4 ms·

Well, one could argue that Tolkien didn't plan on his books to be translated in that many languages. I'm not sure why this matters at all, though.

• tshaddox 4y ago
  He was a philologist who oversaw translations during his lifetime and even wrote a guide for translators to use when translating fictional names. It sounds like he was picky and critical of translations, but not because he didn’t want them to exist.
  • red_trumpet 4y ago
    I didn't mean to imply that Tolkien opposed translations. Maybe I'm being a bit naive, but intuitively I would think that most writers do not write a book with the explicit intention of the book being translated. The first intended audience is typically readers in the original language. This is opposed by producing a series for Amazon, where it is mostly clear that the intended audience is world wide, talking many languages (in particular if it is about such a famous topic). And I wouldn't be surprised if this fact does impact the production of a work.
    • tshaddox 4y ago
      > intuitively I would think that most writers do not write a book with the explicit intention of the book being translated. The first intended audience is typically readers in the original language. I don’t think so. I think most writers are only fluent in a very small number of languages and they choose one of those languages to write in.
    • benwad 4y ago
      Remember that English wasn't quite as dominant in Tolkien's day as it is today. In the 50s most people in e.g. France wouldn't speak English.