WARNING: This blog post may contain spoilers from Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Well, when I came to decide upon a book to write on for this post, I sat down at my laptop but wasn’t sure what to choose. And so, the obvious choice was to turn my head to the right and scan my bookshelves for something to catch my fancy. And it was by this somewhat unprofessional yet obvious method that I selected a book of short stories by J.R.R. Tolkien entitled Tales from the Perilous Realm.
I found this book at a Barnes and Noble’s bookstore on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, where I was vacationing with my family at the time. None of us are huge beach people and we were there for a week so a book was a nice way to spend some of my time just relaxing at the condo we were staying in. Little did I know how much I would enjoy reading select pieces from Tales from the Perilous Realm although to this day I have not read it in its entirety. One specific tale in this delightful collection is entitled Farmer Giles of Ham which happened to be the first portion of the book that I read.
Rather than summarizing the whole plot of Farmer Giles of Ham, I will simply make notes on what I feel makes it a great story, as well as what sets it apart as an excellent example of fantasy fiction that one could learn from.
- A likeable, and yet unlikely, hero.
Farmer Giles (wow what a shocker of a name) is, in my opinion, another example of how great Tolkien is at creating admirable characters. Not only is farmer Giles brave, he also is willing to stand up for what is right. This makes him the hero for sure, but I can already hear you asking “Aaron, that’s not unusual, why should that make us like farmer Giles?” Well dear reader, while being a strong hero is important to Giles’ likeable character, I think that his sense of humor and overall normality also makes him much more relatable and intriguing. Though the hero of the tale, he is nonetheless a farmer, and his description, actions, and many of the statements he makes throughout the tale show his profession. In most fantasy tales, you have a hero who grows from a state of normality to grandeur, but in Farmer Giles of Ham, that is simply not the case. Giles manages to be the undisputed hero and warrior of the tale, but not at the expense of who he is. - Humor, and plenty of it. As mentioned briefly in the last point, Tolkien does not shy away from using humor in the midst of dialogue or narrative, instead employing it to keep the story interesting. Although I could go into great detail on this point, I will give just one example from early in the tale. Garm, farmer Giles’ talking dog speaks to Giles through a window, and warns him that
“There’s a giant in your fields, an enormous giant; and he’s coming this way… he is trampling on your sheep. He has stamped on poor Galathea (Giles’ favorite cow), and she’s as flat as a doormat… he’s busting all your hedges, and he’s crushing all your crops.”
Now what do you expect farmer Giles’ response to be? Whatever it was, I suspect it was not for him to yell out the window for Garm to “shut up!” Not only is the description offered by Garm laughable, Giles’ response adds to the reality and humor of the entire scene. Other examples like this can be found throughout the book (even until the last sentence!), but this one doesn’t really spoil much of the tale so it was the one that I chose. - A satisfying end. As might be suspected of a fantasy tale written by Tolkien, there is a dragon at the center of the plot of Farmer Giles of Ham and of course, this dragon is eventually defeated by farmer Giles. However, what you might not have guessed is that Giles does not kill the dragon, but rather uses it to intimidate and defeat the previous ruler of Ham. Long a tale of rebellion, Giles becomes King of a new realm, “The Little Kingdom” but still remains his humorous self for the entirety of the tale. For a long time he keeps the dragon in Ham as a tame dragon, which was “much to the profit of Giles” but he eventually releases the dragon to return to its greatly-diminished hoard of wealth, where he can plot his revenge.
Though I could say much more about this short story, I will leave the rest for you to explore. Even just for this one story I would recommend that you acquire Tales from the Perilous Realm, although that might be a bit pricy for just one short story. Of the other portions of the book that I have read, I think that most are enjoyable, and who knows, maybe I’ll write on another of Tolkien’s masterfully-written short stories next. Until then, I wish you all “farewell wherever you fare, till your eyries receive you at the journey’s end!”
Bookworms and Bluestockings 