Farmer Giles of Ham

6W J. R. R. Tolkien. Illustrated by Pauline Diana Baynes. London: George Allen & Unwin. Eleventh impression, 1974.

Notes

Set in a mythical, pre-Arthurian Britain known as the Little Kingdom, the comedic narrative follows Giles, a completely unheroic, pragmatic farmer who accidentally becomes a local hero after scaring off a blundering giant with a blunderbuss. His unearned reputation forces him into a much more dangerous confrontation with Chrysophylax Dives, a cunning, wealthy dragon who has been terrorizing the countryside. Armed only with the ancient, magical dragon-biting sword Caudimordax (Tailbiter)—a gift from the King—and accompanied by his unhelpful, hyper-literal talking dog Garm, Giles uses sheer rural common sense and shrewd bargaining rather than chivalric bravery to outwit both the dragon and his own corrupt monarch.

Description 

Peach cloth binding with navy dragon illustration to cover and lettering to spine. Original jacket. Fine later printing.