"Middle-earth according to Mordor"
William December Starr
<http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2011/02/15/last_ringbearer>
Middle-earth according to Mordor
A newly translated Russian novel retells Tolkien's "The Lord of
the Rings" from the perspective of the bad guys
By Laura Miller
Tuesday, Feb 15, 2011 15:30 ET
As bad lots go, you can't get much worse than the hordes of
Mordor from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." Led by an
utterly evil disembodied entity who manifests himself as a
gigantic, flaming, pitiless eye, and composed of loathsome orcs
(or goblins), trolls and foreigners, Mordor's armies are
ultimately defeated and wiped out by the virtuous and noble
elves, dwarfs, ents and human beings -- aka the "free peoples" --
of Middle-earth. No one sheds a tear over Mordor's downfall,
although the hobbit Sam Gamgee does spare a moment to wonder if a
dead enemy soldier is truly evil or has simply been misguided or
coerced into serving the dark lord Sauron.
Well, there's two sides to every story, or to quote a less banal
maxim, history is written by the winners. That's the philosophy
behind "The Last Ringbearer," a novel set during and after the
end of the War of the Ring (the climactic battle at the end of
"The Lord of the Rings") and told from the point of view of the
losers. The novel was written by Kirill Yeskov, a Russian
paleontologist, and published to acclaim in his homeland in
1999. Translations of the book have also appeared in other
European nations, but fear of the vigilant and litigious Tolkien
estate has heretofore prevented its publication in English.
That changed late last year when one Yisroel Markov posted his
English translation of "The Last Ringbearer" as a free download.
[ The link for the free download is
<http://ymarkov.livejournal.com/270570.html>. ]
Less polished translations of brief passages from the book had
been posted earlier on other sites, but Markov's is the
"official" version, produced with the cooperation and approval of
Yeskov himself. Although the new translation's status as a
potential infringement of the Tolkien copyright remains
ambiguous, it may be less vulnerable to legal action since no one
is seeking to profit from it.
The novel still has some rough edges -- most notably, a confused
switching back and forth between past and present tense in the
early chapters -- and some readers may be put off by Yeskov's
(classically Russian) habit of dropping info-dumps of military
and political history into the narrative here and there. For the
most part, though, "The Last Ringbearer" is a well-written,
energetic adventure yarn that offers an intriguing gloss on what
some critics have described as the overly simplistic morality of
Tolkien's masterpiece.
[ etc. for approx. 100 more lines ]
Szymon Sokół
> early chapters -- and some readers may be put off by Yeskov's
> (classically Russian) habit of dropping info-dumps of military
> and political history into the narrative here and there.
I had no idea David Weber was Russian! :->
Seriously though, I have read Yeskov's novel some ten years ago, when it was
officially published in Poland. It caused a great turmoil among die-hard
Tolkien's fans, who considered it "blasphemous" - not because of the
copyright issue, but because the good and the evil were so thoroughly
reverted there. Those who remember Gaiman's "Snow, Glass, Apples" should
understand what I mean. Personally, I liked the book, but this reversal of
well-established stereotypes is its main merit. Without any references to
Middle-Earth it would have been just a second-rate spy story/political
thriller, like the many clones of Frederick Forsyth.
--
Szymon Sokół (SS316-RIPE) -- Network Manager B
Computer Center, AGH - University of Science and Technology, Cracow, Poland O
http://home.agh.edu.pl/szymon/ PGP key id: RSA: 0x2ABE016B, DSS: 0xF9289982 F
Free speech includes the right not to listen, if not interested -- Heinlein H
Robert Bannister
> On 18 Feb 2011 14:59:46 -0500, William December Starr wrote:
>
>> early chapters -- and some readers may be put off by Yeskov's
>> (classically Russian) habit of dropping info-dumps of military
>> and political history into the narrative here and there.
>
> I had no idea David Weber was Russian! :->
Brilliant! I had a similar thought, but I wasn't quick enough to think
which writer does it all the time.
--
Rob Bannister
erilar
Szymon Sok—ł <szy...@bastard.operator.from.hell.pl> wrote:
> On 18 Feb 2011 14:59:46 -0500, William December Starr wrote:
>
> > early chapters -- and some readers may be put off by Yeskov's
> > (classically Russian) habit of dropping info-dumps of military
> > and political history into the narrative here and there.
>
> I had no idea David Weber was Russian! :->
>
> Seriously though, I have read Yeskov's novel some ten years ago, when it was
> officially published in Poland. It caused a great turmoil among die-hard
> Tolkien's fans, who considered it "blasphemous" - not because of the
> copyright issue, but because the good and the evil were so thoroughly
> reverted there. Those who remember Gaiman's "Snow, Glass, Apples" should
> understand what I mean. Personally, I liked the book, but this reversal of
> well-established stereotypes is its main merit. Without any references to
> Middle-Earth it would have been just a second-rate spy story/political
> thriller, like the many clones of Frederick Forsyth.
I downloaded it and will offer my opinion someday. I should perhaps
mention that a favorite German fantasy novel of mine sent me by a friend
years ago is a skewed Nibelungenlied with Hagen as the real hero and
Siegfried as a rather shallow jock. This despite graduate level study
of the Nibelungenlied, probably my favorite epic. 8-)
--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist
Thomas Womack
erilar <dra...@chibardun.net.invalid> wrote:
>I downloaded it and will offer my opinion someday.
I've just read it through in three solid hours, and am really quite
impressed. I haven't read much Russian fantasy - _Monday Begins on
Saturday_ (the Seagull Publishing translation) cued by Spufford's _Red
Plenty_, the attitude of whose characters was one I thought reflected
in some of _The Last Ringbearer_ - and the Lukyanenko _Night Watch_
tetralogy - but I'd say this was at least playing on the same field as
those.
'in a sincere belief that the quality of irrigation is determined by
the number of cubic furlongs of earth moved' could definitely have
come from the mouths of any of the sympathetic characters in _Red
Plenty_.
I'd like to read more Russian fantasy but there doesn't seem to be
much translated into English; can I have some recommendations? I
discovered with some pain that, whilst I can read French potboilers,
my German isn't good enough to read German SF in the original (I might
have fought more valiantly with a novel better than _Der Schwarm_ -
reading sub-Tom-Clancy at well under a tenth the speed I can manage in
English is not a rewarding exercise), so I've not got a hope unless I
can find translations.
Tom
Brian M. Scott
<two...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in
<news:Tfe*Vy...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> in
rec.arts.sf.written:
[...]
> I'd like to read more Russian fantasy but there doesn't
> seem to be much translated into English; can I have some
> recommendations? [...]
Alexey Pehov's _Shadow Prowler_ came out from Tor about a
year ago. It's the first volume of a trilogy, _The
Chronicles of Siala_, that I gather is very successful in
Russia; the second is, I believe, due out in April. It has
a lot of the fixtures of epic fantasy, but most of them have
been roughed up a little; I'd not call it outstanding, but I
enjoyed it and will certainly be getting the next volume.
Brian
Joel Polowin
wrote:
> I'd like to read more Russian fantasy but there doesn't seem to be
> much translated into English; can I have some recommendations? I
> discovered with some pain that, whilst I can read French potboilers,
> my German isn't good enough to read German SF in the original (I might
> have fought more valiantly with a novel better than _Der Schwarm_ -
> reading sub-Tom-Clancy at well under a tenth the speed I can manage in
> English is not a rewarding exercise), so I've not got a hope unless I
> can find translations.
There's a pair of anthologies that Collier put out in 1962:
_Soviet Science Fiction_ and _More Soviet Science Fiction_.
Introductions by Asimov. I recommend avoiding them; I don't
know what the stories were like in the original Russian, but
what came through was pretty leaden and propaganda-filled.
If I didn't know better, I'd have said that the intention of
the publisher was to show that Russian SF was dreadful.
Sean O'Hara
declared:
>
>
> I'd like to read more Russian fantasy but there doesn't seem to be
> much translated into English; can I have some recommendations? I
> discovered with some pain that, whilst I can read French potboilers,
> my German isn't good enough to read German SF in the original (I might
> have fought more valiantly with a novel better than _Der Schwarm_ -
> reading sub-Tom-Clancy at well under a tenth the speed I can manage in
> English is not a rewarding exercise), so I've not got a hope unless I
> can find translations.
>
There's Ekaterina Sedia (Secret History of Moscow, Alchemy of Stone),
though I believe she writes in English. I know there are a bunch of
Russian SF anthologies on Amazon, but they're more expensive than I'm
willing to pay.
--
Sean O'Hara <http://diogenes-sinope.blogspot.com>
The House Divided <http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004DZNUBE>
Lovecraft's House of Horror <http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004CYF8PC>
Jorgen Grahn
There's at least the Strugatsky brothers. Not propaganda in the sense
I assume you mean -- they got censored a lot, according to the
/Roadside Picnic/ Wikipedia article.
/Jorgen
--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Oo o. . .
\X/ snipabacken.se> O o .
J
>
> "The Last Ringbearer," a novel set during and after the
> end of the War of the Ring (the climactic battle at the end of
> "The Lord of the Rings") and told from the point of view of the
> losers. The novel was written by Kirill Yeskov, a Russian
> paleontologist, and published to acclaim in his homeland in
> 1999. Translations of the book have also appeared in other
> European nations, but fear of the vigilant and litigious Tolkien
> estate has heretofore prevented its publication in English.
There's also Nick Perumov's RING OF DARKNESS, a trilogy set some 300
years after the War of the Rings.(The books tell the story of hobbit
Folko Brandybuck, the heir of Meriadoc, and his two dwarven friends,
who are trying to protect Middle-earth from a new danger: powerful
Olmer, the leader of the Eastern nations, who is gathering the
remainder of the nine Nazgûl's Rings of Power. - Wikipedia) It, too,
remains untranslated, though I have a Russian hardcover copy to
complete my Tolkien collection.
Helios
Yes, I had read it also, and I find them rather boring stuff. A brick.
Robert Bannister
I didn't really like that novel, although it gave me a different take on
the Hagen I hated at uni all those years ago. I did read it to the end,
but I gave my copy to the local library who were overjoyed because they
don't get much German stuff.
I think the reason I like the Nibelungenlied is because it is so much
easier to read than some of the other epics - at uni, amongst other
works, we had to read "Parzival" which I never did understand even when
I read it again in modern German translation. We also had to read
"Willehalm" which I found very boring.
--
Rob Bannister
erilar
Robert Bannister <rob...@bigpond.com> wrote:
Parzival is hard to make sense of even if you're steeped in the Arthur
mythos in advance 8-) I liked Gottfried's Tristan better myself. Arme
Heinrich isn't bad. No one ever asked me to read Willehalm. Courtly
epic is, of course, not the same thing as the NL. Icelandic sagas are
easier to follow, but the language is tougher 8-)
Szymon Sokół
> There's also Nick Perumov's RING OF DARKNESS, a trilogy set some 300
> years after the War of the Rings.(The books tell the story of hobbit
> Folko Brandybuck, the heir of Meriadoc, and his two dwarven friends,
> who are trying to protect Middle-earth from a new danger: powerful
> Olmer, the leader of the Eastern nations, who is gathering the
> remainder of the nine Nazgûl's Rings of Power. - Wikipedia) It, too,
> remains untranslated, though I have a Russian hardcover copy to
> complete my Tolkien collection.
It is, basically, crap. I have read it in Polish, but its crappiness is not
the matter of language. It is like Belgariad stripped of any sense of
humour, which IMHO is the only redeeming virtue of Belgariad. There are many
Russian SF writers I would recommend, but Perumov just isn't one of them.
Brian M. Scott
<dra...@chibardun.net.invalid> wrote in
<news:drache-4D66D9....@news.eternal-september.org>
in rec.arts.sf.written:
[...]
> Courtly epic is, of course, not the same thing as the NL.
> Icelandic sagas are easier to follow, but the language
> is tougher 8-)
The language gets rather weird in the Old Norse translations
of Old French courtly epics, if 'Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar'
is anything to go by. Either Brother Robert was greatly
influenced by the language of the original, or he
deliberately tried to imitate it; it's quite unlike the
language of Njála or Laxdœla, say. Present participles all
over the place, for instance.
Brian
erilar
I never got into that, and my ON is so rusty nowadays that I don't
think I'll try 8-)
Robert Bannister
> In article<8sb05d...@mid.individual.net>,
> Robert Bannister<rob...@bigpond.com> wrote:
>
>> I think the reason I like the Nibelungenlied is
>
As this has become thoroughly off-topic, I have replied by email.
--
Rob Bannister
Gene Wirchenko
Starr) wrote:
><http://tinyurl.com/4oxvae5>
><http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2011/02/15/last_ringbearer>
>
> Middle-earth according to Mordor
>
> A newly translated Russian novel retells Tolkien's "The Lord of
> the Rings" from the perspective of the bad guys
Scrumptious! Thank you.
[snip]
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko