Pleased to meet you, Frodo... Reppuli?

[Nerwen]

Thankyou!

[Macalaure]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Well, Tolkien's premise was that he was using Anglo Saxon (Old English) names to "translate" the Rohirric ones, so it shouldn't be that surprising.

Well, I didn't know that back then, so it was surprising to me.

But still, I think it's interesting to see how these Old English names can pass as Modern German names so seamlessly.

[Nerwen]

For that matter, the German-translated names you listed, Macalaure, didn't sound "alien" to me in the way that the Finnish or Czech ones did (me being a native English speaker).

I agree with you that Kankra is just wrong. The translator must have been trying to copy the way Tolkien came up with Shelob, which is simply "she" + "lob" (dialect word for a spider).

[Macalaure]

Generally, I think the idea to create a German name for Shelob by following the way Tolkien originally invented that name is a good one. It's a part of making the whole universe of Middle-earth feel familiar to a speaker of a foreign language.

However, there simply had to be a way for them to come up with something better than "Kankra".

[Nerwen]

I know. "Shelob" sounds scary. "Kankra"... nothing much. Could be a disease.

In this case I think the translator may as well have kept "Shelob". The name doesn't mean anything in Standard English anyway.

By the way–

If anyone is curious about the words "bunyip" and "yowie" (from the celebrated Australian translation), they refer to legendary monsters.

A yowie is a large shaggy humanoid (like a yeti). A bunyip is a water monster that lurks in lakes, swamps and, of course, billabongs, preying on unwary swimmers. Nobody knows what they look like, since nobody has ever seen one and lived to tell the tale.

On the other hand, everyone in Australia knows someone whose friend's uncle saw a yowie one night.

[Macalaure]

It's not whether a name means something or not, I think, but how it feels and how it fits into the sound of the language surrounding it. Having Shelob in the German translation would not have felt right (not to mention that it sounds ridiculous when pronounced German ).

I've read "The Bunyip in the Billabong" for the umpteenth time now, but it still makes me chuckle.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Macalaure

It's not whether a name means something or not, I think, but how it feels and how it fits into the sound of the language surrounding it.

True, but maybe a meaningless sound-name would have been better? Historically, names have very often been adapted to the form of the new language, without worrying about the meaning.

Now, as regards bunyips: don't laugh– many of us half-believe in them.

A friend of mine was camping in a remote part of Tasmania. In the night she heard a horrible snarling outside (actually a Tasmanian devil), and she panicked: "Help! They told me bunyips weren't real!"

Actually, you can laugh.