January 3rd is an important date for all Tolkenians around the worldfor those who have traveled in the fantastic dimension of the British glottologist, glossopoiet and philologist John RR Tolkienan excellent scholar of the ancient English language and author, among other things, of the trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”, a text which has now firmly entered the collective imagination with the power of its language and its messages, so much so that it has generated united world communities from the common passion for the saga. Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892, and all over the world on this date his birthday is celebrated with initiatives of all kinds. In Messina, at the S. Tommaso Theological Institute, his charm has once again enchanted the public during a truly special meeting with the princess Vittoria Alliata of Villafranca and Valguarnera, a scholar of vast culture, Islamologist and Arabist, who, at only sixteen years old, was the first to translate from English into Italian the then almost unknown text of the «Lord of the Rings», destined to become a capital text, a crossroads of stories and metanarratives. A meeting strongly supported by the Eriador cultural association and its president, professor Marco Boncoddowhich keeps Tolkien and the sacred beauty of his world alive by transmitting it to young people with many initiatives and educational workshops, in collaboration with professors Nico and Nancy Antonazzorespectively vice-president of the Cidi of Messina and president of the Carta Earthquake Association.
To welcome Princess Alliata – who at the end of the meeting received the plaque of “honorary member” of Eriador – were Boncoddo, who also thanked the Pro Saponara tourist-cultural association, the Gazzetta journalist Anna Mallamomoderator of the meeting, a Tolkenian “by life choice” since adolescence, and the ethnoanthropologist Sergio Todesco who wanted to share a moving memory of the scholar’s father, the prince Francesco Alliata. To do the honors of the house Don Giuseppe Cassarodirector of the community of St. Thomas, theologian and scholar of theological anthropology who in thanking Princess Alliata said that he had “encountered” Tolkien’s text during his specialization studies in Rome: that fascinating world was a revelation that helped him « to forge his way of reading reality.”
«A precious testimony, on an important day for us Tolkenians – said Mallamo – to which we add the fortune of having with us an almost mythological character, Princess Alliata, who has an absolute record: she was the first Italian translator, the first “mediator” of an enormous work destined to colonize the imagination of several generations thanks to its power, to its ability to fascinate readers of all ages and bearers of the most diverse knowledge, to attract them into its universe, into that vast, ambitious Tolkien’s plan to create a cycle that was comparable to the ancient ones, based on values in which we recognize ourselves and continue to recognize ourselves.”
A fascinating adventure that Princess Alliata retraced in her passionate “lectio”, getting excited in front of the old volume of the Rusconi edition – the second Italian, dating back to 1977, with its translation, which remained the only one for years – of the « Lord of the Rings.” A text that enchanted her forever, a container of beauty, starting from the words that have woven a powerful fantasy world, a crossroads of languages, idioms, names and toponyms, as well as an adventurous and enthralling story, which the translation of Alliata ( «translation is the art of understanding and choice – said Mallamo – a crucial art comparable to that of creation») has made it alive and pulsating.
«Everything starts from the word», underlined Alliata, and in her story, translating was a work of complete and absolute dedication, to «intercept every suggestion» that Tolkien, a very fine scholar of the language, wanted to reach the readers «so that they would feel part of that world he had created.”
To the story of the translator dealing with an extremely demanding author, we add the story of sixteen-year-old Vittoria Alliata who knew languages and studied Italian as a “foreigner” in a French school, and who through that adventure as a translator wanted to gain freedom and autonomy. The first publishing house to decide to publish Tolkien, an unknown author at the time, was the venerable Astrolabio and right there, in a completely casual way – it was the mid-sixties – Alliata’s career began, with that truly epochal challenge: a Crazy feat for a sixteen-year-old in times when all the tools we have today didn’t exist.
«The publisher gave me some pages to translate and also some appendices – which are a very “particular” and not easy part of the text -: it was a question of making that author readable at a time when very few in Italy understood English . So I, who at the time was reading and translating Joyce, fell into this story, without knowing anything about this gentleman, without being able to ask anyone anything: there was no possibility other than the desire to enter that intimate universe. But the translator – continued the princess – is a humble transmitter, especially of an author like this in whom the logos, the word, is fundamental, because from there the creation of the world begins (the Tolkenian position is similar to many spiritual traditions ). This is why respecting the author’s will became a fundamental need and a main path for me. Tolkien had given me a guide with very detailed, very explicit instructions. As I translated, with absolute obedience to his instructions, I realized that it was wonderful English. Every word, every element of the nomenclature, every toponym was a whole universe that developed and that had to be rendered in the best way, because Tolkien wanted everyone to feel that this was the story of each of us, he wanted everyone to assimilate this story as a world which corresponded to him.”
In her story, the princess retraced the editorial events following that first publication: Rusconi’s edition with an introduction by Elémire Zolla and the revision by the editor Quirino Principe, then by Bompiani. Until the current situation, with a new translator and issues that pitted Alliata against the publishers, fatally involving – with long discussions in forums and on social media – the Tolkenian community.
And yet, no matter how many “issues” there may be, of any kind, the powerful charm of that text remains, and captivates millions of people. «This is a sacred text – concluded Alliata –, the last sacred epic of the West, which is why it is important that everyone, but in particular young people, keep it “awake”». The young people in the audience nodded, and not only them.
