Fr Tim Finigan has a welcome reminder of the lure of The Hobbit on his blog today. He also
provides a useful link to this tremendously interesting page from the New
Liturgical Movement on Tolkien’s liturgical views.
However, what made me chuckle was the link in the Com Box to
the new Latin translation of The Hobbit and,
especially, the learned discussion of the finer points of translation in the
Amazon reviews.
It reminded me of one of my tutors at university. A learned
but rather eccentric man, he gave his young son Asterix books to read. This
rather surprised us until we heard that it was Asterix translated into Latin.
There are a number of other Latin translations (whose language is better than in Hobbitus Ille) that I've found on Amazon such as Robinson Secundus (a christian version of Robinson Crusoe) Mysterium Arcae Boule, Pericla Navarchi Magonis and Fabulae Divales.
ReplyDeleteIf you want a good, modern translation of something more contemporary, try one of those by Tom Cotton - Carmen ad Festum Nativitatis and Fundus Animalium, for example. The Latin has authentic rhythms and vocabulary is treated sympathetically.
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