Dutch Tolkien books - Introduction (29.07.05 by Johan Vanhecke) - Comments

The Dutch translation of The Lord of the Rings is called 'In de Ban van de Ring'. Back in 1956 it was the very first translation of the book, and it was also the first work of Tolkien translated into Dutch. In 1960 a translation of The Hobbit, called 'De Hobbit', was published as a small paperback, in order to help to sell the stocks of The Lord of the Rings. Other Tolkien books weren't translated till the seventies. They include translations of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Bilbo's Last Song, etc. Creating a bibliography of all Tolkien books translated into Dutch is not very easy. The Dutch publisher, Het Spectrum, has destroyed the greater part of its archives, making it very difficult to trace things back.

Because the bibliography of all Dutch Tolkien books is very long we decided to split it up in seven parts:

This article is originally written by Johan Vanhecke. To him goes our greatest gratitude! A very great thanks goes to Felix Claessens, an avid Hobbit collector, and to Jan Boom, who has an extensive Tolkien book collection, for their corrections and reflections. Some parts of this article have been previously published in 'the Tolkien Collector' and we got the kind permission from Christina Scull to publish large parts here. I wish to thank her for giving us this opportunity. Pieter Collier from the Tolkien Library made some textual alterations and corrections within the article with the permission of the author.

This bibliography tries to be complete, but there is still  work to be done. The descriptions are sometimes not as accurate as we would like, and some errors and omissions remain, as we don't have all the (nearly 400) editions on the shelves. We have done the best we could with all the information available to us. Remarks, additions and corrections are mostly welcome (please send an email to Este endereço de email está sendo protegido de spambots. Você precisa do JavaScript ativado para vê-lo.).

In combination to this article there was made an easy to use identification table for 'In de Ban van de Ring', giving a fast overview of every different printing, making the identification of your own 'In de Ban van de Ring' a lot more easier.

PART 1: 'In de Ban van de Ring' from 1957 - 1996

The Lord of the Rings was the first Tolkien work to be translated into Dutch. It was rewarded a price for the best translation of the year. The book was published in three parts [A1a-c], each 3000 copies. The illustrations on the dust-jackets are by Cees Kelfkens. For the press some paperback-copies were issued. [A1bis a-c].

[A1a] In de Ban van de Ring. Deel I: De Reisgenoten.

The dust-jacket is olive green. The lower cover gives the name of the author wrongly spelled as J.J.R. Tolkien, and the tittle of the book. It shows a red flame under a big eye, and a drawing by Cees Kelfkens of four hobbits and two black riders (see image, click for enlargement). The spine has 'J.J.R. Tolkien', a burning eye, 'In de ban / van / de ring / *', De Reisgenoten [running down] and at the bottom 'Spectrum'.

[A1b] In de Ban van de Ring. Deel 2: De Twee Torens.

The dust-jacket is light brown. The lower cover gives the name of the author, now correctly spelled, and the title of the book. It shows a red flame under a big eye, and a drawing by Cees Kelfkens of two towers and two birds, probably nazgûl (see image, click for enlargement). The spine has 'J.R.R. Tolkien', a burning eye, 'In de ban / van / de ring / *', De Twee Torens [running down] and at the bottom 'Spectrum'.

[A1c] In de Ban van de Ring. Deel 3: De Terugkeer van de Koning.

The dust-jacket is grey. The lower cover gives the name of the author and the title of the book. It shows a red flame under a big eye, and a drawing by Cees Kelfkens of Mount Doom and the crowning of the King (see image, click for enlargement). The spine has 'J.R.R. Tolkien', a burning eye, 'In de ban / van / de ring / ***', De Terugkeer van de Koning [running down] and at the bottom 'Spectrum'.

[A2] In de Ban van de Ring.

For many years In de Ban van de Ring was not reprinted. Only in 1965Het Spectrum issued a one-volume edition, together with an edition in three pockets, in the Prisma Series, with the same matter. The pages in the pockets were not renumbered, but stayed as in the one-volume edition. This resulted into two different second editions, causing the publisher, Het Spectrum, to mix up things several times. Because they used the same matter for one-volume editions as for paperbacks they sometimes forgot to change the publication year. There are more pocket editions than bound hardcovers, and usually the hardcover got the same printing information as the pockets of that year.

The statement claiming it is a 'revised printing' did not mean a full revision of the translation, yet a lot of translation errors were corrected. They probably used dutch translation services. For example in De Reisgenoten (The fellowship of the Ring) "aangeboren behendigheid" (p. 11) changed into "professionele behendigheid" (p. 12), "niet vatbaar voor tegenspraak" (p. 19) into "zonder tegenstrijdigheden" (p. 20), and "hazelaarstruik" (p. 328) changed into "hulstbosje" (p. 368), "crebenen uit Gangorn" (p. 329) was now written as "crebain uit Fangorn" (p. 368). In a number of cases names were still modified such as "Poenen" (p. 22) became "Grenswakers" (p. 24), the inn "Gouden Tak" (p. 107) became "Gouden Baars" (p. 117) and the name of Gandalf's horse changed from "Schaduwschicht" into "Schaduwvacht".

[A2bis] In de Ban van de Ring.

[A3a] In de Ban van de Ring 1. De Reisgenoten.

[A3abis] In de Ban van de Ring.

[A3b] In de Ban van de Ring 2. De Twee Torens.

[A3bbis] In de Ban van de Ring.

[A3c] In de Ban van de Ring 3. De Terugkeer van de Koning.

[A3cbis] In de Ban van de Ring.

[A4] In de Ban van de Ring.

In 1980 we finally got an updated translation, based on de text from the in 1966 published 2nd edition of Lord of the Rings by George Allen & Unwin. The appendices were omitted, and were published as a separate edition.

[A5a-b-c] In de Ban van de Ring.

[A6] In de Ban van de Ring.

[A7a] In de Ban van de Ring.

From 1989 till 1997 we have the white series editions in three paperbacks, with illustrations by Tolkien on the cover. When the three paperbacks are placed next to each other, the drawings on the spine form a unit showing a larger detail from Tolkien's Moria Gate (see image, click for enlargement). The book were reprinted at least once a year, with the same matter and the same covers.

[A7b] In de Ban van de Ring.

The upper cover has Tolkien's illustration of Helm's Deep & the Hornburg and a detail from the bottom section of the colour sketch of Moria Gate. Tolkien's name and the title of the book are printed in gold, a blurb in black (see image, click for enlargement). On the spine is again the detail from Moria Gate, the title and Tolkien's name in gold, and the Spectrum device in black. The lower cover has a reduced Helm's Deep & the Hornburg, and the blurb, title, Tolkien's name and the publisher data in black, and the Tolkien monogram in red-brown.

[A7c] In de Ban van de Ring.

The upper cover has Tolkien's illustration of Dunharrow and a detail from the bottom section of the colour sketch of Moria Gate. Tolkien's name and the title of the book are printed in gold, a blurb in black (see image, click for enlargement). On the spine is again the detail from Moria Gate, the title and Tolkien's name in gold, and the Spectrum device in black. The lower cover has a reduced Dunharrow, and the blurb, title, Tolkien's name and the publisher data in black, and the Tolkien monogram in red-brown.

[A8] In de Ban van de Ring.

[A9] In de Ban van de Ring.

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