The Tolkien Translation Game!

[Jude]

It has a bit of a Second Age vibe to it...

Was it spoken in Númenor?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Nope!

[Inanna]

Is it related to the “gift of men”?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Nope. No men involved.

[scirocco]

It must be Eöl to Turgon once he's been exposed as a traitor revealing the secret entrance to Gondolin, after Turgon gave him the choice of living permanently in the Hidden Kingdom or else death:

'The second choice I take and for my son also! You shall not hold what is mine!'
The Silmarillion, Of Maeglin

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It must be!

Your turn, scirocco.

[scirocco]

Thank you, Voronwë. This looks like fun. Hopefully no-one's done it before. I haven't read over all 374 pages.

It really got itself confused with this one. The right words are in there to trigger peoples' memories, but it didn't grasp the meaning properly:

"Until the lightning bolt fell, I had never experienced fire and death through servants and their violent twists and turns."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The more garbled it gets, the better!

[Jude]

Was it spoken during the Third Age?

[scirocco]

Yes, during the War of the Ring.

I would say it’s a well known and memorable statement by a major character, not at all obscure, just horribly jumbled by the translation.

[scirocco]

First hint: “fire and death” - there’s only really one major character from that era that it can be. It is that character.

[Jude]

Denethor?

[scirocco]

Oops! (Smacks head). I forgot about Denethor.

It’s the other one.

Further hint: in the original, the “lightning” reference comes at the end of the statement, not the beginning. I have no idea why the translator put it on the front.

[Jude]

The other character that comes to mind is the Balrog, but it didn't say anything during its only recorded encounter...

[scirocco]

Fire and death.

Which very major character goes through fire and death in the course of the War of the Ring? (And yes, it’s Balrog-related).

The next hint is that the original word “crooked” has been translated as “twisted”.

[Jude]

Ooh, I think I found it:

I have not passed through fire and death to bandy words with a serving-man till the lightning falls.

Gandalf brushing Grima aside.

[scirocco]

That’s it!

How on earth the translator got to its equilibrium phrase I do not know.

[Jude]

The ways of the artificial translator are dark and mysterious.

I don't think today's quote will be too hard - it never reached equilibrium, but it kept alternating between:

So are we.

and:

So do we.

[Alatar]

So do all who live to see such times?

[Jude]

Good guess, but no - the original is much shorter.