Oops! My time is up. Here are some left-overs, without textual support or
pretty much anything else, that I thought I might talk about but never got
around to developing from my first list. I guess the ones I did were the ones I
liked best. Dig in! Or save your thoughts for Menelwyn, who should be coming
over the rise on her gray mare, just about now.
A. The armoring of Farmer Giles. Why is so much time spent on describing
this?
B. Dates. Why does Tolkien specifically date the tale by the Christian calendar
days like Christmas, Epiphany, etc.?
C. Language. The mode of Giles’ speech. Does Giles talk distinctively enough to
make a discussion topic out of this?
D. Pauline Baynes’ illustrations. Nixed under the bells and whistles ban. Who
else would be a good choice to illustrate this tale? Anyone familiar with the
art of Marc Simont, of Thurber’s The Thirteen Clocks, another medieval
fairy-tale parody from the same period? God, I love that book, and the
illustrations are central to it.
E. The Landscape of Ham, “The Little Kingdom”. Boring. Don’t know the actual
territory, for starters. Tolkien obviously thought it clever enough, and it
seems to have been a starting point for the whole thing in the first place.
Anyone?
F. Let’s Make a Dele. The bargaining of the villagers for Chrysophylax’s
treasure goes beyond farce into pain. Is this humorous to you, or anyone? Are
there similar passages in ancient literature that this is a parody of? Contrast
this scene with Giles’ simple choice later in the story, at the dragon’s cave,
and Tolkien’s comment on it.
Well, that’s it for the middle of Farmer Giles. I hope you all enjoyed it, who
were able to walk the Silmarillion Strut and chew Giles Gum at the same time. I
could see an endless RR discussion someday based on Tolkien’s Letters, which
are really rich in material, as my recent revisit reminds me.
Bingo in the Elf
Lounge.
Farmer Giles of Ham - the complete text
squire online:
Footerama: "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
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