[B-Greek] Harry Potter in classical Greek

Wieland Willker willker at chemie.uni-bremen.de
Mon Feb 9 06:01:35 EST 2004


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/3469023.stm
Published: 2004/02/08 11:11:05 GMT

A teacher has translated the first Harry Potter book into classical Greek.
Classics teacher Andrew Wilson, from Bedford, says it is the longest text to
have been translated into the ancient language in 1,500 years.
Mr Wilson spent a year on the project, which was commissioned by the
publishers.
The book will come out later this year, along with the Irish Gaelic version
of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Mr Wilson said: "I read an article in the Daily Telegraph which said they
were looking for someone to translate into classical Greek. On a whim, I
wrote to the publisher and said 'I can do that' as a kind of joke."
"I think what the official line is, is that it can be used in schools to
encourage people to learn Greek. Having got kids reading English, JK Rowling
is quite keen to have them reading Latin and reading Greek.
"I've really no idea who's going to read it, but a lot of my classical
friends said they were looking forward to it."
Pupils were bemused by the translation at story time
He said his model for Harry Potter has been Lucian, a writer from the 3rd
century AD, who is "not much read in schools".
"I suppose he thinks of himself as a philosopher, with science fiction
thrown in."
Mr Wilson said writing the book had its challenges.
"Everybody asked me, what's the Greek for Quidditch?
"What's the Greek for bludger and snitch and all these other technical terms
that JK Rowling has invented?"
The classics teacher had to use descriptions of the characters and the
unique vocabulary used in the book in his translation.
In his work, Harry Potter is translated as "warrior goblet", While
red-haired Ron Wesley's name is translated as "pomegranate tree"
The classics teacher showed the ancient Greek version for the first time
this week at Scott School in Bedford, where he read to the children.
One of the pupils told BBC Look East: "I didn't know what he was saying, but
I did recognise a couple of words and it did make us laugh."
-------------------------------


Best wishes
    Wieland
       <><
------------------------------------------------
Wieland Willker, Bremen, Germany
mailto:willker at chemie.uni-bremen.de
http://www.uni-bremen.de/~wie
Textcritical commentary:
http://www.uni-bremen.de/~wie/TCG/index.html





More information about the B-Greek mailing list