Farmer Giles of Ham is a short story about a middle country, Ham had the crisis of the dragon was approaching Ham and caused drastically turmoils to the people who lived in Ham; our hero, Giles and his royal companion, Garm which is a dog, rescued the town and became heroes.

the Dragon, Chrysophylax as a villain in this book is more a comical plot-device than an impending threat to the hero, Giles who is a farmer not a knight, he would rather take the treasures from dragons than kill them as a gallant champion. Haggling and negotiating are better to treat a mistrusted dragon.

This is a fun book without multitudinous details as the Middle Earth books.

... Or as the subtitle has it: "The Rise and Wonderful Adventures of Farmer Giles, Lord of Tame, Count of Worminghall and King of the Little Kingdom"

A fun adventure that turns out to be an elaborate in-joke about some English place names. This is one of my favorite novellas. It is a hoot.

Farmer Giles of the Thames Valley becomes famous for fighting a giant. The king rewards him with a sword, Caudimordax or Tailbiter, that turns out to have a magical property: it cannot be sheathed when within five miles of a dragon. Guess what happens next? Of course he meets a dragon…

Like The Hobbit this story started out as one that J.R.R. Tolkien, told to his children. He worked on it over about twenty years until it was published in 1949. This novella is illustrated by Pauline Baynes with annotations by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond.

My favorite quote:
The dragons pricked up their ears. They were hungry, and these rumours were attractive. `So knights are mythical!' said the younger and less experienced dragons. `We always thought so.'

`At least they may be getting rare,' thought the older and wiser worms; `far and few and no longer to be feared.'

This review was written before I started my blog, but I am posting it for the 7th Annual Tolkien Blog Party, hosted by Hamlette at The Edge of the Precipice.

This is a great little tale full of bravery, heroism and Tolkien’s ever so subtle humour.

Farmer Giles saves his farm and, as a consequence, the local village from a rampaging giant. This earns him a fierce reputation for heroism; thus, he is rewarded by the King with a rather glamourous sword. The King, believing this to be a mere ceremonial weapon, parts with the blade gladly. It turns out that the sword is actually Tailbiter, an ancient weapon that carries a powerful enchantment. Indeed, it cannot physically be sheathed when in close proximity to a dragon.

Can you guess what happens next?

A dragon appears! Bet you didn’t see that coming. He attacks the surrounding villages and there is little anyone can do to stop him. Naturally Farmer Giles is called upon for help, though he is very reluctant. He is old and who actually wants to fight dragons? His only act of heroism was defence of his own land, this is a different situation. He fears he may not be up to the task. But nonetheless due to the constant pestering of the villages, he resolves himself and hunts down the dragon. He opts to take a more tactical approach that the strutting knights of the realm:

“Well,” said Giles,” if it is you notion to go dragon hunting jingling and dinging like Canterbury Bells it ain’t mine. It don’t seem sense to me to let a dragon to let a dragon know that you are coming along the road sooner than need be.”



Giles has an interesting way of dealing with his problems. Instead of taking the predicted direction, the hack and slash route, he chooses a more careful approach. This in its self is a much more logical solution and leaves the tale going into unexpected directions. Instead of slaying the dragon he makes a deal with him and after forcing the dragon to complete his end of the bargain, they become unlikely friends. The dragon is bound to his service out of a respect for Giles and a fear of his sword. Trouble strikes when the King of the realm hears of the treasure Giles has taken for himself. He wants it for the crown, but why should Giles give his hard earned treasure away? He’s now friends with a dragon. Not much the King can do.

So this was a fun tale; it’s definitely aimed at a younger audience, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The ending was great, I do wish Tolkien has picked a more orginal name though for his hero.

Ham'li Çiftçi Giles kahramana benzemeyen göbekli, kızıl sakallı bir çiftçidir. Bir gün farkında olmadan köylerine dadanan devi korkutmasıyla ünlendi ve şöhret sahibi oldu. Fakat kurnaz bir ejderha olan Chrysoplax krallığın başına bela olunca dövüşmesi için Kral, Giles'i çağırır.
Tolkien'in kitaplarını çok seviyorum hele ki bu minik kutunun içerisindeki kitapları sarıp sarmalamak istiyorum. Çok tatlılar

A hungry dragon, a near-sighted giant, foppish knights, a greedy king and stolen treasure. All confront Farmer Giles to give much thought to the Wide World outside his fields, the village, and the nearest market.

The Wide World and the Giant
But the Wide World was there. The forest was not far off, and away west and north were the Wild Hills, and the dubious marches of the mountain-country. And among other things still at large there were giants: rude and uncultured folk, and troublesome at times. There was one giant in particular, larger and more stupid than his fellows.  He was very large, his walking-stick was like a tree, and his tread was heavy. He brushed elms aside like tall grasses; and he was the ruin of roads and the desolation of gardens, for his great feet made holes in them as deep as wells; if he stumbled into a house, that was the end of it. And all this damage he did wherever he went, for his head was far above the roofs of houses and left his feet to look after themselves. He was near-sighted and also rather deaf. He used to go out walking in the Wild Hills and in the empty regions at the feet of the mountains, all by himself.

His faithful dog
Farmer Giles had a dog. The dog's name was Garm. Dogs had to be content with short names in the vernacular: the Book-Latin was reserved for their betters. Garm could not talk even dog-Latin; but he could use the vulgar tongue (as could most dogs of his day) either to bully or to brag or to wheedle in. Bullying was for beggars and trespassers, bragging for other dogs, and wheedling for his master. Garm was both proud and afraid of Giles, who could bully and brag better than he could.

The night that Garm meets the giant
`There's a giant in your fields, an enormous giant; and he's coming this way,' said the dog. `Help! help! He is trampling on your sheep. He has stamped on poor Galathea, and she's as flat as a doormat. Help! help! He's bursting all your hedges, and he's crushing all your crops. You must be bold and quick, master, or you will soon have nothing left. Help!' Garm began to howl.

The blunderbuss
Farmer Giles's blunderbuss had a wide mouth that opened like a horn, and it did not fire balls or slugs, but anything that he could spare to stuff in.

. . .

The giant's face appeared, pale in the moonlight, which glittered in his large round eyes. His feet were still far below, making holes in the fields. The moon dazzled the giant and he did not see the farmer; but Farmer Giles saw him and was scared out of his wits. He pulled the trigger without thinking, and the blunderbuss went off with a staggering bang. By luck it was pointed more or less at the giant's large ugly face. Out flew the rubbish, and the stones and the bones, and the bits of crock and wire, and half a dozen nails. And since the range was indeed limited, by chance and no choice of the farmer's many of these things struck the giant: a piece of pot went in his eye, and a large nail stuck in his nose.

`Blast!' said the giant in his vulgar fashion. `I'm stung!' The noise had made no impression on him (he was rather deaf), but he did not like the nail. It was a long time since he had met any insect fierce enough to pierce his thick skin; but he had heard tell that away East, in the Fens, there were dragonflies that could bite like hot pincers. He thought that he must have run into something of the kind.

`Nasty unhealthy parts, evidently,' said he. `I shan't go any further this way tonight'

So he picked up a couple of sheep off the hill-side, to eat when he got home, and went back over the river, making off about nor-nor-west at a great pace. He found his way home again in the end.

The growing fame of Farmer Giles
Next day he found that the news had grown in the telling, and he had become an important local figure. By the middle of the next week the news had spread to all the villages within twenty miles. He had become the Hero of the Countryside. Very pleasant he found it. Next market day he got enough free drink to float a boat: that is to say, he nearly had his fill, and came home singing old heroic songs.

The king's letter and sword
The King sent a magnificent letter.
But better than the testimonial was the accompanying gift. The King sent a belt and a long sword. To tell the truth the King had never used the sword himself. It belonged to the family and had been hanging in his armoury time out of mind. The armourer could not say how it came there, or what might be the use of it. Plain heavy swords of that kind were, out of fashion at court, just then, so the King thought it the very thing for a present to a rustic. But Farmer Giles was delighted, and his local reputation became enormous.

All's well that ends well - but has it?
Giles much enjoyed the turn of events. So did his dog. He never got his promised whipping. Giles was a just man according to his lights; in his heart he gave a fair share of the credit to Garm, though he never went so far as to mention it. He continued to throw hard words and hard things at the dog when he felt inclined, but he winked at many little outings. Garm took to walking far afield. The farmer went about with a high step, and luck smiled on him. The autumn and early winter work went well. All seemed set fair – until the dragon came.

Hungry dragons in the Wild Hills hear of the good eating at Farmer Giles village
The warm summer was followed by a hard winter. It was bitter cold in the mountains and food was scarce.

The talk got louder. Lowland sheep and lone from the deep pastures were much discussed. The dragons pricked up their ears. They were hungry, and these rumours were attractive. `So knights are mythical!' said the younger and less experienced dragons. `We always thought so.'

`At least they may be getting rare,' thought the older and wiser worms; `far and few and no longer to be feared.'


Now Farmer Giles would face pressure to defeat the dragon, capture the treasure and resist the greedy king. Armed with a magic sword, his faithful dog and gentle mare he goes out into the Wide World and changes history.


Enjoy!

A perfectly short and satirical medieval fantasy that I just gobbled up. There will never be a work of Tolkien that I dislike. Farmer Giles of Ham is a well crafted, mythological tale with hobbit-ish heart at its centre. Think of green open fields and kindly country folk, and there you have Tolkien’s unmistakable British charm.
A heroic farmer, having slain a giant by rather dumb luck, meets a stubbornly Dragon who refuses to give back a hoard of stolen treasure. All hopes are pinned on Giles to defeat the imperial Chrysophylax, however the pair are bound together in a short flight of adventure. It’s so light and fun to read, with a dose of cosiness too

Uproariously funny! Not to be missed!

Quite lovely!

Besides his writings in the Middle Earth universe, Tolkien wrote a great deal of diverse writings, including this enjoyable fantasy tale that began as a tale for his children and became a short fantasy novella that explored the relationship between man and beast as well as the theme of reluctant heroism that would resonate with Tolkien's work as a whole.  While this book is definitely one of the more obscure works within Tolkien's oeuvre as a whole, that does not make this a less than enjoyable work that began somewhat modestly and then became far more complex as Tolkien reworked a more straightforward tale of a hero of commoner background and a giant and then a dragon into a far more complex tale which even included the possibility of a sequel that Tolkien outlined briefly but never ended up writing.  Whether or not the world would have been ready for a Farmer Giles universe in an alternate universe of medieval England, this particular book on its own is certainly enjoyable enough for what it reveals about Tolkien's writing process and the enjoyable results of turning literature for children into something that is far deeper than one would initially expect.

This particular novella is about 100 pages or so and it consists of three parts.  The first, and largest part, consists of the completed copy of the eponymous novella.  And this book is deeply interesting in that it begins with an aspect of domestic annoyance, where Farmer Giles, annoyed by his cowardly dog Garm, goes out and fills his anachronistic blunderbuss with some fireworks gunpowder and chases away a giant that stomped on one of his cows.  After this Farmer Giles is awarded the knighthood by a grateful king and develops a (somewhat undeserved) reputation for heroism that leads the giant to play a trick on a dragon named Chrysophylax and encourage that dragon to settle in the land where he found such an unwelcome place himself.  The results of that choice lead to further conflict and further opportunities for heroism that end up making Farmer Giles a far more important person than he had realized before.  The second part of the book consists of the far simpler and less detailed initial story that Tolkien had amused his children with, which is still an enjoyable story even so.  Third and most briefly there is a brief series of notes that Tolkien had written concerning an abortive sequel to the story that dealt with the heroism of Giles' son, who succeeded him in the kingship of the small area near Oxford where the story takes place.

There are at least a few worthy aspects that this short book provides.  For one, it provides evidence that when Tolkien turned his mind and attention to any story that it ended up having mythic overtones of considerable depth, involving linguistic jokes and references to nonexistent lore and mythos far beyond the story itself.  Likewise, the story itself is a reference to the essentially egalitarian ethos of Tolkien in that he made his hero a simple farmer with a cringing and whiny mongrel dog rather than a more obvious hero.  Then again, considering the way that modest and unassuming halflings were among the most important heroes of his Middle Earth universe, this is not too surprising, although it is illustrative.  The book is also a helpful reminder that the struggle against evil and darkness is such that it often removes us from what we would rather be doing and sometimes draws out heroism within ourselves that we and others may not readily see within us.  Even a simple farmer with an unimpressive dog can end up defeating a giant and a dragon, protecting his neighbors, and becoming a ruler through his glorious deeds.

A great Tolkien tale set sometime before the rise of King Arthur in Britain; Giles is an unassuming farmer who wards off a Welsh giant with his (anachronistic) blunderbuss. With this, his luck begins as a farmer-made-hero, taking him on a journey to glory and dragon riches. Everyone knows a parson, miller, and blacksmith like those portrayed in Ham. And kudos to Garm the dog who's just trying to get by!

Una deliciosa fábula de la que uno se ha de cansar, acerca de los peligros y problemas de la ambición, y de cómo muchas veces el sentido común puede más que la épica de las historias que uno se cuenta.

Egidio es un granjero en una aldea de una mítica Britania del pasado. Un día, debido a una casualidad, el granjero ahuyenta a un gigante. Así que cuando un dragón aparece por las tierras de Ham, es a él al que le endosan la labor de librarse de él. Egidio y su perrete tendrán que lidiar con un enemigo astuto y cruel, y luego con un rey que viene a apuntarse el tanto.

Tolkien era un maestro de la narración tradicional, y aquí de nuevo muestra su dominio de la forma. Del mismo modo que El Silmarillion y El Señor de los Anillos emulan magníficamente las sagas de antaño, este es un cuento de hadas que podrían haber creado en la Edad Media. Leerlo por las noches a mi hija es de lo mejor que he podido hacer.

Ένα όμορφο παραμύθι γραμμένο από τον άνθρωπο όπου έκανε τα παραμύθια ιστορία!
Μην περιμένετε πολλά από δω, αλλά για αυτό που είναι αξίζει.