 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 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.