The Soviet "Hobbit"

[The Might]

Hey all,

Firstly I want to wish you all a great year 2011!

Secondly, after a quick search that didn't show any similar threads, I just decided to post a nice link to a page showing illustrations of a Soviet edition of the "Hobbit" published in 1976.

http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/201...soviet-hobbit/

I especially like how Gollum was drawn and how the Orcs have been transformed into wolf riding vikings.

[Morsul the Dark]

Very interesting like the Art Style! Although they did seem to take the Hariy Feet to a bit of an extreme

[Pitchwife]

Great find, TM! I love that Eastern European style of illustrations. That's not really my Gandalf, and Gollum is more hilareous than creepy with his nose looking like a carrot, but in general, I think the pictures work very well for The Hobbit as a children's book. The one of Bard killing Smaug is gorgeous, and Beorn is captured very well, too.

[Inziladun]

What's Bilbo holding on the cover anyway? It looks like a diamond. Is that supposed to be the Ring? The Arkenstone?

It's always interesting to see how the different cultures interpret such subjective things as book illustrations. They have Beorn looking like Sean Connery in Time Bandits.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

In general, I think the pictures work very well for The Hobbit as a children's book.

That's exactly what it was meant to be, I think. I read many Russian children's books, and most of them had very similar illustrations. I mean, the style of the illustrations. The reason for the orcs to look like vikings is probably because in TH they are called "goblins", and no real description is provided. I guess the artist just had to draw them like he imagined goblins. Considering there are about a thousand different opinions on how goblins look, its not really his/her fault.

And happy New Year, everyone!

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark

Very interesting like the Art Style! Although they did seem to take the Hariy Feet to a bit of an extreme

Makes me wonder, maybe Russian doesn't have different words for foot and leg? The Swabian dialect of German, for example, doesn't distinguish between the two - if someone from that region says 'I han mr en fueß broche' ('I've broken my foot'), they may well mean they've broken their thigh-bone.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

That's exactly what it was meant to be, I think. I read many Russian children's books, and most of them had very similar illustrations. I mean, the style of the illustrations. The reason for the orcs to look like vikings is probably because in TH they are called "goblins", and no real description is provided. I guess the artist just had to draw them like he imagined goblins. Considering there are about a thousand different opinions on how goblins look, its not really his/her fault.

Definitely, actually I would like to know what word exactly was used for the translation of "goblin". Because that might have a lot to do with that. I could imagine (just based on general judging of Russian being a language similar to my own mothertongue) that the word for goblins is something between "imp/small evil sprite/small evil man/evil gnome"... and there might have been many other reasons which drove the artist to depict them like that; aside from his own poetic license, there are the possible interpretations of the story (even like "I should perhaps draw this the way the British people imagine Goblins - so how is it? Or should I give it a bit more of a Western feeling so that people know the writer is from that environment - so somebody said the author was inspired by germanic mythology, if I recall correctly? He was British, who was "evil" in the early medieval British mythology? Does it mean Vikings?") and lots of other possibilities...

The children's book style is actually rather nice. I know that the original version in Czech (from something like 70's too, I believe?) has also more like children-story-like pictures (I could possibly link those too) which look in a way rather similar, only the later version published in the 90's has Tolkien's own illustrations.

As for this one, the Gollum looking here a bit serpent-like is quite interesting. I must say, these different depictions are rather interesting in the way that they challenge your personal interpretation and make it more.. well, more interesting. (For that matter, it'd be great to see some, say, Chinese or Mid-Eastern depiction of that, if anything like that exists).

As for what Pitch said about the hairy feet/legs, I cannot think about it from the top of my head, but I am rather more convinced that there is a different word for feet and legs in Russian. But it just might be confused in some way... or whatever.

[Galadriel55]

There are different words for "feet" and "legs" in Russian. Here the artist's imagination took him/her a bit too far.
As for the goblin meaning, I've checked a few dictionaries to make sure: it means "magical creature in English folklore" (translated word-by word from a dictionary). I don't know why specifically English. However, it also says that the concept of "English goblins" is quite similar to a Russian folklore character thats basically a bad spirit that's forced to live amongst humans that does mischief among them. I think this quote from an online dictionary (translated by me) will interest you:

Goblins came into modern literature and culture through John Tolkien's book "The Hobbit", where they are short aggressive underground-living creatures with a very unpleasant appearance. Although the author later discarded the name "goblin", and called these creatures "orcs" in "LOTR", this image of goblins already sunk in. In our times goblins are often illustrated as "little brothers" of orcs, which are larger and more aggressive. A common iage of goblins in fantasy - a short creature with awkwardly "built" [forgive e for a lack of a better word] body, someties with a large nose, usually with green(ish) skin, that lives underground.

Quote taken from here

Yet another opinion about orcs and goblins.

[Morthoron]

In Soviet Russia, Sauron reads about you.

[Inziladun]

*couldn't resist*

In Soviet Russia, rings wear hobbit!

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

There are different words for "feet" and "legs" in Russian. Here the artist's imagination took him/her a bit too far.

There are in MODERN Russian, but this book as noted came out in 1976. Back then there may not have been seperate words. I know for a fact that there weren't in the 30's and 40's (There was a note about it in my english translation of Volkov's Urfin Djus and his Wooden Soldiers when the translator described his difficulty in finding an English term to describe six legged animals.) in 1976, who knows?

[Galadriel55]

There is a word that is someties applied to both "leg" and"foot" (together), although that's not the correct use (for example, you can say "my leg is stuck" but mean "my foot is stuck"). I am quite sure both terms existed for a long while. Maybe the translator used the "general leg" term instead of the specific foot term, which made the artist think it was really the leg, and draw Bilbo like that...

[Galadriel]

Smaug looks like he's made out of cardboard (where he's being shot )

Interesting style. Bilbo's legs...well, they look like rattle-snakes gone awry, but...I don't I should say anymore (zips lips).