About Hobbits

Translations of the Hobbit

It seems that nobody exactly knows in how many languages The Hobbit has been translated. Douglas A. Anderson (The Annotated Hobbit, 1988) was the first who gave a number of translations: 25. In the revised version of the book (2002) the number of translations has grown to 32.

The list below comes from good old Wikipedia (thanks!). The number of translations has grown to 61!

And yet, I miss some translations:  there are “translations” in Braille. Cuba has its own Spanish translation, there is a fragment of The Hobbit translated in Silezian and parts from former USSR (Russia) have their own languages. And: what to do with English versions printed in the USA or Canada? Even Taiwan has an English pirate version.

If anyone knows more translations, please contact me.

What we know for sure is, that the Swedish translation (1947) was the first, followed bij the German (1957) and the Dutch (1960). Only some two months later there was a Polish translation.

Language Year Title Translator
Albanian 2005 Hobiti Maklen Misha
Arabic 2008 الهوبيت، أو ذهابًا وعودة
(Al-Hūbīt, aw Zehaban wa ʿAwda)		 هشام فهمي – مي غنيم
(Hisham Fahmy – May Ghanim)
Armenian 1984 ՀՈԲԻՏ կամ գնալն ու գալը Emma Makarian
Basque 2008 Hobbita edo Joan-etorri bat Sergio Ibarrola and Xabier Olarra
Belarusian 2002 Хобіт, або Вандроўка туды і назад K. Kurchankova and D. Magilevtsav
Breton 2000 An Hobbit, pe eno ha distro Alan Dipode
Bulgarian 1975 Билбо Бегинс или дотам и обратно Красимира Тодорова (Krasimira Todorova)
Catalan 1983 El Hòbbit o viatge d’anada i tornada Francesc Parcerisas
Croatian 1994 Hobit ili tamo i opet natrag Zlatko Crnković
Czech 1979 Hobit, aneb cesta tam a zase zpátky František Vrba
Danish 1969 Hobbitten, eller ud og hjem igen Ida Nyrop Ludvigsen
Dutch 1960 De Hobbit of daarheen en weer terug Max Schuchart
Esperanto 2000 La Hobito aŭ Tien kaj Reen Christopher Gledhill, poems translated by William Auld
Estonian 1977 Kääbik, ehk, Sinna ja tagasi Lia Rajandi (prose and poems), Harald Rajamets (poems)
Faroese 1990 Hobbin ella út og heim aftur Axel Tórgarð
Finnish 1973 Lohikäärmevuori, eli Erään hoppelin matka sinne ja takaisin Risto Pitkänen
French 1969 Bilbo le Hobbit Francis Ledoux
Galician 2000 Ó hobbit Moisés R. Barcia
Georgian 2002 ჰობიტი ანუ იქით და აქეთ
(Hobitʼi anu ikit da aket)		 Nino Bardzimishvili, poems translated by Tinatin Gogochashvili
German 1957 Kleiner Hobbit und der große Zauberer Walter Scherf
Greek 1978 Το Χόμπιτ A. Gavrielide, Kh. Delegianne
Hebrew 1976 ההוביט משה הנעמי (Moshe Hana’ami)
Hungarian 1975 A babó Tibor Szobotka, poems translated by István Tótfalusi
Icelandic 1978 Hobbitinn Úlfur Ragnarsson and Karl Ágúst Úlfsson
Indonesian 1977 Hobbit atau pergi dan kembali Anton Adiwiyoto
Irish 2012 An Hobad, nó Anonn agus Ar Ais Arís Nicholas Williams
Italian 1973 Lo hobbit, o la Riconquista del Tesoro Elena Jeronimidis Conte
Japanese 1965 ホビットの冒険 (Hobitto no Bōken) Teiji Seta (瀬田貞二?)
Korean 1997
Latin 2012 Hobbitus ille aut illuc atque rursus retrorsum Marc Walker
Latvian 1991 Hobits jeb Turp un atpakaļ Zane Rozenberga
Lithuanian 1985 Hobitas, arba Ten ir atgal Bronė Balčienė
Luxembourgish 2002 Den Hobbit Henry Wickens
Macedonian 2005 Хобитот или до таму и назад Marija Todorova
Marathi 2011 द हॉबिट Meena Kinikar
Moldavian 1987 Хоббитул
(Hobbitul)		 Aleksej Tsurkanu
Norwegian (Bokmål) 1972 Hobbiten, eller fram og tilbake igjen Finn Aasen and Oddrun Grønvik
Norwegian (Nynorsk) 2008 Hobbiten Eilev Groven Myhren
Persian 2002 هابيت
(Hābit)		 فرزاد فربد (Farzad Farbud)
Persian 2004 هابيت يا آنجا و بازگشت دوباره
(Hābit yā ānjā va bāzgašt dobāre)		 رضا عليزاده (Reza Alizadeh)
Polish 1960 Hobbit, czyli tam i z powrotem Maria Skibniewska
Portuguese-Brazil 1995 O Hobbit ou Lá e de Volta Outra Vez Lenita Maria Rímoli Esteves
Portuguese-Portugal 1962 O Gnomo Maria Isabel Morna Braga, Mário Braga; il. António Quadros
Romanian 1975 O poveste cu un hobbit Catinca Ralea
Russian 1976 Хоббит, или Туда и Обратно Н. Рахманова (N. Rakhmanova)
Serbo-Croatian 1975 Хобит или тамо и назад Meri and Milan Milišić
Simplified Chinese 2002 魔戒前传: 霍比特人
(Mojie qianzhuan: Huobiteren)		 李尧 (Li Yao)
Slovak 1973 Hobbit Viktor Krupa (prose), Jana Šimulčíková (poetry)
Slovene 1986 Hobit ali Tja in spet nazaj Dušan Ogrizek
Sorbian 2012 Hobit Edward Wornar
Spanish (Argentina) 1964 El hobito Teresa Sánchez Cuevas
Spanish (Spain) 1982 El hobbit Manuel Figueroa
Swedish 1947 Hompen eller En resa Dit och Tillbaksigen Tore Zetterholm
Thai 2002 เดอะฮอบบิท สุดจิต ภิญโญยิ่ง (Sutjit Phin-yo-ying)
Traditional Chinese 2001 魔戒前傳 哈比人歷險記
(Mojie qianzhuan: Habiren lixianji)		 朱學恆 (Lucifer Chu)
Turkish 1996 Hobbit Esra Uzun
Ukrainian 1985 Гобiт, або Мандрiвка за Iмлистi гори O. Mokrovolskyi
Vietnamese 2003
West Frisian 2009 De Hobbit Anne Tjerk Popkema
Yiddish 2012 דער האָביט
(Der Hobit)		 Barry Goldstein
בעריש גאָלדשטײן

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