List of translations of The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings has been translated into many languages since its publication in 1954–55. Known translations are listed here; the exact number is hard to determine, for example because the European and Brazilian dialects of Portuguese are sometimes counted separately, as are the Nynorsk and Bokmål forms of Norwegian, and the Traditional and Simplified Chinese forms of that language. Elrond's Library, as of its last updating in 2019, explicitly lists 87 translations in 57 languages.^[1]

The Tolkien Gateway has a list of translations without details.^[2] Many separate collectors have sites that highlight their personal collections with more detail. Some of the more extensive sites include Elrond's Library,^[3] The Lord of the Rings in Translation,^[4] Impressions of Books by J.R.R. Tolkien Published in Japan,^[5] and the Tolkieniano Collection (in Italian).^[6] Editions of all the translations in this list can be found illustrated in one or more of these collections. In addition, the book Толкин Русскими Глазами (Tolkien Through Russian Eyes) contains a detailed listing and history of the multiple Russian translations.^[7]

The linguist Thomas Honegger has edited two books on the challenges of translating Tolkien: Tolkien in Translation and Translating Tolkien: Text and Film. The first volume looks at the theoretical problem, and then analyses translations into Esperanto, French, Norwegian, Russian, and Spanish to see how translators have coped with the issues discussed.^[8][9] The second volume looks at translation into Dutch, German, Hebrew, and Swedish, and analyses particularly complex issues such as translating Tolkien's constructed languages.^[10][11]