Farmer Giles of Ham

This is the funniest short story I have ever read.

"Farmer Giles of Ham" was written by JRR Tolkien in 1937, and was first published in 1949. It's set in Ham, a small village in England - sometime after the arrival of the Romans, but before Arthur's time. The book was originally illustrated by Pauline Baynes, who also illustrated CS Lewis' Narnia books. Giles in married to Agatha, has a dog called Garm and is fond of his ale. Nothing of note had happened in Ham for a long time, something that Giles was perfectly happy about - neither Giles, nor his dog had ever given any thought to life beyond their borders. Unfortunately , there is a troublesome giant living nearby. He doesn't appear to be a deliberately malicious sort - but he is larger and ruder than most of his fellow giants, as well as being short-sighted and deaf. Unsurprisingly, he manages to cause a lot of - quite possibly inadvertent - damage when he goes out for a walk. One day, he gets lost when he goes out for a walk and finds himself in Ham - a trip that sees him accidentally squashing Giles' favourite cow, Galathea. The giant is first spotted by Garm, who naturally runs off to tell his master all about it. (Although somewhat lacking in courage, Garm can apparently talk). Giles luckily has a blunderbuss, a top-of-the-range weapon for the time - he loads it up and manages to shoot the giant in the face. It doesn't do the thick-skinned giant any great damage, but - thinking he's stumbled across an unhealthy area and that he's been stung by a nasty dragonfly - turns around and leaves. Giles as a result becomes a bit of a celebrity and - when the King hears of it - he receives a regal letter, a belt and what turns out to be a very famous sword called Tailbiter. Initially, Giles enjoys his fame - though it later comes to rue it a little. Nevertheless, the sword comes in useful when a dragon called Chrysophylax arrives. The dragon's arrival had, in part, been caused by the giant's tales of the easy pickings there were in Ham. A hard winter led to a lot of hungry dragons...and Chrysophylax becomes hungry enough to put the stories to the test. With the King's Knights coming up with one excuse after another, the villagers inevitably look towards Giles... A short and easily read book - it's one, I think, that will appeal to more than just the Middle-Earth fans.

Long ago, in the lands of the Little Kingdom, there lived a farmer by the name of Aegidius Ahenobarbus Julius Agricola de Hammo - or in the vulgar form, Farmer Giles of Ham. A no-nonsense man was Farmer Giles, and when someone steps onto his property, he is there to meet him with his blunderbuss. However, when the next person to set foot on his property is a giant, Farmer Giles soon finds himself dealing with kings and knights and legendary swords and, worst of all, dragons! I have long been familiar with J.R.R. Tolkein's famous books - The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings - but, this cute little book shows that just about everything that he put his hand to he did beautifully! This is a most wonderful little book, one that is sure to entertain any lover of good fantasy literature. I loved this book, and highly recommend it!

This can be appreciated by both children and adults. The story itself, children will delight in. JRRT's bilingual puns will delight the more educated adults. (When the Blacksmith says that the Feast of Sts. Hilarius and Felix was an 'unlucky' day, for example; for those who don't know Latin, 'hilarius' means 'funny' and 'felix' means 'happy.) Through all the laughter, JRRT does make some serious points. In his definition of 'blunderbuss' (lifted from the OED, of which he was a compiler) it says that a blunderbuss has been 'superceded in civilized countries by more sophisticated firearms.' JRRT immediately points out that, as Farmer Giles' country had not yet been civilized, the blunderbuss was the only kind of gun around, and was fairly rare at that. This is a dig, of course, at those who would access how 'advanced' a society is by its technology, particularly weaponry. The fashion-conscious knights, the learned parson, and the young dragons who thought (and are now sure) that knights are 'mythical' also provide subtle commentary which children will not get, but adults will. Another major theme is that of the ordinary man, living a quiet, comfortable life, who is forced into an extraordinary situation in which his eyes are opened to a larger world--some of it beautiful, some of it horrible--beyond the borders of his snug, smug little corner of it, and who finds out that he's a lot braver, and a lot cleverer than anyone (including himself!) thinks he is. This is the central theme of 'The Hobbit', and is told in a slighter form here. One is tempted to speculate that JRRT's experience in WW I may have had something to do with his attraction to this theme, for in that conflict he was a junior infantry officer in the British Army, in which he found himself, and his fellow soldiers, ordinary young Englishmen--mill workers, farmers, schoolteachers, college students, etc.--found themselves doing things that they never would have thought they ever could or would do. Some of them very brave things, some of them very clever things, and many of them horrible things.

Those expecting something like The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings may be disappointed, for this is nothing like it - both short and wryly funny. (And if you don't catch the references and jokes at once, the editors provide a sizable glossary at the back). I could have done without the wordy introduction, but considering the attention garnered by the films lately, it's understandable. The text is presented in facsilmile, something I like very much - a good book benefits from a few nice pictures, and the ones here are simply and beautifully drawn, including two color plates. This also includes a first draft, and Tolkien's outline for a sequel, which make for interesting comparisons.

New editions of J.R.R. Tolkien classics return these fine presentations to new generations of readers. Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond edit Farmer Giles Of Ham, an amusing tale of another England where giants and dragons live and a farmer proves an unlikely hero.