Apseudotranslation is a text written as if it had been translated from a foreign language.J. R. R. Tolkien made use ofpseudotranslation inThe Lord of the Rings for two reasons: to help resolve the linguistic puzzle he had accidentally created by using real-world languages within his legendarium, and to lend realism by supporting afound manuscript conceitto frame his story.

Effectively, he pretends to be an editor and translator who has received an ancient manuscript, theRed Book of Westmarch, written inWestron, the Common Speech ofMiddle-earth, annotated and edited by many hands, which he decides to translate into English. The manuscript contains names and words fromother languages, some of them related to Westron; he translates those into languages related to English, namelyOld English andOld Norse. Tolkien wrote in the text ofThe Two Towers thatOrthanc had two meanings, one inSindarin and the other, "Cunning Mind", inRohirric. The latter meaning is the actual sense of the Old English word, making the multiplehomonymy andsynonymy implausible.

Aspects of the pseudotranslation make actualtranslation ofThe Lord of the Rings into other languages a challenge. A specific difficulty is the elaborate relationship between some of the real and invented languages used in the book. Westron is supposedly translated as modern English; this stands in relation toRohirric, an archaic language, which is represented byOld English, and the language of Dale, translated asOld Norse. The three real languages are related.Thomas Honegger gives possible solutions that begin to handle this in French and German, but suggests that the small amount of Old English is probably best left untranslated.

From his schooldays,J. R. R. Tolkien was, in the words of his biographerJohn Garth, "effusive about philology"; his schoolfriend Rob Gilson called him "quite a great authority onetymology".^[1] Tolkien was a professionalphilologist, a scholar of comparative and historicallinguistics. He was especially familiar withOld English and related languages. He remarked to the poet andThe New York Times book reviewerHarvey Breit that "I am a philologist and all my work is philological"; he explained to his American publisherHoughton Mifflin that this was meant to imply that his work was "all of a piece, andfundamentally linguistic in inspiration. ... Theinvention of languages is the foundation. The 'stories' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows."^{[T 1]}

Apseudotranslation is a text written as if it had been translated from a foreign language, even though no foreign language original exists. The practice began in medievalchivalric romance, and was common in 16th-century Spain, in works like thec. 1508Amadís de Gaula; it was mocked byCervantes in his 1605Don Quixote.^[2]

In his 1937 children's bookThe Hobbit, Tolkien used English as the language of thehobbit protagonist,Bilbo Baggins, and he was able to converse in this language with the other characters. TheDwarves however had names inOld Norse forms.^[3] Tolkien took the names of 12 of the 13 dwarves – excludingBalin – that he used inThe Hobbit (along with thewizardGandalf's name) from the Old NorseVöluspá in theElder Edda. For example,Thorin Oakenshield is the leader of the group of Dwarves. The name "Thorin" (Þorinn) appears in stanza 12, where it is used for adwarf, while the name "Oakenshield" (Eikinskjaldi) is in stanza 13.^[4][5]

The use of Norse names was left unexplained inThe Hobbit, but when some of the same Dwarves reappeared inThe Lord of the Rings, it presented an immediate problem: the Dwarves would have had names in their own language,Khuzdul. Tolkien needed to find a solution that would make names inNorse and Khuzdul – one real language, one invented – coexist.^[6]

When writingThe Lord of the Rings (1954–55), a sequel toThe Hobbit, Tolkien came up with the literary device ofpseudotranslation, using real languages to "translate" fictional languages.^[7] He pretended to have translated the original languageWestron into English.^[3]

In a 1954 letter, Tolkien stated that the pseudotranslation issue "has given me much thought. It seems seldom regarded by other creators of imaginary worlds, however gifted as narrators (such asEddison). But then I am a philologist".^{[T 2]} He then stated that "English cannot have been the language of any people of that time",^{[T 2]} and explained his pseudotranslation process:^[8] "What I have, in fact done, is to equate the Westron or wide-spread Common Speech of the Third Age with English; and translate everything, including names such as The Shire, that was in the Westron into English terms".^{[T 2]}

In Appendix F II "On Translation", Tolkien wrote that "The Westron names were as a rule translations of older names: as Rivendell, Hoarwell,Silverlode, Langstrand".^{[T 3]} He went on to explain why he had done this:^{[T 3]}

[I wished to preserve] the contrast between a wide-spread language... and the living remains of far older and more reverend tongues. All names if merely transcribed would seem to modern readers equally remote: for instance, if the Elvish nameImladris and the WestrontranslationKarningul had both been left unchanged.^{[T 3]}

Tolkien gave as a picture of the reason for this approach a sentence mapping Middle-earth to the real world, though with the inclusion of the semi-mythical figure ofKing Arthur:^{[T 3]}

But to refer to Rivendell as Imladris was as if one now was to speak of Winchester as Camelot, except that the identity was certain, while in Rivendell there still dwelta lord of renown far older than Arthur would be, were he still king at Winchester today.^{[T 3]}

Allan Turner remarks that this further blurs the already confused distinction between fiction and reality:^[9]

The device of rendering animaginary language with areal one was carried further by rendering:^[3]

• Rohirric, the language ofRohan (related to Westron) by theMercian dialect ofOld English^[3]
• names in the tongue ofDale by Old Norse forms^[3]
• names of theKingdom of Rhovanion byGothic forms, thus mapping the genetic relation of his fictional languages on to the existing historical relations of theGermanic languages.^[3]

Tolkien wrote: "Languages, however, that were related to the Westron presented a special problem. I turned them into forms of speech related to English. Since the Rohirrim are represented as recent comers out of the North, and users of an archaic Mannish language relatively untouched by the influence ofEldarin, I have turned their names into forms like ... Old English."^{[T 2][8]}

• 
  Tolkien accidentally created a linguistic puzzle by using three different pseudo-translated Germanic languages for peoples in his story.^[10]

Furthermore, to parallel theCelticsubstratum in England, he usedOld Welsh names to render theDunlendish names ofBuckland Hobbits (e.g.,Meriadoc forKalimac).^{[T 3]} The device of linguistic mapping allowed Tolkien to avoid having to invent new names in Khuzdul for all his Dwarves, while simultaneously explaining the book's use of Modern English for Westron.^[6] Further, it saved him from having to work out the details of Westron grammar or vocabulary in any detail. He does give some examples of Westron words in Appendix F II toThe Lord of the Rings, where he summarizes its origin and role as Middle-earth'slingua franca:^{[T 3][11]}

The language represented in this history by English was the Westron or 'Common Speech' of the West-lands of Middle-earth in the Third Age. In the course of that age it had become the native language of nearly all the speaking-peoples (save the Elves) who dwelt within the bounds of the old kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor ... At the time of the War of the Ring at the end of the age these were still its bounds as a native tongue. (Appendix F)^{[T 3]}

Rohirric is represented inThe Lord of the Rings by Old English because Tolkien chose to make the relationship between Rohirric and the Common Speech similar to that of Old English andModern English.^{[T 4]}

Tolkien went further, usingGothic names for the early leaders of the Northmen ofRhovanion, ancestors of Rohan, and for the first Kings of Rohan.^{[T 6][12]} Gothic was anEast Germanic language, and as such is a forerunner of Old English, not a direct ancestor.^[13]Christopher Tolkien suggests that his father intended the correspondence between the language families to extend back to the ancestral language of the Northmen.^{[T 6]}

This solution makes the combination of languages in the book exceptionally complex, presenting a substantial challenge to thosetranslatingThe Lord of the Rings into other languages.^[14][15]Thomas Honegger suggests how the language nexus might be translated into French:^[16]

Honegger notes that while this type of solution works linguistically, it cannot hope to capture cultural aspects. The people of Rohan, the Rohirrim, speak a Mercian dialect of Old English, and their culture is Anglo-Saxon, despite Tolkien's denial of this in "On Translation". Medieval Latin does nothing to suggest Mercian Anglo-Saxon culture. Honegger suggests that in consequence, the best answer is probably to leave the Old English names and quoted speech untranslated, noting that Tolkien's "Guide to the Names" seems to concur with this approach.^[16]

Tolkien stated inThe Two Towers that the nameOrthanc had "by design or chance" two meanings. In Sindarin it meant "Mount Fang", while in the language of Rohan he said it meant "Cunning Mind".^{[T 8]} The authorRobert Foster notes thatorþanc genuinely does mean "cunning" in Old English, so that thehomonym Tolkien had in mind was between Sindarin and Old English, that is, translated or represented Rohirric. Foster comments that since it would be unlikely for a homonym also to exist between these two languages and actual Rohirric, and for the Old English and the Rohirric to besynonyms as well, Tolkien had made an error.^[17]

• 
  InThe Two Towers, Tolkien saidOrthanc had meanings inSindarin andRohirric; but it is also a synonym and homonym inOld English, making Tolkien's claim look like a mistake.^[17]

InThe Fellowship of the Ring, the company find Balin's tomb as they crossMoria on their quest. The tomb is inscribed inDwarf runes.^{[T 9]} Transliterated into Latin characters, this is seen to be in Khuzdul and English.^[18] English, as the real-world language into which Westron was purportedly translated, could not exist in Middle-earth.^{[T 2]} In the related case of theBook of Mazarbul, which was found lying on Balin's tomb,^{[T 9]} Tolkien admitted that he had made a mistake using English in his facsimile document, "an erroneous extension of the general literary treatment",^{[T 10]} since the writing was "supposed to be of the date of the events in the narrative".^{[T 10]}

Languages used in Balin's tomb inscription

Inscription	Transcribed inscription	Notes
	BALIN FUNdINUL UZBADKhAZADDÛMU BALIN SƏN OV FUNDIN LORD OV MORIA	Khuzdul English

A second reason for Tolkien to make use of pseudotranslation was to lend realism by supporting afound manuscript conceit; this in turn strengthened and lent consistency to the philological wayTolkien had chosen to frame his story.^[9]Tolkien used a frame story, embedded within the text, to make the story appear to have been written and edited by many hands over a long period of time. He described in detail how Bilbo andFrodo Baggins wrote their memoirs, transmitted them to others as theRed Book of Westmarch, and showed how later in-universe editors annotated the material.^[19] Tolkien then appears not as the book's author but as editor and translator, the text as a survival through long ages, and the events depicted as historical.^[19][20] Catherine Butler comments that this was "congenial work" which "suited the philological Tolkien with his many medieval documents".^[21]

• Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien

• Brljak, Vladimir (2010). "The Books of Lost Tales: Tolkien as Metafictionist".Tolkien Studies.7 (1):1–34.doi:10.1353/tks.0.0079.
• Butler, Catherine (2013). "Tolkien and Worldbuilding". In Hunt, Peter (ed.).J. R. R. Tolkien: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 106–120.ISBN 978-1-137-26399-5.
• Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981].The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York:HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
• Eisenberg, Daniel[in Spanish] (1982) [1976]."The Pseudo-Historicity of the Romances of Chivalry".Romanes of Chivalry in the Spanish Golden Age. first published inQuaderni Ibero-Americani, 45–46 (1975–76), pp. 253–259.Newark, Delaware:Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs. pp. 119–129.ISBN 0936388072.
• Evans, Jonathan (2013b) [2007]. "Dwarves". InDrout, Michael D. C. (ed.).The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Abingdon, England:Routledge. pp. 134–135.ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
• Fimi, Dimitra (2010) [2008].Tolkien, Race, and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits.Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 978-0-230-21951-9.OCLC 222251097.
• Flieger, Verlyn (2005).Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien's Mythology.Kent State University Press.
• Garth, John (2003).Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth.HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0-00711-953-0.
• Hemmi, Yoko (2010)."Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and His Concept of Native Language: Sindarin and British-Welsh".Tolkien Studies.7:147–174.doi:10.1353/tks.0.0063.S2CID 170366632 – viaProject Muse.
• Honegger, Thomas (2011b) [2004]. "The Westron Turned into Modern English: The Translator and Tolkien's Web of Languages". In Honegger, Thomas (ed.).Translating Tolkien: Text and Film. Cormarë series. Vol. 6.Walking Tree Publishers. pp. 1–18.ISBN 978-3-9521424-9-3.
• Madoff, Mark (1979). "The Useful Myth of Gothic Ancestry".Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture.8 (1):337–350.doi:10.1353/sec.1979.0019.ISSN 1938-6133.
• Rateliff, John D. (2007).The History of the Hobbit. London:HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0-00-723555-1.
• Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982].The Road to Middle-Earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology (Third ed.).HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0-261-10275-0.
• Smith, Arden Ray (2006). "Translating Tolkien: Philological Elements in "The Lord of the Rings" (review)".Tolkien Studies.3 (1):228–231.doi:10.1353/tks.2006.0031.ISSN 1547-3163.
• Smith, Arden R. (2020) [2014]. "Invented Languages and Writing Systems". InLee, Stuart D. (ed.).A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien.Wiley Blackwell. pp. 202–214.ISBN 978-1119656029.OCLC 1183854105.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954a).The Fellowship of the Ring.The Lord of the Rings. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.OCLC 9552942.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954).The Two Towers.The Lord of the Rings. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.OCLC 1042159111.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955).The Return of the King.The Lord of the Rings. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.OCLC 519647821.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1980).Christopher Tolkien (ed.).Unfinished Tales. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1996).Christopher Tolkien (ed.).The Peoples of Middle-earth. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.ISBN 978-0-395-82760-4.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (July 2001).Hostetter, Carl F. (ed.). "The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor".Vinyar Tengwar (42): 8.
• Turner, Allan (2005).Translating Tolkien: Philological Elements in 'The Lord of the Rings'. Duisburger Arbeiten zur Sprach– und Kulturwissenschaft. Vol. 59. Frankfurt:Peter Lang.ISBN 3-631-53517-1.
• Turner, Allan (2007). "Language, Theories of: Translation". InDrout, Michael D. C. (ed.).J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia.Routledge. pp. 328–330.ISBN 978-1-135-88033-0.
• Turner, Allan (2011a). "A Theoretical Model for Tolkien Translation Criticism". InHonegger, Thomas (ed.).Tolkien in Translation. Cormarë series. Vol. 4. Zurich:Walking Tree Publishers. pp. 1–30.ISBN 978-3-9521424-6-2.

• Themes of The Lord of the Rings

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