Pseudotranslation in The Lord of the Rings
A
Effectively, he pretends to be an editor and translator who has received an ancient manuscript, the implausible.
Aspects of the pseudotranslation make actual
Context
From his schooldays,
A
An accidental trap
In his 1937 children's book
Dvergatal |
Translation (borrowed names in bold) |
---|---|
11.... Nár ok Náinn Nípingr, Dáinn |
The use of Norse names was left unexplained in The Hobbit, but when Dwarves reappeared in The Lord of the Rings, it presented an immediate problem: the Dwarves would have had names in their own language, Khuzdul. Tolkien needed to find a solution that would make names in Norse and Khuzdul – one real language, one invented – coexist.[6]
A solution
Deciding on pseudotranslation
When writing The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), a sequel to The Hobbit, Tolkien came up with the literary device of pseudotranslation, using real languages to "translate" fictional languages.[7] He pretended to have translated the original language Westron (named Adûni in Westron) or Common Speech (Sôval Phârë, in Westron) into English.[3]
In a 1954 letter, Tolkien stated that the pseudotranslation issue "has given me much thought. It seems seldom regarded by other creators of imaginary worlds, however gifted as narrators (such as Eddison). But then I am a philologist".[T 2] He then stated that "English cannot have been the language of any people of that time",[T 2] and explained his pseudotranslation process:[8] "What I have, in fact done, is to equate the Westron or wide-spread Common Speech of the Third Age with English; and translate everything, including names such as The Shire, that was in the Westron into English terms".[T 2]
In Appendix F II "On Translation", Tolkien wrote that "The Westron names were as a rule translations of older names: as Rivendell, Hoarwell,
[I wished to preserve] the contrast between a wide-spread language... and the living remains of far older and more reverend tongues. All names if merely transcribed would seem to modern readers equally remote: for instance, if the Elvish name Imladris and the Westron translation Karningul had both been left unchanged.[T 3]
Tolkien gave as a picture of the reason for this approach a sentence mapping Middle-earth to the real world, though with the inclusion of the semi-mythical figure of King Arthur:[T 3]
But to refer to Rivendell as Imladris was as if one now was to speak of Winchester as Camelot, except that the identity was certain, while in Rivendell there still dwelt a lord of renown far older than Arthur would be, were he still king at Winchester today.[T 3]
Allan Turner remarks that this further blurs the already confused distinction between fiction and reality:[9]
Attribute | The Lord of the Rings | Analogy |
---|---|---|
Place | Rivendell | Winchester |
Located in | Fictional Middle-earth | England |
In language | English, representing Westron |
English |
Formerly called | Imladris | Camelot |
Former language | Sindarin | Medieval French
|
In time | An earlier age of Middle-earth | Mythical version of England |
Led by | Elrond | King Arthur |
Status | A living War of the Ring , in the fiction |
A long-dead King of men, according to legend
|
Complex implications
The device of rendering an imaginary language with a real one was carried further by rendering:[3]
- Rohirric, the language of
- names in the tongue of Dale by Old Norse forms[3]
- names of the Kingdom of Rhovanion by Gothic forms, thus mapping the genetic relation of his fictional languages on to the existing historical relations of the Germanic languages.[3]
Tolkien wrote: "Languages, however, that were related to the Westron presented a special problem. I turned them into forms of speech related to English. Since the Rohirrim are represented as recent comers out of the North, and users of an archaic Mannish language relatively untouched by the influence of
-
Tolkien accidentally created a linguistic puzzle by using three different pseudo-translated Germanic languages for peoples in his story.[10]
Furthermore, to parallel the
The language represented in this history by English was the Westron or 'Common Speech' of the West-lands of Middle-earth in the Third Age. In the course of that age it had become the native language of nearly all the speaking-peoples (save the Elves) who dwelt within the bounds of the old kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor ... At the time of the War of the Ring at the end of the age these were still its bounds as a native tongue. (Appendix F)[T 3]
Rohirric is represented in The Lord of the Rings by Old English because Tolkien chose to make the relationship between Rohirric and the Common Speech similar to that of Old English and Modern English.[T 4]
-
Tolkien uses the mapping of Old English to Modern English to represent the mapping of Rohirric to Westron.[T 4]
This solution makes the combination of languages in the book exceptionally complex, presenting a substantial challenge to those translating The Lord of the Rings into other languages.[12][13]
Thomas Honegger suggests how the language nexus might be translated into French:[14]
Middle-earth language | Language for French translations | Notes |
---|---|---|
Of the Shire | Modern French |
lingua franca spoken across Middle-earth except by "a few secluded folk" as in Lothlórien (and "little and ill by Orcs") |
Of Dale |
Picard | "used by Dwarves of that region" |
Of Rohan | Medieval Vulgar Latin | ancestor of French |
Honegger notes that while this type of solution works linguistically, it cannot hope to capture cultural aspects. The people of Rohan, the Rohirrim, speak a Mercian dialect of Old English, and their culture is Anglo-Saxon, despite Tolkien's denial of this in "On Translation". Medieval Latin does nothing to suggest Mercian Anglo-Saxon culture. Honegger suggests that in consequence, the best answer is probably to leave the Old English names and quoted speech untranslated, noting that Tolkien's "Guide to the Names" seems to concur with this approach.[14]
Lost in translation
Multiple homonyms
Tolkien stated in
-
InRohirric; but it is also a synonym and homonym in Old English, making Tolkien's claim look like a mistake.[15]
Multilingual inscription
In The Fellowship of the Ring, the company find Balin's tomb as they cross Moria on their quest.[T 6] The tomb is inscribed in Dwarf runes. Transliterated into Latin characters, this is seen to be a mixture of Old Norse names, Khuzdul, English, and a pejorative name in the Elvish language Sindarin, all written together as a doubled runic inscription. English, as the real-world language into which Westron was purportedly translated, could not exist in Middle-earth.[16]
Inscription | Transcribed inscription | Notes[16] |
---|---|---|
BALIN |
Supporting the frame story
A second reason for Tolkien to make use of pseudotranslation was to lend realism by supporting a
Time | Events | Notes |
---|---|---|
Third Age | The quest of War of the Ring
|
Pseudo-history conceit The Hobbit Further pseudo-history |
Fourth Age | Frodo Baggins writes his memoirs in Westron. Others annotate the memoirs: the Red Book of Westmarch. |
Found manuscript conceit
|
Fifth Age | ... more editing by more hands ... | Pseudo-editor conceit |
Sixth/Seventh Age | The Tolkien 'editor' "translates" the found manuscript into English (and a little Old Norse and Old English) | Pseudo-translator conceit |
See also
References
Primary
- Houghton Mifflin, 30 June 1955
- ^ a b c d Carpenter 2023, #144 to Naomi Mitchison, 25 April 1954
- ^ a b c d e f g h Tolkien 1955, Appendix F II, "On Translation"
- ^ a b Tolkien 2001, p. 8
- ^ Tolkien 1954, Book 3, chapter 8 "The Road to Isengard"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, Book 2, chapter 5 "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm"
Secondary
- ^ Garth 2003, p. 16.
- ISBN 0936388072.
- ^ a b c d e f Shippey 2005, pp. 131–133.
- ^ a b Evans 2013b, pp. 134–135.
- ^ Rateliff 2007, Volume 2 Return to Bag-End, Appendix 3
- ^ a b Fimi 2010, pp. 189–191.
- ^ Turner 2007, p. 330.
- ^ a b Brljak 2010, pp. 1–34.
- ^ a b c Turner 2011a, p. 18.
- ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 131–133
- ^ Hemmi 2010, pp. 147–174.
- ^ Smith 2006, pp. 228–231, citing Turner 2005, "Philology and archaism"
- ^ Honegger 2011b, pp. 1–18.
- ^ a b c Honegger 2011b, p. 14.
- ^ a b Fimi 2010, pp. 191–192.
- ^ a b Kales, Josef (2010). "Appendix C: The Inscription on Balin's Tomb in Moria". Usage and meaning of extinct Germanic languages in the novels of JRR Tolkien (PDF). Charles University, Prague (thesis).
- ^ a b c Flieger 2005, pp. 67–73 "A great big book with red and black letters"
- ^ a b Turner 2011a, pp. 18–21.
- ^ Butler 2013, pp. 108–111.
Sources
- Brljak, Vladimir (2010). "The Books of Lost Tales: Tolkien as Metafictionist". Tolkien Studies. 7 (1): 1–34. ISSN 1547-3163.
- Butler, Catherine (2013). "Tolkien and Worldbuilding". In Hunt, Peter (ed.). J. R. R. Tolkien: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. ISBN 978-1-137-26399-5.
- ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
- ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
- OCLC 222251097.
- Kent State University Press.
- ISBN 978-0-00711-953-0.
- Hemmi, Yoko (2010). "Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and His Concept of Native Language: Sindarin and British-Welsh". S2CID 170366632 – via Project Muse.
- ISBN 978-3-9521424-9-3.
- ISBN 978-0-00-723555-1.
- ISBN 978-0261102750.
- Smith, Arden Ray (2006). "Translating Tolkien: Philological Elements in "The Lord of the Rings" (review)". ISSN 1547-3163.
- OCLC 9552942.
- OCLC 1042159111.
- OCLC 519647821.
- Vinyar Tengwar(42): 8.
- Turner, Allan (2005). Translating Tolkien: Philological Elements in 'The Lord of the Rings'. Duisburger Arbeiten zur Sprach– und Kulturwissenschaft. Vol. 59. Frankfurt: ISBN 3-631-53517-1.
- Turner, Allan (2007). "Language, Theories of: Translation". In ISBN 978-1-135-88033-0.
- Turner, Allan (2011a). "A Theoretical Model for Tolkien Translation Criticism". In ISBN 978-3-9521424-6-2.