What was the title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1949 children’s novella about a farmer and a dragon?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1949 children’s novella about a farmer and a dragon is Farmer Giles of Ham.

The story is set in a mock-medieval England and follows Farmer Giles, an ordinary countryman who unexpectedly becomes a local hero after driving away a giant. His reputation grows when a dragon called Chrysophylax Dives threatens the region. Farmer Giles eventually has to face the creature using a sword named Tailbiter.

The book is a comic, self-contained fairy tale rather than a story set in Middle-earth. Tolkien uses humorous names, exaggerated social roles, and an ironic treatment of heroic fame. The result is lighter in tone than The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, although it shares Tolkien’s interest in language, legend, and the contrast between ordinary life and grand adventure.

Farmer Giles of Ham was published by George Allen & Unwin with illustrations by Pauline Diana Baynes. It is sometimes confused with Smith of Wootton Major, another later Tolkien fairy tale, but the two works have different settings and plots.