Does LotR have cross-cultural appeal?

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Originally Posted by davem

This is an interesting point, as in the latest Mallorn (Journal of the Tolkien Society) there's an article 'Traitors & Translators: three German translations of LotR'. Apparently the latest one, by Wolfgang Krege, has taken an approach of translating the work into a contemporary German idiom...

I don't know of three translations in German, but I have looked briefly into both the old and new. The latter is rejected by many German fans because it doesn't do the spirit of the work justice, yet the former is a bit wooden. Quite frankly, since I read the original first, I can't get myself to settle for second or third best, so I don't read the translations.

I have often experienced a similar effect with other books, movies, TV shows, etc. - if I read or saw them in German first, they didn't always appeal to me. Only when I had the opportunity to read/see the original did the fascination get to me. Can the magic be translated? Just the words are not enough.