New Swedish translation, finally!

[Veon]

Well, for example: Fylke (the Shire) means landscape (?) in Norweigan, or so I have heard.
Erik Andersson...hm...I have heard he is a good translator. Sounds positive. *thumbs up*

Well, since Norwegian, Swedish and Danish share most of the vocabulary and the grammar (it's the spelling and pronounciation that differs) I don't really see the problem with "Fylke" for the Shire. It's not in the everyday vocabulary of Swedish, but it definitely means something.

My Oxford dictionary says the following about "shire": "(old use) a county (now used in the names of some counties in Britain, for example Hampshire, Yorkshire)" indicating that the word is not in use but still has a recognized meaning.

Therefore "Fylke" is a good translation for "the Shire" (although "the Shire" is definite while "Fylke" is indefinite, else it would have been "Fylket").
If Ohlmarks would have translated "the Shire" "Provinsen", "Landskapet", "Landet" or "Länet" it would probably have sounded just silly. "Häradet" or "Hundaret" would have worked, though.

Personally I hope the new translators keep most of Ohlmarks' names and concentrate on retranslating the text and correcting the flaws (and in this Tolkien's own examples can guide them: "Ford of Bruinen = Björnavad! Archet = Gamleby (a mere guess, I suppose, from ’archaic’?) Mountains of Lune (Ered Luin) = Månbergen; Gladden Fields (in spite of discr. in I. 62) = Ljusa Slätterna, & so on" from Letters (1981, p. 263f)).

Anders

[ February 19, 2003: Message edited by: Veon ]