LotR in Latin!

[Earendilyon]

Hiyah! Since a month ago, I'm translating the LotR into Latin! You can find the link to my site in my signature. If you have questions or comments, please post them here or mail them to me via the suggestion box at the site.

[Olorin_TLA]

Cool!

Now the Pope can read it. smilies/cool.gif

[Earendilyon]

I'm sure John Paul can read English smilies/smile.gif Besides, I've just come to the eve of the Long Expected Party with translating.

[The Barrow-Wight]

That is indeed very interesting. Could you possibly put in a section giving us some information about the translator and his/her skill with Latin? I don't know Latin, and it would be nice to know the background of the translator and the accuracy of the translation.

[Earendilyon]

As said in my first post, I'm the one doing the translation smilies/smile.gif
I've a MA in (Mediaeval) History and have done some Latin besides that at university. Currently, I'm doing another course in Latin (grammar and translation) also at university. I hope that's enough info for you. If not, please say so ....

[ October 12, 2003: Message edited by: Earendilyon ]

[Iarwain]

Sounds like a wonderfully fun task. smilies/smile.gif Perhaps I'll try something similiar in Greek, despite the fact that I probably lack about ninety-nine percent your knowledge. A delightful challenge all the same. smilies/smile.gif

Iarwain

[ October 12, 2003: Message edited by: Iarwain ]

[kittygirl02]

Actually, latin & Greek words are the base root for 99% of English words. Like for example "photos" in Latin means light, and other things related.

[Olorin_TLA]

*sniff sniff*

Poor old Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Celtic...only 1%... smilies/frown.gif smilies/wink.gif

[Iarwain]

word- OGer-"wort", L-verbum, Greek-eirein
base - L- Greek "basis"
root - OE... - L radix, Gr hriza
example -L exemplum
in - L in -Gr en
related - L relatus

Too true, too true. The true trouble is making the connections. For example, while in latin many words are easily recognizable (but by no means most), when one goes all the way back to Classical Greek, it can be fairly difficult to pick up the connections. One would hardly guess that economy can be traced back to the greek words oikia (house) and nomos (law).

Don't worry, this may seem unrelated to Tolkien, but was he not a philologist? smilies/smile.gif

Iarwain

[QuickSlash]

Man, I wish I could read Latin. Never had the time and concentration to learn. One day, maybe.

But I was wondering, is this legal? It's a great idea, but the trilogy's copyrighted. Or... does translating change things? Anyone know? I don't want to see you get hit up with a lawsuit. :\

[Earendilyon]

kittygirl, I think 99% is a bit exaggerated. There's still a whole bit of Anglo-Saxon left and even Briton (that is: Celtic) traces.
Almost all European languages can be traced back to a common source, Indo-European, though.

QuickSlash, I don't know whether this is legal or not. I've still had no emails or something concerning that smilies/smile.gif Anyway, I was not planning to publish my translation. Even if I would come to "'Well, I'm back', he said.", I don't think there's enough of a market for a Latin translation. Most reactions are of the kind you gave: 'How interesting! I would, I could read Latin. Good luck with it!' There not many people who actually can read Latin.

[Morima]

Earendilyon: That totally rocks!!

I'm in med school and we're having latin as well. In fact we have a test on wednesday, bleh. But generally I really like the subject, and it's admirable that you're *ohew!* translating LotR into latin!!

Good luck! I'll be checkin back on you.

PS: you should publish it and send a copy to the pope, lol

[Earendilyon]

Thanx, Morima!

I think, that by the time I get finished with this, we're at least three popes further down the road smilies/smile.gif

[Yavanna228]

Great job! I only got through about three years in Latin before I decided to learn Romanian. smilies/smile.gif So, I'm not particularly articulate, although I do enjoy the occasional foray into translation. Languages fascinate me, and I love learning etymologies. Good luck with you translation, Earendilyon!
Peace
PS. The present pope would probably be most comfortable with a Polish version of LOTR...

[Imladris]

Translating LOTR into Latin is impressive! About a month ago, I think, I translated one of Smeagol's riddles (the one about time) into Latin...not sure I got it right though. smilies/rolleyes.gif That would take a lot of dedication to do what you're doing...good job.

[hobbit punk]

Wow! This is so super cool! I am in grade 12 and am taking Latin in school this year. One of the first things we did was use our dictionaries to translate Latin into English and then unravel the movie title. One was dominus anulorum aka lord of the rings(sorry if my spelling is a bit off) I flipped! We are now further along and I am loving every minute of it! My teacher will be very interested in your site and I will recommend it to her and my class. My teacher also had some Dr. Seuss in Latin. She had Green Eggs and Ham and the Grinch Who Stole Christmas which translates to: quomodo invidiosulus nomine Grinchus christi natalem abrogaverit ( I think the last one is all one word). I thought it was awesome. And now LOTR in Latin. What more could I ever ask for?? smilies/biggrin.gif

[ October 19, 2003: Message edited by: hobbit punk ]

[Earendilyon]

Well, The Hobbit in Latin, for example? And The Silm, UT, HoME etc. smilies/smile.gif

[Lord of Angmar]

As one who can read and understand his share of Latin, I would say that this is very impressive Earendilyon smilies/biggrin.gif . My one criticism is this; JRR Tolkien revealed in his letters that he disliked greatly the translating of his names into other languages. Even names like 'Bag End', 'Treebeard' and 'Loudwater', which could easily be literally translated into other languages, Tolkien preferred to keep original. Tolkien said it as something to the effect of "Hobbiton is Hobbiton whether its written in English, French or Greek."

Great job!

-Angmar

[LePetitChoux]

Good luck! Wow, I can't wait till I can read that!

Would you mind me printing some out and showing my Latin Teacher? She likes random stuff like that. I promise not to say I wrote is and breach anby other copyright laws smilies/wink.gif .

[Elvish Archer]

More power to ya! I got thru about 4 years and finally burned myself out. Is there a purpose to doing this or is it just a wild hair? Not that wild hairs are bad, I get them myself. Either way, have fun!

[Earendilyon]

Angmar, JRRT also wrote a 'Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings', in which he gave guidline for the translation of many names, especially the ones rendered in English (which he translated from the Common Speech).

[Earendilyon]

LePetitChoux, ofcourse I do not mind! Ask her to mail me via the my site or via you through BarrowDowns any comment she might have. The more the better smilies/smile.gif

Elvish Archer, I'm afraid, I've not much hair left anymore, let alone wild hairs! smilies/wink.gif But, to answer your question: for most part, it's for my own fun and out of my love for Latin and for the LotR.

[Sharkû]

My Latin never was good enough to be begin with (and has since deteriorated) to judge the 'quality' of your translation, but I felt it read quite well.

One interesting challenge I could imagine would be non-Westron words, esp. names. Since you are equating Westron with Latin, you could also equate Germanic or Celtic hobbit names taken from legends and other sources with mythologically heavy names, such as from the Iliad. That could be linguistically thrilling. Obviously, it would feel strange to have names from the middle ages in a text in classic Latin (unless you take it again as a 'translation' from mediaeval Latin... the possibilities!).

Harder to translate might be the Old English, unless you're feeling bold and use 'latinized' Greek...

The difference in style, especially the courteous forms in Gondorian Westron vs. their lack in hobbit Westron could prove interesting as well. Vulgar Latin, as traditioned in the Cena Trimalchionis (Petron's Satyricon) springs to mind as one possibility to form a contrast.

[Earendilyon]

Sharkû, I fel that doing that would put too much of my own (or better: your smilies/wink.gif) ideas into the translation, if I did that name thing.
As to Higher versus Lower language use: I'm not skilled enough (yet?) in Latin to endeavour that. I'm just trying to translate the LotR into 'regular Latin'.
To be honest: I hope to learn Latin that good, I can read it as good as my own language (or at least as good as German smilies/smile.gif). Also I hope Latin will be learned and used a lot more and I hope this translation may play a part in that.

[Melephelwen]

Wow! I 'flipped' through the first part. I've only learned Latin for a few months, so it doesn't really make any sence to me at all. But I think it's cool, and I would like to read it and learn things etc.
So I was wondering if anybody had ideas to where to get a dictionary? The one I have is well, very poor. It's only ment for the publisher to be able to say "we have a dictionary in Latin" - you can't really find much in it.
Anyway, good luck! smilies/smile.gif

[ October 23, 2003: Message edited by: Melephelwen ]

[Earendilyon]

Thanx, Melephelwen! I hope you enjoy reading it.

As for the dictionary, I think the better bookshop will have some. Maybe you should try one which also sells books for college/university students. Furthermore, you could try via the Internet, or at secondhand bookshops. Most books I buy, I get from secondhand bookshops; much cheaper smilies/smile.gif

[Earendilyon]

I've added some new line today, btw. I've reached: But they never got tired of them.

[Earendilyon]

I created a new site for my translation project. You can find it through the link in my sig, or here (http://www.geocities.com/dominusanulorum/).

[Dimaldaeon]

Sorry to interrupt but does anyone know of a translation of LOTR "as Gaeilge" as me and my dad would kill to see it. They've only released an Irish Harry Potter recently, long after the Latin and Welsh versions came out. Why are we always left out (Oh yeah because less than 10% of the population speak the language
smilies/rolleyes.gif

[ November 01, 2003: Message edited by: Dimaldaeon ]

[Earendilyon]

Last weekend, I finally finished translating Chapter 1, An Long Expected Party !! See my site if you're interested.

[Elonve]

Latin is a language,
as dead as dead could be!
First it killed the Romans
and now its killing me!

I had to take latin for a term for music because we were learning Motzart's requim... It was really difficult ! oh well good luck in transilating but i won't be able to read it... :confused:
________
Expert insurance (http://xpertinsurance.com/)

[Earendilyon]

Indeed, Latin is not an easy language; but I like it :)

[Firefoot]

I think what you're doing is really cool. I'm still taking Latin, so I don't know enough to actually read it, but it's fun to go through and pick out familiar phrases and such.

Keep up the good work! :)

[Encaitare]

This sounds really cool! I'm trying to learn Latin, so maybe this will help me along. Keep it up -- and kudos for taking on such a task! :)

[Joy]

Wow, I didn't realize that you had a MA in History :)

I have read over your project. Quite impressive. I took Latin in HS and would lov to continue it, but there is no Uni in our area that teaches it.

Alas, it has bee 14 years since my Latin excursions.