Talk:Translations of The Hobbit

Nice idea
Nice start. ISBNs and publisher and translator names for all would be good. A good resource is www.tolkienlibrary.com, though we mustn't copy verbatim. I'd suggest restricting this list to the basic facts. Commentary on what is inside the book, such as the maps, and translations of the title, need care. Carcharoth 10:59, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

"Bilbo Baggins" in other languages
The name "Baggins" has often been changed for translated versions of the books, although most translations keep the bag part of the name.
 * In the Brazilian Portuguese translation he is called Bilbo Bolseiro (but Bilbo Bolsin in the first edition of The Hobbit).
 * In the Bosnian translation he is called Bilbo Bagins.
 * In the Breton translation he is called Bilbo Sac'heg (sac'h = sack, bag).
 * In the Bulgarian translation he is called Билбо Торбинс (торба = bag).
 * In the Catalan version he is called Bilbo Saquet; saquet meaning "little bag" or "little sack".
 * In the Czech it is Bilbo Pytlík (pytlík = small bag).
 * In the Danish translation he is called Bilbo Sækker (sæk = bag).
 * In the Dutch version he is called Bilbo Balings. (baal = bag)
 * In the Estonian translation he is called Bilbo Paunaste (paun = bag). (In the first edition of The Hobbit he kept his original name.)
 * In the Fareoese translation he is called Bilbo Pjøkjin
 * In most of the Finnish translations he is called Bilbo Reppuli (reppu = backpack). In Risto Pitkänen's early Finnish translation of The Hobbit (1973) he is called Kalpa Kassinen (kalpa = sword, kassi = bag)
 * In the French translation he is called Bilbo (or Bilbon) Sacquet (sac = bag).
 * In the German translation he is called Bilbo Beutlin (created from Beutel=bag).
 * In the Hungarian translation he is called Zsákos Bilbó. (zsák = bag)
 * In the Icelandic translation he is called Bilbó Baggason (Bilbo, son of Baggi, baggi = sack, pack), see Icelandic name. In later translations, Bilbó does not have a patronym but a family name.
 * In the Mewari translation he is called Bilbo Thelo (Thelo = bag).
 * In the Norwegian translation he is called Bilbo Lommelun. (lomme = pocket)
 * In one of three Polish translations of The Lord of the Rings he is called Bilbo Bagosz. In the other two translations and in The Hobbit he keeps his original name.
 * In the Russian translation he is also called Торбинс or Сумкинс (торба, сумка = handbag).
 * In the Slovak he is called Bilbo Bublík (but Bilbo Lazník in the first edition of The Hobbit).
 * In the Slovene it is Bilbo Bogataj (bogat = rich) in The Hobbit, but Bilbo Bisagin(bisaga = bag) in The Lord of the Rings.
 * In the Spanish translation he is called Bilbo Bolsón. (bolso "handbag", so bolsón "big handbag").
 * In the Swedish translation (by Åke Ohlmarks' 1959-1961) he is called Bilbo Bagger (bagge = male sheep). In Erik Andersson's 2004-2005 translation he is more appropriately called Bilbo Secker (säck = sack/bag).
 * In the Ukrainian translation he is called Торбинс, Торбінз) or Злоткінс. (торба = handbag).

From the Bilbo article. Extraneous to the English Wiki. Uthanc (talk) 09:05, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Spanish edition
Is the 1982 Spanish edition really in national Spanish? It looks like South American Spanish to me, in particular because of the constant use of voseo. Paul Magnussen (talk) 22:10, 30 September 2013 (UTC)


 * There are only two parts of the world where the singular and plural second person verb forms are used regularly: Spain and Argentina. But Argentina does not use the verb form in the normal way, and their speech can easily be distinguished from that of Spain.  From the form of the text, I would readily accept the translation as having been done by an educated person in Spain, deliberately trying to make the speech sound antique.  It reads like much of the Reina Valera Bible or a modern version of Cervantes' "Don Quijote."  It reads very differently from Ricardo Palma's "Tradicciones Peruanas", which was written in the Peruvian Spanish of the early 1800s and which has not been modernized (yet).  --Rpapo (talk) 21:37, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

Japanese Translation
In the fourth paragraph of The Hobbit in English, in describing just what is a Hobbit, we find this sentence:

"They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves." (Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Hobbit (Lord of the Rings) (p. 2). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.)

In the Japanese version, we find the parenthetical statement explaining just what a dwarf is: 「ドワーフ小人は、白雪姫にでてくる七人たちの仲間です. 」 This roughly translates to "the group of seven little people that appeared in Snow White." Given the Professor's well known aversion for the works of Walt Disney, you could imagine him rolling in his grave over that addition to his text, albeit in another language and to make the image clearer in the Japanese mind.

--Rpapo (talk) 19:49, 29 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Disney did not invent Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Also, your translation is off. 仲間 in that context means “akin to”, or “in the genre of”. So, “Dwarf-little people are similar to the seven little people who appear in Snow White.” Several translations of The Hobbit exist. The description you excerpted only appears in one. Strebe (talk) 22:54, 29 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Given that most languages have only one authorized translation of Tolkien's works, and the translation that I have has illustrations matching the ones described in "The Annotated Hobbit", I rather assumed (what do they say about that word, "assume"?) it was the only one in Japanese. That's irrelevant, though.  That the translator had to resort to a pop-culture reference normally associated with a Walt Disney movie was amusing to me and made me wonder what Tolkien himself would have thought.  My jaw dropped when I ran into it.  And I did say it was "roughly translated".  I don't claim to be an expert in the Japanese language.  Not even close.  --Rpapo (talk) 10:15, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

Mongolian translation
I've added details of the Mongolian translation, which I bought from the translator. She was selling them at a book market. I believe it was published quite recently, perhaps as recently as 2017 or 2018, but no date is given in the book's publication details. There is an ISBN number (which Wikipedia flagged as incorrectly formatted). The book appears to be privately printed since it gives only the printer ("Soyombo Printing"), which is based in Ulaanbaatar. At the place on the title page that normally shows the publisher there is a small illustration with the words EX LIBRIS. J.OYUNTSETSEG.

66.181.176.80 (talk) 23:55, 2 February 2019 (UTC)


 * Well, it appears that this is not the first time this translation has appeared. An edition by the same translator with essentially the same cover art and the same ISBN number appeared in 2009 under the title Бяцхан Хоббитын адал явдал (Adventure of the little hobbit) by Selenge Press in Ulaanbaatar. See, also . The same site has another version of the Hobbit: Хоббит, Азтай Жэйлс, See , confirmed here (final entry on page):.


 * 66.181.176.80 (talk) 07:16, 3 February 2019 (UTC)