The translation of The Lord of the Rings into Swedish has been the subject of controversy. The first version, by Åke Ohlmarks, done in 1959–1961, was the only one available in Swedish for forty years. The book's author, J. R. R. Tolkien, took issue with Ohlmarks's translation, identifying numerous errors and inconsistencies. In response to Ohlmarks and to Max Schuchart's Dutch translation, Tolkien wrote a "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings", a framework for translating personal names and place names; it gives multiple examples from Ohlmarks's text of what not to do. Ohlmarks rejected all criticism,[1] stating that he had intentionally created an interpretation of Tolkien, not a straight translation.[2] Swedish commentators took a wide range of positions on Ohlmarks's version: some admired it, others did not.
Ohlmarks’s version was superseded in 2005 by Erik Andersson's more direct translation of the prose, with Lotta Olsson's rendering of the embedded poetry. Andersson followed Tolkien's framework for translating names. He kept some of Ohlmarks's choices, such as Vidstige for Strider and Fylke for the Shire, on the grounds that they were well established and did not contradict Tolkien’s wishes. The 2005 version attracted great interest in Sweden, and was on the whole well received.
Åke Ohlmarks (1911–1984) was a philologist and prolific translator, who published Swedish versions of Shakespeare, Dante and the Quran.[3] 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,[1] stating in his 1978 book Tolkiens arv ("Tolkien's legacy") that his intention had been to create an interpretation, not a translation.[2][a]
The translation had its merits. Ohlmarks's experience translating Old Norse enabled him to find suitable old Swedish words for some of Tolkien's terms: Tolkien scholar Anders Stenström (pen name Beregond) praises his choices of alv for "elf", and of väströna (modelled on norröna, North Sea coast people of the heroic age) for "Westron". On the other hand, Beregond notes, Ohlmarks failed to use harg for the cognate "harrow" in Dunharrow, or skog for "shaw" in Trollshaws, things that "should have been obvious".[4] A much more widespread issue was Ohlmarks's "propensity for embroidering every description". When Tolkien calls Bilbo's wealth "a legend"; Ohlmarks goes beyond Tolkien's text to assert that "his travels are sägenomsusade ('legendary') as well."[4]
When 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 done by Roland Adlerberth.[T 1]
Ohlmarks went on to write a book in 1982 called Tolkien and Black Magic.[5]
The enclosure that you brought from Almqvist &c. was both puzzling and irritating. A letter in Swedish from fil. dr. Åke Ohlmarks, and a huge list (9 pages foolscap) of names in the L.R. which he had altered. I hope that my inadequate knowledge of Swedish – no better than my kn. of Dutch, but I possess a v. much better Dutch dictionary! – tends to exaggerate the impression I received. The impression remains, nonetheless, that Dr. Ohlmarks is a conceited person, less competent than charming Max Schuchart, though he thinks much better of himself.[T 4]
Examples singled out by Tolkien in the same letter include:[T 4]
Tolkien's response to Ohlmarks' renderings of names[T 4]
In his 1967 "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings", produced in response to Ohlmarks' version,[10] Tolkien pointed out numerous other translations that he found dubious. For example, Ohlmarks used Vattnadal ("Water-dale") for Rivendell, apparently, Tolkien commented, by way of taking riven for river.[T 8] The EntQuickbeam 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 Quickbeam was so named because he was a "hasty" Ent; Tolkien 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.[T 9]
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 [the] name" could be translated using "related elements" in those languages, mentioning gård as an option.[T 10]
Reception in Sweden
Early welcome
Some of the initial reception was warm; author and translator Sven Stolpe wrote in Aftonbladet that Ohlmarks "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".[11]Staffan Björck [sv], 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."[12]
Later hostility
Later, the translation's reception became more hostile. In 2000, Leif Jacobsen [sv] of Lund University's Institute of Linguistics noted among other things Ohlmarks’s confusion/conflation of Éowyn and Merry in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and wrote that "There can be no doubt that the Swedish translation is defective and in many ways a failure".[13] He argued that whereas Tolkien was writing for adults, Ohlmarks translated for children; and that Ohlmarks tried to make the text his own, supplanting Tolkien rather than directly translating him.[13]
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 Ohlmarks was either significantly worse at English than Icelandic, or that he had not taken the assignment seriously".[14]
Also in 2004, Tolkien scholar Anders Stenström (pen name Beregond) wrote that Ohlmarks’s translation contains numerous factual errors, mistranslations of idiomatic expressions, and non-sequiturs.[15]
Ohlmarks's translation was not superseded until 2005, when a new translation was made by Erik Andersson [sv],[1] with poems interpreted by Lotta Olsson [sv]. This translation was by intention much closer to the original, hewing to Tolkien's instructions. In the translation process, Andersson had access to a team of Tolkien fans as advisors.[1] In 2007, he published a book called Översättarens anmärkningar ("The Translator's Notes") based on his diaries from the project.[17]
Andersson retained some of Ohlmarks's more popular and well-established choices, such as Vidstige (roughly ”Wide-walker”) for "Strider", Midgård for Middle-earth and Fylke for the Shire.[1] Stefan Spjut, reviewing the new translation in Svenska Dagbladet, commented that Ohlmarks's version had its merits, and that his Vidstige "even outdoes the original’s Strider", but that people would probably get used to the new version.[18]
Reception
The 2005 translation project attracted great interest from Swedish Tolkien fans and Swedish media. Henrik Williams, reviewing the new translation for 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".[19] 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".[14]
Comparisons
Titles
Charlotte Strömbom notes that the Swedish titles chosen for the books immediately indicate differences between Andersson and Ohlmarks. Andersson’s title for the trilogy is, she writes, plainly closer to Tolkien's in both meaning and form; Ohlmarks' title shifts attention to the Ring itself. Ohlmarks omits the "Fellowship" from Volume I, giving what Strömbom suggests is a more epic feeling to the title, where Andersson's is more grounded in reality.[1]
Sagan om konungens återkomst (The Saga of the Return of the King)
Konungens återkomst (Return of the King)
Names
Strömbom comments that Ohlmarks prefers to give names a desired form, where Andersson wants to stay close to the meanings of the original names. Ohlmarks uses Lavskägge (Lichen-beard) for Treebeard, and Vattnadal (Water-dale) for Rivendell, where Andersson chooses the more literal Trädskägge and Riftedal. She adds that sometimes Ohlmarks' choices come closer to the sound of Tolkien's names.[1]
Malte Smörblom Malte Buttercup (sounds like 'Malt')
Gaffer [Gamgee]
Gubbtjuven (derogatory term for an old man)
Gammelfar Grandad, granpa
Mount Doom
Domedagsberget Doomsday Mountain
Domberget Doom Mountain
The One Ring
den enda ringen, härskarringen The one ring, the master ring
den stora ringen, den främsta ringen, den rätta, härskarringen The great ring, the first ring, the right one, the master ring
Rivendell
Vattnadal Waterdale, Water valley
Riftedal Rift-dale, Rivendale
Sackville-Baggins
Säcksta-Bagger Sacktown-Bagger
Kofferdi-Secker Leathercase-Secker (see Baggins above)
Treebeard
Lavskägge Lichenbeard
Trädskägge Treebeard
Prose
Commentators including Petter Lindgren in Aftonbladet have remarked on Ohlmarks's wordy text compared to Andersson's more laconic version.[20] Strömbom notes the following as an instance of the difference in styles and length:[1]
A comparison of Ohlmarks and Andersson's translations[1]
Tolkien
Ohlmarks 1959–1961
Andersson and Olsson 2005
Indeed, few Hobbits had ever seen or sailed upon the Sea, and fewer still had ever returned to report it. (20 words)
Det var ju så, att sjömanslivet alls inte passade samman med hobernas allmänna läggning. Ytterst få hade sett havet, ännu färre befarit det, och av dem som verkligen seglat hade blott ett försvinnande fåtal återvänt och kunnat berätta om vad de upplevat.(42 words)
Över huvud taget var det få hobbitar som hade sett havet eller färdats på det, och ännu färre hade återvänt och berättat om det.(24 words)
Back-translations
It was the case that a sailor's life did not fit in at all with the general disposition of the hobbits. Extremely few had seen the sea, even fewer had sailed it, and of those who really had sailed, only a vanishingly few had returned and been able to tell what they had experienced.
Indeed there were few hobbits who had seen the sea or travelled on it, and even fewer had returned and told about it.
Verse
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".[20] Olsson rendered a sample of Tolkien's verse like this:
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
En ring att sämja dem, en ring att främja dem, en ring att djupt i mörkrets vida riken tämja dem i Mordors land där skuggorna ruva.
En ring att styra dem, en ring att se dem, en ring att fånga dem och till mörkret ge dem, i Mordor, i skuggornas land.
Back-translations
One ring to unite them, one ring to bring them,
one ring to deep in the wide realms of darkness tame them
in Mordor's land where the shadows brood.
One ring to rule them, one ring to see them,
one ring to catch them and to the darkness give them,
in Mordor, in the shadows' land.
^Ohlmarks wrote: Nej, Ohlmarks strävar helt enkelt inte efter att vara Tolkien så trogen så möjligt; hans ideal måste vara ett annat. Ty genom att brodera ut Tolkiens text, att lägga till ord och ägna sig åt långa omskrivningar, att helt enkelt träget göra om det enkla språket till ett mer komplicerat och högtravande sådant, förändras inte bara meningsbyggnad och ordföljd; även stilen blir en annan.
(No, Ohlmarks is simply not aiming to be as faithful to Tolkien as possible; his ideal has to be different. For by embroidering Tolkien's text, adding words and indulging in lengthy paraphrases, by frankly stubbornly turning the simple language into a more complicated and high-faluting one, not only are the structure of sentences and word order changed; the style too becomes different.)[2]
^Carpenter 2023, #228 to Allen & Unwin, 24 January 1961: "Ohlmarks is a very vain man (as I discovered in our correspondence), preferring his own fancy to facts, and very ready to pretend to knowledge which he does not possess."
^Carpenter 2023, #229 to Allen & Unwin, 23 February 1961: "I now enclose a copy and version of Ohlmarks' nonsense [about Tolkien]. In the hope that you may think it justifies my annoyance. I have not looked at his second outburst. I feel I cannot just now take any more."
^ abBeregond (Anders Stenström), "Tolkien in Swedish Translation: From Hompen to Ringarnas herre", in Honegger 2011a, pp. 49–63
^Ohlmarks, Åke (1982). Tolkien och den svarta magin [Tolkien and Black Magic] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Sjöstrand. Title page. ISBN978-91-7574-053-9.
^Brown, Sara (15 October 2012). "Reviews [Tolkien in Translation]". Mythlore. 31 (1). Article 10. Tolkien's dislike for both Ohlmarks and his translation is made clear in his Letter #228
^"Bruin (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
^Wynne, Patrick H. (28 February 2006). "_Bruinen_ in VT48". Lambengolmor. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
^Brunner, Andreas (26 September 2004). "Andreas Brunner läser nyöversatt Tolkien" [Andreas Brunner reads newly-translated Tolkien]. Sydsvenska Dagbladet (in Swedish).
^Andersson, Erik (2015). Översättarens anmärkningar: dagbok från arbetet med Ringarnas herre [Translator's Notes: diary of my work with The Lord of the Rings]. Stockholm: Norstedt. ISBN978-9-1130-7108-4.
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