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Wolfgang Krege

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Wolfgang Krege (February 1, 1939- April 13, 2005) was a German author and translator. He translated several of Tolkien's works to German.


The first of Tolkien's books Krege translated, was The Silmarillion (as Das Silmarillion 1978). This translation was a great success for him. His next "project" was the new translation of The Hobbit, to replace Walter Scherf's Kleiner Hobbit und der große Zauberer 1957. This modern translation was published 1997.

With his knowledge of J.R.R. Tolkien and his works, he wrote the encyclopaedia Handbuch der Weisen von Mittelerde ("Guide of the wise men of Middle-earth") in 1996 and an elvish dictionary in 2003. Beside his translations of Tolkien's works, he was the translator of books by authors like Anthony Burgess, E. Annie Proulx, Amélie Nothomb, Joseph Conrad, William Goldman and many others.

In 2000 his most discussed translation was published, a new german rendering of The Lord of the Rings, to replace Margaret Carroux' earlier translation. Krege tried to render the original language style into German equivalents. This worked mostly, but a major point of critique on his translation was his use of modern, early Nineties, German, especially the language of the Hobbits. Most of the fans[source?] prefer the first translation by Margaret Carroux, but there are a lot of others, who like Wolfgang Krege's modern rendering.

Translations and Works