Synopsis
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.
Recommendations
Generating recommendations…
Our AI is preparing recommendations for Smith of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles of Ham. This usually takes under a minute.
About J.R.R. Tolkien
J
J.R.R. Tolkien
1892–1973
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specialising in Old and Middle English. Twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford, he also wrote a number of stories, including most famously The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), which are set in a pre-historic era in an invented version of the world which he called by the Middle English name of Middle-earth. This was peopled by Men (and women), Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Orcs (or Goblins) and of course Hobbits. He has regularly been condemned by the Eng. Lit. establishment, with honourable exceptions, but loved by literally millions of readers worldwide. In the 1960s he was taken up by many members of the nascent "counter-culture" largely because of his concern with environmental issues. In 1997 he came top of three British polls, organised respectively by Channel 4 / Waterstone's, the Folio Society, and SFX, the UK's leading science fiction media magazine, amongst discerning readers asked to vote for the greatest book of the 20th century. ([Source][1]) [1]: http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html
View author page