J.R.R. Tolkien’s story about a dog transformed by a wizard is titled Roverandom.
Tolkien wrote Roverandom in 1925 after his young son Michael lost a toy dog on a beach. In the story, the dog Rover is transformed into a small toy by the wizard Artaxerxes and embarks on adventures involving the Moon, the sea, and fantastical creatures.
The tale remained unpublished during Tolkien’s lifetime. It was edited by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond and published in 1998, long after Tolkien’s death. The work is especially useful for showing how family stories and children’s experiences could become the starting points for Tolkien’s imaginative writing.
Roverandom is sometimes grouped with Tolkien’s children’s stories, but it is not part of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Other shorter works, including Leaf by Niggle and Smith of Wootton Major, have different settings and themes. The dog’s transformation is the distinctive clue to Roverandom.