Åke Ohlmarks

Åke Joel Ohlmarks (3 June 1911 – 6 June 1984) was a Swedish author, translator and scholar of religion. He worked as a Lecturer at the University of Greifswald from 1941 to 1945. Together with the Deutsche Christen member Wilhelm Koepp he founded the institute for religious studies there in 1944. His most notable contribution to the field is his 1939 study of Shamanism. As a translator, he is notable for his Swedish version of the Icelandic Edda, of Shakespeare's works and of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the Qur'an and works by Dante, Nostradamus and others.

Career

Ohlmarks was born in Kristianstad, Sweden and was the son of wholesaler Joel Ohlmarks and Anna-Lisa Larsson.[1] He earned a Licentiate of Philosophy degree in 1935 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1937. Ohlmarks was Swedish lecturer in Tübingen from 1933 to 1934 and in Reykjavík from 1935 to 1936. He was docent and associate professor in the Swedish language in Greifswald from 1941 to 1945.[1] Ohlmarks was director of Europafilm's manuscript department from 1950 to 1959, visiting professor in Zürich in 1965 and head of the Institut für vergleichende Felsbildforschung in Rheinklingen in 1966. He was also a co-worker of the Die Tat in Zürich from 1966.[2]

He was chairman of the Association of Nordic Philologists (Föreningen nordiska filologer) in Lund from 1931 to 1934 and of the Academic Society for the Swedish-Baltic Cooperation (Akademiska föreningen för svensk-baltiskt samarbete) from 1938 to 1940. Ohlmarks was secretary in the Science of Religion Coummunity (Religionsvetenskapliga samfundet) in Lund from 1936 and the community Ad patriam illustrandam in 1963.[2]

Translation of Tolkien's works

Ohlmarks translation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was strongly disliked by the author, prompting him to compile his Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings. Ohlmarks not just invented many expression of his own, but also took great liberties with the contents of Tolkien's work, both by shortening many parts of it and by inserting his own interpretations.

Tolkien was also dissatisfied by the title Sagan om ringen, "The Saga of the Ring".

As a result of the severe criticism directed against his translation of The Lord of the Rings, both by Tolkien himself and by Swedish Tolkien fandom, Ohlmarks in the late 1970s began to display hostility towards the "Tolkien phenomenon", and in 1982 published a book titled "Tolkien and Black Magic,"[3] expounding a conspiracy theory connecting Tolkien and Tolkien fandom with Nazi occultism.

Despite the criticism and controversy, Ohlmarks's translations remained the only Swedish-language translations of The Lord of the Rings until 2004.

Personal life

In his second marriage, in 1954, he married Letty Steenstrup (born 1919), the daughter of Erling Steenstrup and Ruth Strandnaes.[1] In his third marriage, in 1969, he married editorial assistant Monica Suter (born 1940), daughter of Adolf Suter von Schwyz and his wife.[4] Ohlmarks died in 1984 in Crist di Niardo, Brescia, Italy.

Publications

Academic

Autobiographical

Literature

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Burling, Ingeborg, ed. (1956). Vem är det: svensk biografisk handbok. 1957 [Who is it: Swedish biographical handbook. 1957] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt. p. 746.
  2. 1 2 Lagerström, Sten, ed. (1968). Vem är det: svensk biografisk handbok. 1969 [Who is it: Swedish biographical handbook. 1969] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt. p. 732.
  3. ↑ Tolkien och den svarta magin (1982), ISBN 978-91-7574-053-9.
  4. ↑ Vem är det: svensk biografisk handbok. 1977 [Who is it: Swedish biographical handbook. 1977] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt. 1976. p. 779. ISBN 91-1-766022-X.
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