‘Roverandom:’ Tolkien’s little-known children’s story

Roverandom is the endearing tale of a little dog’s adventures after being turned into a toy by a wizard. Tolkien originally told this story to his children after one of them had lost a toy dog on vacation. After searching for the lost toy unsuccessfully, Tolkien devised Roverandom to help explain what happened to the toy. Years later, he put the story into the book format we now have.

The story begins with a small dog named Rover playing with a ball. A wizard comes along and takes the ball and taunts Rover by not giving it back. Rover then makes the mistake of biting the wizard’s pants, leaving a large tear. The wizard, whose name is Artaxerxes, then turns Rover into a toy because of it. Rover’s size was also dramatically decreased. Rover was then bought by a woman who gave it to her children, who in turn lost Rover on a beach.

It was here that Rover met the sand-sorcerer Psamathos Psamathides. Psamathos turned him back into a normal dog again but could not do anything about his size. After a while, Psamathos sent him on his way to the moon. On the moon, Rover met the Man-in-the-Moon, and his dog also named Rover. In order to keep from mixing up the two Rovers, the Man-in-the-Moon names the Rover from earth Roverandom. Together, the two Rovers go on many adventures and get into much trouble on the moon. While on the moon, Rover met the children who come to the moon in their dreams. One of the children was the little boy who had lost him on the beach. Rover wished to stay with the boy but the Man-in-the-Moon had other plans.

The Man-in-the-Moon then sent Rover back to earth, to meet again with Psamathos. Before he does, however, he tells Rover that Artaxerxes has married the mer-king’s daughter, and is now the resident magician of the ocean. Upon Rover’s return to earth, Psamathos tries to undo Artaxerxes spell on Rover but is unsuccessful. He then sends Rover to the Deep Blue Sea, to beg the wizard’s pardon, to be able to regain his normal size and return to his home.

Rover tries to get Artaxerxes to change him back to his normal size but is unsuccessful because the wizard keeps saying that he is busy and cannot be bothered. In the Deep Blue Sea, Rover meets Mrs. Artaxerxes’s mer-dog and together they go on many adventures. In the Deep Blue Sea, there lives a sea serpent that has been sleeping for quite some time. When the serpent rolled over, the entire ocean quaked. Artaxerxes is sent to investigate and while doing so, Rover, who is quite mad at the wizard for not giving him his normal size back causes the serpent to become angry. The serpent then causes a few disasters while Artaxerxes works on a spell to put it to sleep. Instead of making the serpent sleepy, the spell makes him quite angry. The serpent then tells the wizard to go away and that if he ever came back or put a single foot in the ocean again, he would be eaten.

Of course, Artaxerxes leaves with his wife and Rover for dry land. Finally, after reaching shore, Artaxerxes changes Rover back into a normal-sized dog. Rover then returns home to find that he belongs to the grandmother of the little boy he met on the moon.

Overall, Roverandom was a delightful read, definitely geared toward a younger audience, written in typical Tolkien fashion, with numerous beautiful descriptions of Rover’s surroundings. The core message that can be found in Roverandom, is to be charitable to others and not seek revenge, in essence, the Golden Rule: “And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” (RSV Luke 6:31)