in differing moods and at different times. "The Sea-Bell" was written at the beginning of Tolkien's career, "cry[ing] for lost beauty"; ''Smith of Wootton Major'' almost at its end, "an autumnal acceptance of things as they are".<ref name="Flieger 2001"/> She comments, too, that "The Sea-Bell" could be a "corrective" reply to [[J. M. Barrie]]'s 1920 play ''[[Mary Rose (play)|Mary Rose]]''; and that ''Smith of Wootton Major'' could then be a reply, much later, to his own poem.<ref name="Flieger 2001"/> Whether or not that was the intention, she writes, Tolkien sought to "create a true fairy-tale quality without the use of a traditional fairy-tale plot."<ref name="Flieger 2001"/>