Tolkien wrote the poem as a form of entertainment for his children, but by 1934 it had been published in The Oxford Magazine. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil began as a single poem, inspired by a Dutch doll belonging to Tolkien's son, Michael. Tolkien wrote the works contained within The Tolkien Reader in different contexts and for different purposes. They are also the only parts of the book which were written in the same year that The Tolkien Reader was published. The “Publisher’s Note” and “Tolkien’s Magic Ring” are the only works in the book which Tolkien did not write. 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son' was first printed in an academic journal in 1953. The book Farmer Giles of Ham was published in 1949, and unlike The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Tree and Leaf, it did not merge previously published material, although unpublished versions of the story had existed since the 1920s. It was published as a book bearing the same name in 1964, and consists of material initially published in the 1940s. The section titled Tree and Leaf is also a reprint. They were reprinted together with a variety of other poems in the book The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in 1962, and the entire book was included in The Tolkien Reader in 1966. The earliest published pieces are the poems 'The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late' and 'The Hoard', both of which were first published in 1923. Most of these works appeared in journals, magazines, or books years before the publication of The Tolkien Reader. It was published in 1966 by Ballantine Books in the USA. It compiles material previously published as three separate shorter books ( Tree and Leaf, Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil), together with one additional piece and introductory material. It includes a variety of short stories, poems, a play and some non-fiction.

The Tolkien Reader is an anthology of works by J. Xvi, 24, 112, 79, 64 pp (contents separately paginated)

Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien