Abstract:

Abstract After the success of The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), the first translations of Tolkien’s work into other languages began to spread all over the world. However, Tolkien (philologist and translator of works from Old and Middle English) considered it necessary to publish some guidelines on how to translate the fictional names in his work, for whose creation he had developed a complex linguistic network of both real and fictional languages. These notes, published under the title “The Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings”, not only provide useful philological information for the translation of his work, but also allow to understand Tolkien’s opinion about translation methods, which can also be related to current theories in translation studies. It is indeed observed that Tolkien’s position changes through time, since he first defends a foreignizing, author-oriented translation (according to the terminology of Venuti and Schleiermacher). However, in his later writings he justifies a more domesticating or target-oriented translation. Nevertheless, it is also important to bear in mind the relevance of the translation’s function and context of production, which justifies an analysis of Tolkien’s view on translation in relation to descriptive theories that negotiate the value of translation equivalence.

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