Talking Point Hobbits in Bohemia
By Jan Velinger Any fan will tell you that The Lord of the Rings is one of the most impressive adventure sagas ever written. Yet, Tolkien's trilogy only hit former-Czechoslovakia twelve years ago, although it was published in Britain in the 1950s - the former Communist regime shunned the books because they represented evil as coming from the East. After the fall of Communism in 1989 the first instalment was published, and Tolkien became the rage in Bohemia with all the vengeance of a goblin attack. This thanks to an acclaimed translation by Stanislava Posustova, a librarian at Prague's Charles University's English department, who is also an independent translator. Now, as The Fellowship of the Ring finds newer and newer audiences around the Czech Republic, I was able to speak to Mrs Posustova about her translation, and her on-going passion for The Lord of the Rings....
Film The Lord of the Rings
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