Translations of The Lord of the Rings

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The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien appeared 1954–55 in the original English. It has since been translated, with various degrees of success, into dozens of other languages.[1] Tolkien, an expert in Germanic philology, scrutinized those that were under preparation during his lifetime, and had comments that reflect both the translation process and his work. To aid translators, and because he was unhappy with some choices made by early translators such as Åke Ohlmarks,[2] Tolkien wrote his Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (1967).

Because The Lord of the Rings purports to be a translation of the Red Book of Westmarch, with the English language in the original purporting to represent the Westron of the original, translators need to imitate the complex interplay between English and non-English (Elvish) nomenclature in the book. An additional difficulty is the presence of proper names in Old English (names of the Rohirrim) and Old Norse ("external" names of Dwarves). Their relation to English (within the history of English, and of the Germanic languages more generally, respectively) is intended to reflect the relation of the purported "original" names to Westron.

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[edit] Early translations

The first translations of The Lord of the Rings to be prepared were those in Dutch (1956-7, Max Schuchart) and Swedish (1959-60, Åke Ohlmarks). Both took considerable liberties with their material, apparent already from the rendition of the title, In de Ban van de Ring "In the Lure of the Ring" and Sagan om ringen "The Tale of the Ring", respectively. Later translations, beginning with the Polish Władca Pierścieni in 1961, universally render the title in literal translations, with the exception of Japanese 指輪物語 "Legend of the Ring".

Tolkien in both the Dutch and the Swedish case objected strongly while the translations were in progress, in particular regarding the adaptation of proper names. Despite lengthy correspondence, Tolkien did not succeed in convincing the Dutch translator of his objections, and was similarly frustrated in the Swedish case.

[edit] Dutch translation (Schuchart)

Regarding the Dutch version, he wrote

In principle I object as strongly as is possible to the 'translation' of the nomenclature at all (even by a competent person). I wonder why a translator should think himself called on or entitled to do any such thing. That this is an 'imaginary' world does not give him any right to remodel it according to his fancy, even if he could in a few months create a new coherent structure which it took me years to work out. [...] May I say at once that I will not tolerate any similar tinkering with the personal nomenclature. Nor with the name/word Hobbit. (3 July 1956, to Rayner Unwin, Letters, pp. 249-51).

Schuchart's translation as of 2008 remains the only authorized translation in Dutch. However, there is an unauthorized translation by E.J. Mensink-van Warmelo, dating to the late 1970s.[3] A revision of Schuchert's translation was initiated in 2003, but the publisher Uitgeverij M decided against publication of the revised version.

[edit] Swedish translation (Ohlmarks)

Further information: Åke Ohlmarks

Åke Ohlmarks (1911–1984) was a prolific translator, who during his career besides Tolkien published Swedish versions of Shakespeare, Dante and the Qur'an. His translation of The Lord of the Rings, however, was intensely disliked by Tolkien, more so even than Shuchart's Dutch translation, as is evident from a 1957 letter to Rayner Unwin:

The enclosure that you brought from Almqvist &c. was both puzzling and irritating. A letter in Swedish from fil. dr. Åke Ohlmarks, and a huge list (9 pages foolscap) of names in the L.R. which he had altered. I hope that my inadequate knowledge of Swedish - no better than my kn. of Dutch, but I possess a v. much better Dutch dictionary! - tends to exaggerate the impression I received. The impression remains, nonetheless, that Dr. Ohlmarks is a conceited person, less competent than charming Max Schuchart, though he thinks much better of himself. (Letters, 263)

Examples singled out by Tolkien in the same letter:

Ford of Bruinen = Björnavad! ("Bear-Ford")
Archet = Gamleby (a mere guess, I suppose, from 'archaic'?)
Mountains of Lune (Ered Luin) = Månbergen; ("Moon Mountains")
Gladden Fields (in spite of descr. in I. 62) = Ljusa slätterna "Bright Plains"

Other dubious translations include Vattnadal "Water-dale" for Rivendell, apparently by way of taking riven for river. Snigelöv "Snail-leavings" for Esgaroth, apparently by association with French escargot "snail". The Ent Quickbeam becomes Snabba solstrålen "Swift Sunbeam", apparently taking beam in the sense of "beam of light" in spite of all Ents having "arboreal" names. Ohlmarks also appears to have forgotten what choices he had already made, and renders Isengard variously as Isengard, Isengård, Isendor or Isendal.

In terms of style, Ohlmark's prose is hyperbolic and laden with poetic archaisms even where the original uses simple or even laconic language. The translation also contains numerous factual errors, straightforward mistranslations of idiomatic expressions and other non-sequiturs, such as

"Three stars and seven stones / And the whitest tree you may see." (Sagan om de två tornen 233) for
"Seven stars and seven stones / And one white tree." (The Lord of the Rings 620).

Ohlmarks' translation remained the only one available in Swedish for forty years, and until his death in 1984, Ohlmarks remained impervious to the numerous complaints and calls for revision from readers. After The Silmarillion was published in 1977, Christopher Tolkien consented to a Swedish translation only on the condition that Ohlmarks have nothing to do with it. After a fire in his home in 1982, Ohlmarks incoherently charged Tolkien fans with arson, and subsequently he published a book connecting Tolkien with "black magic" and Nazism, including fanciful constructions such as deriving the name Saruman from "SA man" with an interposed Ruhm "glory", and conspiracy theories surrounding The Tolkien Society.[4]

Ohlmarks' translation has only been superseded in 2005 by a new translation by Erik Andersson and Lotta Olsson.

[edit] Tolkien's "commentary"

The Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings is a guideline on the nomenclature in The Lord of the Rings compiled by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1966 to 1967, intended for the benefit of translators, especially for translations into Germanic languages. The first translations to profit from the guideline were those into Danish (Ida Nyrop Ludvigsen) and German (Margaret Carroux), both appearing 1972.

Frustrated by his experience with the Dutch and Swedish translations, Tolkien asked that

when any further translations are negotiated, [...] I should be consulted at an early stage. [...] After all, I charge nothing, and can save a translator a good deal of time and puzzling; and if consulted at an early stage my remarks will appear far less in the light of peevish criticisms (7 December 1957 to Rayner Unwin, Letters, p. 263).

With a view to the planned Danish translation, Tolkien decided to take action in order to avoid similar disappointments in the future. On 2 January 1967 he wrote to Otto B. Lindhardt, of the Danish publisher Gyldendals Bibliotek:

I have therefore recently been engaged in making, and have nearly com­pleted, a commentary on the names in this story, with explanations and suggestions for the use of a translator, having especially in mind Danish and German (Tolkien-George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins, cited after Hammond and Scull 2005).

Photocopies of this "commentary" were sent to translators of The Lord of the Rings by Allen & Unwin from 1967. After Tolkien's death, it was published as Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings, edited by Christopher Tolkien in A Tolkien Compass (1975). Hammond and Scull (2005) have newly transcribed and slightly edited Tolkien's typescript, and re-published it under the title of Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien uses the abbreviations CS for "Common Speech, in original text represented by English", and LT for the target language of the translation. His approach is the prescription that if in doubt, a proper name should not be altered but left as it appears in the English original:

"All names not in the following list should be left entirely unchanged in any language used in translation (LT), except that inflexional s, es should be rendered according to the grammar of the LT."

The names in English form, such as Dead Marshes, should be translated straightforwardly, while the names in Elvish should be left unchanged. The difficult cases are those names where

"the author, acting as translator of Elvish names already devised and used in this book or elsewhere, has taken pains to produce a CS name that is both a translation and also (to English ears) a euphonious name of familiar English style, even if it does not actually occur in England."

An example of such a case is Rivendell, the translation of Sindarin Imladris "Glen of the Cleft", or Westernesse, the translation of Númenor. The list gives suggestions for "old, obsolescent, or dialectal words in the Scandinavian and German languages".

[edit] German translation (Carroux)

For Shire, Tolkien endorses the Gouw of the Dutch version and remarks that German Gau "seems to me suitable in Ger., unless its recent use in regional reorganization under Hitler has spoilt this very old word."

The German translator, Margaret Carroux, decided that this was indeed the case, and opted for the more artificial Auenland "meadow-land" instead. Rivendell Tolkien considered as a particularly difficult case, and recommends to "translate by sense, or retain as seems best." Carroux (1972) opted for literal translation, Bruchtal. Another difficult case is the name of Shelob, formed from the pronoun she plus lob, a dialectal word for "spider" (according to Tolkien; the OED is only aware of its occurrence in Middle English). Tolkien doesn't give any prescription; he merely notes that "The Dutch version retains Shelob, but the Swed. has the rather feeble Honmonstret ["she-monster"]." Carroux chose Kankra, an artificial feminine formation from dialectal German Kanker "Opiliones" (cognate to cancer).

The name "Baggins" was rendered as Beutlin (containing the word Beutel meaning "bag"), and "Elf" was rendered as Elb, the plural Elves as Elben. The choice reflects Tolkien's suggestion:

"With regard to German: I would suggest with diffidence that Elf, elfen, are perhaps to be avoided as equivalents of Elf, elven. Elf is, I believe, borrowed from English, and may retain some of the associations of a kind that I should particularly desire not to be present (if possible): e.g. those of Drayton or of A Midsummer Night's Dream [...] I wonder whether the word Alp (or better still the form Alb, still given in modern dictionaries as a variant, which is historically the more normal form) could not be used. It is the true cognate of English elf [...] The Elves of the 'mythology' of The L.R. are not actually equatable with the folklore traditions about 'fairies', and as I have said (Appendix F[...]) I should prefer the oldest available form of the name to be used, and leave it to acquire its own associations for readers of my tale.

The Elb chosen by Carroux instead of the suggested Alb is a construction by Jacob Grimm in his 1835 Teutonic Mythology. Grimm, like Tolkien, notes that German Elf is a loan from the English, and argues for the revival of the original German cognate, which survived in the adjective elbisch and in composed names like Elbegast. Grimm also notes that the correct plural of Elb would be Elbe, but Carroux does not follow in this and uses the plural Elben, denounced by Grimm as incorrect in his German Dictionary (s.v. Alb).

[edit] Russian translations

Interest in Russia awoke soon after the publication of The Lord of the Rings in 1955, long before the first Russian translation. A first effort at publication was made in the 1960s, but in order to comply with literary censorship in Soviet Russia, the work was considerably abridged and transformed. The ideological danger of the book was seen in the "hidden allegory 'of the conflict between the individualist West and the totalitarian, Communist East.'" (Markova 2006), while, ironically, Marxist readings in the west conversely identified Tolkien's anti-indus­trial ideas as presented in the Shire with primitive communism, in a struggle with the evil forces of technocratic capitalism.

Russian translations of The Lord of the Rings circulated as samizdat and were published only after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but then in great numbers, no less than ten official Russian translations appeared between 1990 and 2005 (Markova 2006). Tolkien fandom in Russia grew especially rapidly during the early 1990s at Moscow State University. Many unofficial and partly fragmentary translations are in circulation. The first translation appearing in print was that by Kistyakovskij and Muraev (volume 1, published 1982).

Russian translations and retellings of The Lord of the Rings:

translation publication translator comment
1966 1990 Z. A. Bobyr; Зинаида Анатольевна Бобырь short retelling, published as "Повесть о Кольце" (1990), "Властители Колец" (1991)
1976 2002 A. A. Gruzberg; Александр Абрамович Грузберг translation, as "Повелитель Колец". published in 2002 in Yekaterinburg (with the poem translated by A. V. Zastyrets ).
1970s unpublished S. L. Koshelev; Сергей Львович Кошелев fragments
1982, 1991-1992 A. A. Kistyakovskij (prologue and first book), V. S. Muravev (second book, poems); Андрей Андреевич Кистяковский, Владимир Сергеевич Муравьев In 1982, only the first volume was published in abridged form due to Soviet censorship. For close to a decade, this was the only version of The Lord of the Rings publicly available in Russia. The full translation appeared in 1991-1992.
1984 1991 N. Grivoreva, V. Grushetskij, I. B. Grinshpun (poems); Наталья Григорьева, Владимир Грушецкий и И.Б.Гриншпун
1980s unpublished N. Estel; Н.Эстель
1980s 1991 V. A. Matorinoj; В.А.М. the translation dates to the mid to late 1980s, first published in 1991 with Amur, Khabarovsk, 2nd ed. Eksmo, Moscow. Matorinoj worked from bootlegged microfiche copies of the Library of Foreign Literature, Moscow, and the translation was in limited circulation in manuscript form.
1985 2002 A. V. Nemirova; Алина Владимировна Немирова the translation dates to the period 1985-1987, 1991-1992 and appeared with Folio, Kharkov in 2002.
1989 unpublished A. I. Alyohin; А.И.Алёхин Audio record of a Russian translation of volumes 2 and 3, based on the Polish translation of Maria Skibniewska.
1994 Mariya Kamenovich, V. Kappik, S. Stepanov (poems); Мария Каменкович, Валерий Каррик, Сергей Степанов based on the translation by Matorinoj ("В.А.М."), Kamenovich and Kappik provide a detailed commentary on the themes of Christianity and Germanic mythology as they appear in the work.
1990s unpublished K. Kinn; Кэтрин Кинн fragments
1990s unpublished I. Zabelina; Ирина Забелина
1999 L. Yahnin; Леонид Яхнин abridged retelling for children.
2000 V. E. Volkovskij, V. Vosedoj; Виталий Эдуардович Волковский, В.Воседой
2002 M. Belous; М.Белоус retelling
2003 I. I. Mansurov; И.И.Мансуров volumes 1 and 2 only

[edit] List of translations

The number of languages into which Tolkien's works has been translated is subject to some debate. HarperCollins explicitly lists 37 languages for which translations of "The Hobbit and/or The Lord of the Rings" exist:

Basque, Breton, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Marathi, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (European, Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish.[5]

For some of these languages, there is a translation of The Hobbit, but not of The Lord of the Rings. For some languages, there is more than one translation of The Lord of the Rings. These notably include Russian, besides Swedish, German, Polish and Slovenian.

Comparatively few translations appeared during Tolkien's lifetime: when Tolkien died on 2 September 1973, the Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Italian, Danish, German and French translations had been published completely, and the Japanese and Finnish ones in part. The Russian translations are a special case because many unpublished and unauthorized translations circulated in the 1970s and 1980s Soviet Union, which were gradually published from the 1990s.

language title year translator publisher ISBN
Dutch In de Ban van de Ring 1957 Max Schuchart Het Spectrum, Utrecht
Swedish Sagan om ringen 1959 to 1961 Åke Ohlmarks Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm ISBN 9119129610 (Pan Pocket)
Polish Władca Pierścieni 1961 to 1963 Maria Skibniewska (poems by Włodzimierz Lewik and Andrzej Nowicki))
Italian Il Signore degli Anelli 1967 to 1970 Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca Bompiani
Danish Ringenes Herre 1968 to 1972 Ida Nyrop Ludvigsen[6] Gyldendal, Copenhagen ISBN 9788702043204
Norwegian Krigen om ringen 1971 to 1973 Nils Werenskiold
German Der Herr der Ringe 1969 to 1970 Margaret Carroux and Ebba-Margareta von Freymann (poems) Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart ISBN 9783608936667
French Le Seigneur des anneaux 1972 to 1973 Francis Ledoux Christian Bourgois
Japanese 『指輪物語』 Yubiwa Monogatari 1972 to 1975 Teiji Seta
Finnish Taru sormusten herrasta 1973 to 1975 Kersti Juva, Eila Pennanen, Panu Pekkanen
Portuguese O Senhor dos Anéis 1975 António Rocha and Alberto Monjardim Artenova, Publicações Europa-América
Russian Властелин колец Vlastelin kolec 1976 (publ. 2002) A. A. Gruzberg
Greek Ο Άρχοντας των Δαχτυλιδιών O Arhontas ton Dahtilidion 1978 Eugenia Chatzithanasi-Kollia Kedros, Athens ISBN 9600403082
Hebrew שר הטבעות Sar ha-Tabbaot 1979 to 1980 Ruth Livnit
Norwegian Ringenes herre 1980 to 1981 Torstein Bugge Høverstad
Spanish El Señor de los Anillos 1980 Matilde Horne, Luis Domènech and Rubén Masera Círculo de lectores, Barcelona ISBN 8445070320 (Minotauro)
Russian Властелин колец Vlastelin kolec 1982 to 1992 V. S. Muravev (2nd to 6th books, poems), A. A. Kistyakovskij (first book)
Russian Властелин колец Vlastelin kolec 1984 (publ. 1991) H. V. Grigoreva and V. I. Grushetskij and I. B. Grinshpun (poems) Severo-Zapad ISBN 5718300038, ISBN 5352003124 (Azbuka)
Hungarian A Gyűrűk Ura 1985 Réz Ádám and Göncz Árpád and Tandori Dezső (poems) Európa Könyvkiadó, Budapest
Catalan El Senyor dels Anells 1986 to 1988 Francesc Parcerisas Vicens Vives, Barcelona ISBN 84-316-6868-7
Czech Pán Prstenů 1990 to 1992 Stanislava Pošustová Mladá fronta, Praha ISBN 8020401059, 8020401945, 8020402594
Icelandic Hringadróttinssaga 1993 to 1995 Þorsteinn Thorarensen and Geir Kristjánsson (poems) Fjölvi, Reykjavík
Lithuanian Žiedų valdovas 1994 Andryus Tapinas and Zonas Strelkunas
Croatian Gospodar prstenova 1995 Zlatko Crnković
Slovenian Gospodar prstanov 1995 Polona Mertelj, Primož Pečovnik, Zoran Obradovič
Esperanto La Mastro de l' Ringoj 1995 to 1997 William Auld
Estonian Sõrmuste Isand 1996 to 1998 Ene Aru and Votele Viidemann Tiritamm, Tallinn ISBN 9985550390, ISBN 9985550463, ISBN 9985550498
Serbian Господар Прстенова Gospodar Prstenova 1996 Zoran Stanojević
Polish Władca Pierścieni 1996 to 1997 Jerzy Łozinski and Mark Obarski (poems)
Bulgarian Властелинът на пръстените Vlastelinăt na prăstenite 1990-1991 Lyubomir Nikolov Narodna Kultura Sofia
German Der Herr der Ringe 2000 Wolfgang Krege Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart ISBN 9783608936391
Russian Властелин колец Vlastelin kolec 2002 V. Volkovskij, V. Vosedov, D. Afinogenova М:АСТ ISBN 5170162650
Portuguese (BRA) O Senhor dos Anéis 2000 to 2001 Lenita M. R. Esteves and Almiro Pisetta Martins Fontes ISBN 8533602928
Polish Władca Pierścieni 2001 Books I,II,II,IV : Maria and Cezary Frąc ; Book V : Aleksandra Januszewska ; Book VI : Aleksandra Jagiełowicz ; Poems : Tadeusz A. Olszański ; Appendices: Ryszard Derdziński Amber, Warszawa
Slovenian Gospodar prstanov 2001 Branko Gradišnik
Slovak Pán prsteňov 2001 to 2002 Otakar Kořínek and Braňo Varsik
Galician O Señor dos Aneis 2001 to 2002 Moisés R. Barcia Xerais, Vigo ISBN 84-8302-682-1
Chinese 魔戒之王 mó jiè zhī wáng 2001 to 2002 Lucifer Chu (朱學恆)[7]
Macedonian Gospodarot na prstenite 2002 Romeo Širilov, Ofelija Kaviloska
Basque Eraztunen Jauna 2002 to 2003 Agustin Otsoa Eribeko Txalaparta, Tafalla ISBN 8481362581
Indonesian Raja Segala Cincin 2002 to 2003 Anton Adiwiyoto, Gita K. Yuliani Gramedia, Jakarta
Latvian Gredzenu Pavēlnieks 2002 to 2004 Ieva Kolmane Jumava, Rīga ISBN 9984055795
Farsi ‌ها ارباب حلقه Ha Arbāb-i Halqih 2002 to 2004 Riza Alizadih Rawzanih, Tehran ISBN 964334116X, ISBN 9643341399, ISBN 9643341739
Ukrainian Володар Перснів Volodar persteniv 2003 A. V. Nemirova
Albanian Lordi i unazave 2003 Artan Miraka
Faroese Ringanna Harri 2003 to 2005 Axel Tórgarð Stiðin, Hoyvík ISBN 999184239X
Ukrainian Володар перстенів Volodar persteniv 2004 to 2005 Olena Feshovets and Nazar Fedorak (poems) Astrolabia, Lviv ISBN 9668657187
Swedish Ringarnas herre 2004 to 2005 Erik Andersson[8] and Lotta Olsson (poems) Norstedts ISBN 9113011537
Norwegian (Nynorsk) Ringdrotten 2006 Eilev Groven Myhren Tiden Norsk Forlag, Oslo ISBN 8205365598
Arabic سيد الخواتم 2008 هشام فهمي - محمد أبو عمر [citation needed]


[edit] References

  1. ^ "How many languages have The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings been translated into?". Retrieved on 3 June 2006.
  2. ^ Letters, 305f.; c.f. Martin Andersson "Lord of the Errors or, Who Really Killed the Witch-King?"
  3. ^ Mark T. Hooker, "Dutch Samizdat: The Mensink-van Warmelo Translation of The Lord of the Rings," in Translating Tolkien: Text and Film, Walking Tree Publishers, 2004, pp. 83-92.[1]
  4. ^ Tolkien och den svarta magin (1982), ISBN 9789175740539.
  5. ^ FAQ at tolkien.co.uk
  6. ^ a special edition of 1977 included illustrations by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, working under the pseudonym of Ingahild Grathmer.
  7. ^ Turning fantasy into a reality that helps others Gavin Phipps, Taipei Times, 6 March 2005, page 18.
  8. ^ published Översättarens anmärkningar "translator's notes" in 2007 (ISBN 9789113016092)

[edit] See also

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