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To me this was a great little tale, falling just short of me loving it. I think this is a cute, silly story that could so easily fall into the realm of other fairytale stories/the same popularity, if only it was more readily available. Although, it is again one of those older children’s stories where while I’m reading I’m like, “this was told to kids?!” So with that being said this could easily have been dulled down or “Disney-fied” or made even more adult in a longer version/adaptation. The 50th Anniversary Edition was published in 1999, edited by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond. So ist auch "Bauer Giles von Ham" eines jener Bücher, das nicht nur beinahe nie erschienen wäre, sondern auch nach seinem Erscheinen bald wieder verblasste. Zu unrecht! Denn mit dem tapferen Bauern schuf der englische Autor eine Figur von Witz, die er inmitten einer Mischwelt aus vergangenen Jahrhunderten und Vorstellungen verortete. Einer Welt, in der bereits Donnerbüchsen vorhanden waren, die aber noch von Drachen und Riesen (mit-) beherrscht wurde. Farmer Giles took Chrysophylax by surprise, or rather ran into him by surprise. As the dragon tried to make lunch out of Giles the sword Caudimordax took things into its own hands (so to speak). When Giles waved the sword, trying to shoo the dragon away, the sword managed to smite the dragon upon the joint of his right wing, thus depriving him of flight.
Next day he found that the news had grown in the telling, and he had become an important local figure. By the middle of the next week the news had spread to all the villages within twenty miles. He had become the Hero of the Countryside. Very pleasant he found it. Next market day he got enough free drink to float a boat: that is to say, he nearly had his fill, and came home singing old heroic songs. 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 Wales, Chrysophylax Dives, to investigate the area. The terrified neighbours all expect the accidental hero Farmer Giles to deal with him. But better than the testimonial was the accompanying gift. The King sent a belt and a long sword. To tell the truth the King had never used the sword himself. It belonged to the family and had been hanging in his armoury time out of mind. The armourer could not say how it came there, or what might be the use of it. Plain heavy swords of that kind were, out of fashion at court, just then, so the King thought it the very thing for a present to a rustic. But Farmer Giles was delighted, and his local reputation became enormous. Farmer Giles of Ham is a short tale from the master of fantasy fiction J.R.R.Tolkien. Although the story is about a hero and contains giants, dragons and talking dogs,(actually it is just one dog) it is not an epic tale full with action. Don’t worry tho, because although it will not amaze you with great battles, it will put a smile on your face with nice humour. The Road to Middle-earth · The Keys of Middle-earth · The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion ·Shippey 2005, p. 111 "The capital of the Middle Kingdom, 'some twenty miles distant from Ham', sounds like Tamworth, the historical capital of the Mercian kings".
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, Chrysophylax Dives, to investigate the area. The terrified neighbours all expect the accidental hero Farmer Giles to deal with him. 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. [11]
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 blunders on to his land, and Giles manages to send him away with a blunderbuss shot in his general direction. 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, as it turns out, is both nearly deaf and nearly blind, and he leaves a path of destruction in his wake that includes the utter flattening of Giles's favorite cow, Galathea. His lumbering approach awakens and panics Giles' dog, Garm, who can talk; Garm, at some risk to himself, and with the help of Giles's wife Agatha, inspires Giles to action. Farmer Giles is able to ward off the giant by shooting him with a very primitive form of firearm called a blunderbuss. His blunderbuss shot hits the giant in the face (mostly by accident), and while it doesn't damage the giant, it does convince him that he has entered a “nasty, unhealthy” area swarming with biting insects. The indignant giant takes his leave to healthier climes, as Garm brags to the village of his master's heroic deeds. Many miles away, the King of the Middle Kingdom comes to hear of Farmer Giles's besting of the giant, and in thanks, sends him an old, out of fashion, unwanted sword from his treasury. In 2009, the 60th Anniversary Editon was published, limited only to 500 copies. It has the same content as the 50th Anniversary Editon.It's its hero that truly carries the story. Farmer Giles is neither a bold and fearless warrior such as Aragorn or Fëanor, nor a weak and meek little guy filled more with doubts than raw skill such as the hobbits, nor even an unsympathetic coward always trying to get rid of his responsibilities like Rincewind: instead, he's just a grumpy farmer that doesn't even seem to realize the how fantastic his quest is supposed to be, treating it all as nothing more than a chore to be only taken care of when he runs out of excuses to push it to another day. That sort of a thing is rare, and Tolkien if anyone knows how to draw out every bit of its potential. Eventually even the king of the Middle Kingdom in his capital (about twenty leagues distant from Ham) heard of Giles' deed. About three months after the incident the king sent Giles a testimonial letter on the feast of St. Michael. He also sent the farmer a gift, a plain heavy sword that had been hanging in the king's armoury from a time forgotten. 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.)" [11] Tolkien had worked on the Oxford English Dictionary, and the "four wise clerks" are "undoubtedly" the four lexicographers Henry Bradley, William Craigie, James Murray, and Charles Talbut Onions. [12] Tolkien then satirises the dictionary definition by applying it to Farmer Giles's weapon: [13] Tolkien: A Biography. London: Allen & Unwin, 1977. The authorized biography, which includes references to Farmer Giles of Ham during the critical years of 1938 and 1949. Farmer Giles of Ham is a short children's story written by J.R.R. Tolkien's in 1937. It is about the reluctant hero Farmer Gilles and his run-in with the arrogant dragon Chrysophylax. It takes place during a fictional time in England with knights, giants and talking animals.
Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2006b). The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-007-14918-2. Il Cacciatore di Draghi è una favola che Tolkien decise di inventare e raccontare ai suoi figli per intrattenerli, per farli fantasticare, ma anche per lasciarli riflettere sulla storia antica, di tempi ormai lontani e perduti, dove il folklore locale, britannico, si intrecciava con la mitologia e le canzoni popolari orali, tramandate di famiglia in famiglia, di generazione in generazione. a b c d e f g Lakowski, Romuald I. (2015). " 'A Wilderness of Dragons': Tolkien's Treatment of Dragons in Roverandom and Farmer Giles of Ham". Mythlore. 34 (1). Article 8. The next day Giles learned that he was the owner of Caudimordax, the famous dragon-slaying sword. Soon, with much goading by the parson and the miller, as well as the rest of the village of Ham, Giles was off on his grey mare with his cowering dog, armed with a thrown-together suit of metal rings and Caudimordax.Now Farmer Giles would face pressure to defeat the dragon, capture the treasure and resist the greedy king. Armed with a magic sword, his faithful dog and gentle mare he goes out into the Wide World and changes history. Hargrove, Gene (2013) [2007]. "Farmer Giles". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp. 198–199. ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0. It is clear, then, that in Tolkien's world, noble birth does little to prepare one for heroism. Rather, wariness, wisdom, and right conduct are the hallmarks of the heroic. Farmer Giles's dog, Garm, is out enjoying a midnight stroll, as dogs do, when he happens across none other than a near-sighted giant, who accidentally squashes their poor cow, Galathea. Dashing home, he wakes up his master to warn him of the intruder. Unfortunately, Farmer Giles unwittingly scares off the giant, creating quite a bit of notoriety for himself with the local townsfolk. I say unfortunately because, naturally, the townsfolk have certain expectations of Farmer Giles when a dragon shows up...
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