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

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

The story follows Farmer Giles, an ordinary landholder in a medieval English setting, who unexpectedly becomes celebrated after driving away a giant. His reputation then draws him into a confrontation with Chrysophylax Dives, a proud and dangerous dragon. The tale mixes mock-heroic adventure, wordplay, and satire.

Tolkien wrote Farmer Giles of Ham during the 1930s, and George Allen & Unwin published it in 1949. Pauline Diana Baynes provided illustrations for the first edition. Unlike The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the story is not set in Middle-earth.

The work is often grouped with Tolkien’s shorter fiction for younger or family audiences. Its humor comes partly from reversing heroic conventions: Farmer Giles is not a trained knight, and practical intelligence matters more than grand reputation.