Episode 006 - Farmer Giles of Ham

Episode 6 of Fantastic Transmissions is about Farmer Giles of Ham by J. R. R. Tolkien. Ham is one of Tolkien's forays into fable and comedy, a little-read work with big ideas. I discuss some of the linguistics jokes and historical references in the work, and then talk more broadly about Tolkien's own opinions on language, nationality, and identity. 

The intro music is sampled from Clyde Borly and His Percussions, off the album "Music in Five Dimensions." The rest of the music in the podcast was created by Blue Dot Sessions. Their work can be found on the Free Music Archive under a Non-Commercial Attribution License. You can also find all their tracks at www.sessions.blue.

References and a complete transcript, as well as links to my other projects, can be found at my blog, Off Michael's Bookshelf.