![]() |
![]() |
Visit The *EVEN NEWER* Barrow-Downs Photo Page |
|
![]() |
#1 | |
Silver in My Silent Heart
|
![]() Quote:
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#2 |
Princess of Skwerlz
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: where the Sea is eastwards (WtR: 6060 miles)
Posts: 7,500
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Fun topic, Lommy, and the Finnish words look so interesting! I like hearing your language; it's so quick and lively.*
There is an old thread which has posts on various languages and their translations of names and the poems. Here it is: Translations You might enjoy comparing some of the languages listed there. Mac already listed a good many of the German names; let me add only a couple that he missed and some that are different in the first translation : Gaffer - Ohm (an old word for grandfather) Barrow-wight - Grabunhold (literally, "grave monster") tweens - Zwiens (zwanzig is twenty, so it's a combination of twenty and teen, just like the English original) neekerbreekers - Zirperkirper (I like ths word better than the new translation that Mac listed - the noise crickets make is called "zirpen", so I think it's carried over well) Rosie Cotton - Rosie Hüttinger (This is derived from the etymology of the word "cotton" - it does not have to do with the fiber, but with a hut = Hütte.) *I have wonderful memories of a Finnish trio I met years ago, who sang "The Gospel Train" in Finnish. It went so fast and sounded really cute!
__________________
'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth...' |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#3 |
Silver in My Silent Heart
|
Thank you very much for the link!
Among other I found the old Russian translation interesting. But really, the French looks (and maybe sounds) terribly un-Tokienish. And funny that a Finn started the thread there too. ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#4 |
Shady She-Penguin
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: In a far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 8,093
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]()
That was indeed very interesting, Esty - I must say the Spanish one looked fascinating. Maybe I'll know enough Spanish someday to read LotR is Spanish... *dreams*
__________________
Like the stars chase the sun, over the glowing hill I will conquer Blood is running deep, some things never sleep Double Fenris
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#5 |
Fading Fëanorion
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: into the flood again
Posts: 2,911
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Sorry for a lengthy post full of strange words...
I'm not exactly sure why I did this - probably just to satisfy my inner geek - but I went through Wikipedia to have a look at some well-known names in many other languages (for completeness, I also include those already given in here):
The Lord of the Rings Gospodar prstenova (Bosnian) Pán prstenů (Czech) Ringenes Herre (Danish) Der Herr der Ringe (German) El seńor de los anillos (Spanish) Le Seigneur des Anneaux (French) Gospodar prstenova (Croatian) Hringadróttinssaga (Icelandic) Il Signore degli Anelli (Italian) iedų valdovas (Lithuanian) A gyűrűk ura (Hungarian) In de Ban van de Ring (Dutch) Ringenes herre (Norwegian) Władca Pierścieni (Polish) O Senhor dos Anéis (Portuguese) Stăpânul Inelelor (Romanian) Gospodar prstanov (Slovenian) Taru sormusten herrasta (Finnish) Sagan om ringen (Swedish) Yüzüklerin Efendisi (Turkish) Middle-earth Srednja Zemlja (Bosnian) Středozem (Czech) Midgĺrd (Danish) Mittelerde (German) Tierra Media (Spanish) Terre du Milieu (French) Miđgarđur (Icelandic) Terra di Mezzo (Italian) Középfölde (Hungarian) (this one sounds very strange to my ear) Midden-aarde (Dutch) Midgard (Norwegian) Śródziemie (Polish) Terra Média (Portuguese) Pământul de Mijloc (Romanian) Srednji svet (Slovenian) Keski-Maa (Finnish) Midgĺrd (Swedish) Orta Dünya (Turkish) I looked at several others, too, but I think this is already getting too much here, so I'll just post the interesting (I think) ones. Frodo Baggins Frodo Sćkker (Danish) Frodo Bolsón (Spanish) Frodon Sacquet (French) (Frodon? Very stange...) Zsákos Frodó (Hungarian) Frodo Balings (Dutch) Frodo Lommelun (Norwegian) Frodo Bisagin (Slovenian) Shire Herredet (Danish) Comarca (Spanish) Comté (French) Contea (Italian) Gouw (Dutch) Hobsyssel (Norwegian) Condado (Portuguese) ajerska (Slovenian) Is it just coincidence that the Finnish (Kontu) is so similar to the Romance ones? Rivendell Klřvedal (Danish) Fondcombe (French) Gran Burrone (Italian) (doesn't this sound like a nice Italian restaurant? ![]() Meriadoc Brandybuck Meriadoc Brandigamo (Spanish) (doesn't this almost sound like Kalimac Brandagamba?) Meriadoc Brandebouc (French) Borbak Trufiádok (Hungarian) Goldberry Baya de Oro (Spanish) Baie d'Or (French) Baccador (Italian) (this simply doesn't sound female to my ear) Barliman Butterbur Cebadilla Mantecona (Spanish) Prosper Poiredebeurré (French) Witch-King Rey Brujo (Spanish) (this sounds adequately scary, doesn't it? ![]() Roi-Sorcier (French) Re Stregone (Italian) Tovenaar-koning (Dutch) Gríma Wormtongue Gríma Lengua de Serpiente (Spanish) Gríma langue de Serpent (French) Gríma Vermilinguo (Italian) (I like this one ![]() Gríma Slangtong (Dutch) Gríma Ormtunge (Norwegian) |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#6 | |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In that far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 7,431
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
We have one more joke in the books than you!!!
Today I just accidentally came upon one thing in the Hobbit while reading the English original. While reading Gollum's riddle about "time" I was interested how it sounds in original; for I knew there was a sort of linguistic joke in there. What was my surprise when I realized that the sentence (or part of it, to be precise) is completely missing in the original! After a moment of thinking about it, however, I came to the conclusion that it's not that surprising after all. Translators often have to deal with untranslateable passages and have to translate them differently. Nevertheless, it's interesting: the Czech translator has made up one more sentence, which was not included in the original at all.
I immediately thought if there could be similar moments in any of the other translations; and if anyone knows about it. If I were sure there would be some positive answers, I'd make a new thread about that, but since I'm not sure if it is not unique case, I'll include it for now just in this post. The "extra sentence" comes right after the riddle. I'm not sure if the joke would be explainable, but I will try, just in case anyone is interested. In the original, we read: Quote:
The words "Slays king" are translated as "Krále kolí" - if Gollum spoke normally, it would be "krále skolí". "Král" means "King". "Skolí" means "slays". "kolí" (derived from the word "kola" = school) means "teaches". The translator probably had to make it clear that Time does not teach kings (though it does as well), but slays them. Thus, he expanded the sentence: "Though poor Bilbo understood that lisping Gollum meant "slays king", and not some teaching, he still could not remember that any of the giants and ogres he had ever heard told of in tales had done all these things..." It's a little thing, but interesting, nevertheless. I am not much sure if it's funny the other way around. Probably not at all. But perhaps someone could provide us with another, (more) interesting "play with words" he knows from his translation?
__________________
"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#7 | ||
Woman of Secret Shadow
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: in hollow halls beneath the fells
Posts: 4,511
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Quote:
Quote:
![]()
__________________
He bit me, and I was not gentle. |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
![]() |