Translating Archaic Style in The Lord of the Rings
Keskinen, Onni (2025)
2025
Monikielisen viestinnän ja käännöstieteen maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in Multilingual Communication and Translation Studies
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-11-10
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-2025111010493
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-2025111010493
Tiivistelmä
This MA thesis examines the usage of style in translation from English to Finnish, more specifically archaisms as a style strategy in fantasy fiction. The study compares archaisms found in The Lord of the Rings and its translation, Taru Sormusten Herrasta. This study does not focus on direct translation strategies, but on instances of stylistic compensation, which make up for lost style features in other parts of the text. The study compares the type and effect of archaisms in both texts and the factors that lead to these differences. The main research question is whether archaic style has been preserved in the translation.
Fantasy stories are very popular in both literature and visual media. The subgenre of medieval epic fantasy was largely pioneered by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, and many modern authors and productions emulate aspects of The Lord of the Rings’ style and worldbuilding. Archaisms, defined as obsolete or outdated words or expressions, are a significant style feature in The Lord of the Rings as well as many other works of medieval fantasy.
For the study, I created a classification of different types of archaisms. I used past theories on archaisms by Dirk Delabastita (2004) and Francis R. Jones and Allan Turner (2004) as well as books on style by Susan Mandala (2010) and Geoffrey N. Leech and Mick Short (2007) to build this classification. The research material consists of the first 100 archaisms found in each book, which I divided into the six categories belonging to my classification. I analyze the number of archaisms in each category, comparing the source and target texts. I also examine some local translation strategies where appropriate and use the translator Kersti Juva’s book Tolkienin tulkkina (2021) to gain further insights into the local and global level translation strategies found in the translation.
The study found that the translated text had a significantly smaller number of archaisms, most of which were instances of displaced compensation. The types of archaisms used in the target text were also different from the source text. While lexical archaisms were the most common type in the source text, the target text contained a more even spread of archaisms across all six categories. Thus, the translator used various types of archaisms to compensate for the lack of lexical archaisms. Further studies could use different classifications or examine a wider array of texts to analyze methods of translating style.
Fantasy stories are very popular in both literature and visual media. The subgenre of medieval epic fantasy was largely pioneered by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, and many modern authors and productions emulate aspects of The Lord of the Rings’ style and worldbuilding. Archaisms, defined as obsolete or outdated words or expressions, are a significant style feature in The Lord of the Rings as well as many other works of medieval fantasy.
For the study, I created a classification of different types of archaisms. I used past theories on archaisms by Dirk Delabastita (2004) and Francis R. Jones and Allan Turner (2004) as well as books on style by Susan Mandala (2010) and Geoffrey N. Leech and Mick Short (2007) to build this classification. The research material consists of the first 100 archaisms found in each book, which I divided into the six categories belonging to my classification. I analyze the number of archaisms in each category, comparing the source and target texts. I also examine some local translation strategies where appropriate and use the translator Kersti Juva’s book Tolkienin tulkkina (2021) to gain further insights into the local and global level translation strategies found in the translation.
The study found that the translated text had a significantly smaller number of archaisms, most of which were instances of displaced compensation. The types of archaisms used in the target text were also different from the source text. While lexical archaisms were the most common type in the source text, the target text contained a more even spread of archaisms across all six categories. Thus, the translator used various types of archaisms to compensate for the lack of lexical archaisms. Further studies could use different classifications or examine a wider array of texts to analyze methods of translating style.