Farmer Giles of Ham

by J.R.R. Tolkien, Pauline Baynes, Christina Scull, Wayne G. Hammond

224 pages

English language

Published Jan. 1, 2014 by HarperCollins Publishers Limited.

ISBN:: 978-0-00-754293-2

(7 reviews)

Farmer Giles of Ham is a comic medieval fable written by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1937 and published in 1949. The story describes the encounters between Farmer Giles and a wily dragon named Chrysophylax, and how Giles manages to use these to rise from humble beginnings to rival the king of the land. It is cheerfully anachronistic and light-hearted, set in Britain in an imaginary period of the Dark Ages, and featuring mythical creatures, medieval knights, and primitive firearms. It is only tangentially connected with the author's Middle-earth legendarium: both were originally intended as essays in "English mythology". The book was originally illustrated by Pauline Baynes. The story has appeared with other works by Tolkien in omnibus editions, including The Tolkien Reader and Tales from the Perilous Realm. Tolkien dedicated Farmer Giles of Ham to Cyril Hackett Wilkinson (1888–1960), a don he knew at Oxford University.Tolkien gives the reason …

[Farmer Giles of Ham] was, in fact, written to order, to be read to the Lovelace Society at Worcester College; and was read to them at a sitting. For that reason I should like to put an inscription to C. H. Wilkinson on a fly-leaf, since it was Col. Wilkinson of that College who egged me to it ....

6 editions

Jack 💜 reviewed Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien

Review of 'Farmer Giles of Ham' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Coming from the perspective of enjoying "Roverandom", I expected a bit more. One thing that I really enjoyed about Tolkien's other more child-oriented work was its surreal qualities. It might have been written simply, but it had a creative spark that kept the reader relatively surprised throughout.

This book, while written in the same innocent tone, was much less engaging than I wanted it to be. It's an ordinary Hero's Journey with little to no deviation. It may be written well and with some charm, but that gentle Tolkien style can't save the story.

I always try to come at my ratings for these kinds of books with the perspective of the intended age group, but I honestly think that any young person familiar with this type of story would find "Farmer Giles" rather dull.