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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
Given that the King of Fairie in Smith is a prentice chef who excels at baking fancy cakes, and that the original name of the story was The Great Cake, the eating of which provides an opportunity for a chosen one to enter the realm of fairie unscathed, I suspect that Tolkien would not have looked askance at the 'spun candy' attribution.   |
Oh, but the sugar icing on the cake was symbolic for making Faery childish and overly sweet - Alf Prentice wasn't enthusiastic about it. And the story's change of name goes hand in hand with Tolkien's change in the focus of the tale. The cake was no longer the "main character" or "hero" of the story! I suspect that Moorcock and Pullman would side more with the inadequate cook, Nokes, than with Alf Prentice, the King of Faery...
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth..
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