Notes
Poems and Stories, a collection containing the following works:

• The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, a collection of poetry by J.R.R. Tolkien, first published in 1962.
• The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son, essays and a dramatic poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, first published in Essays and Studies 1953.
• On Fairy-Stories, an essay by J.R.R. Tolkien, first published in Essays Presented to Charles Williams in 1947.
• Leaf by Niggle, a short story by J.R.R. Tolkien, first published in the January 1945 issue of The Dublin Review.
• Farmer Giles of Ham, a novella by J.R.R. Tolkien, first published in 1949.
• Smith of Wootton Major, a short story by J.R.R. Tolkien, first published in 1967.

Illustrated throughout by Pauline Baynes.

Only two editions of Poems and Stories were published. Further details can be found via these links to Tolkienbooks.net:

• First Edition 1980
• HarperCollins Edition 1992

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is a collection of delightful songs and verses featuring a number of hobbit legends, from tales of princesses, dwarves and trolls, to stories of Old Oliphaunt and the Man in the Moon.

The dramatic poem The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, unavailable in any other edition, is a moving lament for the death of Beorhtnoth at the Battle of Maldon in the year 991.

Tolkien’s essay On Fairy-Stories is central to an understanding of his work. In it, he discusses the nature of fairy stories, arguing that they should not be treated as stories written only for children. They are as relevant and universal as any form of fiction.

Two further stories in this collection aptly illustrate his point: Smith of Wootton Major which tells of the preparation of the Great Cake to mark the Feast of Good Children, and the strange events which follow, and Leaf by Niggle, which recounts the strange adventures of the painter, Niggle.

Farmer Giles of Ham is one of Tolkien’s most popular stories, full of wit and humour, set in the days when giants and dragons walked the earth. Farmer Giles is fat and unheroic but he is also very shrewd. When a large and stupid giant blunders into his fields, it sets off a surprising chain of events.

This rich and varied collection provides abundant evidence of Tolkien’s talents as storyteller and critic.

Poems and Stories is illustrated by Pauline Baynes.