Time to revive this most interesting thread! (Thank you Guinevere for showing me the way
)
My mothertongue is Dutch, and the first time I read the LOTR it was in my native language. To be honest, the names of places and persons sounded somewhat strange to me. As said before, everything has been translated, and in most cases certainly not for the best.
But I recall that Tolkien worked very close together with the Dutch translator.
It was Firnantoonion who mentioned this in the topic
Translation mistakes
Although I'm going to look for some more information concerning that matter.
All the more strange that Tolkien apparently allowed the translator to use Dutch words for the places and names of persons.
Edit: The Dutch translator's name is Max Schuchart, he translated the LOTR in 1957. But that's about everything I could find with Google about this.