It's a good question, though not one I've really thought about. There are places where I can see the translation is absolutely exact and literal because I can remember the exact phrases from the English, but mostly I haven't been making a direct comparison. Some things are a bit wordier possibly, but I think in some way French is rather well suited to Tolkien's rather wordy style of prose anyway. Names are often altered a little, which can be somewhat confusing.
The main thing I have difficulty with is just plain vocabulary problems. Names of trees. How many different words there are for misty or foggy or for different sorts of stream and puddle and lake. And I sometimes find myself learning the French word for some object and entirely unable to remember the English one: I recall asking rjk what the word for a thing you keep arrows in is. In French it appears to be Carquois, but it was some time before I remembered the English word was Quiver.
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timeasmymeasure
Re:
Date: 2004-02-16 07:19 pm (UTC)The main thing I have difficulty with is just plain vocabulary problems. Names of trees. How many different words there are for misty or foggy or for different sorts of stream and puddle and lake. And I sometimes find myself learning the French word for some object and entirely unable to remember the English one: I recall asking rjk what the word for a thing you keep arrows in is. In French it appears to be Carquois, but it was some time before I remembered the English word was Quiver.