Tales From the Perilous Realm

Tales From the Perilous Realm is a collection of stories by J. R. R. Tolkien. I recently listened to an audiobook production by the BBC which included four stories: "Farmer Giles of Ham", "Leaf by Niggle", "Smith of Wootten Major", and "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil". The stories are well written and fanciful. The performances are very entertaining.

"Farmer Giles of Ham" tells the story of a lowly farmer who is called on to defeat a dragon. The farmer finds luck and a reasonable dragon, but runs into trouble with the king. In "Smith", the local smith tells a tale about faerie and a magic. "Tom Bombadil" is part of the Lord of the Rings. The friendly and rhyming man (or fairy or elf) helps out Frodo and his companions. This story was entertaining but was lacking the depth of the piece from from the novel since it didn't have the characterization and dark plot surrounding it.

These stories are inventive. Tolkien had a good sense of the faerie and the wonderful. The stories were entertaining if a bit simple. B