Hompen

Hompen, eller En resa dit och tillbaksigen ("The Hobbit, or A journey there and back again"), translated to Swedish by Tore Zetterholm, was the first non-English edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (and thus the first published translation of any work by Tolkien). The book was illustrated by Torbjörn Zetterholm (interior illustrations) and Charles Sjöblom (cover and maps).

Tolkien on Hompen

Concerning the translation work of The Hobbit to Swedish, Tolkien himself was not involved. Writing to Allen & Unwin in 1956 on the Dutch translation of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien says:

Later in the same year and writing on the same subject, Tolkien more specifically points out a source of dislike with Hompen to Rayner Unwin:

The translation of the name 'Hobbit' to 'Hompe' was not the only thing that annoyed Tolkien about this edition. Already in 1948, he wrote to Rosemary, a young fan, that "the picture of Gollum in the Swedish edition of The Hobbit makes him look huge."

Some other curiosities about Zetterholm's translation are his renderings of 'Bilbo' to 'Bimbo' (!), 'elf' to 'älva' (disregarding the etymological connection, 'älva' carries connotations in Swedish which would rather translate it to 'fairy'), and 'goblin' to 'svartalf' ("darkelf").

Excerpt

En oväntad bjudning

I ett hål i jorden bodde en hompe.

Det var inget smutsigt, otrevligt och vått hål, fullt med maskar och gyttjelukt,

och heller inget torrt, sandigt, naket hål utan något att sitta på eller att äta.

Nej, det var ett hompehål, och det betyder att det var hemtrevligt.

Chapter 1, An Unexpected Party

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell,

nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat;

it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

Images

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Referencias

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 26/05/2026.

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