Smith of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles of Ham - Paperback

by J. R. R. Tolkien (Author)

Venture into the imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien with two hard-to-find classic fantasies

Best known for his beloved works of fantasy The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien was also prolific in writing beyond the confines of Middle-earth. Paired in this volume are two short tales of enchantment and adventure that explore the craft of fantastical fiction in a way that only Tolkien could.

Smith of Wootton Major: The last of Tolkien's fiction to be published in his lifetime, this is a haunting tale about a boy who unwittingly swallows a faery star, granting him the ability to wander freely between the mortal world and the land of Faery until he grows into the twilight of life and must make a difficult choice.

Farmer Giles of Ham: An imaginative history of the distant past that follows the unheroic and entirely unwilling Farmer Giles as he attempts to expel a cunning but not exactly bold dragon from the borders of the kingdom.

Front Jacket

Two bewitching fantasies by J.R.R. Tolkien, beloved author of THE HOBBIT. In SMITH OF WOOTTON MAJOR, Tolkien explores the gift of fantasy, and what it means to the life and character of the man who receives it. And FARMER GILES OF HAM tells a delightfully ribald mock-heroic tale, where a dragon who invades a town refuses to fight, and a farmer is chosen to slay him.

Author Biography

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. After serving in World War I, he embarked upon a distinguished academic career and was recognized as one of the finest philologists in the world. He was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. He is, however, beloved throughout the world as the creator of Middle-earth and author of such classic works as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He died on September 2, 1973, at the age of eighty-one.