|
Tasting the Czech words was nice!
I'd just like to add a few comments on Lommy's list to show where the Finnish versions deviate from the literal translations (or where I believe they do it). Surely even words translated literally evoke different meanings in different languages but that would be a bit too challenging to try and point them out...
Meriadoc "Merri" Rankkibuk
- Sorry if I meddle with your nice feelings with this Kath but "rankki" actually means "distiller's grain". "Buk" then again means nothing in Finnish.
Bill Ferny = Bill Imarre
- It is a plant as well but comes pretty close to word "imarrella" which means to flatter or to cajole.
Quickbeam = Äkkipää
- "Pää" is indead "head", "end" or "top". So a "quickhead" would be simply someone who is fast at coming to conclusions, quick to act. So the connotations to wooden things to build with, to smile or to light are lost.
Brandywine = Rankkivuo
- Rankki still is "distiller's grain" and "vuo" is "stream" or "flow". So "Distiller's grain's stream".
Midgewater = Sääskisuo
- "Midgebog" or "-swamp" or "-marsh".
Weathertop = Viimapää
- "Windtop" or more adequately "Piercing wind top / head" as "viima" is no light blow of the wind but a forceful and continuos one.
Gladden Fields = Kurjenmiekkojen kenttä
- "Iris field". But here I think the translator has been pretty much the genius. The Finnish name for the Iris plant is "cranesword" (kurjen - crane's & miekka - sword). So if Tolkien was thinking of Gladiolus plant here as well as the latin word for a sword then it is a nice marriage indeed...
To sleep now. Nice thread Lommy!
__________________
Upon the hearth the fire is red
Beneath the roof there is a bed;
But not yet weary are our feet...
|