harry potter names

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The names in Harry PotterKatrine Brndsted

a& Cay Dollerup

a

aUniversity of Copenhagen, Denmark

Available online: 28 Apr 2010

To cite this article:Katrine Brndsted & Cay Dollerup (2004): The names in

Harry Potter, Perspectives, 12:1, 56-72

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6

THE NAMES IN HARRY POTTERKatrine Brndstedand CayDollerup, UniversityofCopenhagen, Denmark

AbstractThis article discusses the translation of some of thenames in J. K. Rowling'sHarry P otter books into five languages.It isargued that these nam es a re found in dif-ferent dimensions,viz. (a) aBritish onewheretheauthor addressesa British audi-ence, (b) the translator's perception andinterpretationof this British universe,and(c)oneinwhich read ers respondto therealisationsofthenamesin thetarget culture.The namesareloosely d ivided into four categories.Thefirst concernsthemain char-acters,for which thereisvirtually only direct transfer,and thesecond concernsEng-lish student names that presentfew problems. Thethird comp rises characterscon-nected with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraftand Wizardry,and the last groupcomprises names of other characters, including some descriptive names.Thearticlenotes that translators were obligedto use thenamesofthe main characters from theBritish originalinordertopromote thesaleofmerchandise.It isconcluded(a)thatthe main characters' 'Britishness' isrealised onlyasBritish nam es withoutanyover-tones in translation, (b)that even with different target languages, it ispossible todocument that each translator has usea individualised and highly different ap-proaches to thetranslation of thenames,and (c)that theauthor's exploitationofadult Britons'knowledgeof English literatureandLatin probably elicitsa differentresponse from thatofreadersoftranslations, whereasthemain narrative linearities(e.g. plot, thewhole H arry P otter saga)are notaffectedby thedifferent s trategiesfortranslation of nam es.Introduction

J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books have gained immense popularity, firstand foremost among children and juveniles, but they have also captured asizeable adult audience - and more than a passing eye from the TranslationStudies community. The books have given rise to a monumental cult and thecontributions by translators are dwarfed by the commentary in books and onwebsites on Harry Potter. Much material is uncritical if not downright wrong,and one certainly has to tread the territory with care. In this article, we shallconfine ourselves to a discussion of the translation of some of the names inthe Harry Potter books into five languages - Danish, Swedish, Norwegian,German, and Italian. Table 1, opposite page, shows how the books to be dis-cussed have been translated.

0907-676X/04/01 0056-0017 $20.00 2004 Katrine Brndsted& CayDollerupPerspectives: StudiesinTranslatology Vol.12, No.1,2004

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Brendsted Dollerup: The names in Harry Potter 7

Table 1The Ha rry Potter books: Eng lish titles languages nam e oftranslators andyear of publicationBritish titleand year ofpublicationHarry Potterand the Phi-losopher'sStone (Stone)1997Harry Potterand theChamber ofSecrets(Chamber)1998Harry Potterand the Pris-oner ofAzka-ban (Pris-oner)1999Harry Potterand the Gob-let of Fire(Goblet)2000

DanishTranslatorYearHannaLtttzen

1998HannaLiitzen

1999HannaLtltzen

1999HannaLOtzen

2000

SwedishtranslatorYearLenaFries-Gedin1999LenaFries-Gedin

2000LenaFries-Gedin

2001LenaFries-Gedin2001

NorwegiantranslatorYearThorsteinBuggeHeverstad1999ThorsteinBuggeHoverstad

2000ThorsteinBuggeH0verstad

2000ThorsteinBuggeHaverstad2001

GermantranslatorYearKlausFritz

1998KlausFritz

1999KlausFritz

1999KlausFritz

2000

ItaliantranslatorYearMarinaAstrologo

1998MarinaAstrologo

1999MarinaAstrologo

2000BeatriceMansini

2001Harry Potter and the translatorsGiven the fact that the books have been translated into forty languages,and still counting, in itself would merit attention from translation scholars.The most obvious sign of such interest is that 'The International Federationof Translators' had a round table at which ten translators of the books dis-cussed the translations (wwwl). Anybody who has read the books in Englishwith an open mind (and some general knowledge) will appreciate that fortranslators there are many features that pose delightful challenges, rangingfrom the author's use of linguistic features (e.g. alliteration), via elusive andmultiple allusions, to the use of Latin. There are references to British and

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58 2004. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. Volume 12:1

European history, to literature, folklore, tradition, and magic. Small wonderthat translators are absorbed with the problems of translation - much as hasbeen the case with Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, but perhaps forother reasons. Rather than trying to cover as many aspects of the translationsas possible, we shall look at the translation of some nam es in five translationsand then discuss the issues that they raise and that go far into both translationpractice and principles.PremisesIn order to make for a cogent discussion, it is useful to state what we aretalking about. In order to provide an overview of the components of the mainfeatures in the translation o f a Harry Potter book, we shall modify an illustra-tion of translations of successful children's books (from Dollerup 2003),which is given on the opposite page.The books were written by J. K. Rowling who is a British woman. To thebest of our knowledge, she was at no stage concerned with translation whenshe was w riting the first volum e. Thus, she was w riting a book that was pri-marily for 9-12 year-old British children (Wyler 2003: 6, 10), but one thatwould also appeal to and be fun to read for adolescents and adults. After thefirst volume appeared in 1997, she wrote a sequel thanks to a Scottish ArtsCouncil Grant, and from then on she has been riding on a wave of interna-tional success with prizes and translations. Warner Bros, became distributorsof the books and m erchandise developed from the books as of 20 01 .Translators in various countries have, we may assume, all been relativelywell-known and perhaps even been experienced translators of children'sboo ks. They hav e all been picked by a national publisher (hence the arrow inthe diagrammeopposite page).

They have, however, not entered the game at the same time. This makesfor some differences. Thus, the Brazilian translator com ments: I was not aware though that there would be a second book until I had finished thetranslationofThe Philosopher sStone,a fact that would certainly have influencedmy reinvention of certain proper names (Wyler2003:9).But then this translator had had a relatively free hand coming new termsand names - the list was approved by Rowling in 1998 (Wyler 2003:9).2O n

the other hand, in 2002, the Swedish translator reported that translators of theHarry Potter books have to sign a contract .. . agreeing to keep the originalnames, so Warner Brothers can distribute the films, computer games and

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Bwn dsted Dollerup: The names in Harry Potter 59other merchandise all around the world with the names everyone recog nizes(www2).

DiagrammeSOURCE LANGUAGEBRITISH CULTURE

J. K. R owlingHarry Potter bookPublication in BritainPublisher's international promotion

TARGET LANGUAGE:TARGET CULTURE

Harry Potter bookin target language1Local publisherNew edition /newbook

Translator

British audienceBritish readers'response

Audience responseAudience feedbackin target culture

Thus, it might seem that translators of the H arry Potter books have m ovedfrom a position of much creative freedom to being constrained to an exacttransfer of the names in the books. In the above diagram, we also imply achronological linearity in the real-life translation processes of the Harry Pot-ter books: It is not until the English version of a new book is released thattranslators receive it for translation. There are narrative linearities at variouslevels in the Harry Potter universe, such as the fact that (a) each volume isself-contained, (b) volumes 2, 3, etc. are all sequels, and (c) Harry Potter ismoving from childhood to adolescence and possibly adulthood through thewhole saga (five of the seven books have been published at the time of thiswriting). As noted, it would hav e affected the wo rk o f the Brazilian translator


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if she had known this. It goes without saying that once a translator has madea choice, he o r she will usually have to stick to it: the first translation consti-tutes a basis for a translational tradition, which subsequent translations willfollow (Dollerup 1999: 231-234). It is, however, even more to the point thatthe audience will respond to the names of the characters within the culturalconfines of the target culture , that is, the cu lture with which they are familiarand in which they read the H arry Potter boo ks.

The Harry Potter universe therefore exists in three different dimensions orworlds: (a) a British one, (b) in the translator's perception of this world,which is, in this case, his or her interpretation of the names in that universe,and (c ) the realisations that the nam es have in the target-language culture andthe response of its readers, hi the present context, in which we discuss thetranslation of the names, there is , furthermore, a subjective element, since wehave to interpret the names in a British context as well as in various target-language cultures.The different levelsIn order to keep the translations in focus, we shall divide the names intofour categories. The first comprises the three main characters, the second in-cludes minor characters with English-sounding names, the third comprisescharacters who are somehow connected with the Hogwarts' school environ-ment, and the fourth names with meanings ranging from the obscure to obvi-ous description. Especially the dividing line between the two last-mentionedcategories is especially fuzzy, but by setting a limit, we attempt to make asystematic approach.The first category: the main characters

The names of the main characters are given in Table 2 on the oppositepage. These are regular British nam es. Ha rry and Ro nald are commonBritish Christian names for boys. Conversely, Herm ione is fairly rare andmost adult, educated Britons will probably associate the name with the virtu-ous wife of the king of Sicily, who is wronged in William Shakespeare's TheWinter's Tale. Both Potter and Grang er are surnames reminiscent ofcraftsmen or (slightly archaic) ownership (of either a barn or a farm). W ea-sly is close to 'wease lly', 'de ceitfu l', but the first association - if any - of aBriton will be to the carnivore 'we ase l'itself.In sum, these names convey anoverall atmosphere of slightly rural, peaceful and 'old' Britain with reassur-ing homey characters and trades, small animals, and a slight dash of Shake-


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speare. Most of this atmosphere will be perceived by a British audience,nearly independent of age.Table 2The names of the m ain characters

BRITISHHarryPotterRonaldWeasleyHermioneGranger

DANISHHarryPotterRonaldWeasleyHermioneGranger

SWEDISHHarryPotterRonaldWeasleyHermioneGranger

NORWEGIANHarryPotterRonnyWiltersenHermineGrang

GERMANHarryPotterRonaldWeasleyHermineGranger

ITALIANHarryPotterRonaldWeasleyHermioneGranger

M ost translators have transferred the British nam es directly and thus madeit impossible for readers without a knowledge of English to recognise the'Britishness' pervading the names.3 Hermione's name is adapted or natural-ised in Norwegian and German, which makes for easier pronunciation - butharder to relate to S hakespeare. The Norwegian translator chose Ronny as theNorwegian equivalent of the British abbreviation of Ronald and chose tohave the surname sound a bit odd ( W ilter- ) and added the typical -sen tothis. He rmin e is a nam e found amon g upper-m iddle class peop le (just as inBritain) and G rang was an adaptation to Norw egian phonetics (HgverstadP-i).4Category two: minor characters with English namesThe second category (Table 3 overleaf) comprises minor characters withBritish-sounding names, of which we single out only the names of threeschoolboys (all at Gryffindor House).Once again, the names seem to be all-English. Educated adult Britons,surely, will associate the first one with James Joyce'sFinnegans Wake - es-pecially since the boy's first name is also Irish. In other words, the author iswinking to the adult over the head of the reading children. But although,taken one by one, the other names are fairly frequent in British literature(Freeman 1963), they have no similarly strong literary echoes and only avaguely clerical one in 'D ea n'. So they merely cement the impression of Brit-ishness. By transferring them directly, most translators preserve Britishness

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by dint of the names, but without easy references to Joyce and church hierar-chies. The Norwegian translator makes it very hard for Norwegian readers tohave literary associations by using a Norwegian first nam e, Joku m , but atthe same time this is a localisation since the name is a bit rural and Jok umspeaks a dialect from E astern Norway. Laffen is the pet form of Olaf .Styxis an association to the Greek river in the underworld inspired by the fact that'Jord an' is also the name of a river in the real world. Tom my D ing is an in-version of the original, the Christian nam e (like Ro nny ) given a morecommon Norwegian form and the surname is adapted to Norwegian phonet-ics.(H averstadp.i.).Table 3Names of minor characters

BRITISHSeamusFinniganLee Jor-danDeanThomas

DANISHSeamusFinniganLee JordanDean Tho-mas

SWEDISHSeamusFinniganLee JordanDean Tho-m as

NO RWEGIANJokumFinnimannLaffenStyxTommyDing

GERMANSeamusFinniganLee JordanDean Tho-m as

ITALIANSeamusFinniganLee JordanDeanThomas

Category three: semi transparent nam es in the Hogw arts universeThe next group of names (Table 4 opposite) are semi-transparent, at leastto adult Britons.The meaning of the first name of Ho gw arts' formidable headm aster, A l-bus , in Latin is w hite . It is transparent for peop le with some Latin and canbe interpreted in terms of his white beard, and - less obviously - his 'w hi te '(that is, 'good') magic as opposed to the 'black' magic of the dark powersopposing him. Dum bledore is a local variant of 'bum bleb ee' (OED citingexam ples 1787-1880) and Row ling is reported to have said that she wou ldlike to think that Dum bledore, being a lover of music, from time to time b e-comes self-forgetful hum ming aw ay as he walks in the Hogw arts corridors(Chiu 2002: 1). All of the translators resort to direct transference of thehea dm aster 's first name , which is, in all likelihood, the only cho ice, since it ishard to see any 'lexical equivalents with the same overtones' as 'Albus'.Most translators use the same strategy with his surname. Thus, they do notrealise the potential 'bumblebee' association, a solution that is adequate giventhat the 'bumblebee' sense is rare and unlikely to ring a bell even with Brit-

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ons. However, the Norwegian translator must have known about it and de-cided to make this more obvious by using the word Hum lesnurr , which iscommon in Norwegian for 'bum bleb ee'. The Italian translator seems either tohave misinterpreted the name or used the Hogwarts headmaster's calm andserenity in times of crisis for the rendition Silen te (= 'sile nt '), although ithas also been suggested that this is based on the initial letters of the name, Dumb- (Davies2003:88).

Table 4Semi-transparent names in EnglishBRITISHAlbusDumbledoreMinervaMcGonagallSeverusSnapeSirius BlackRemus LupinArgus FilchMrs.NorrisDurmstrang

DANISHAlbusDumble-doreMinervaMcGo-nagallSeverusSnapeSiriusBlackRemusLupinArgusFilchMadamNorrisDurm-strang

SWEDISHAlbusDumbledoreMinervaMcGonagallSeverusSnapeSirius BlackRemus LupinArgus FilchMrs.NorrisDurmstrang

NORWEGIANAlbusHumlesnurrMinervaMcSnurpSeverusSlurSirius SvaartRemus LupusArgus NaskFru HansenDurmstrang

GERM ANAlbusDumble-doreMinervaMcGo-nagallSeverusSnapeSiriusBlackRemusLupinArgusFilchMrs.NorrisDurm-strang

ITALIANAlbusSilenteMinervaMcGra-nittSeverusPitonSiriusBlackRemusLupinArgusGassaMrs.PurrDurm-strang

M inerva M cGonagall, the head of H arry's house, has the name of the Ro -man Goddess of Wisdom for her Christian name and no translator has anyproblem with a direct transfer. Her surname, McGonagall, sounds Scottish inGreat Britain and is transferred into most languages we are concerned withhere and in which 'Me-' will evoke Scottish associations as well. In Norwe-gian, the nam e is rendered as M cSn urp , using the Norw egian verb snurp e(= 'to purse (up)'), which is in line with her way of making students quietand, in Norwegian, is often associated with strict supervision by elderlywomen (Hoverstad p.i.).The Italian translator seems to have used some kind


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of association along the same lines, but has gone a bit further by an associa-tion to 'granite', a stone well-known for its solidity. Both translators renderthe Scottish M e .The strict teacher of potions , Sev erus , has the Latin word for stern ashis first name - and it reflects his personality. Attested by the OEDwith thedialectal meaning of 'reb uk e' or 'taper off in shipbuilding, Sn ape will,again, not ring any bells with British readers. But Rowling's statement that itis a name of town (Davies2003:79) is supported by the existence of a rela-tively unknown town by that name in Suffolk, UK. At all events, most trans-lators have transferred both names directly. The Norweg ian translation Slu rcombines the Norwegian words 'slu' and 'lur' , 'cunning' and 'sly' , and thusprovides a twist to the nam e, whereas it seems that the Italian translator eithermisread the surname as 'sn ak e' (='p yth on ') or created it from the context.

Sinus is the name of the brightest star in the constellation of Canis, theGreat D og, and the name is transferred without any dem ur by all of the trans -lators. The surname of this - somew hat sinister - godfather of H arry's istranslated directly only into Norw egian as Svaart ('b lac k') which, in thiscase, is nearly an explicitation and makes for a better understanding of thecontradictions in the original English name for the Norwegian audience. R em us was one of the two founders of ancient Rome who were raisedby awolf.A lup in is a plant, but may associate with the adjective 'lup ine'deriving from the Latin 'lupinus'(='like a wolf), which again is related to' lupus ' (='wolf). In this case, the Norwegian translator changed the nameinto Lu pus to make sure that Norwegian readers would associate the namewithwolf, if anything, rather than with the plant (Hoverstad p.i.). This is,then, a personal interpretation.There are several characters named Argu s in antiquity, the best known

being a giant with a hundred eyes, as all-seeing as the caretaker at Hogwarts,whose surname is Filch , to steal . All of the translators take over Argus .M ost also transfer the surnam e, but it is translated by the lexical equivalent inNorwegian, 'nas k' (Hoverstad p . i). The Italian Gassa means 'ey e ' in thespecialised nautical sense of 'a round loop', and is therefore most likely tohave been caused by poor dictionary usage rather than creativity inspired by Argus .Adult British readers will probably associate Filch 's cat, M rs N orris ,with its namesake, a nosy woman in Jane Austen's celebrated novel Mans-field Park (1814) (www 3). In the novel, M rs. No rris has a social standingas a preach er's wife, but in Danish her title is M adam , which associateswith lower-class persons. The Norw egian Fru is the lexical equivalent in


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Brondsted Dollerup: ThenamesinHarry Potter 65Scandinavia. The Italian translation uses the English title, but renders thename by an English verb imitating the sounds of a contented cat. This is notconsistent with the cat's unpleasant character in the books and it seems un-likely that the substitution of the name with the English onomatopoeia is il-luminating to Italian readers. Durmstrang , another European school of witchcraft and wizardry com-peting with Hogwarts in Goblet, is an allusion to a German literary move-ment in the late 1700s, Sturm und Drang . It is probably only educatedadults who make the connection, but then, for once, continental readers mayeven have an advantage over British ones in so far as they are more likely toknow about German literature. All of the translators have merely transferredthe name from the original and may all have been aware of the allusion.Overall, most of the people connected with Hogwarts have first or familynames that are Latin and thus have associations to antiquity and with scholar-ship. Grea t Britain - and notably public schools that Hogwarts is mouldedfrom - has a stronger tradition for Latin teaching as well as a more markedorientation towards ancient Rome than do most continental cultures. There isthus a subtle overtone that cannot be recreated in the translations discussedhere.4 In addition, most of these overtones are in all likelihood - even inGreat Britain - bound to be m ore evident to adults than to young read ers: theauthor and grown-ups smile at one another, allied by a knowledge that istheirs alone. There are many levels of communication and many levels ofmutual understanding in the books in English.The fourth category: the descriptive namesThe names in this group(Table 5 overleaf)have meanings which E nglish-speaking children can 'figure ou t' at least in part.

L ud o is Latin for I play , wh ich is appropriate for the Head of the D e-partment of Magical Games and Sports, but, once again, this will probablyonly be obvious to people with some Latin know ledge. A Bag m an is atravelling salesman in Britain, but since Ludo is a bookmaker at the WorldCup(Goblet),it may allude to the US and Australian sense of 'the moneymanin illicit busin ess es'. At all events, most of the translators have transferred thenam e, except for the Norwegian translator who has created Hu m bag as anad-hoc word echoing hum bug (Haverstad p.i.).Downloadedb


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66 2004. Perspectives:StudiesinTranslatology.Volume12:1

TablesDescriptive namesinEnglishBRITISHLudoagmanorneliusFudgeProfessorSproutGilderoyLockhartMadamPomfreyFangMoaningMyrtleNearly-HeadlessNickLordVolde-mort

NISHLudoagmanorneliusFudgeProfessorSporeGlitterikSmarharMadamPomfreyTrofastHulkendeHuldaNcesten-Hov-edloseNickLordVolde-mort

SWE ISHLudoBag-manorneliusFudgeProfessorSproutGyllenroyLockmanMadamPomfreyFangMissnojdaMyrtle

NdstanHuvudloseNickLordVolde-mort

NO RWEGI NLudo HumbagKorneliusBort-forklar&Kornelius BloefProfessorStiklingGyldeprinzGulmedalMadamPomfritHoggStonne-Stine

Nesten-Hodelose Nick

Voldemortdenstore

GERM ANLudoagmanorneliusFudgeProfessorSproutGilderoyLockhartMadamPomfreyFangDieMau-lendeMyrteDerFastKopsloseNickLordVolde-mort

IT LI NLudoagmanCorneliusCaramel

Profes-soressaSpriteGilderoyAllockMadamChipsThorMirtillaMalconten-taNick-Quasi-Senza-TestaLordVol-demort

In English, Fudge has several meanings, one being a 'sweet' and others'fake', 'evade', and 'dealing dishonestly or incompetently'. Again, most ofthe translators transfer the name, thus making it hard for readers to get theovertones. The Norwegian translator opted for 'explain away' in the firstbook, but then decided to go in for Bloef, 'fake', in subsequent ones. Onthe other hand, the Italian translator chose to interpret the name as a sweet:Caramell . In this case, all strategies have either limited the implications inthe name or made it hard to see any at all.

The botanist professor's name Sprout is easily identifiable as 'a shoot ofa plant'. The Swedish and German translators transfer the English word, theNorwegian translation renders it by the lexical equivalent Stikling , whereas


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Brendsted Dollerup: Thenamesin HarryPotter 67the Danish translator stays in the world of botany and micro-organisms withthe one-syllable 'Sp ore' (= 'sp or e') . The Italian Sp rite is a mysterious ad-hoc word.

Colbert explains the charlatan teacher of m ag ic's first name, Gilde roy ,as being gilded (covered in a thin gold foil) to make him seem intelligentand attractive (Colbert 20 01 : 149). The ending -r oy smacks of royalty andLockhart may refer to his beautiful hair ('lock') and charming ways withwomen ('lock heart'). In this case, the German translator is the only one totransfer the full name directly. The Danish first name plays on the noun 'glit-ter' ( glitter ) and a traditional ending in male names( -rik ,which etymol-ogically speaking means 'rich') and the translator opts fully for the hair inter-pretation with the surname 'Butterh air'. In Swedish Gy llen- carries thegolden overtones, wh ereas -roy is transferred as is the first part of his sur-nam e. In Norw egian, the golden tinge is found in Gy lde- , while -prinzsmacks of a royal title - which should correctly be spelled -pr ins . Gul-m eda l merely carries on the idea of gold. Th e Italian solution is a transfer ofthe first name, while 'Allock' is either a word play on the colloquial Italian'alloco' (='fool', 'simpleton') or somehow inspired by English word ('alllock(s)').

M ost of the translators do not meddle with Madam Pom frey's name , but itseems as if its visual similarity to pom frit (= 'french fries') on the Eu ro-pean continent has functioned as a 'false friend' with the Norwegian transla-tor, wh o, in our opinion, wrongly translates the nam e into M adam Pomfrit .The Italian translator, who uses another potato product in English and makesher M adam C hips , seems to have had associations along the same lines. Mo aning My rtle is an example of Ro w ling's extensive use of allitera-tions, and all the target languages have preserved this feature, with Swedish,German, and Italian rendering the girl's plant name by lexical equivalents.The Norweg ian rendition of the descriptive adjective is the lexical equivalent,whereas the Sw edish and the Italian translators consider Myrtle 'un hap py ' or'disaffected', the Danish has her 'sobbing' and the German 'sulking'. Therendition of an alliteration has thus called for different near-synomyms in thetarget-language realisations.Implying some ferocity, Fa ng is the ironic nam e of H agr id's cowardlydog in English. The Swedish and German translations transfer the originalnam e, thus conveying no irony to the target-language readers. Trofast

(='loyal') is a common dog's name in Danish and it can be argued that theirony is therefore also realised in Danish. The lexical equivalent of fang is hugg tann in Norw egian and ho gg is a variant of hug g (strike), thus re -

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taining the ferocity. The Italian rendition is the name of the Nordic thundergod , Th or . This is appropriate in so far as it implies that he is unlikely to beintimidated, on the other hand, we doubt that most Italian readers are versedin Norse my thology. Nearly-Headless Nick is another alliteration, wh ich is rendered with thesame letter as the original in the Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian transla-tions. Otherwise all translations retain the name Nick and caique the rest ofthe name so that readers in all target languages know what the ghost lookslike.It has been argued that the lord of the dark forces, Voldem ort , relates toFrench vol de mort , flight of death (ww w3). In the present context, wenote that only the Norwegian translator has adapted or localised the term.There are no lords in Norway, whereas powerful rulers in Europe have oftenbeen termed the Great .Other media and merchandiseSo far, we have discussed only written translations. But the books havealso been used for films and there is a host of m erchandise in the Harry Po tterindustry. In some cases, the written translation may serve as the basis for allother translations: wh en the first film of the series was shown in Braz il, myfour translations had sold a million copies, so Warner Bros, felt compelled topirate them for their film, video and DV D (Wyler 2003: 6). In Denmark,things are different and the subtitling of the film and D VD w as undertaken byHenning Silberbrandt. He had been instructed by Warner Bros, to use thenam es as translated by Hanna LUtzen in the book translations.5In terms of merchandise, we checked the use made by LEGO and thecomputer games (Playstation 2 ). All the Harry P otter LEG O products (whichare distributed world-wide) use the original British names of the characters.

6The com puter games have a few of the names that have been translated in theDanish book translation, but they are all minor characters unlikely to appearoften in the gam e.ConclusionAt the beginning, we pointed out that the H arry Potter books have variousnarrative linearities. The names as translated do not, in themselves, affect theplots of the individual narratives, nor of the saga as a whole. This bears tes-timony to the resilience of prose narratives in translation.We also pointed out that the author may have had some specific intentionsor allusions in som e of the nam es. Many of our interpretations of these inten-

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Brendsted Dollerup: ThenamesinHarry Potter 69tions are purely speculative, but it is obvious that the descriptive names of,e.g., M oaning My rtle , are those that are rendered m ost faithfully and con-sequently as closely as possible to what the author 'meant'. It is noteworthythat these names are also largely devoid of any special British overtones. Thetranslators also show creativity and imagination in their renditions of thesenam es. But much of the subdued talk from the author to the British reader re-ferring to comm on ground is, in most cases, rendered only by the Norw egiantranslator, whose readers on such occasions may respond more like Britishreaders, e.g. by the nam e of Filch - Nask . Or perhaps get a descriptionmo re obvious than it is in English, e.g. Humlesnurr - Du mbledore .

Despite the limited size of the sample, it is sufficient for making somecomments on the strategies of the individual translators and thus to stress thatthis study also reveals that in 'cultural texts' at least, the translator's indi-viduality will tell in the end product (Gullin 1998; Dollerup 1999: 199-236;Baker 2001). These studies have concerned translations by different transla-tors into one target language. To this, we add the dimension of translations bydifferent translators into different target languages.As m entioned, W arner Bros, imposed limitations on the translators' inven-tiveness, and in this respect, both the German and the Swedish translatorsseem to have toed the line and stuck largely to a policy of direct transfer.They agree in translating only the descriptive names and the Swedish transla-tor also used Lockm an for Lock hart .The Italian translator - whose nam e one might suspect of being a pseudo-nym - has a somewhat curious track record. Fo r two nam es, she has searchedfor renditions within the same 'seman tic sphere ' - not in Italian, but in Eng -lish - viz. M rs. Purr and M adam Chips (and possibly (Gilderoy) A l-lock ). In one case, she appears to have misread the English Sn ape for'sn ak e'. Argus Gassa was most likely created by poor dictionary work and Professoressa Sprite is an ad-hoc invention. The name of the Norse god ofthunder for Hagrid's dog is curious. The translation is not consistent andtherefore, in our view, not optimal.The D anish translator has localised or adapted quite a few nam es, such asthe name of the dog and brought out the glib character of Gilderoy Lockart.W ith Professor Spore , she renders a one-syllable British name with a one -syllable Danish one within the same general semantic sphere. But with Madam Norris , she a priori interprets the admittedly unfriendly cat aslower-class.The Norwegian translator takes by far the greatest liberties and is certainlythe most creative and imaginative among the translators discussed. He is also

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the only one who dares go against his own 'translational tradition' by sup-planting Kornelius Bort-Forklar with KorneliusBloef', thus making for aminor inconsistency in the saga. The only rendition we disagree on is Madam Pomfrit . It appears that his main objective was not to make thenames all Norwegian, but rather to present names that, although they do notexist in Norwegian, sound like names. Many of his solutions are particularlywell targeted towards young children and we suggest this is the crux of thematter, because many of the names in English are also evocative with adults.There is thus a conflict between the targeting of the British original and theNorwegian translation. The Norwegian translator appeals to a younger audi-ence than the author of the original.

The main discrepancies to be expected between the response of readers ofthe British original and of the translations are in the cultural sphere and theyare virtually all understandable only to educated and mostly adult readers.Only the allusion to Durm strang is likely to be transparent to non-Britishadults readers to the same extent as to grown-up Britons. Conversely, the lit-erary allusions to Mansfield Park and A Winter's Tale will reach smallersegments of non-British readers.And then there are the all-pervasive Latin references, which - as hinted -

are more familiar to a British audience than to a Continental one. The under-current of a British upper-middle class public school with its system ofhouses, internal competition, its general atmosphere of intimacy, and at thesame time scholarship and learning, is much less pronounced in the transla-tions.This is not the fault of the author, the translators, or even the audiences:it is a difference due to the fact that the original and its translations exist intheir separate cultures and are read by audiences relating to their own, differ-ent cultures.As a kind of hypothetical ideal, one might consider translating the HarryPotter books into two different versions; one for young children, whichwould be much like the Norwegian one, and another one for adults, whichwould merely transfer to British names. The first obstacle would be that theaudience that would get all the points of the English names would differ fromcountry to country depending on the know ledge of English and the familiaritywith Great Britain. Furthermore, it would be difficult to realise for m arketingreasons, financial implications, etc., but in some way, it might still give read-ers at all levels a better chance of enjoying the adventures of Harry Potter tothe full.

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Brondsted & Dollerup: The names in Harry Potter 71

Notes1. Information from www. gyldendal.dk; www. tiden.se; www. damm.no; www. carl-senkids.de; www.salani.it2.Wyler does mention that she must not change Harry Potter's name, but does not in-form readers as to whether this also applied to other characters (Wyler 2003:12). Shehad the names she created for the Brazilian translation approved by Rowling whospeaks Portuguese (Wyler 2003:9).3.The terms 'direct transference', 'explicitation', and 'caiques' are used as by Leppi-halme (2001).4.We are indebted to Thorstein Bugge Hverstad for information about his work onthe Norwegian translation. This is acknowledged by 'p. i.' = personal information.5.Davies makes the point that Italian and Spanish children may find it easier to crackthe Latin names (2003: 76-77).6. We are indebted to Mr Henning Silberbrandt for information on the Danish subti-tling. There is a point where the Danish subtitling ofHarry Potter and the Philoso-pher 's Stonedeviates from the book translation. This is when Harry buys his wand. Inthe English original, the content of the wand is a phoenix tail feather . This is alsothe case in the Danish subtitles, but in the Danish book translation it is a horn from achimera . I believe this is an example of misplaced creativity since it later transpiresthat the tail feather is from Dumbledore's phoenix and important to the plot.7. We are indebted to Ms Kirsten Srup for information about LEGO. She also in-formed me that there were no restrictions concerning the names, but that the charac-ters cannot be sold individually.

WorksconsultedThe Concise Oxford Dictionary. 1996. Oxford U.P.The Cambridge Italian Dictionary. 1962. Cambridge U.P.Sykes, Egerton. 1952.Dictionary of Non-classical Mythology.London: Dent.Freeman, William. 1963.Dictionary of Fictional Characters.London: Dent.Harvey, Paul (ed.). 1962.The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature.Oxford U.P.The Oxford Dictionary oftheEnglish Language(OED).

WorkscitedBaker, Mona. 2001. Towards a Methodology for Investigating the Style of a LiteraryTranslator.Target12. 241-266.Chiu, Julie. 2002. Translating Harry Potter as a Cult of Meanings.Translation Quar-terly#25. 1-45.Colbert, David. 2001.The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter; A Treasury of Myth, Leg-ends and Fascinating Facts.Puffin (Penguin).Davies, Eirlys E. 2003.A Goblin or a Dirty Nose?The Translator: Studies in Inter-cultural Communication 9.65-100.Dollerup, Cay. 1999. Tales and Translation. From PanGermanic Narratives toShared International Fairytales.Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Dollerup, Cay. 2003.Translation for reading aloud.Meta: Translators' Journal 48.81-103.Gullin, Christina. 1998.versttarens rst.En studie i den sknlitterre verstta

rens roll med utggspunkt i versttningar av Else Lundgren och Caj Lundgren.Lund : Lund UniversityP ress.Leppihalme Ritva. 2001. Translation Strategies for Realia. In: Mission, Vision,Strategies. H elsinkiUniversityP ress.139 147.Wyler Lia.2003.H arryP ot terforC hi ldren .Meta: Translators Journal 48. 5 14.

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7 2004. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. Volum e 12:1

W ebsites cited and consultedwww1. http://www.fit-itf.org.www2: 2002. Translation Swedish Book Review 2002 Supplement,www.swedishbookreview.com/2002s-gedin.htmlwww3. What's In a Name? - The Guide to Harry Potter Name Etymology,www.theninemuses.net/hp/4.htmlwww4: http:// ww w.eulenfeder/de/int

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