Editing Farmer Giles of Ham

{{good article}}
{{Short description|Book by J. R. R. Tolkien}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox book 
| name          = Farmer Giles of Ham
| image         = FarmerGilesOfHam.jpg
| image_size = 180px
| caption       = First edition cover
| author        = [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]
| illustrator   = [[Pauline Baynes]]
| cover_artist  = Pauline Baynes
| country       = United Kingdom
| language      = English
| genre         = [[Children's literature]]<br/>[[Fantasy fiction]]
| publisher     = [[George Allen & Unwin]] 
| release_date  = 20 October 1949{{sfn|Hammond|Scull|2006a|p=353}}
| media_type    = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages         = 
| isbn          = 978-0-04-823068-3
| preceded_by_quotation_marks = [[On Fairy-Stories]]
| followed_by   = [[The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son]]
}}

'''''Farmer Giles of Ham''''' is a comic [[Tolkien and the medieval|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 [[western dragon|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 [[Early Middle Ages|Dark Ages]]. It features mythical creatures, medieval knights, and primitive firearms.

Scholars have noted that despite the story's light-hearted nature, reflected in Tolkien's playful use of his professional discipline, [[philology]], it embodies several serious concerns. The setting is quasi-realistic, being the area around [[Oxford]] where Tolkien lived and worked. The story parodies multiple aspects of traditional dragon-slaying tales, and has roots in modern and medieval literature, from Norse myth to [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]]'s ''[[The Faerie Queene]]''. Its concern for the "Little Kingdom" embodies [[Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings|Tolkien's environmentalism]], in particular his well-founded fears for the loss of the countryside of [[Oxfordshire]] and surrounding areas.

== Pseudo-translation from Latin ==

According to Tolkien's Foreword, ''Farmer Giles'' is not an original tale but a translation, from 'very [[Anglo-Latin literature|insular Latin]]', of a compilation of old legends of the Little Kingdom. In token of this, the full subtitle is given as 
{{quote|''Aegidii Ahenobarbi Julii Agricole de Hammo, Domini de Domito, Aule Draconarie Comitis, Regni Minimi Regis et Basilei mira facinora et mirabilis exortus, or in the vulgar tongue, The Rise and Wonderful Adventures of Farmer Giles, Lord of Tame, Count of Worminghall and King of the Little Kingdom''}}
This presages the great number of Latin-based jokes throughout the story.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stróżyński |first1=Mateusz |title=The Joys of Latin and Christmas Feasts: J.R.R. Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham |url=https://antigonejournal.com/2022/01/farmer-giles-tolkien-latin/ |website=Antigone |access-date=4 April 2025 |date=15 January 2022}}</ref>

== Plot summary ==

Farmer Giles (''Ægidius Ahenobarbus Julius Agricola de Hammo'', "Giles Redbeard Julius, Farmer of Ham") is fat and red-bearded and enjoys a slow, comfortable life. A rather deaf and short-sighted [[giant (mythology)|giant]] blunders on to his land, and Giles manages to send him away with a [[blunderbuss]] shot. The people of the village cheer: Farmer Giles has become a hero. His reputation spreads across the kingdom, and he is rewarded by the King with an unfashionable old sword. 

The giant, on returning home, relates to his friends that there are no more knights in the Middle Kingdom, just stinging flies—actually the scrap metal shot from the blunderbuss—and this entices a dragon from [[Venedotia]], Chrysophylax Dives, to investigate the area. The terrified neighbours all expect the accidental hero Farmer Giles to deal with him.

The knights sent by the King to pursue the dragon turn out to be full of excuses not to do their duty. The villagers look to Giles to do something. The local priest finds that the old sword is Caudimordax ("Tailbiter"), meant specifically for killing dragons.

Giles sets out and meets Chrysophylax. The sword turns out to be able to fight almost on its own; Giles hits the dragon with the sword, damaging its wing so it cannot fly, and leads it through the town. It is made to promise to bring its treasure to the villagers, but it does not keep its word. 

The king sends Giles and the knights to deal with Chrysophylax. The knights have never seen any dragon apart from their Christmas dragon-tail cake made of [[marzipan]]. Chrysophylax kills them. Giles survives, and with his sword he masters the dragon and obtains part of the treasure. On his way home, he acquires the servants of the dead knights. Back at home, with servants and treasure, Giles becomes a powerful lord.

== Publication history ==

''Farmer Giles of Ham'' was originally illustrated by [[Pauline Baynes]]. The story has appeared with other works by Tolkien in omnibus editions, including ''[[The Tolkien Reader]]''<ref>{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title=The Tolkien Reader |date=1966 |publisher=Ballantine |isbn=978-0-3452-4831-2 |oclc=26059501}}</ref> and ''[[Tales from the Perilous Realm]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title=Tales from the Perilous Realm |date=2021 |publisher=[[Mariner Books]] |isbn=978-0-3586-5296-0}}</ref>

Tolkien dedicated ''Farmer Giles of Ham'' to Cyril Hackett Wilkinson (1888–1960), a don (lecturer) he knew at [[Oxford University]]; Wilkinson had encouraged Tolkien to go ahead with writing the story for the Lovelace Society at [[Worcester College, Oxford|Worcester College]].{{sfn|Hammond|Scull|2006b|p=1102}}<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=Letter 108 to Allen & Unwin, 5 July 1947 }}</ref>

== Analysis ==

=== Quasi-realistic geographical setting ===

[[File:Farmer Giles of Ham Sketch Map.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Sketch map of real places in and around [[Oxfordshire]] in the English midlands, used for the "Little Kingdom" of ''Farmer Giles of Ham''. ]]

Tolkien, a [[Philology|philologist]], sprinkled philological jokes into the tale, including intentionally false [[Etymology|etymologies]]. The place-names are of places close to [[Oxford|Ox[en]ford]] including [[Oakley, Buckinghamshire|Oakley]], [[Otmoor]] and the [[Rollright Stones]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Walker |first=R. C. |year=1984 |title=The Little Kingdom: Some Considerations and a Map |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=10 |issue=3 |at=Article 11 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol10/iss3/11}}</ref> At the end of the story, Giles is made Lord of [[Thame|Tame]], and Count of [[Worminghall]]. The Tolkien scholar [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]] comments that the tale is "an elaborate false explanation for the name of the Buckinghamshire village of Worminghall".<ref name="Garth 2020">{{cite web |last=Garth |first=John |author-link=John Garth (author) |title=Looking for Middle-Earth? Go to the Middle of England |url=https://lithub.com/looking-for-middle-earth-go-to-the-middle-of-england/ <!--yes, he's a famous author and Tolkien scholar, read his article--> |website=Literary Hub |access-date=26 July 2023 |date=24 June 2020}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"
|+ [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]]'s analysis of Tolkien's etymological "frolic"<br/>in ''Farmer Giles of Ham''<ref name="Garth 2020"/>
|-
! Worminghall in the story !! [[Worminghall]], Buckinghamshire
|-
| "The hall of the Wormings",<br/>people descended from a man<br/>who tamed a ''[[Wyrm (dragon)|worm]]'' (a dragon) || "Field of a man named Wyrma"
|}

=== Quasi-realistic historical setting ===

The philologist and Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] suggests that the Middle Kingdom is based on early [[Mercia]], since  the Middle Kingdom's capital, "some twenty miles distant from Ham", could well be [[Tamworth, Staffordshire|Tamworth]], once Mercia's capital.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=111}} Giles's break-away realm (the Little Kingdom) is based on [[Frithuwold of Chertsey#Frithuwald's Surrey|Frithuwald's Surrey]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Reynolds |first=Patricia |year=1991 |title=Frithuwold and the Farmer |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=28 |pages=7–10}}</ref> 

The tale's Foreword states that the tale is "a translation" [[Found manuscript|from "insular Latin"]] of events taking place "after the days of [[Coel Hen|King Coel]] maybe, but before [[King Arthur|Arthur]] or the [[Heptarchy|Seven Kingdoms of the English]]".{{sfn|Tolkien|1949|p=7}}

=== Blunderbuss philology ===

[[File:Dragon pistol.jpg|thumb|left|A [[blunderbuss]] ]]

Another joke puts a question concerning the definition of blunderbuss to "the four wise clerks of Oxenford": "A short gun with a large bore firing many balls or slugs, and capable of doing execution [killing people] within a limited range without exact aim. (Now superseded, in civilised countries, by other firearms.)"{{sfn|Tolkien|1949|p=15}} Tolkien had worked on the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', and the "four wise clerks" are "undoubtedly" the four lexicographers [[Henry Bradley]], [[William Craigie]], [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]], and [[Charles Talbut Onions]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hyde |first=Paul Nolan |year=1987 |title=J.R.R. Tolkien: Creative Uses of the Oxford English Dictionary |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=14 |issue=1 |at=Article 4 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol14/iss1/4 }}</ref><!--<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gilliver |first1=Peter |title=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |title-link=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |last2=Marshall |first2=Jeremy |last3=Weiner |first3=Edmund |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2006 |page= }}</ref>-->{{efn|The "Clerk of Oxford" is the narrator in [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Clerk's Tale]]''.<!--<ref>{{cite book |last=Bowers |first=John M. |title=Tolkien's Lost Chaucer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5OwDwAAQBAJ |year=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-258029-0 }}</ref>-->}} Tolkien then satirises the dictionary definition by applying it to Farmer Giles's weapon:<ref name="Shippey 1997"/>

<blockquote>
However, 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. And it did not do execution, because he seldom loaded it, and never let it off. The sight of it was usually enough for his purpose. And this country was not yet civilised, for the blunderbuss was not superseded: it was indeed the only kind of gun that there was, and rare at that.{{sfn|Tolkien|1949|p=15}}
</blockquote>

The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] comments: "Giles's blunderbuss ... defies the definition and works just the same."<ref name="Shippey 1997">{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[Tales from the perilous realm|Tales from the Perilous Realm]] |date=1997 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |chapter=Introduction}}</ref>

=== Parody dragon-slaying tale ===

[[File:St George enamel icon (Georgia).jpg|thumb|upright|Chrysophylax was brought back to the city, tamed, as in the story of [[Saint George and the Dragon]].<ref name="Lakowski 2015"/> 15th-century Georgian icon. ]]

Romuald Lakowski describes ''Farmer Giles of Ham'' as a "delightful, and even in places brilliant, parody of the traditional dragon-slaying tale."<ref name="Lakowski 2015"/> The parody has many strands. The hero is a farmer, not a knight; the dragon is a coward, and is not killed, but tamed and forced to return his treasure.<ref name="Lakowski 2015"/> Lakowski derives Chrysophylax both from medieval dragons and from comic stories contemporary with Tolkien, like [[E. Nesbit|Edith Nesbit]]'s ''The Dragon Tamers'' and [[Kenneth Grahame]]'s ''[[The Reluctant Dragon (short story)|The Reluctant Dragon]]''.<ref name="Lakowski 2015"/> The story embodies a charter myth, in which Giles's descendants have a dragon on their crest because of his deeds. Further, it serves as a local legend, with mock etymologies of actual place-names.<ref name="Lakowski 2015">{{cite journal |last=Lakowski |first=Romuald I. |year=2015 |title='A Wilderness of Dragons': Tolkien's Treatment of Dragons in Roverandom and Farmer Giles of Ham |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=34 |issue=1 |at=Article 8 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol34/iss1/8 }}</ref> 

Giles's cowardly talking dog Garm is named for [[Garmr|the terrifying dog of the Norse underworld]].<ref name="Lakowski 2015"/><ref Name="Drout 2007">{{cite book |last=Hargrove |first=Gene |chapter=Farmer Giles |title=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-96942-0 |pages=198–199 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B0loOBA3ejIC&pg=PA198}}</ref> Giles's magic [[Naming of weapons in Middle-earth|named sword]] may derive partly from Norse myth, too; the god [[Freyr]] had a sword that could fight by itself. As for the fight with the dragon, the wounding of the monster's wing echoes an episode in [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]]'s ''[[The Faerie Queene]]''. Other allusions may include the legend of [[Saint George and the Dragon]], as that dragon was brought back to the city, tamed, and led with the girdle of a maiden round its neck; and the [[Völsunga saga]], as the dragon's cave sounds much like [[Fáfnir]]'s.<ref name="Lakowski 2015"/>

=== Environmentalism ===

{{further|Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings}}

Alex Lewis, in ''[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]]'', writes that Tolkien lamented the loss of the countryside in and around [[Oxfordshire]], which formed "the Little Kingdom" of the story. Tolkien loved nature, [[Trees in Middle-earth|especially trees]], and had what Lewis calls "well-founded" fears for the environment, "verg[ing] on the prophetic".<ref name="Lewis 2003"/> Lewis analyses the factors that were causing this loss. They included the growth in Oxfordshire's population in the 20th century (doubling between 1920 and 1960); the area's [[industrialisation]] by [[Morris Motors]], and the concomitant increase in motor traffic in the city of Oxford; the building of roads, including the [[M40 motorway]] cutting across the countryside; and the [[Suburbanization|suburbanisation]] of Oxford as [[Commuting|commuters]] started to use the railway to allow them to live in Oxford but work in London. The [[World War II|Second World War]] increased the number of airfields in the area from 5 to 96, causing the Oxfordshire countryside to be "gutted".<ref name="Lewis 2003"/> Lewis states that Tolkien had hoped to write a sequel to ''Farmer Giles of Ham'', but found that [[Tolkien's legendarium|his legendarium]] had "bubbled up, infiltrated, and probably spoiled everything", and that it was "difficult [in 1949] to recapture the spirit of the former days, when we used to beat the bounds of the L[ittle] K[ingdom] in an ancient car."<ref name="Lewis 2003"/> Tolkien was horrified by the change that motor traffic wreaked on Oxford, and the air pollution; he had given up his happy but dangerous driving, as depicted in his children's story ''[[Mr. Bliss]]'', at the start of the war.<ref name="Lewis 2003">{{cite journal |last=Lewis |first=Alex |title=The Lost Heart of the Little Kingdom |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=41 |year=2003 |pages=3–8 |url=https://journals.tolkiensociety.org/mallorn/article/download/129/123}}<!-- First published in ''Leaves from the tree, J. R. R. Tolkien's Shorter Fiction'' 1991, Proceedings of the 4th Tolkien Society Workshop, Beverley, 1989. A Peter Roe booklet.--></ref>

== Notes ==

{{notelist}}

== References ==

{{reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==

* {{ME-ref|Letters}}  <!--Carpenter 1981-->
* {{ME-ref|CHR}}      <!--Hammond Scull 2006a-->
* {{ME-ref|RG}}       <!--Hammond Scull 2006b-->
* {{ME-ref|Road}}     <!--Shippey 2005-->
* {{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien | title=Farmer Giles of Ham |publisher=[[George Allen and Unwin]] |date=1949 |isbn=978-0-04-823068-3}}

{{J. R. R. Tolkien}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farmer Giles Of Ham}}
[[Category:Fictional farmers|Giles of Ham]]
[[Category:Books by J. R. R. Tolkien]]
[[Category:1949 fantasy novels]]
[[Category:British fantasy novels]]
[[Category:British novellas]]
[[Category:1937 fantasy novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in the Middle Ages]]
[[Category:Allen & Unwin books]]
[[Category:Parody books]]