This is a collection of four of Tolkien's children's tales and poems found in the Red Book. They are mostly fairy tales with a fantasy theme. Farmer Giles of Ham is about a farmer who accidentally sees off a giant and is honoured by the villiagers of Ham and later the King who presents him with a sword. When dragon Chrysophylax attacks the land a few years later, Farmer Giles is sent to defeat him. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is a collection of 16 short poems. A couple have Tom in them, others have princesses, hobbits and animals from Middle Earth supposedly written by Bilbo, Sam and Frodo. My favourites were the non-Tom ones "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late", "oliphaunt" and "Cat".

Lead by Niggle is a curious and strange tale about Niggle and his neighbour Parish. Niggle is a painter who wishes to paint the perfect tree that he can see in his head. He ends up going on a journey directed by mysterious voices into a land of his imagined paintings. Smith of Wootton Major sees young boy Smith unknowingly eating an enchanted cake. He swallows a fey star which he later puts on his forehead letting him travel into faery as an adult. There he meets the faery Queen and later the King before having to give up the star to the next young boy.

A set of lovely tales. My favourite was Smith of Wootton Major and my least favourite (if you could call it that!) was Farmer Giles of Ham. Smith was very original and engaging whereas Farmer Giles was similar to lots of other tales and also had elements of Roverandom to it. ( )