Tolkien Translations - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Guinevere · 10-14-2003, 03:36 PM

Thank you for your very interesting contributions, Earendilyon and HerenIstarion! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Wow, what a task, to try and translate the LotR to Latin resp. to Georgian! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

(btw: how can you translate such things as "potatoes" and "smoking a pipe" to latin?!)

I knew about the existance of this "Guide to the Names in the LotR" .But then I read the above quoted letters and wondered... So eventually Tolkien must have given in?? [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

It's perhaps just because I read the original first that I was so much put off by all those translated names (for exactly those reasons that Tolkien gives in his letters)! After all, there are countless books by English spoken authors and nobody would think of adapting names and place-names in the translation to other languages!

I think also it must be confusing for those who read it first in their own language and got used to the names, and then read it in English...
Even in the old and the new German translation, the names are not always the same! eg: "Cotton" is "Hüttinger" in the old and "Kattun"(which refers only to the textile and not to the cottage) in the new edition!

I am also reading and writing in a German Tolkien Forum. It is impossible to ask any quotes in the Quiz there because of the differences!

[ October 14, 2003: Message edited by: Guinevere ]

10-14-2003, 03:36 PM	#23
Guinevere Banshee of Camelot Join Date: May 2002 Location: Switzerland Posts: 5,830	Thank you for your very interesting contributions, Earendilyon and HerenIstarion! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Wow, what a task, to try and translate the LotR to Latin resp. to Georgian! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] (btw: how can you translate such things as "potatoes" and "smoking a pipe" to latin?!) I knew about the existance of this "Guide to the Names in the LotR" .But then I read the above quoted letters and wondered... So eventually Tolkien must have given in?? [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] It's perhaps just because I read the original first that I was so much put off by all those translated names (for exactly those reasons that Tolkien gives in his letters)! After all, there are countless books by English spoken authors and nobody would think of adapting names and place-names in the translation to other languages! I think also it must be confusing for those who read it first in their own language and got used to the names, and then read it in English... Even in the old and the new German translation, the names are not always the same! eg: "Cotton" is "Hüttinger" in the old and "Kattun"(which refers only to the textile and not to the cottage) in the new edition! I am also reading and writing in a German Tolkien Forum. It is impossible to ask any quotes in the Quiz there because of the differences! [ October 14, 2003: Message edited by: Guinevere ] __________________ Yes! "wish-fulfilment dreams" we spin to cheat our timid hearts, and ugly Fact defeat!