NOMENCLATURE OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS
The first translations of The Lord of the Rings were those in Dutch (In de ban van de ring) and Swedish (Sagan om ringen), published in 1956-7 and 1959-61 respectively. In each instance Tolkien objected strongly to the work while in progress, especially in regard to the alteration of names as he had written them. On 3 July 1956 he wrote to Rayner Unwin concerning the version in Dutch:
In principle I object as strongly as is possible to the 'translation' of the nomenclature at all (even by a competent person). I wonder why a translator should think himself called on or entitled to do any such thing. That this is an 'imaginary' world does not give him any right to remodel it according to his fancy, even if he could in a few months create a new coherent structure which it took me years to work out.
The correct way to translate The Lord of the Rings, he felt, 'is to leave the maps and nomenclature alone as far as possible, but to substitute for some of the least-wanted Appendices a glossary of names (with meanings but no ref[erence]s.). I could supply one for translation. May I say at once that I will not tolerate any similar tinkering with the personal nomenclature. Nor with the name/word Hobbit' (Letters, pp. 249-51). But he was only partly successful in turning the Dutch translator to his point of view, despite lengthy correspondence. Later he had a similar experience with the Swedish The Lord of the Rings, all the more distressing because the translator of the first Swedish Hobbit (Hompen, 1947) had also taken liberties with the text. On 7 December 1957 Tolkien wrote to Rayner Unwin: ‘I do hope that it can be arranged, if and when any further translations are negotiated [after the Dutch and Swedish], that I should be consulted at an early stage.... After all, I charge nothing, and can save a translator a good deal of time and puzzling; and if consulted at an early stage my remarks will appear far less in the light of peevish criticisms' (Letters, p. 263).
At length Tolkien himself took the initiative. He continued to prefer that The Lord of the Rings in translation preserve the essential Englishness of many of its personal and place-names; but he came to accept that other translators were likely to take a line similar to those of the Dutch and Swedish editions, who had sometimes misunderstood their source, and instead of insisting on no translation of nomenclature, he attempted to influence the translator through an explanatory document. On 2 January 1967 he wrote to Otto B. Lindhardt, of the Danish publisher Gyldendals Bibliotek, who were planning to publish The Lord of the Rings in Danish, that 'experience in attempting to help translators or in reading their versions has made me realize that the nomenclature of persons and places offers particular difficulty', but is important 'since it was constructed with considerable care, to fit with the supposed history of the period described. I have therefore recently been engaged in making, and have nearly completed, a commentary on the names in this story, with explanations and suggestions for the use of a translator, having especially in mind Danish and German' (Tolkien-George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins).
Tolkien's 'commentary' for many years was photocopied by Allen & Unwin and sent to translators of The Lord of the Rings as an aid to their work. After Tolkien's death it was edited by his son Christopher and published in A Tolkien Compass (1975) as Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings. For the present book it has been newly transcribed from the professional typescript as corrected by Tolkien, with reference also to an earlier version in manuscript and typescript. For the sake of a more general audience, we have slightly edited the work for clarity and consistency of form, most often by the addition or emendation of articles, conjunctions, and marks of punctuation (thus also by Christopher Tolkien for A Tolkien Compass); but to convey the flavour of the original, we have retained (for the most part, but have regularized) Tolkien's abbreviations of language names, etc., and have restored the original title of the work. Citations by Tolkien to the Prologue in the first edition of The Lord of the Rings (1954) have been silently emended to the pagination of the Allen & Unwin second edition (1966). Significant insertions by the editors are indicated by [square brackets].
Notes removed by Tolkien from the final Nomenclature are quoted earlier in this book, in annotations for pp. 5 (on Angmar)[1], 296 (on Barad-dûr)[2], 330 (on Anor)[3], 392 (on Argonath)[4], and 548 (on Aglarond)[5]. Other notes from the same source are cited or quoted below.
*
All names not in the following list should be left entirely unchanged in any language used in translation (LT), except that inflexional s, es should be rendered according to the grammar of the LT.
It is desirable that the translator should read Appendix F, and follow the theory there set out. In the original text English represents the Common Speech (CS) of the supposed period. Names that are given in modern English therefore represent names in the CS, often but not always being translations of older names in other languages, especially Sindarin (Grey-elven, G.). The LT now replaces English as the equivalent of the CS; the names in English form should therefore be translated into the LT according to their meaning (as closely as possible).
Most of the names of this type should offer no difficulty to a translator, especially not to one using a LT of Germanic origin, related to English: Dutch, German, and the Scandinavian languages; e.g. Black Country, Battle Plain, Dead Marshes, Snowmane, etc. Some names, however, may prove less easy. In a few cases the author, acting as translator of Elvish names already devised and used in this book or elsewhere, has taken pains to produce a CS name that is both a translation and also (to English ears) a euphonious name of familiar English style, even if it does not actually occur in England. Rivendell is a successful example, as a translation of G. Imladris 'Glen of the Cleft'. It is desirable to translate such names into the LT, since to leave them unchanged would disturb the carefully devised scheme of nomenclature and introduce an unexplained element without a place in the feigned linguistic history of the period. But of course the translator is free to devise a name in the LT that is suitable in sense and/or topography: not all the CS names are precise translations of those in other languages.
A further difficulty arises in some cases. Names (of places and persons) occur, especially in the Shire, which are not 'meaningless', but are English in form (sc. in theory the author's translation of CS names), and contain elements that are in the current language obsolete or dialectal, or are worn-down and obscured in form. (See Appendix F.) From the author's point of view it is desirable that translators should have some knowledge of the nomenclature of persons and places in the LT, and of words that occur in them that are obsolete in the current LT, or only preserved locally. The notes I offer are intended to assist a translator in distinguishing 'inventions', made of elements current in modern English, such as Riven-dell, Snow-mane, from actual names in use in England, independently of this story, and therefore elements in the modern English language that it is desirable to match by equivalents in the LT, with regard to their original meaning, and also where feasible with regard to their archaic or altered form. I have sometimes referred to old, obsolescent, or dialectal words in the Scandinavian and German languages which might possibly be used as the equivalents of similar elements in the English names found in the text. I hope that these references may be sometimes found helpful, without suggesting that I claim any competence in these modern languages beyond an interest in their early history.
CS = Common Speech, in original text represented by English.
LT = the language used in translation, which must now replace English as representing CS.
E. = English.
G. or S. = Grey-elven or Sindarin, the Elvish language to which most of the names (outside the Shire) belong.
Q. = Quenya, the archaic Elvish language in which 'Galadriel's Lament' (I 394) [pp. 377-8 in the 2004 edn., in Book II, Chapter 8].
R. = Rohan: the language used in Rohan, related to that used by Hobbits before their migration. [Also: cf. = Latin confer 'compare'; Dan. = Danish; e.g. = exempli gratia 'for example'; Fr. = French; Ger. = German; Icel. = Icelandic; ME = Middle English; MHG = Middle High German; mod. = modern; N.B. = nota bene 'take notice'; Norw. = Norwegian; OE = Old English; OHG = Old High German; ON = Old Norse; O.Swed. = Old Swedish; pl. = plural; q.v. = quod vide 'which see'; sb. = substantive (noun); sc. = scilicet 'that is'; Scand. = Scandinavian; Swed. = Swedish; The H. = The Hobbit, The L.R. = The Lord of the Rings]
Appledore. Old word for 'apple-tree' (survives in E. place-names). Should be translated by the equivalent in the LT of apple-tree (i.e. by a dialectal or archaic word of same meaning). In Germanic languages this may be a word of the same origin: e.g. Ger. (MHG) aphalter; Icel. apuldur; Norw., O.Swed. apald.
Baggins. Intended to recall bag - cf. Bilbo's conversation with Smaug in The H. [Chapter 12] - and meant to be associated (by hobbits) with Bag End (sc. the end of a 'bag' or 'pudding bag' = cul-de-sac), the local name for Bilbo's house. (It was the local name for my aunt's farm in Worcestershire, which was at the end of a lane leading to it and no further.) Cf. also Sackville-Baggins. The LT should contain an element meaning 'sack, bag'.
Banks. Clearly a topographical name containing bank in the sense 'steep slope or hill-side'. It should be represented by something similar.
Barrow-wights. Creatures dwelling in a barrow 'grave-mound'. (See Barrow under Places.) It is an invented name: an equivalent should be invented. The Dutch [edition] has grafgeest[6] 'grave-ghost[7]'; Swed. Kummelgast 'gravemound-ghost'.
Beechbone. This is meant to be significant (being a translation into CS of some Entish or Elvish equivalent). It should be translated similarly (e.g. as Buchbein or probably better Buchenbein[8]?).
Big Folk, Big People. Translate.
Black Captain. Translate.
Black One. Translate.
Black Riders. Translate.
Bolger. See Budgeford [under Places].
Bounders. Evidently intended to mean 'persons watching the bounds (sc. boundaries)'. This word exists in E. and is not marked as obsolete in dictionaries, though I have seldom heard it used. Probably because the late nineteenth-century slang bounder – 'an offensively pushing and ill-bred man' – was for a time in very general use and soon became a term of contempt equivalent to 'cad'. It is a long time since I heard it, and I think it is now forgotten by younger people. [Max] Schuchart [the Dutch translator] used Poenen 'cads', probably because a well-known dictionary only gives patser 'bounder, cad' as the meaning of bounder (labelled as slang). In the text the latter sense is meant to be recalled by English readers, but the primary functional sense to be clearly understood. (This slender jest is not, of course, worth imitating, even if possible.)
Bracegirdle. A genuine English surname. Used in the text, of course, with reference to the hobbit tendency to be fat and so to strain their belts. A desirable translation would recognize this by some equivalent meaning: Tight-belt, or Belt-tightener/strainer/stretcher. (The name is a genuine English one; a compound of the Romance type with verbal element first, as Drinkwater – Boileau; but it is not necessary that the representation should be a known surname in the language of translation.) Would not Gürtelspanner do?
Brandybuck. A rare E. name which I have come across. Its origin in E. is not concerned. In The L.R. it is obviously meant to contain elements of the Brandywine River (q.v.) and the family name Oldbuck (q.v.). The latter contains the word buck (animal); either OE bucc 'male deer' (fallow or roe), or bucca 'he-goat'.
N.B. Buckland (see Places) is also meant to contain the same animal name (Ger. Bock), though Buckland, an English place-name, is frequently in fact derived from 'book-land', land originally held by a written charter.
Brockhouse. Brock is an old word (in OE) for the badger (Dachs) still widely current in country-speech up to the end of the nineteenth century and appearing in literature, and hence in good dictionaries, including bilinguals. So there is not much excuse for the Dutch and Swedish transla-tors' having misrendered it.* It occurs in numerous place-names, from which surnames are derived, such as Brockbanks. Brockhouse is of course feigned to be a hobbit-name, because the 'brock' builds complicated and well-ordered underground dwellings or 'setts'. The Ger. rendering should be Dachsbau, I think. In Danish use Grævling.
*Dutch Broekhuis (not a misprint since repeated in the four places where this name occurs) seems absurd: what is a 'breech-house'? Swed. Galthus 'wild-boar house' is not much better, since swine do not burrow! The translator evidently did not know or look up brock, since he uses Grävlingar for the name Burrows (Swed. gräflingar, gräfsvin 'badgers').
Butterbur. So far as I know, not found as a name in England. Though Butter is so used, as well as combinations (in origin place-names) such as Butterfield. These have in the tale been modified, to fit the generally botanical names of Bree, to the plant-name butterbur (Petasites vulgaris). If the popular name for this contains an equivalent of 'butter', so much the better. Otherwise use another plant-name containing 'butter' (as Ger. Butterblume, Butterbaum, Dutch boterbloeme) or referring to a fat thick plant. (The butterbur is a fleshy plant with heavy flower-head on thick stalk, and very large leaves.)
Butterbur's first name Barliman is simply an altered spelling of barley and man (suitable to an innkeeper and ale-brewer), and should be translated.
Captains of the West. Translate.
Chief, The. Translate.
Chubb. A genuine English surname. Chosen because its immediate association in E. is with the adjective chubby 'round and fat in bodily shape' (said to be derived from the chub, a name of a river-fish).
Corsairs. Translate. They are imagined as similar to the Mediterranean corsairs: sea-robbers with fortified bases.
Cotton. This is a place-name in origin (as are many modern surnames): from cot 'a cottage or humble dwelling' + -ton, the usual E. element in place-names, a shortening of town (OE tūn 'village'). It should be translated in these terms.
It is a common E. surname, and has of course in origin no connexion with cotton the textile material; though it is naturally associated with it at the present day. Hobbits are represented as using tobacco, and this is made more or less credible by the suggestion that the plant was brought over the Sea by the Men of Westernesse (Prologue, 119 [2004 edn., p. 8]); but it is not intended that 'cotton' should be supposed to be known or used at that time. Since it is highly improbable that in any other language a normal and frequent village-name should in any way resemble the equivalent of cotton (the material), this resemblance in the original text may be passed over. It has no importance for the narrative. See Gamgee.
Cotman occurs as a first name in the genealogies, an old word meaning 'cottager, cot-dweller', to be found in larger dictionaries, also a well-known E. surname.
Dark Lord, Dark Power. Translate.
Dead, The. Translate.
Dunlendings. Leave unchanged except in the plural ending. It represents Rohan dun(n)lending, an inhabitant of Dun(n)land.
Easterlings. ...
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