Tree and Leaf ; Smith of Wootton Major ; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son [Paperback]

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin (October 30, 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0048200158
• ISBN-13: 978-0048200150
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,046,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892.1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but even as he studied these classics he was creating a set of his own.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lesser known works are just as valid as the rest, September 15, 2004

By 

azog - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Tree and Leaf ; Smith of Wootton Major ; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son (Paperback)

First, this edition is out of print, but if you can find it, that would be good. This book contains one essay and three stories. You can find these writings in other books or collections, but it's still handy to have them in one edition. I got my copy by using an out-of-print specialist.

Also, this has no bearing or relation to the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, for which some readers may be disappointed. The author has many other works besides the Lord of the Rings. Like most well-known artists, they're remembered for their masterpeices, while the lesser-known works are neglected.

The essay is a discussion of "fairy tales", and gives insight into Tolkien's concept of a "fairy tale", which are not the sugary-sweet, rot-your-mind tales we often imagine when we hear the phrase "fairy tale".

The two following stories elaborate on that concept:

"Tree and Leaf" is a character study in a "little" man who is suprised how his insigificant work turns into something more than he could have imagined.

"Smith of Wootton Major" is a story of a man who was privilaged to visit the "perilous realms".

The last story, "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth" also reveals the authors general focus of interest - Anglo-Saxon languages, poetry, etc.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is not the Hobbit!, December 30, 2001

By 

Mr. Adrian P. Moss "adrianherts" (Herts, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tree and Leaf ; Smith of Wootton Major ; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son (Paperback)

This is a collection of some fine work by Tolkien, a mixture of of work on his ideas on fairy tales and how they develop (Tree and Leaf, Smith of Wootton Major) and his important translation of the Old English poem fragment, "The Homecoming Beorthnoth, Beorthelm's Son".

Students of OE might want it just for and the fact that it complements the OE poem "Battle of Maldon" (where Beorhtnoth was the leader of the defending Anglo-Saxon forces, being slain in the process and leading to his "homecoming".

If you go looking for the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings II, you will be disappointed.

9 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Despite Breathtaking Title, At Least Some Is Worth Reading, December 24, 2001

By 

Ronald J. Slamp (Vancouver, Washington, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tree and Leaf ; Smith of Wootton Major ; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son (Paperback)

I read THE HOBBIT, THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE TWO TOWERS, and THE RETURN OF THE KING. I even read BORED OF THE RINGS, a parody by Harvard Lampoon Staff, to get my mind back as it was so easy to get caught up in the huge popularity of these books. People I knew, otherwise sane people were spelling their dog's name in runes for the love of Pete.

But ready to read on and find the ancient truth according to J.R.R., I bought the latest release from the late Tolkien, a collection of short stories and poems by the master and dived in. Eventually I came out of my reverie enough to realize I had read a book with the breathtaking title: TREE AND LEAF ; SMITH OF WOOTON MAJOR ; THE HOMECOMING OF BEORHTNOTH, BEORHTHELM'S SON, I also realized that I had gone too far and that was as far as I was going. There was a big clue here that I was caught up in Tolkienmania.

The one story I really enjoyed was the touching tale, TREE AND LEAF. I often think of Leaf by Niggel and the point made that we find our own importance in the details we take care of and how much care we take in them. This was from the sensitive side of Tolkien that in HOBBIT and THE TRILOGY made the descriptions of the Hobbits and other good guys and the dynamics between them so compelling. The comradery and rejoicing in and uplifting of each other gave them the strength to carry on the fight. Well here's little Niggel, thinks he's not important until the praise of another brings his true worth, just how he is needed, into focus. This is so valid in these days of superstars which most of us aren't. In a way the media tells up we've failed if we're not on the cover of TIME. Well it's BS that everyone gets 15 minutes. And if you do get 15 minutes look out; it could turn out to be 15 minutes of infamy and that's never forgotten, true or not.

As for the rest of the book, it was a grab for the gold; one of the many thrown-together, half-finished shorts medleys touted as J.R.R. Tolkien, "before Middle Earth" but should have been "before the big bucks" or "even if he's dead, we're gonna make some bread". I'm not sure but I think this was the first of this genre. The book, mercifully, went out of print soon after it was printed (never went to paperback) and the price for a used copy now starts at, well, much more than it cost new! I wish I?d have bought every copy I could find but who could guess such a mediocre olio would go up in price.

Oh, I went back on my decision to stop supporting the machine that was publishing what Tolkien chose not to publish while alive when I was loaned a copy of THE SIMARILLION in the mid-seventies. I read about half of it and decided I had better reads on the shelf.

Yes I'm going to see the movie. I saw the huge failure of a movie in the seventies. I'm considering spending the time to reread HOBBIT and THE TRILOGY to refresh my memory so I can properly appreciate, or trash, the new film.