# If LOTR, etc. actually were translations, would it lessen or change your opinion of JRR Tolkien? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-lotr-etc-actually-were-translations-would-it-lessen-or-change-your-opinion-of-jrr-tolkien/503119 "2009-07-15T16:13:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-lotr-etc-actually-were-translations-would-it-lessen-or-change-your-opinion-of-jrr-tolkien/503119/21 "2009-07-19T19:50:31Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > (Though either is greater than Donaldson. Far, far greater.) How does Donaldson even come to mind? That’s the _Thomas Covenant_ writer, right? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-lotr-etc-actually-were-translations-would-it-lessen-or-change-your-opinion-of-jrr-tolkien/503119/22 "2009-07-19T19:58:02Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > How does Donaldson even come to mind? That’s the _Thomas Covenant_ writer, right? There was a logical connection when i wrote it but damned if I remember what it was now. 'Cept that in the view of some, the Covenant books are clearly a response to LOTR. ---
**Author:** ![vifslan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f4b2a3/32.png) [@vifslan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vifslan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-lotr-etc-actually-were-translations-would-it-lessen-or-change-your-opinion-of-jrr-tolkien/503119/23 "2009-07-19T20:48:18Z")
I think I’d demand second and third translations of the original documents, in that case. Then again I’m one of those revisionists with a rather twisted love for Tolkien’s world. A lot of oddities would be forgiven if it turned out that they were due to authors’ and translators’ biases and the plain honest misunderstandings of five blind men trying to get the idea of an elephant. Suppose, for example, that Bilbo wasn’t as great an Elvish scholar or poet that he or Frodo thought he was, and was allowed to play in Elrond’s library like a kid with a twenty in his pocket and the pick-and-mix shelf of his dreams. Suppose that Sam added all the overlong and badly written descriptions of vegetation. Suppose Frodo wrote most of his parts as a self-defence while addled by PTSD. Suppose Tolkien added all that quasi-Englishness with afternoon teas and express trains about The Shire “to make the readers connect”, or wrote monotheist societies with misogynist and monarchist values and Catholic ethics because he felt more comfortable than dealing with reality. When LOTR becomes public domain, I hope for a well-written satire where the first Hobbit package travellers emerge into the world outside their borders with the Red Book for a guide, just to find out that most of it is fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-lotr-etc-actually-were-translations-would-it-lessen-or-change-your-opinion-of-jrr-tolkien/503119/24 "2009-07-20T15:25:40Z")
> [@vifslan](#): > > Suppose, for example, that Bilbo wasn’t as great an Elvish scholar or poet that he or Frodo thought he was, and was allowed to play in Elrond’s library like a kid with a twenty in his pocket and the pick-and-mix shelf of his dreams … Suppose Tolkien added all that quasi-Englishness with afternoon teas and express trains about The Shire “to make the readers connect” I think both of those notions are canonical. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-lotr-etc-actually-were-translations-would-it-lessen-or-change-your-opinion-of-jrr-tolkien/503119.md?page=1)