{"id":56098,"date":"2012-05-10T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=56098"},"modified":"2012-05-10T12:45:00","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T17:45:00","slug":"some-thoughts-on-the-irish-language-hobbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2012\/05\/10\/56098-some-thoughts-on-the-irish-language-hobbit\/","title":{"rendered":"Some thoughts on the Irish language Hobbit…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday we heard that, later this year, The Hobbit<\/em> will be published in Latin, and you will remember that we reported a while back about the Irish language version of Tolkien’s book.\u00a0 Ringer spy Ealbhchara (‘Elf-friend’ in Irish Gaelic) was at the official launch of the new translation, in Dublin, and he sent along a report.\u00a0 Though Ealbhchara has nothing to do with the translation and publication, he prefaces his report with a confession:\u00a0 ‘I hope you will forgive me if my report sounds promotional – in a way it is: I am keenly interested in promoting the Irish language (currently a minority language) and the publication of The<\/em> Hobbit<\/em> raises the status of the language significantly. Not to mention that I want An Hobad<\/em> to sell well enough so that they’ll translate The Lord Of the Rings <\/em>next!’<\/span><\/p>\n

Ealbhchara’s full report follows after the break – it’s a fascinating read!\u00a0 Many thanks to him for sending it along!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I bpoll sa talamh a bh\u00ed c\u00f3na\u00ed ar hobad<\/em>. It\u2019s been a long time coming, but finally it is possible to follow the adventures of Bilbo Baggins (Biolb\u00f3 Baig\u00edn<\/em>) in the Irish language. I had the great fortune to attend the official launch of An Hobad<\/em> last night at An Siopa Leabhar (The Book Shop) here in Dublin.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tolkien didn\u2019t mention if\u00a0Bilbo had a library at Bag End but if he did, I imagine it would look something like An Siopa Leabhar \u2013 cosy and inviting; the shelves stacked with beautifully-made books. I have often gone in to buy one book only to come out with three or four, to the detriment of my wallet. On this occasion several display cases were filled with copies of An Hobad<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This has been an historic event for the Irish language. Many great and popular works have been translated into Irish over the years, from Don Quixote<\/em> to Dracula<\/em> and most recently, Harry Potter<\/em> and Artemis Fowl<\/em> \u2013 but An Hobad<\/em> stands a good chance of being the best-selling Irish language book of all time. By the end of the evening, I noticed that an entire display case had been cleaned out.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There has been a lot of interest in the launch and the shop was packed to capacity. Daragh \u00d3 Tuama, manager and organiser of the event, told us how he had read only The Lord Of the Rings<\/em> and was proud to be experiencing The Hobbit<\/em> for the first time, through the Irish language.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Part of the evening was taken up by media interviews with the extraordinary people involved in the translation. Professor Nicholas Williams (who previously translated Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em> and Through the Looking-Glass<\/em>) explained that a particular difficulty in the translation was the absence in Irish mythology of an exact equivalent of Tolkien\u2019s Elves. The search for a suitable word resulted in a years-long delay while Professor Williams and the publisher, Michael Everson (himself a formidable linguist, typesetter and font designer) sought to find common ground on the matter. In the end, a new word was created, Ealbh<\/em>, based on a borrowing into Scottish Gaelic from Norse \u2013 a solution Tolkien might well have approved of!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After some manoeuvering amongst the throng, I got to speak with Michael Everson himself (an American immigrant to Ireland who speaks fluent Irish). An Hobad<\/em> has clearly been a labour of love and he has gone to painstaking lengths to ensure that the end result is outstanding. All the handwritten texts in Tolkien\u2019s maps and illustrations have been translated, inluding the Dwarves\u2019 runes. Everson even managed to duplicate Tolkien\u2019s own calligraphy; the Irish writing has effectively been produced by Tolkien\u2019s own hand \u2013 a first, I\u2019m told, for any translation of The Hobbit<\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At this point, I\u2019m half-way through the book itself (I got my copy some days ago). The translation is exceptional and I\u2019m getting to relive the experience I had when I first read The Hobbit<\/em> at the age of nine. I\u2019ll leave you with a few famous quotes from the book in their Irish versions. I know Tolkien readers like linguistic riddles: see if you can work them out! (translation below)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSonas maidine duit!\u201d arsa Biolb\u00f3 ar deireadh. \u201cN\u00ed theasta\u00edonn eachtra\u00ed uainne anseo, go raibh m\u00edle <\/span>maith agat!\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cBeir bua aguss beannacht, a sst\u00f3ir\u00edn!\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cCo raibh b\u00edle baith acaibh.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cN\u00e1 d\u00e9an magadh faoi dhragan beo, a Bhiolb\u00f3, a amad\u00e1in!\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cGood morning!” he said at last. \u201cWe don\u2019t want any adventures here, thank you!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBless us and splash us, my precioussss!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThag you very buch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNever laugh at live dragons,<\/span> Bilbo you fool!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday we heard that, later this year, The Hobbit will be published in Latin, and you will remember…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[163,14,7,18,91,148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-merchandise-books","category-events","category-hobbit-book","category-merchandise","category-events-other","category-hobbit"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-eAO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56098"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56101,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56098\/revisions\/56101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}