Tales from the Perilous Realm

Tolkien Beyond Middle earth In Tales From the Perilous Realm we have five short stories or novellas by J.R.R. Tolkien, plus his very famous lecture "On Fairy Stories". Only one of the selections has a direct connection with Middle earth: the poems which make up "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil". The other four are "Leaf By Niggle", a short tale with deeply moving theological connotations which originally accompanied the Fairy Stories lecture; "Roverandom", a story written by Tolkien to comfort one of his sons who had lost a toy dog while at the seashore and not published u. Mariah said Great addition to any Tolkien fans library. This has a lot of the lesser known works by Tolkien, such as, Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major, Leaf by Niggle, Roverandom and Adventures of Tom Bombadil. These stories are much shorter than Tolkiens more celebrated classics and definitely worth reading. Roverandom is about a dog who gets involved in the lives of wizards and is never the same again. Leaf by Niggle is about an artist who in trying to master one small thing is becomes totally encompassed by it. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is a series of poems about the character Tom. Fantasy and Reality ABQMark When J R R Tolkien began his legendarium of Middle-earth, he set out to create a mythology, a secondary reality, which, if successful, would be as real in its own way as the physical world is to us. He was guided by an inner sense that myth is a lie (as he said to C. S. Lewis), even if it is not always historical fact. There is so much of reality, of the human experience of life and of the universe that cannot be reduced to empirical data. This conviction is reflected in Tolkien's poem "Mythopoeia" and in a key essay that appears in "Tales from

Farmer Giles of Ham: 'A fabulous tale of the days when giants and dragons walked the kingdom' Sunday Times Leaf by Niggle: 'A haunting and successful demonstration of the qualities of faerie' New York Times The Adventures of Tom Bombadil: 'Something close to genius' The Listener Smith of Wootton Major: 'Whoever reads it at eight will no doubt still be going back to it at eighty' New Statesman

The four tales are written with the same skill, quality and hallmarks that made Tolkien's Hobbit a classic. Largely overlooked because of their short lengths, they are finally together in a volume which reaffirms Tolkien's place as a master storyteller for readers young and old.. Farmer Giles of Ham is fat and unheroic, but -- having unwittingly managed to scare off a short-sighted giant -- is called upon to do battle when the dragon Chrysophylax comes to town; The Adventures of Tom Bombadil tells by way of verse of Tom's many adventures with hobbits, princesses, dwarves and trolls; Leaf by Niggle recounts the strange adventures of the painter Niggle who sets out to paint the perfect tree; Smith of Wootton Major journeys to the Land of Faery thanks to the magical ingredients of the Great Cake of the Feast of Good Children. For the first time in A-format, the definitive collection of Tolkien's four acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tales in the vein of The Hobbit

His books have been translated into over 30 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide. J.R.R.Tolkien (1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays.