Þórsteinn Thorarensen

From Tolkien Gateway

Þorsteinn Thorarensen (1927-2006) was an Icelandic journalist, book publisher and translator who translated and published The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion as "Hobbitinn eða út og heim aftur" (1997), "Hringadróttinssaga" (1993-1995) and “Silmerillinn” (1999) respectively. [1]

A curious aspect of his translations is that he translated all names into Icelandic. In Vinyar Tengwar 42, Arden R. Smith gives an impressive list of many names that can be found in Thorarensen's translation. These include the Norse names ("Gandalfur", "Þorinn Eikinskjaldi") and the Old English ("Hjálmur", "Jómar", "Þjóðan"), but also the Elvish names. One finds such names as "Bréglaður", "Dyrþanki", "Hýrlúnn" and "Hallbarður". Appendices E and F are not translated, so it is unknown what Thorarensen would have made of that.

In 1978, Úlfur Ragnarsson and Karl Ágúst Úlfsson published a translation of The Hobbit. There are no other Icelandic translations of The Lord of the Rings.

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