The Translator Conceit - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

davem · 05-23-2005, 01:21 AM

Just a quick note. We have a couple of known excisions from the original Red Book - The Quest of Erebor in UT & the Epilogue to LotR in HoMe 12. So once again we see that the Translator has not given us everything he has in the volume published as LotR. The Epilogue is especially interesting in this context as (remaining within the secondary world conceit, remember) it exists in two very different forms. I wonder what a comparison of the two would tell us about the way the translator worked - if he can translate the same original document in two such different ways?

Anyone interested in Tolkien's approach to this issue of the way texts are transmitted & altered over time, especially in the case of manuscript books & translation (remeber some parts of the text were originally Elvish, translated into Adunaic, then Westron (then possibly Anglo-saxon) then into modern English) should get hold of Flieger's Interrupted Music.

05-23-2005, 01:21 AM	#10
davem Illustrious Ulair Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties Posts: 4,240	Just a quick note. We have a couple of known excisions from the original Red Book - The Quest of Erebor in UT & the Epilogue to LotR in HoMe 12. So once again we see that the Translator has not given us everything he has in the volume published as LotR. The Epilogue is especially interesting in this context as (remaining within the secondary world conceit, remember) it exists in two very different forms. I wonder what a comparison of the two would tell us about the way the translator worked - if he can translate the same original document in two such different ways? Anyone interested in Tolkien's approach to this issue of the way texts are transmitted & altered over time, especially in the case of manuscript books & translation (remeber some parts of the text were originally Elvish, translated into Adunaic, then Westron (then possibly Anglo-saxon) then into modern English) should get hold of Flieger's Interrupted Music. __________________ “Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects."