Translations Of The Lord Of The Rings
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. 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, 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.
Read more about Translations Of The Lord Of The Rings: Early Translations, Tolkien's "Guide To The Names in The Lord of The Rings", German Translation (Carroux), Russian Translations, Hebrew, List of Translations, See Also
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