Which Tolkien short work was first published as a standalone book in 1949?

Farmer Giles of Ham was first published as a standalone book in 1949. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote it as a humorous mock-medieval tale about Giles, an ordinary farmer who becomes an unlikely dragon slayer and local hero.

The story is set in a fictional version of England and deliberately plays with the conventions of heroic legend. Its dragon, Chrysophylax Dives, is intelligent and self-interested rather than simply monstrous, while Giles’s success comes partly from luck, reputation, and a magical sword named Caudimordax.

Farmer Giles of Ham is separate from Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. It is sometimes grouped with his shorter fiction because it shares his interest in old tales, philology, and playful medieval language. The 1949 book was illustrated by Pauline Diana Baynes, who later became well known for illustrating works by C.S. Lewis.