Translations of the Hobbit
It seems that nobody exactly knows in how many languages The Hobbit has been translated. Douglas A. Anderson (The Annotated Hobbit, 1988) was the first who gave a number of translations: 25. In the revised version of the book (2002) the number of translations has grown to 32.
The list below comes from good old Wikipedia (thanks!). The number of translations has grown to 63! I have added translations that were not in the Wikipedia listing.
And yet, I miss some translations: there are “translations” in Braille. Cuba, Mexico and Colombia have their own Spanish translation, there is a fragment of The Hobbit translated in Silezian and parts from former USSR (like Azerbajan, Kahazakstan) have their own languages. Also missing: Bengali and Mongolia. And: what to do with English versions printed in the USA, India or Canada? Even Taiwan has an English pirate version.
If anyone knows more translations, please contact me.
What we know for sure is, that the Swedish translation (1947) was the first, followed bij the German (1957) and the Dutch (1960). Only some two months later there was a Polish translation. So far, the latest translation is in Afrikaans (2017). Will Aragonese and Cherokee be the next translations?
| Language | Year | Title | Translator |
| Afrikaans | 2017 | Die Hobbit | Janie Oosthuysen |
| Albanian | 2005 | Hobiti | Maklen Misha |
| Arabic | 2008 | الهوبيت، أو ذهابًا وعودة | هشام فهمي – مي غنيم |
| (Al-Hūbīt, aw Zehaban wa ʿAwda) | (Hisham Fahmy – May Ghanim) | ||
| Armenian | 1984 | ՀՈԲԻՏ կամ գնալն ու գալը | Emma Makarian |
| Asturian | 2014 | El Hobbit | Miguel Gallego Gómez |
| Basque | 2008 | Hobbita edo Joan-etorri bat | Sergio Ibarrola and Xabier Olarra |
| Belarusian | 2002 | Хобіт, або Вандроўка туды і назад | K. Kurchankova and D. Magilevtsav |
| Breton | 2000 | An Hobbit, pe eno ha distro | Alan Dipode |
| Bulgarian | 1975 | Билбо Бегинс или дотам и обратно | Красимира Тодорова (Krasimira Todorova) |
| Catalan | 1983 | El Hòbbit o viatge d’anada i tornada | Francesc Parcerisas |
| Cornish | 2014 | Ah Hobys, pò, An Fordh Dy ha Tre Arta | Nicholas Williams |
| Croatian | 1994 | Hobit ili tamo i opet natrag | Zlatko Crnković |
| Czech | 1979 | Hobit, aneb cesta tam a zase zpátky | František Vrba |
| Danish | 1969 | Hobbitten, eller ud og hjem igen | Ida Nyrop Ludvigsen |
| Dutch | 1960 | De Hobbit of daarheen en weer terug | Max Schuchart |
| Esperanto | 2000 | La Hobito aŭ Tien kaj Reen | Christopher Gledhill, poems translated by William Auld |
| Estonian | 1977 | Kääbik, ehk, Sinna ja tagasi | Lia Rajandi (prose and poems), Harald Rajamets (poems) |
| Faroese | 1990 | Hobbin ella út og heim aftur | Axel Tórgarð |
| Finnish | 1973 | Lohikäärmevuori, eli Erään hoppelin matka sinne ja takaisin | Risto Pitkänen |
| French | 1969 | Bilbo le Hobbit | Francis Ledoux |
| Galician | 2000 | Ó hobbit | Moisés R. Barcia |
| Georgian | 2002 | ჰობიტი ანუ იქით და აქეთ | Nino Bardzimishvili, poems translated by Tinatin Gogochashvili |
| (Hobitʼi anu ikit da aket) | |||
| German | 1957 | Kleiner Hobbit und der große Zauberer | Walter Scherf |
| Greek | 1978 | Το Χόμπιτ | A. Gavrielide, Kh. Delegianne |
| Hawaiian | 2015 | Ka Hopita, a i ‘ole, I Laila a Ho’i Hou mai | R. Keao NeSmith |
| Hebrew | 1976 | ההוביט | משה הנעמי (Moshe Hana’ami) |
| Hungarian | 1975 | A babó | Tibor Szobotka, poems translated by István Tótfalusi |
| Icelandic | 1978 | Hobbitinn | Úlfur Ragnarsson and Karl Ágúst Úlfsson |
| Indonesian | 1977 | Hobbit atau pergi dan kembali | Anton Adiwiyoto |
| Irish | 2012 | An Hobad, nó Anonn agus Ar Ais Arís | Nicholas Williams |
| Italian | 1973 | Lo hobbit, o la Riconquista del Tesoro | Elena Jeronimidis Conte |
| Japanese | 1965 | ホビットの冒険 (Hobitto no Bōken) | Teiji Seta (瀬田貞二?) |
| Korean | 1997 | ||
| Latin | 2012 | Hobbitus ille aut illuc atque rursus retrorsum | Marc Walker |
| Latvian | 1991 | Hobits jeb Turp un atpakaļ | Zane Rozenberga |
| Lithuanian | 1985 | Hobitas, arba Ten ir atgal | Bronė Balčienė |
| Luxembourgish | 2002 | Den Hobbit | Henry Wickens |
| Macedonian | 2005 | Хобитот или до таму и назад | Marija Todorova |
| Marathi | 2011 | द हॉबिट | Meena Kinikar |
| Moldavian | 1987 | Хоббитул | Aleksej Tsurkanu |
| (Hobbitul) | |||
| Norwegian (Bokmål) | 1972 | Hobbiten, eller fram og tilbake igjen | Finn Aasen and Oddrun Grønvik |
| Norwegian (Nynorsk) | 2008 | Hobbiten | Eilev Groven Myhren |
| Persian | 2002 | هابيت | فرزاد فربد (Farzad Farbud) |
| (Hābit) | |||
| Persian | 2004 | هابيت يا آنجا و بازگشت دوباره | رضا عليزاده (Reza Alizadeh) |
| (Hābit yā ānjā va bāzgašt dobāre) | |||
| Polish | 1960 | Hobbit, czyli tam i z powrotem | Maria Skibniewska |
| Portuguese-Brazil | 1995 | O Hobbit ou Lá e de Volta Outra Vez | Lenita Maria Rímoli Esteves |
| Portuguese-Portugal | 1962 | O Gnomo | Maria Isabel Morna Braga, Mário Braga; il. António Quadros |
| Romanian | 1975 | O poveste cu un hobbit | Catinca Ralea |
| Russian | 1976 | Хоббит, или Туда и Обратно | Н. Рахманова (N. Rakhmanova) |
| Serbo-Croatian | 1975 | Хобит или тамо и назад | Meri and Milan Milišić |
| Simplified Chinese | 2002 | 魔戒前传: 霍比特人 | 李尧 (Li Yao) |
| (Mojie qianzhuan: Huobiteren) | |||
| Slovak | 1973 | Hobbit | Viktor Krupa (prose), Jana Šimulčíková (poetry) |
| Slovene | 1986 | Hobit ali Tja in spet nazaj | Dušan Ogrizek |
| Sorbian | 2012 | Hobit | Edward Wornar |
| Spanish (Argentina) | 1964 | El hobito | Teresa Sánchez Cuevas |
| Spanish (Spain) | 1982 | El hobbit | Manuel Figueroa |
| Swedish | 1947 | Hompen eller En resa Dit och Tillbaksigen | Tore Zetterholm |
| Thai | 2002 | เดอะฮอบบิท | สุดจิต ภิญโญยิ่ง (Sutjit Phin-yo-ying) |
| Traditional Chinese | 2001 | 魔戒前傳 哈比人歷險記 | 朱學恆 (Lucifer Chu) |
| (Mojie qianzhuan: Habiren lixianji) | |||
| Turkish | 1996 | Hobbit | Esra Uzun |
| Ukrainian | 1985 | Гобiт, або Мандрiвка за Iмлистi гори | O. Mokrovolskyi |
| Vietnamese | 2003 | ||
| West Frisian | 2009 | De Hobbit | Anne Tjerk Popkema |
| Yiddish | 2012 | דער האָביט | Barry Goldstein |
| (Der Hobit) | בעריש גאָלדשטײן |