Farmer Giles of Ham

Farmer Giles of Ham

First edition cover
Author	J. R. R. Tolkien
Illustrator	Pauline Baynes
Cover artist	Pauline Baynes
Language	English
Genre	Children's literature Fantasy fiction
Publisher	George Allen & Unwin
Publication date	20 October 1949[1]
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
ISBN	978-0-04-823068-3
Preceded by	"On Fairy-Stories"
Followed by	The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son

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. 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 Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Its concern for the "Little Kingdom" embodies Tolkien's environmentalism, in particular his well-founded fears for the loss of the countryside of Oxfordshire and surrounding areas.