Pleased to meet you, Frodo... Reppuli?

[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.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Oh, the Aussie translation was great, Nerwen!

Thanks, mate!

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Dark Lord - Seigneur Ténébreux

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

Yes, that one's cool.

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Bree - Bree

Well, you couldn't very well make it "Brie", could you?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Well, you couldn't very well make it "Brie", could you?

That one wouldn't cut the mustard, or the cheese more aptly.

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by skip spence

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

Lommy var egentligen ganska snäll där. Vanligen är hon styggare när hon talar om svenska.

Skippy you should go ahead and post the new translations.

[skip spence]

Lommy var egentligen ganska snäll där. Vanligen är hon styggare när hon talar om svenska.

För tillfället är jag fylld av en nästan mordisk ilska mot allt som har med Sverige att göra (fråga inte!) och kan inte riktigt förmå mig att försvara mitt land och språk. Önskar jag kunde finska, det verkar om inte annat vara ett utmärkt språk att uttrycka svordomar och obsceniteter med.

Skippy you should go ahead and post the new translations.

Like I said, I haven't read the new translation. I tried to google some names of people and places just now but didn't find much. The new names of people and places I found made me cringe though as a rule. I suppose Åke Ohlmarks translation is too ingrained in my mind and I'm too old a dog to change now. In any case, I don't like to read translations of books written in English.

Here are a few changes I found:

Lord Of The Rings = Sagan Om Ringen -> Ringarnas Herre
Hobbiton = Hobsala -> Hobbinge
The Shire = Fylke (unchanged)
The Gaffer = 'Gubbtjuven' -> Gammelfar
Brandywine = Vinfloden -> Brännevinsfloden
Frodo Baggins = Frodo Bagger -> Frodo Secker
Bill Ferny = Bill Ferny -> Bert Färne
Goldberry = Hjortrongull -> Gyllenbär
Sackville-Baggins = Säcksta-Baggerna -> Kofferdi-Secker
Rivendell - Vattnadal -> Riftedal

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Önskar jag kunde finska, det verkar om inte annat vara ett utmärkt språk att uttrycka svordomar och obsceniteter med.

Hahaha!

Hmm, actually I think I like the new translations more, but then on the other hand I'm not used to the old ones (not having even read my Swedish copy yet ). Except for Gyllenbär. That sounds just awful. To think that I used to laugh at Hjortrongull!

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but The Hobbit was first translated like ages ago. I borrowed a copy from the library once, and it was awfully funny (but it was illustrated by Tove Jansson whom I adore). If I ever feel like reading it again, I promise to post the names here.