"Lord of the Errors or, Who Really Killed the Witch-King?"

By Martin Andersson ©

In 1959-1961, three rather peculiar books were published in Sweden. They were titled Sagan om ringen, Sagan om de två tornen and Sagan om konungens återkomst. The author was an Oxford professor of English who was almost completely unknown in Sweden at the time; a translation of his first novel, a children's book, was published in 1947 under the title Hompen, featuring an unlikely hero with hairy feet renamed (amusingly enough) Bimbo Backlin for the Swedish audience.

The critics were confused: the books were full of dwarves and elves and all manner of fairy-tale creatures, but the length of the novel (because it was actually one huge novel published in three volumes) and the sometimes very dark story seemed to suggest that it was aimed for adults. They were, however, agreed on one point: the translation was excellent (they had, apparently, not read the original, but more on that later). The translator, Åke Ohlmarks (fil. dr., or Ph. D., in religious studies), had a glowing but self-inflated reputation for brilliancy; during his long career he translated such classics as Shakespeare, Dante, the Icelandic sagas and the Koran. And Ohlmarks did not waste any time in reaping credit either. If it was one thing he liked, it was being told how brilliant he was - and telling others how brilliant he was.

But the Oxford professor who had written the books was less than impressed. His name was, of course, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the books were, of course, the fantasy classic The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien had some slight knowledge of Swedish - enough to enable him to understand the contents of a text when equipped with a good dictionary - and he disliked Ohlmarks's translation even before it was published, as shown in the following letter to his publisher Rayner Unwin, dated 7 December 1957:

The enclosure that you brought from Almqvist &c. [Almqvist & Wiksell, the Swedish publisher] 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, [the Dutch translator] though he thinks much better of himself. (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien 263)

Indeed, the Swedish translation was probably his major reason for compiling instructions for the benefit of future translators, later published as "Guide to the Names in the Lord of the Rings". In this work, he mentions the Swedish translation several times, usually with a note of disapproval.

What annoyed Tolkien most was Ohlmarks's casual attitude toward the names in the novel. None of them was invented by pure accident; Tolkien spent a lot of time getting them absolutely right in their particular context. The language spoken by the hobbits was related to that of the rohirrim, although the latter was more archaic, and since the hobbit language was presented as English in the novel, it was only natural that the language of the rohirrim was represented by genuine Old English. Every name had its special meaning and its own etymology - they were not simply a random cluster of sounds, as is often the case in other fantasy novels.

Ohlmarks was completely unaware of this. He realised that, since The Lord of the Rings was supposed to be a translation from the fictitious Westron language into English, he had to create a translation into Swedish that conveyed the feeling of a direct translation from the Westron - one of his few brilliant insights. But he was, unfortunately, not as sensitive when it came to actually transferring the names from English to Swedish, most likely because his knowledge of English left a lot to be desired.

Thus Tolkien, in the above mentioned letter, complained about the list of translated names that Ohlmarks had sent him (for his approval, according to Ohlmarks, but Tolkien interpreted it as the definitive list that was going to be used no matter what his opinion was):

Conceding the legitimacy or necessity of translation (which I do not, except in a limited degree), the translation does not seem to me to exhibit much skill, and contains a fair number of errors. ... It seems to me fairly evident that Dr. O. has stumbled along dealing with things as he came to them, without much care for the future or co-ordination, ... (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien 263)

In a footnote, Tolkien himself gives the following examples of errors:

For example: Ford of Bruinen = Björnavad! Archet = Gamleby (a mere guess, I suppose, from 'archaic'?) Mountains of Lune (Ered Luin) = Månbergen; Gladden Fields (in spite of descr. in I. 62) = Ljusa slätterna, & so on. (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien 263)

A word of explanation: Björnavad translates as "Bear-ford", Gamleby as "Old Village", Månbergen as "the Moon Mountains" (no doubt influenced by Luna, the Roman moon goddess), and Ljusa slätterna as "Bright Plains" or "Light Plains".

The list can be made even longer. Below are just a few samples; I have simply translated the Ohlmarks versions back into English:

* Rivendell becomes "Vattnadal" [Waterdale], probably because Ohlmarks thought that "riven" had something to do with "river"
* Esgaroth becomes "Snigelöv" [archaic: Snail leavings], most likely because Ohlmarks was thinking of the French word "escargot" which means "snail". Nobody in Middle-earth speaks French of course.
* Mallorn becomes "gyllenlönn" [golden maple] or "gyllenträd" [golden tree], despite the fact that it is a name derived from one of Tolkien's fictitious languages and therefore should not be translated
* he ent Quickbeam becomes "Snabba solstrålen" [Swift Sunbeam] because Ohlmarks did not make the connection that all ents have names relating to trees. Sometimes he uses a short form, "Snabbis" [Swiftie], for which there is no support in the original text.
* Shelob's Lair becomes "Honmonstrets lår" [the She-monster's Thigh]. The only explanation I can come up with is that the Swedish word for "thigh" is "lår" (pronounced "lawr"), which bears an extremely superficial resemblance to "lair".

But the name problem does not end there. In his eagerness to come up with ingenious Swedish versions of the names, Ohlmarks more often than not forgot what version he had used earlier in the book. The record-holder, in terms of greatest number of alternatives in the smallest space, is Isengard, which in the first volume is rendered as "Isengard", "Isendor" and "Isendal" within the space of four pages! Indeed, the first two of them occur within the same paragraph! And by the way, in the second volume a fourth term, "Isengård", is introduced, which is then used in the rest of the text in an uncharacteristic display of consistency. It should be noted, however, that this error has been corrected in the latest reprint; now it is "Isengård" throughout.

The inconsistent translation of names also seems to suggest that Ohlmarks did not read all three volumes before starting to translate them. The river Entwash is named "Slamma flod" [approximately: Muddy River] on the map in the first volume, while Celeborn later on calls it "Bukteån" [approximately: Bendy Stream]. Only in the second volume, where the reader is introduced to the word "ent", do we get the more correct translation "Ente älv" [Ent River]. Would Ohlmarks have used the earlier erroneous translations if he had known about the ents? I don't think so.

Ohlmarks also wreaked havoc with Tolkien's style. Tolkien's style is very laconic and simple compared to, say, Lovecraft - one of Sweden's leading fantasy critics, John-Henri Holmberg, compares it to that of the Icelandic sagas. This, evidently, did not suit Åke Ohlmarks. Ohlmarks preferred a more poetic, hyperbolic style, laden with adverbs, adjectives and unusual and archaic synonyms. Where Tolkien preferred words of Old English origin over Latinisms, Ohlmarks used foreign loan words that were stylistically out of place. Where Tolkien used "inn", Ohlmarks wasn't above using "corps-de-logi" (French again!) instead of the far more appropriate, all-Swedish "värdshus". Where Tolkien in one instance used "lost", Ohlmarks used "biltog", which is so archaic it appears in no modern dictionaries; it actually means "outlawed" and thus is a very bad translation for "lost".

Compare the following two samples, from the original and the Swedish (translated back into English):

For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and the darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. (The Lord of the Rings 871)

For it was the morning that came, the morning and the breeze from the sea, and the darkness failed and the armies of Mordor whimpered and wailed as terror took them and they fled and fell and the many thousand hooves of galloping wrath trampled them and rode over them. (Sagan om konungens återkomst 130)

Or one of my favourite examples:

'Slam the doors and wedge them!' shouted Aragorn. (The Lord of the Rings 341)

- Close the doors and wedge them! thundered Aragorn's commanding voice. (Sagan om ringen 383)

Does not that strike you as a bit... well, wordy? Mind you, Ohlmarks's style is not bad - quite often it is poetically beautiful, as when he translates "honey" into "liquid gold" - but you can only stretch artistic licence so far before it snaps.

If it had ended there, Ohlmarks could perhaps have escaped with his dignity. But the truth is that his knowledge of English rested on foundations that were as solid as those of the Tower of Pisa - you know, the leaning one. It is fortunate that Tolkien never found this out, as far as I know.

And so we come to the central part of this tragicomical odyssey through the swamp of errors that is the Swedish translation of The Lord of the Rings. But before we start, I want to say this: remember that all of the errors below, except where otherwise noted, are still to be found in all Swedish editions, despite the fact that the final volume was published in 1961, and despite the fact that Swedish Tolkien fans have been complaining for years. And keep in mind that this is just a very, very small selection, unsubstantiated rumours claim that there are 5 000 errors in the text.

Oh, and OT means "original text" and ST means "Swedish translation", but you could probably guess that on your own.

OT: "According to the Red Book, Bandobras Took (Bullroarer), ... was four foot five and able to ride a horse." (The Lord of the Rings 14).
ST: "According to 'the Red Book', the 'bullroarer' Bandobras Took, ... was between four and five foot tall and was even said to be able to ride a normal horse." (Sagan om ringen 15).
OT: "Bilbo was very polite to [the Gaffer], calling him 'Master Hamfast'..." (The Lord of the Rings 34).
ST: "Bilbo had always been invariably courteous, had always called him 'Master Thief-king'..." (Sagan om ringen 34).
OT: "Most of [the musical crackers at Bilbo's birthday party] bore the mark DALE on them..." (The Lord of the Rings 41).
ST: "...most bore the name 'bow-drones'..." (Sagan om ringen 42).
I might add that the word "bow-drone" does not exist in Swedish.
OT: "...the conversation in The Green Dragon at Bywater, one evening in the spring of Frodo's fiftieth year..." (The Lord of the Rings 57).
ST: "... the pub conversation in 'The Green Dragon' on a peaceful evening in spring, as a matter of fact the same day that Frodo turned fifty" (Sagan om ringen 60).
May I remind you that in the preceding chapter Frodo's birthday was on September 22, which couldn't possibly be called a "peaceful evening in spring"?
OT: "... for they [Elrond's sons] rode often far afield with the Rangers of the North, forgetting never their mother's torment in the dens of the orcs" (The Lord of the Rings 243).
ST: "... [they] rode far afield with the Rangers of the North, for they could never have peace until they had avenged their mother, who had been tortured to death in the dens of the orcs" (Sagan om ringen 273).
Allow me to remind you that Elrond's wife was rescued and then sailed into the West. In a characteristic display of inconsistency Ohlmarks translated it correctly when he did the Appendices.
OT: "Beside Glorfindel there were several other counsellors of Elrond's household, of whom Erestor was the chief" (The Lord of the Rings 257).
ST: "Beside Glorfindel there were several other members of Elrond's bodyguard, of whom Erestor was in charge" (Sagan om ringen 288).
OT: "Only a remnant of our eastern force came back, destroying the last bridge that still stood amid the ruins of Osgiliath."
ST: "Of our force in the east only a remnant came back, and the enemy destroyed the last bridge that still stood amid the ruins of Osgiliath" (Sagan om ringen 294).
OT: "'Leave one!' he [Frodo] said. 'We'll need it. ..'" (Lord of the Rings 427). Sam has just threatened to knock holes in the boats to stop Frodo from leaving without him.
ST: "'Very well then!' he [Frodo] said. 'I might need you. ...'" (Sagan om ringen 481)
OT: "... the last strongholds of the mighty woods of the Elder Days, in which the Firstborn roamed while Men still slept." (The Lord of the Rings 463).
ST: "... the very last bastions of the mighty woodland reaches of the Elder Days, where the Firstborn One mooed while the race of Men were still asleep" (Sagan om de två tornen 51).
This requires some explanation. In Swedish there is a word, "råma" (pronounced RAW-mah), that means "to bellow" or "to moo". It is obvious that Ohlmarks was ignorant of the word "roam", and therefore picked the Swedish word that bore the closest phonetic resemblance (cf. the lair/lår problem).
OT: "What's happened to your precious Nazgûl? Has he had another mount shot under him?" (The Lord of the Rings 473)
ST: "What happened to your invaluable Nazgûl? Landed on another mountain?" (Sagan om de två tornen 62).
OT: "For if his legs were tied, how did he walk? And if his arms were tied, how did he use the knife?" (The Lord of the Rings 510).
ST: "If his legs were tied, then how was he able to use the knife?" (Sagan om de två tornen 106).
OT: "He [Saruman] has no woodcraft." (The Lord of the Rings 519).
ST: "He [Saruman] lacks the power of the trees, you see." (Sagan om de två tornen 116).
OT: "[They] ... came to a wide door upon the left, at the top of a stair. It opened direct into a large chamber..." (The Lord of the Rings 584f).
ST: "[They] ... came to a wide door upon the left at the mouth of a descending stair. It lead straight down into a large chamber ..." (Sagan om de två tornen 190).
To me, the OT suggests that there was a stair leading up to a door - the door was "at the top of a stair" and "opened direct into a large chamber". This must be the correct interpretation, because if the stair had led down, the entire room at the bottom would have been laid under water when the Ents flooded Isengard. The fact that the room isn't flooded indicates that Ohlmarks was wrong. Again.
OT: "Seven stars and seven stones / And one white tree." (The Lord of the Rings 620).
ST: "Three stars and seven stones /And the whitest tree you may see." (Sagan om de två tornen 233).
OT: "[Sam's grandfather and uncle] ... had a rope-walk over by Tighfield many a year." (The Lord of the Rings 635)
ST: "[Sam's grandfather and uncle] ... had a rope-bridge over the river over by Fieldmeadow for many years." (Sagan om de två tornen 251).
A rope-walk is a place where you make rope, not some kind of bridge. Note how Ohlmarks adds "over the river" in support of his erroneous interpretation.
OT: "'Ha! ha! What does we wish?' he [Gollum] said, looking sidelong at the hobbits. 'We'll tell you,' he croaked. 'He guessed it long ago, Baggins guessed it.'" (The Lord of the Rings 645f).
ST: "'Ho ho ho, yes! What is it that we want?' he [Gollum] asked and looked from the side at the hobbits. 'We will tell you that,' he croaked. 'He guessed it long ago, Baggins here guessed it.'" (Sagan om de två tornen 263).
By adding "here", Ohlmarks makes Gollum refer to Frodo, who was the only Baggins present. In fact, Gollum is referring to Bilbo and the riddle contest they engaged in many years ago. In The Lord of the Rings, Gollum never ever refers to Frodo as "Baggins".
OT: "What's more, if you turn over a new leaf, and keep it turned, I'll cook you some taters one of these days." (The Lord of the Rings 681).
ST: "What does it matter to you if you tear off a fresh leaf and then hold it in your hand - then I'll one day cook you some taters too." (Sagan om de två tornen 305).
Ohlmarks's grasp of idioms was close to non-existent. As you can see, he must have interpreted "turn over a new leaf" literally when he should have looked for an idiomatic translation. The Swedish equivalent of "turn over a new leaf" is "start on a new ball".
OT: "Prisoner is to be stripped. Full description of every article, garment, weapon, letter, ring or trinket is to be sent to Lugbúrz at once, and to Lugbúrz only. And the prisoner is to be kept safe and intact ..." (The Lord of the Rings 767).
ST: "Prisoners will be whipped. Full description of all equipment, clothes, weapons, letters, signs, ring, or jewellery is to be sent to Lugbúrz immediately and only to Lugbúrz. And the prisoner is to be kept safe and unhurt ..." (Sagan om de två tornen 410).
The explanation here is simple: Ohlmarks cannot tell the difference between "strip" and "stripe". It is really remarkable that he did not realise that what he was writing did not make any sense, especially when comparing the following lines in the same dialogue:
OT: "'Stripped, eh?' said Gorbag. 'What, teeth, nails, hair, and all?'" (The Lord of the Rings 767).
ST: "'Whipped, heh?' said Gorbag. 'What, with teeth, nails, hair and everything else?'" (Sagan om de två tornen 410)
OT: "Then Pippin looked the old man in the eye, for pride stirred strangely within him, still stung by the scorn and suspicion in that cold voice." (The Lord of the Rings 786).
ST: "Pippin looked the old man straight in the eye, where pride burned with a strange glow, although contempt and suspicion still dwelt in that cold voice." (Sagan om konungens återkomst 28).
OT: "An hour long prepared approaches." (The Lord of the Rings 804).
ST: "For an entire hour I [Aragorn] have examined how to get there." (Sagan om konungens återkomst 50).
OT: "... in the days of Arvedui, last king of Fornost ..." (The Lord of the Rings 812)
ST: "... in the days of Arveduis [sic], his son was the last king of Fornost ..." (Sagan om konungens återkomst 60)
OT: "'It [the darkness] comes from Mordor, lord,' he [the messenger] said." (The Lord of the Rings 832)
ST: "'Lord,' he [the messenger] said, 'I come from Mordor.'" (Sagan om konungens återkomst 84).
OT: "Two swift hours passed, and now the king sat upon his white horse ..." (The Lord of the Rings 834)
ST: "Two swift steeds passed by and then the king himself sat in the saddle upon his white horse ..." (Sagan om konungens återkomst 86)
OT: "He [Pippin] stopped dead." (The Lord of the Rings 859) This is when Pippin finds Gandalf facing the Lord of the Nazgûl at the gates of Minas Tirith.
ST: "He [Pippin] had stopped Death." (Sagan om konungens återkomst 117).
OT: "Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strength she [Éowyn] drove her sword between crown and mantle, as the great shoulders bowed before her."
ST: "Staggering he [Merry] straightened up and summoning his last strength he drove with an incredible chop his sword right between the crown and the mantle as the broad shoulders bowed down toward her." (Sagan om konungens återkomst 135)
When I wrote this, I did not have a pre-1989 Swedish edition available; thus, this error does not in fact occur in the work cited. I have merely reconstructed it to demonstrate what Swedish readers of Tolkien had to live with until 1989, when the publisher finally corrected it. But in the hardcover omnibus edition, with illustrations by Alan Lee, the error is still preserved.
OT: "But glad would he have been to know its [Merry's sword] fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dúnedain were young ..." (The Lord of the Rings 877f)
ST: "But he [Merry] would very much have liked to know the fate of the man who once a long, long time ago slowly and artfully wrought this sword in the North-kingdom in the days when the Dunedain [sic] still were young ..." (Sagan om konungens ´terkomst 138)
OT: "To Sam he [Bilbo] gave a little bag of gold. 'Almost the last drop of the Smaug vintage,' he said." (The Lord of the Rings 1023)
ST: "To Sam he [Bilbo] gave a rounded little bottle in a golden case. 'Almost the very last drop of Smaug's best vintage,' he said." (Sagan om konungens återkomst 307)

The above described errors becomes all the more irritating when the work is viewed as a whole, because when Ohlmarks was good (and he sometimes was), he was breathtakingly brilliant. An example of this is when he translates "Middle-earth" into "Midgård". Tolkien himself approvingly notes this in "Guide to the Names in the Lord of the Rings": "Middle-earth is a modern alteration of medieval middel-erde from Old English middan-geard .... The Dutch and Swedish versions correctly used the old mythological name assimilated to the modern languages: Dutch Midden-aarde, Swedish Midgård."

This year, however, the Swedish Tolkien fans have reason for celebration, because in September the first volume of a new translation will be released. This translation has been made by Erik Andersson, a professional translator, and Lotta Olsson, a poet and translator of poetry. Two Tolkien connoisseurs, assisted by a semi-secret group of "advisers" with special knowledge (of which yours truly is a member), have supervised their work. So this time, there's a good chance that it will finally be done correctly.

Åke Ohlmarks is, however, not around to see this new translation, since he passed away in 1984. He was completely impervious to all kinds of criticism of his translation anyway. Whenever he received negative criticism, it was summarily dismissed as coming from ignorant people who obviously had no idea what they were talking about. In his later years he fell out of love with the Tolkien phenomenon; it began in the late 1970s, when Christopher Tolkien allowed The Silmarillion to be published in Swedish only if Ohlmarks have nothing to do with the translation. Christopher Tolkien had been offended by Ohlmarks's attempt to publish a book trying to predict what The Silmarillion would contain; Ohlmarks thought that he had the younger Tolkien's approval of such a book, but this was - perhaps not surprisingly, given his knowledge of English - a misunderstanding on Ohlmarks's part.

In 1982, after a mysterious fire in his house which he for obscure reasons blamed on some Tolkien fans who had been visiting earlier that evening, he wrote a vicious, disgusting little book called Tolkien och den svarta magin [Tolkien and Black Magic]. In this amazing concoction of half-lies, half-truths, innuendo, tabloid journalism, and pseudo-scholarship he makes a number of doubtful assertions such as

* Tolkien was a closet Nazi sympathiser, at least before the war. The basis for this erroneous claim was that many leading German philologists had been members of the Nazi Parti during the war, and Tolkien was a philologist. Also, the character Saruman, who had been on the side of good but turned to evil, was "obviously" based on Hitler. And the name "Saruman" was obviously the same as "SA man" with a Germanic "Ruhm" in the middle meaning "honour". (Ohlmarks does not, however, mention that he himself spent the years 1941 to 1945 teaching Swedish at the university of Greifswald. Which, by the way, is in Germany.)
* Tolkien was a bad writer and the good parts of The Lord of the Rings must have been written by C. S. Lewis.
* The Tolkien Society is a huge international conspiracy or mafia bent on world domination, and anyone who tries to go up against them will be quietly "silenced".
* Tolkien fans are degenerate people who are contemptuous of the noble working class, abuse alcohol and drugs, indulge in kinky sexual orgies, beat up old people, sacrifice children, and worship Satan.

Yes, the story of the Swedish translation is so far a sad one, but in all its mediocrity it is still a great testimony to the reamarkable imagination and creativity of that old Oxford professor, because in spite of all these errors - some of which are so glaring that they jump out of the page - generations of Swedish readers have been drawn into Middle-earth to walk by Frodo's side all the way to Mount Doom and beyond.


WORKS CITED

Tolkien, J. R. R. "Guide to the Names in the Lord of the Rings". In A Tolkien Compass, ed. Jared Lobdell. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1975. Accessed on 30 September, 2002. Can be found at http://my.ort.org.il/tolkien/main/pages/trans-war/E_GuideToNamesInLOTR.html
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Letters of J R. R Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter, with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1981. London: HarperCollins, 1995.
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954, 1955. One-volume paperback edition: Grafton, 1992. HarperCollins, 1993.
Tolkien, J. R. R. Sagan om de två tornen. Trans. Åke Ohlmarks. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1960. Stockholm: Norstedts Förlag, 2001.
Tolkien, J. R. R. Sagan om konungens återkomst. Trans. Åke Ohlmarks. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1961. Stocholm, Norstedts Förlag, 2001.
Tolkien, J. R. R. Sagan om ringen. Trans. Åke Ohlmarks. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1959. Stockholm: Norstedts Förlag, 2001.