Which Tolkien work was first published in 1949 as a fairy tale about a farmer and a giant?

Farmer Giles of Ham was first published in 1949 as a fairy tale about a farmer and a giant.

The story follows Ægidius Ahenobarbus Julius Agricola de Ham, commonly called Farmer Giles. After accidentally driving a giant away from his land, Giles becomes an unlikely hero and is drawn into a confrontation involving the dragon Chrysophylax Dives.

George Allen & Unwin published the work in 1949. It is set in a mock-medieval England rather than in Middle-earth, and its humor comes partly from the contrast between ordinary rural life and grand heroic language. Tolkien also included maps and illustrations connected with the story in its original presentation.

Readers sometimes confuse Farmer Giles of Ham with Tolkien’s shorter stories Leaf by Niggle and Smith of Wootton Major. Those works also stand outside the main Middle-earth narrative, but they have different plots, settings, and publication histories.