Since March 19, Pages Unbound has been hosting two weeks of posts about Tolkien in celebration of Tolkien Reading Day. Today features my review of Tolkien in Translation edited by Thomas Honegger. Here is the first paragraph:
Once upon a time, I wanted to write a paper about translating Tolkien for an undergraduate course. Numerous challenges accompany the task of translating literature. Tolkien crafted his stories on a foundation of language. His careful use of the English language and his creation of Middle-earth’s own languages further complicates the process of translating his works. As he wrote of The Lord of the Rings, “Hardly a word in its 600,000 or more has been unconsidered” (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 160). Though my paper never materialized, the beginning of my research led me to Tolkien in Translation¸ a volume of works that “reflects on some of these challenges and how different translators overcame them” (back description). This book is the fourth volume in the Cormarë series from Walking Tree Publishers. The series currently consists of 35 books collecting scholarly papers and studies about Tolkien and his writing.
Head on over to Pages Unbound to read the rest of my review. Be sure to check out some of the other great posts from the Tolkien Reading Event as well.
Interesting. I never considered the particular challenged of translating Tolkien. I have thought it would be cool if someone translated The Hobbit into Elvish though. That would be amazing!
Oops, I just realized I never replied to this comment!! My bad. That would be a really cool project – I feel like if there’s an audience for a Latin translation of The Hobbit, then there is definitely an audience for a proper Elvish translation as well 😛