elves: Indic counterpart?

[jkirk]

Thanks for clarifying this thread's history.....
Yes Tolkien seems to have been most particular about his different
characters.
JK
================
----- Original Message -----
From: "Valerie J Roebuck" <vjroebuck at MACUNLIMITED.NET>
To: <INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk>
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 12:00 PM
Subject: Re: elves: Indic counterpart?


> The thread began with this enquiry, but took off in various
> directions afterwards:
>
> At 7:43 pm -0500 7/2/05, Allen W Thrasher wrote:
> >A Thai friend is trying to translate the poem on the Ring in the Lord of
> >the Rings into Thai, for a multilingual page of such translations.  She
> >asked me for help on what would be a good translation for "elves," since
> >Thai lore of supernatural beings is largely based on Indian. ...
>
> Allen found out afterwards that there was already a Thai translation
> of the whole of The Lord of the Rings in existence, but I don't think
> he has actually seen a copy yet.  (I for one am very interested to
> know how these sorts of problems are handled.)
>
> Whatever may be the situation elsewhere, in Tolkien's works Elves and
> Dwarves are quite distinct beings.
>
> Valerie J Roebuck
> Manchester, UK
>
> At 5:21 pm -0600 22/5/05, jkirk wrote:
> >I'm revisiting this question--wasn't it prompted by a query on the
> >translation of elf into Hindi for exhibiting the Lord of the Rings movie
in
> >India?  Seems the translators could have used the word vaaman -- dwarf. A
> >dwarf in folklore is close to an elf, after all.
> >Joanna K.
> >============
> >>  aspects of yak.sa-lore seem relevant, too, particularly
> >>  associations with vegetation and wealth,
> >>  though they have a malevolent side which would
> >>  not do for Tolkein's elves (though perhaps accords
> >>  with the mythology more generally).
> >>  On this, of course, see Coomaraswamy.
> >>
> >>  And what of the vidyaadharas and siddhas, as known
> >>  in the epics? Elvish longevity and command of wonders
> >>  might incline one to favor the vidyaadharas here.
> >>
> >>  MK
> >>
>