Article in the Daily Mail - Anthony Mealing and Mary Mouse

[Wolfgang]

What about learning some German to get an idea? Joke apart, especially Secret Island suffers from the "translation", the parents are on holiday and not missing, Peggy becomes the youngest of the children with quite some childish behaviour, they're not as organized and strict compared to the English version. If you happen to be a member of the Yahoo group, you'll find the back-translation of Secret Island there.

[Francis]

It must be interesting for German readers who understand English to compare the translated versions with the English original. It would also be interesting to compare the French translations to the English ones - I believe they changed the names of the Famous Five.

[Soenke Rahn]

Yes that's right and in the france version you find lost chapter gaps. The "wonderful" jokes are erased. I looked into it as I transfered the Famous Five - Adventure into German, ( http://108500.forumromanum.com/member/f ... npage.html), but the France Version was not really interesting ...

[Francis]

I was talking today to a book dealer who has been sending Enid Blyton books to Canada. He told me that Enid Blyton books have been banned from libraries in that country for being 'classist'! I suppose this means that the children are mainly middle class and reflect their attitutudes - this of course must be surpressed. I wonder if they also banned 'Swallows and Amazons' and 'The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe' - I think not.

[Katharine]

I'm interested to read about the seemingly pointless changes in the translating of some of Enid's books, and also the omission of some of the humour. This got me wondering. Are any of the FFO books translated in German, and if so, do the German's understand the humour behind Frederick's nickname, ie that his initials spell FAT, and he is overweight. As that's quite an important part of why he has that name, I'm wondering how it's been dealt with?

[Francis]

Soenke wrote

I looked into it as I transfered the Famous Five - Adventure into German,

Your talents never cease to surprise me - I wish I could speak many languages.

[Soenke Rahn]

What about learning some German to get an idea? Joke apart, especially Secret Island suffers from the "translation", the parents are on holiday and not missing, Peggy becomes the youngest of the children with quite some childish behaviour, they're not as organized and strict compared to the English version. If you happen to be a member of the Yahoo group, you'll find the back-translation of Secret Island there.

Do you think it would be better and possible to bugfix the German books to a good Arnold children book? Or do you think it would better if there would exist something in the near of a 1:1 translation?

[Katharine]

Francis, your information about Canada and Enid's books has left me with steam coming out of my ears. Whilst a country like Canada may not have a class system like the UK used to have, I'm willing to bet there are people over there who enjoy various different levels of lifestyle. Or does everyone have the same size house, same income, no private schools etc?

[Soenke Rahn]

I'm interested to read about the seemingly pointless changes in the translating of some of Enid's books, and also the omission of some of the humour. This got me wondering. Are any of the FFO books translated in German, and if so, do the German's understand the humour behind Frederick's nickname, ie that his initials spell FAT, and he is overweight. As that's quite an important part of why he has that name, I'm wondering how it's been dealt with?

Frederick Algernon Trotteville (Fatty) was renamed to
Dietrich Ingbert Carl Kronstein (Dicki)
And Dick 1:1 translated is the word thick.
I must say "Dietrich Ingbert Carl Kronstein" sounds for me a little bit like a Kalle Blomquist (engl. Bill Bergson) charakter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bergson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but do not know why it sounds for me like it.

So Fatty is in Germany not fat (German: fett). By the way Dick Kirrin was not renamed, because his name is not Thick.

[Francis]

Katharine it made me very angry indeed - is there no end to these insults to one of the most loved children's author of all time. These people are bigoted and just plain bonkers. Somebody writing about middle class children these days would have a very tough time - unless they included magic! By the way, the bookseller confirmed to me that Arthur Ransome's books are just not read any more by children whilst Enids' are as popular as ever.

[Wolfgang]

I'm interested to read about the seemingly pointless changes in the translating of some of Enid's books, and also the omission of some of the humour. This got me wondering. Are any of the FFO books translated in German, and if so, do the German's understand the humour behind Frederick's nickname, ie that his initials spell FAT, and he is overweight. As that's quite an important part of why he has that name, I'm wondering how it's been dealt with?

Actually all FFO books have been translated - twice. In the old translation all names of the children And Mr Goon had been changed, so yes, Dietrich Ingbert Carl Kronstein ttransported the the meaning of the name. It was a surprise to me when reading the second translation, that there are missing scenes in the first translation. I know it happened at least two times, but I can only remember one of the incidents, it's about The mystery of the vanished prince. When they're on the fair Fatty gives Mr Goon a free ride on the round-about, much too fast. I seem to recall that the second incident also involves Mr Goon, als a scene in which The Law didn't look too well.

The names of the new translations are eather ridicilous though, while Larry, Daisy and Pip kept the name, Betty became Betsy, Fatty became Dicky and Buster became Scottie. In the first book they even renamed Mr Smellie in Mr Stinker.

[Soenke Rahn]

I'm interested to read about the seemingly pointless changes in the translating of some of Enid's books, and also the omission of some of the humour. This got me wondering. Are any of the FFO books translated in German, and if so, do the German's understand the humour behind Frederick's nickname, ie that his initials spell FAT, and he is overweight. As that's quite an important part of why he has that name, I'm wondering how it's been dealt with?

Frederick Algernon Trotteville (Fatty) was renamed to
Dietrich Ingbert Carl Kronstein (Dicki)
And Dick 1:1 translated is the word thick.
I must say "Dietrich Ingbert Carl Kronstein" sounds for me a little bit like a Kalle Blomquist (engl. Bill Bergson) charakter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bergson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but do not know why it sounds for me like it.

So Fatty is in Germany not fat (German: fett). By the way Dick Kirrin was not renamed, because his name is not Thick.

Oh, I see now: In a New translation the English name was not changed. But If I have seen it right. The new translation was NOT really a success.

Why not: Frederick Edward Trotteville (Fetty) or something like this in the new translation. One little name. I do not understand such 1:1 translation-method.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geheimnis_um

[Soenke Rahn]

Actually all FFO books have been translated - twice. In the old translation all names of the children And Mr Goon had been changed, so yes ...

Thank you, you were swifter, with the new translation ... I have forgotten it.

[Soenke Rahn]

@Wolfgang And Mr. Goons name is Mr. Goon in the new translation, I read. Suppose not a good way to transfer jokes ... In the old translation his nickname was "Weg-da" 1:1 engl. "Away-there" ...

[Wolfgang]

By the way Dick Kirrin was not renamed, because his name is not Thick.

That's not correct. Dick became Richard in the German books, and to avoid confusion they reanamed Richard Kent to Hardy Kent.
The audioplays before the late 70ies TV-serialisation use the German names of the books, Julius, Richard, Georg(ina) (completely differently pronounced in German), and Anne (also differntly pronunced).
After the TV-serialisation in which the English names were kept in the German versions Europa started to produce new ausioplays in which the English names were kept, and the 4 dubbers of the children were used for this production as well. There's a nice blooper in the second audio play (Five go of to camp), in which Professor Crabbler (Mr Luffy) Adresses Julian with Julius.
For those who like unnecessary information - Ute and Oliver Rohrbeck, who dubbed Anne and Julian have also been involved in the production of the old ausdioplays, in Smuggler's top they were Marybelle and Sooty Lenoir, in Five run away together they were Jennifer Mary Armstrong and EWdgar Stick. They took also part in some of the FFO audioplays and Secret Seven, Oliver Rohrbeck als had a leading role in the Tina and Tini series (The treasure hunters/The boy next door).