Tolkien Translations - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Guinevere · 01-25-2003, 10:09 AM

Ah, but Prof.Shippey mentions this example also in his book (Tolkien, author of the Century):

"it is a bad mark for the socially aspiring branch of the Baggins family that they have tried to Frenchify themselves and disguise their origins: they call themselves the Sackville-Bagginses, as if they came from a "ville" (or villa?) in a "cul-de-sac". They, then, are really bourgeois."

@ Elven-Maiden: that you find the French translation more charming puzzles me a bit. Maybe because one's own mothertongue tends to sound too familiar or even trite? And if you are fond of the French language and read in French, you look at it with a new awareness, from a different angle...
That would explain why I am so fond of English [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] but Tolkien's language is very special, I think, and not at all like "everyday"-English.

All those place names of the Shire sound so real, not "invented" at all! In the German edition, they (and some of the nicknames) are translated, but they sound somehow artificial, and, of couse, they lack that special feeling of "Englishness" that I feel belongs to the Shire.
The nicknames are not always appropriate either. Strider, for example, is called "Streicher" which really means "tramp", but I couln't translate this properly either.

[ January 25, 2003: Message edited by: Guinevere ]

01-25-2003, 10:09 AM	#5
Guinevere Banshee of Camelot Join Date: May 2002 Location: Switzerland Posts: 5,830	Ah, but Prof.Shippey mentions this example also in his book (Tolkien, author of the Century): "it is a bad mark for the socially aspiring branch of the Baggins family that they have tried to Frenchify themselves and disguise their origins: they call themselves the Sackville-Bagginses, as if they came from a "ville" (or villa?) in a "cul-de-sac". They, then, are really bourgeois." @ Elven-Maiden: that you find the French translation more charming puzzles me a bit. Maybe because one's own mothertongue tends to sound too familiar or even trite? And if you are fond of the French language and read in French, you look at it with a new awareness, from a different angle... That would explain why I am so fond of English [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] but Tolkien's language is very special, I think, and not at all like "everyday"-English. All those place names of the Shire sound so real, not "invented" at all! In the German edition, they (and some of the nicknames) are translated, but they sound somehow artificial, and, of couse, they lack that special feeling of "Englishness" that I feel belongs to the Shire. The nicknames are not always appropriate either. Strider, for example, is called "Streicher" which really means "tramp", but I couln't translate this properly either. [ January 25, 2003: Message edited by: Guinevere ] __________________ Yes! "wish-fulfilment dreams" we spin to cheat our timid hearts, and ugly Fact defeat!