January 20, 2020

10. The Wheeler-Dealer Dragon!

54 minutes

Important note: this episode was recorded before Amazon’s formal cast

announcement

and the death of Christopher

Tolkien . We’ll definitely have much more to say on both in next month’s

episode!

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: Tolkien’s short mock-medieval novella, Farmer Giles of Ham. Published in 1949, though mostly

written off and on over the 1930s, it was Tolkien’s first creative publication

after the release of The Hobbit, though appearing some years before The Lord

of the Rings itself did. Set in a happily ahistorical and anachronistic jumble

of an early medieval England, it tells the story of a not-very-heroic farmer,

a conniving swindler of a dragon, a cowardly braggart of a dog and a whole lot

of other amusing people and creatures. (But also a very practical mare.) It’s

a goofy treat at best, also featuring the debut illustrations for Tolkien by

the famed Pauline Baynes, but there’s some deeper waters as well. What were

some of the thematic touches that tie together Farmer Giles with his other

work, Middle-earth or otherwise? What was Baynes and Tolkien’s working and

personal relationship like? Did Tolkien have something against millers in

general? And who, exactly, was this little fillip of a creation even for?

Show Notes.

Jared’s

doodle.

The Witcher is a thing. Netflix will

be glad to have your money.

The initial Variety report on Morfydd Clark’s casting

as Galadriel (still not yet formally confirmed by Amazon as her role).

The Deadline report on Ema Horvath’s casting.

Variety’s report on Will Poulter exiting the series.

There are numerous ways to donate to assist communities impacted by the Australian

bushfires. Two ones we’d like to single out are Fire Relief Fund for First

Nation Communities and the WIRES Emergency

Fund.

Numerous editions of Farmer Giles have been printed, individually or in

anthologies. The 50th anniversary

edition,

edited by Wayne Hammond and Cristina Scull, reprints the original printing

with Pauline Baynes’s illustrations as well as including numerous notes,

drafts and more besides. Meantime, Alan Lee created illustrations for another

printing of the story for the anthology collection Tales From the Perilous

Realm.

I mean, we don’t need to explain Monty Python,

big feet and the Holy

Grail at this point, surely. (RIP Neil

Innes, Sir Robin’s chief

minstrel.)

Millers! They weren’t always loved.

Pauline Baynes was really a remarkable

artist, and her work over the decades is some of the loveliest versions of

Tolkien created. High recommendation: Bilbo’s Last

Song.

Jafar was voiced by Jonathan

Freeman, in case you were

wondering!

Tolkien and

anarchism is an interesting subject—the exact quote from the letter

discussed is “My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy

(philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men

with bombs).”

What made a good medieval king? Here’s a modern

take.

Sending medieval messages was involved regardless of whether a king signed with a

blot or not.

Blackletter—you know the font,

even if you never knew the name.

Unsurprisingly, someone’s created a recipe for dragon’s tail

cake.

The BFI listing for

the Freddie Jones version of Farmer Giles is kinda spare. As for the 1992

radio version with Brian Blessed, it’s out

there!

The Redwall series is

a fun delight—check it out if you haven’t! The animated

version can be found on

Prime and probably elsewhere too.

The John Howe book with Belegost and Nogrod illustrations is A Middle-earth

Traveller.

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Tolkien with us in our friendly Slack!

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By Jared Pechaček, Oriana Scwindt, and Ned Raggett

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