733 of 908
kept as it is
Elvish and most Númenórean names stay as Tolkien wrote them. Aragorn is Aragorn, Gondor is Gondor — the sound belongs to the invented language, not to English.
How Middle-earth learned German
Rivendell became Bruchtal, Strider became Streicher, and the Shire the Auenland. This page counts how Tolkien's names sound in the German editions — 908 terms, each counted in the English book and in its translation. Watch a name change, browse the concordance, and test yourself on Carroux.
The name-changer
A name, two languages
MenMenschen
Carroux 1969/70, The Lord of the Rings — 584 times in the German text
Three ways to carry a name across
A translator meets every name three times: as a sound, as a meaning, and as a thing the reader must recognise. The German editions took all three roads. Our sorting is by resemblance between the two forms — the numbers are counts in the books, the labels are ours.
54 of 908
sound adapted
Names of English shape are nudged into German spelling so that they read as native: Isengard becomes Isengart, Samwise becomes Samweis.
121 of 908
meaning translated
Where a name means something, the meaning is translated: the deep-cloven valley Rivendell becomes Bruchtal, the Shire the Auenland, Treebeard Baumbart.
The concordance
Every pair with its count: how often the English name stands in the English book, how often the German form in the German one. The bars are on a logarithmic scale — Gandalf would otherwise flatten everyone else. Without filters you see the 40 most frequent of 908.
- GandalfGandalf1,180 · 1,199Carroux 1969/70
- AragornAragorn796 · 801Carroux 1969/70
- GondorGondor434 · 446Carroux 1969/70
- GollumGollum422 · 438Carroux 1969/70
- MenMenschen406 · 584Carroux 1969/70
- GimliGimli400 · 402Carroux 1969/70
- OrcOrks359 · 411Carroux 1969/70
- LegolasLegolas345 · 347Carroux 1969/70
- ElvesElben343 · 310Krege 1978
- MorgothMorgoth339 · 342Krege 1978
- ValarValar329 · 324Krege 1978
- SarumanSaruman314 · 316Carroux 1969/70
- FaramirFaramir313 · 313Carroux 1969/70
- NoldorNoldor308 · 306Krege 1978
- BoromirBoromir294 · 298Carroux 1969/70
- RohanRohan268 · 268Carroux 1969/70
- MordorMordor265 · 270Carroux 1969/70
- ÉomerÉomer247 · 251Carroux 1969/70
- ThéodenThéoden247 · 257Carroux 1969/70
- FëanorFeanor244 · 248Krege 1978
- ElrondElrond239 · 242Carroux 1969/70
- SauronSauron236 · 244Carroux 1969/70
- Middle-earthMittelerde226 · 220Krege 1978
- ThingolThingol197 · 201Krege 1978
- ValinorValinor192 · 189Krege 1978
- BerenBeren171 · 171Krege 1978
- BeleriandBeleriand168 · 148Krege 1978
- DoriathDoriath167 · 165Krege 1978
- IsengardIsengartKrege: Isengard167 · 174Carroux 1969/70
- SirionSirion161 · 157Krege 1978
- TreebeardBaumbart156 · 157Carroux 1969/70
- BreeBree155 · 137Carroux 1969/70
- LúthienLúthien153 · 155Krege 1978
- ManwëManwe148 · 136Krege 1978
- RivendellBruchtal144 · 146Carroux 1969/70
- Minas TirithMinas Tirith140 · 139Carroux 1969/70
- TomTom140 · 136Carroux 1969/70
- HúrinHúrin137 · 131Krege 1978
- NargothrondNargothrond137 · 133Krege 1978
- EntsEnts134 · 145Carroux 1969/70
English text German text
One book, translated twice
The Lord of the Rings exists in German twice: Margaret Carroux's translation of 1969/70 and Wolfgang Krege's of 2000, revised in 2012. For 412 names both editions are counted here; in 4 of them the two translators chose differently. The list below is the whole of that difference — every other name they share. The famous quarrel over Krege was never about the names; it was about tone, and tone is not counted here.
- IsengardCarrouxIsengart174×KregeIsengard173×
- DeepingCarrouxKlamm54×KregeKlammbach5×
- White CouncilCarrouxDer Weiße Rat3×KregeWeißer Rat1×
- Battle of the Pelennor FieldsCarrouxDie Schlacht auf den Pelennor-Feldern1×KregeDie Schlacht auf dem Pelennor2×
Who translated what
Seven German editions across five decades stand behind the counts. Each card names the translator, the edition and how many of our pairs it attests.
Carroux 1969/70
The Lord of the Rings
573 pairs attested
Krege 2012/2026
The Lord of the Rings
529 pairs attested
Krege 1997
The Hobbit
43 pairs attested
Krege 1978
The Silmarillion
483 pairs attested
Schütz/Pesch 2007
The Children of Húrin
223 pairs attested
Pesch/Möhring 2017
Beren and Lúthien
190 pairs attested
Pesch 2018
The Fall of Gondolin
212 pairs attested
The test: what does Carroux call it?
Ten names, four German forms each — only one stands in the book. The wrong ones are real translations too, of other names.
The test needs JavaScript; the concordance above holds every answer.
How this was counted
Every English name in our register was searched in the English text of its work and every known German form in the German edition — with word boundaries, and with German inflection allowed, because a mountain range appears as „des Weißen Gebirges“ far more often than in its dictionary form. A pair counts as attested only when the German form actually stands in the edition. Names our register did not know were proposed by a model and then counted the same way; a proposal that was not found in the book is not shown here.
Aliases are deliberately left out of the pairs: Strider is a name of Aragorn, not a translation of him. The full measurement, including what is still unknown, lives in the project’s working files.