Poems & Stories by J.R.R. Tolkien

Poems & Stories
by J.R.R. Tolkien

The book titled ‘Poems and Stories’ by Tolkien is a collection of a few different stories. They are also available as separate books, but not in the library’s collection at this time. I recently read two of the stories in the collection.

The first is ‘Farmer Giles of Ham’, which is a tale of giants and a dragon and a farmer from the village of Ham. One night a giant wanders through and destroys the field of Farmer Giles who attacks and scares him off. The fame that comes from defeating a giant travels round and so when a dragon enters the area, Farmer Giles is called to act, even though he doesn’t want to. It’s a fairly short story as it’s written for children, but because it’s written by Tolkien I had to give it a try and it was not disappointing. It’s a great fantasy story but does not take place in Tolkien’s Middle Earth like ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’.

The second book in this ‘Poems and Stories’ collection I read was ‘The Adventures of Tom Bombadil’. This is a poetry collection that begins with Tom Bombadil that takes place in Middle Earth, the Shire in particular. There are only 16 poems that I would describe as short and sweet. There’s a poem about an Oliphant, a lonely troll, a treasure hoard and two appearances of the man in the moon (who is also featured in ‘Roveradom’ by Tolkien). Anyone who enjoys the Middle Earth universe will surely enjoy this short work; even if you’re like me and don’t usually read poems.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Roverandum or The Hobbit, both by J.R.R. Tolkien.] [ official J.R.R. Tolkien web site ] | [ official www.tolkienlibrary.com web site ]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

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