Roverandom

Roverandom
Hardback edition, featuring Tolkien's illustration of a fantasized moonscape
EditorChristina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond
AuthorJ. R. R. Tolkien
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's literature
PublisherHarperCollins (UK)
Publication date
1998
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
Pages144 (hardback)
ISBN978-0007523283
Preceded byThe Peoples of Middle-earth 
Followed byThe Children of Húrin 

Roverandom is a novella by J. R. R. Tolkien, originally told in 1925, about the adventures of a young dog, Rover. In the story, an irritable wizard turns Rover into a toy, and Rover goes to the Moon and under the sea in order to find the wizard again to turn him back into a normal-sized dog. The author wrote Roverandom for his son Michael to amuse him upon the loss of his favourite toy, a little leaden dog which he lost on a beach of grey shingle stones the same size and colour as the toy. The work is in tone a children's story, but contains many allusions and references in the manner of Farmer Giles of Ham.

It was submitted for publication in 1937 after the success of The Hobbit, but was not published for over sixty years, finally being released in 1998. Roverandom was included in the collection Tales from the Perilous Realm from its 2009 reprinting onwards.