Pleased to meet you, Frodo... Reppuli?

[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.

[Thinlómien]

Okay, I've finally finished my project that took over a year - I've read The Fellowship of the Ring in French!

So, here are some names for you (Mac has mentioned some on this thread, but a little repeating won't kill anyone):

The Lord of the Rings - Le Seigneur des Anneaux
The Fellowship of the Ring - La Communauté de l'Anneau
The Two Towers - Les Deux Tours
The Return of the King - Le Retour du Roi
Middle-Earth - Terre du Milieu

Frodo Baggins - Frodon Sacquet
Sam Gamgi - Sam Gamegie
Merry Brandybuck - Merry Brandebouc
Pippin Took - Pippin Touque

Strider - Grands-Pas

Bree - Bree
Crickhollow - Creux-de-Crique
Hobbiton - Hobbitebourg
Bag-End - Cul-de-Sac
The Shire - la Comté
Weathertop - le Mont Venteux

Bilbo Baggins - Bilbon Sacquet
The Sackville-Bagginses - Les Sacquet de Besace
Fatty Bolger - Gros Bolger
Ted Sandyman - Ted Rouquin
The Gaffer - l'Ancien
Barliman Butterbur - Prosper Poiredebeurré
Bill Ferny - Bill Fougeron

Black Riders - Cavaliers Noirs
Dark Lord - Seigneur Ténébreux
Mount Doom - la Montagne de Destin

Goldberry - Baie d'Or
Old Forest - la Vieille Forêt
Old Man Willow - l'Homme-Saule
Barrow-Downs - Les Hauts des Galgals
Barrow-Wight - un Etre de Galgal

Saruman of Many Colours - Saroumane le Multicolore
Gollum - Gollum

All in all, I'm afraid the translation is quite horrible. Names like "Saroumane le Multicolore" or "les Piliers d'Argonath" or "Hauts des Galgals" (although it's cute too ) totally cracked me up, they don't sound impressive like they should.

Furthermore, the translator has been incredibly lazy and unimaginative. For example, when there's the gift with the letter "G" for both garden and Galadriel, he has just made a footnote that "garden" is garden in English. (In the Finnish translation, the translator changed the letter to V so that it meant both Valtiatar "Lady" and vihreä "green", which was what a good translator should do, if you ask me.) Also, when Legolas cries "Yrch!" and Gimli says "Orcs!" the stupid translator has them saying "Des Yrch!" and "Des Orques!". Okay, we know that in such pharses we need the "des" to indicate partitive in French, but why do you have to add it to the Elvish word?!? It makes absolutely no sense that Legolas would start it as it was Westron ie French and then finish with the actual word of his language... such a silly mistake by someone who's supposed to be a professional. There are other examples like this but they annoy me so much that I won't repeat them here...

Anyway, some (albeit very few) parts sounded good in French, and I need to keep practising my language sklls, so maybe I'll read the two other parts of LotR in French some day... If I do, I'll come here again to share some more names with you.

Meanwhile, comments (and questions) are welcome and definitely new names as well!

[Morthoron]

No wonder why Tolkien disliked French. It's made his epic story sound like a bad knock-off of an Alexandre Dumas novel. En garde, Fougeron!

[skip spence]

I dunno, I have a thing for French I suppose; either it sounds very elegant or very vulgar it seems, sometimes both at the same time.

I especially liked:

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Merry Brandybuck - Merry Brandebouc

Bag-End - Cul-de-Sac

Fatty Bolger - Gros Bolger

The Gaffer - l'Ancien

If nothing else, Gros Bolger is a classic!

And Lommy, don't you think I missed your dig at Swedish...

Originally Posted by Kath

Poor Goldberry! That just doesn't sound as pretty in Swedish.

No, it does have a nice ring to it, translated it becomes something like 'Cloudberry-gold'.

Oh, the Aussie translation was great, Nerwen!

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by skip spence

And Lommy, don't you think I missed your dig at Swedish...

Oj, nu är du säkert jättearg - förlåt mig! But what do you think of the Swedish translation, by the way? Because I have heard it's bad and those examples didn't really convince me to think otherwise...

And as for the French, I personally like these two:

Crickhollow - Creux-de-Crique

Sounds funny.

Dark Lord - Seigneur Ténébreux

Sounds like a scary sorceror, doesn't it? It's much less "neutral" than the English one, I'd think...

[skip spence]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Oj, nu är du säkert jättearg - förlåt mig!

Närå, jag kan aldrig bli arg på dig. Ärligt talat är jag inte mycket till patriot heller...

But what do you think of the Swedish translation, by the way? Because I have heard it's bad and those examples didn't really convince me to think otherwise...

I know it has been criticized for a long time and quite recently LotR has also been re-translated to more accurately follow the original, both in language and names (Frodo Bagger is now Frodo Säcker fex.) The old translator, Åke Ohlmarks, did take too many liberties, not only with the names but also at times quite radically altering the text as he saw fit. The thing is, while this in principle is annoying, I must admit that I quite like his translation, even some of his alterations, as they often have a certain charm. This is probably because I first read his version of it though. I haven't read the new translation.