Outside of a Dog: Tolkien, J.R.R.: Hobbit, The (audio)

Mike Kozlowski

Mike Kozlowski wrote on August 19, 2005 at 4:13 PM:

Weirder yet: Listening to the BBC LOTR radio play, featuring Ian Holm as Frodo. Dude, Ian Holm is BILBO.

Kate

Kate wrote on August 19, 2005 at 4:45 PM:

I’ve been listening to BBC radio plays recently, actually, but not that one. I think I may have checked that one out of the library a few years ago; if it’s the same one, I didn’t get very far into it, because I didn’t like the Gandalf voice and then was in no mood to keep listening after being pulled over for my very first speeding ticket.

David Tate

David Tate wrote on September 15, 2005 at 10:55 PM:

WRT paying very careful attention to the exact wording of The Lord of the Rings...

Do you by chance read any other languages semi-fluently? Here’s why I ask: probably the most rewarding look into TLotR I ever had was a couple of evenings spent with my brother during some vacation or other, reading TLotR together in a very weird way. I am slightly fluent in French; he is slightly fluent in German. I had a copy of Le Seigneur des Anneaux, he had a copy of Der Herr der Ringe, and we had a Ballantine paperback of TLotR for reference.

The game went as follows: I would read a paragraph of the French to myself, and speak out loud my attempted reconstruction of the original English. This was partly a test of my memory of the original (I’ve also re-read it repeatedly), and partly a test of the translation and of my skill. My brother would check me against the English, we’d comment on any differences, and then he’d hand me the English copy and do the same with the next paragraph, from the German.

It was remarkably fun, and got us miles deep into the precise wording and nuance of the text. It occurs to me that you could do something like this solo, though it would be less fun. If your language is German, you’d even have the pleasure of working with a good translation. (The French is pretty weak.)

Kate

Kate wrote on September 15, 2005 at 11:03 PM:

David Tate: alas, I do not, though it sounds pretty interesting—in a limited way with manga and anime, I’m finding that comparing translations, and also comparing the same story told in different formats, to be thought-provoking.