Postby Johanna » 2010-12-19, 18:54
Many of Tolkien's works are translated into Swedish, The Lord of the Rings even twice.
The one Quevenois linked to is the old one, and the entire trilogy in one book, if you want to buy them separately it's:
old translation - new translation - English
Sagan om ringen - Ringens brödraskap - The Fellowship of the Ring
Sagan om de två tornen - De två tornen - The Two Towers
Sagan om konungens återkomst - Konungens återkomst - The Return of the King
I haven't read the new translation, but the old one is full of mistakes; names of places can be translated in 4-5 different ways, it contains many mistakes when it comes to translating simple sentences, for example it's not Éowyn who kills the leader of the Nazgûls, it's Merry, and the translator apparently thought riven and river are the same thing, since Rivendell" is "Vattnadal" (water valley). Also, the language used is a lot... grander than the original English.
Yes, this was the translation that made Tolkien write a guide for how to translate The Lord of the Rings into other languages, especially the names.
The new one, on the other hand, has been accused of being simpler than in English, but that's hardly a bad thing for someone learning the language.
I think The Hobbit have been translated twice too, I've seen it called both "Bilbo" and "Hobbiten", but it's not that the old translation was bad, I think they just wanted all the names to be the same as in the new translation of The Lord of The Rings.
native;
good;
read fluently, understand well, speak badly;
read fluently, understand badly, can't speak;
read some, understand a bit, speak a few sentences;
forgetting;
heritage language.