Translation of The Lord of the Rings into Swedish

The translation of ''The Lord of the Rings'' into Swedish has been the subject of controversy. In particular, Tolkien took issue with the 1959–1961 version made by the first Swedish translator, Åke Ohlmarks. Tolkien, and Swedish commentators, detected numerous errors and inconsistencies. In 1967 Tolkien produced his "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings", in response to Ohlmarks's version; it discusses how to translate ''The Lord of the Rings''' personal names and place-names, giving multiple examples from Ohlmarks's Swedish of what not to do when translating. Ohlmarks rejected all criticism, stating that he had intentionally created an interpretation of Tolkien, not a straight translation.

Ohlmarks's version was superseded in 2005 by a more accurate translation by Erik Andersson, with Tolkien's embedded poems translated by Lotta Olsson.

Åke Ohlmarks 1959–1961

Åke Ohlmarks (1911–1984) was a philologist and prolific translator, who during his career published Swedish versions of Shakespeare, Dante and the Qur'an.

His translation of ''The Lord of the Rings'' was the only one available in Swedish for forty years. He ignored complaints and calls for revision from readers, stating in his 1978 book ''Tolkiens arv'' ("Tolkien's legacy") that his intention had been to create an interpretation of Tolkien, not a translation.

After ''The Silmarillion'' was published in 1977, Tolkien's son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien consented to a Swedish translation only on the condition that Ohlmarks have nothing to do with it; the translation was made by Roland Adlerberth.
After a fire in his home in 1982, Ohlmarks incoherently charged Tolkien fans with arson. He subsequently published a book connecting Tolkien with "black magic" and Nazism, including fanciful constructions such as deriving the name ''Saruman'' from " SA man" with an interposed ''Ruhm'' "glory", and conspiracy theories surrounding the Tolkien Society.

Issues with the translation

The book's author, J. R. R. Tolkien, intensely disliked Ohlmarks' translation of ''The Lord of the Rings''. He disliked it even more than Shuchart's Dutch translation, as is evident from a 1957 letter to his publisher Rayner Unwin:, #263 to Rayner Unwin, 1957

Examples singled out by Tolkien in the same letter include:

In his 1967 "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings", produced in response to Ohlmarks's version, Tolkien pointed out numerous other dubious translations. For example, Ohlmarks used ''Vattnadal'' "Water-dale" for ''Rivendell'', apparently, Tolkien commented, by way of taking ''riven'' for ''river''. The Ent ''Quickbeam'' becomes ''Snabba solstrålen'', "Swift Sunbeam", apparently taking ''beam'' in the sense of "beam of light" instead of "tree", ignoring the fact that all Ents have names connected with trees. Tolkien stated that the name was given because Quickbeam was a "hasty" Ent; he advises translating the name to give the sense "quick (lively) tree", noting that both "Quickbeam" and "Quicken" are actual English names for the Rowan tree.

Ohlmarks sometimes offers multiple translations for names; for example, he renders '' Isengard'' variously as ''Isengard'', ''Isengård'', ''Isendor'' or ''Isendal''. The "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" states that this name was meant to be so "archaic in form" that its etymology had been forgotten. Tolkien advises that it could be used either as it was or, for Germanic languages (like Swedish), "one or both elements in hename" could be translated using "related elements" in those languages, mentioning ''gård'' as an option.

In terms of style, Ohlmark's prose is hyperbolic, where the original uses simple or even laconic language. The translation contains numerous factual errors, mistranslations of idiomatic expressions, and non-sequiturs.

Reception in Sweden

Some of the initial reception was warm; the author and translator Sven Stolpe wrote in ''Aftonbladet'' that "He has made a "swedification" (''försvenskning'') – he has found wonderful, magnificent, Swedish compound words, he has translated poem after poem with great inspiration, there is not a page in his ''magnum opus'' that does not read like original Swedish work by a brilliant poet". , reviewing the book for ''Dagens Nyheter'', listed some objections but wrote that "I only list these objections so that I can with greater emphasis praise the translation as a whole: it is magnificent."

Later, the translation's reception became more hostile. In 2000, of Lund University, wrote that "There can be no doubt that the Swedish translation is defective and in many ways a failure".

In 2004, Malte Persson wrote in '' Göteborgsposten'' that the translation was "so full of misunderstandings, misconceptions, inconsistencies, and arbitrary additions that it must mean that Ohlmark was either significantly worse at English than Icelandic, or that he had not taken the assignment seriously".Persson, Malte: "Ring, ring, ring", '' Göteborgsposten'', 27 September 2004, pp. 48-49

Erik Andersson and Lotta Olsson, 2005

Ohlmarks's translation was not superseded until 2005, when a new translation by with poems interpreted by appeared. This translation is considered much closer to the original, and abides by Tolkien's instructions. In the translation process, Andersson had access to a team of Tolkien fans as advisors. In 2007 Andersson published a book called ''Översättarens anmärkningar'' ("The Translator's Notes") based on his diary during the project.

Prose

A sample of the prose was translated as follows:

Verse

Olsson translated a sample of Tolkien's verse like this:

::: * Both ''sämja'' and ''tämja'' can mean "to tame".

Personal names

Ohlmarks and Andersson differed widely in their translation of personal names:

Placenames

The two translators differed, too, in their handling of Middle-earth placenames:

Reception

The 2005 translation project attracted great interest from both Tolkien fans and the Swedish media. ''Dagens Nyheter'' wrote: "Let me say that Andersson & Olsson have prepared a readable, even and in large part correct translation, a test of a very robust piece of work that deserves deep respect, but also a careful review".Williams, Henrik:
En ring i Tolkiens anda
', ''Dagens Nyheter'', 27 September 2004, pp. 4-5 ''Aftonbladet'' wrote of the poetry that "Lotta Olsson has had the thankless task of translating the book's numerous verses which many readers skip, though she does it well and economically".Lindgren, Petter: ''Hux flux - en ny Tolkien'', ''Aftonbladet'', 27 September 2004, pp. 4-5 Malte Persson wrote in '' Göteborgsposten'' that "the new translation follows the original's fluent prose very closely, and only a linguistic pedant could find anything to object to".

See also

* Translations of ''The Lord of the Rings''
* Translations of ''The Lord of the Rings'' into Russian

Notes

References

Bibliography

Ohlmarks' translation of ''The Lord of the Rings'':

* (Volume 1)
* (Volume 2)
* (Volume 3)

Andersson and Olsson's translation of ''The Lord of the Rings'':
* (Volume 1)
* (Volume 2)
* (Volume 3)

Tolkien:

*
*
*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Translation Of The Lord Of The Rings Into Swedish
Swedish
Lord of the Rings
Literature controversies
Controversies in Sweden

fr:Traductions du Seigneur des anneaux#Traduction suédoise