4 ms·
Tolkien's First Words
- krupan 8y agoThis article describes a movie about Tolkein's life that is coming soon. In case the title didn't give that way for you :-)
- munk-a 8y agoIt really didn't, I was disappointed by the repeated assertions that the reader should have a lot of knowledge walking into this article. It was poorly written, sadly.
- tigerlily 8y agoWhat wonders the world would've been filled with if we hadn't lost all those skillful and doughty fellows in the wretched Somme. May they rest in peace.
- cafard 8y ago"by reciting screeds of his favourite author from memory in perfectly enunciated Middle English". Consistently enunciated perhaps: phonologists would be able to tell you how Midlands English sounds, but there have usually been competing theories on Middle English.
- dmurray 8y agoPerhaps his enunciation was perfect in its clarity, even if his pronunciation was debatable.
- KineticLensman 8y agoThe article mixes up actual biographic details concerning Tolkien with a plot summary of the new film about Tolkien that is about to be released. Some of the film details were pure artistic license, which is perhaps why the Tolkien estate has distanced itself from the film, as reported in the Guardian [0] (which also lists some of the film's inaccuracies). [0] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/23/tolkien-estate-disavows-forthcoming-film-starring-nicholas-hoult https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/23/tolkien-estate...
- gatherhunterer 8y agoThe article is discussing the movie. It refers to Tolkien seeing dragons on the Western Front. When he clarifies the reality of Tolkien’s life he steps aside from the general context of the article to do so. I think you misread.
- youeseh 8y agoYou mean, they weren't "gaagaa.. gu gu?"
- ericol 8y ago> Fans of The Lord of the Rings will know that much of its magic is linguistic I read LotR in English, and tried to read it in Spanish (My mother tongue). The colloquialism of the Spanish version was so off putting and disheartening that I couldn't make it past the first chapters.
- gatherhunterer 8y agoI have heard that translations of Harry Potter are often thought to be better because the publisher diversifies the diction beyond what Rowling used in the original. I remember as a kid thinking that she was over-using so many descriptors, such as "matter-of-factly" for Hermione's dialogue.
- ajuc 8y agoI've read LotR in Polish in translation of Maria Skibniewska (she mostly kept the English names English, only adjusting weird ones to Polish structure where needed - like adding "-a" to female names etc). Then I read another Polish translation, which changed all English names to Polish folk-names to translate the "familiarity" feeling in contrast to Elvish names. It was awful. Baggins was Bagosz. Couldn't finish it. Then I read it in English (still not speaking English that well), and it was OK, but I had much more fun reading it in Polish. I noticed I couldn't skip the nature descriptions as well in English as I can in Polish, so it was much more boring :) But I still think of these characters using the names from that first Polish translation. I guess you get used to the first translation you read, and then you only add secondary names to these characters, without changing the "true name".
- elevator 8y agoI'm going to find a way to escape to a better place, where I can forget about you, and pretend you never existed. You wasted my time, and I should have tried for this a long time ago. I should have noticed sooner, and cast aside all constraints. Even if there's only one way out, the blackest sleep of ash and dust is still a better place than another instant of life spent remembering this, most awful of worlds.