Themes
T. A. Shippey, in The Road to Middle-earth says that "defeat hangs heavy" in the story. Tolkien called it "an old man's book", with presage of bereavement. Renunciation is certainly a major theme, but so is an appreciation of imaginative vision, as against the philistine outlook represented by the old cook Nokes, a shallow, sly and lazy man. Nokes is foremost among the non-believers, and dismisses all things magical as mere dreams and fancies. In the end he has a frightening encounter with the King of Faery, but even this leaves him basically unchanged in outlook.
Shippey also suggests that, while Tolkien discouraged reading this story as allegory, a good case can be made that Nokes represents the literary, critical approach to studying English, belittling the contributions of the philological approach represented by the previous Master Cook. On this reading, the little star trinket added by Alf, the old Master's apprentice, turns into the talisman that cuts through Nokes's sweet, sticky nonsense and raises the smith's life from the ordinary to something deeply meaningful.
Read more about this topic: Smith Of Wootton Major
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
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“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
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