Tolkien Translated... into Googlese

[Pitchwife]

I discovered this lovely website today which devotes itself to demonstrating the absurdity of machine translations. It uses Google Translate to bounce the text you enter back and forth between English and a dozen or so other languages, with predictable results.

I tried my luck with the Ring Verse ("Three rings for the Elven kings..."), and it took only ten translations to transform it into the following jewel of absurd poetry, which I can't keep myself from sharing:

Originally Posted by Bad Translator

Of the three seminars, open sky wizard and the Seven Dwarfs, the large stone buildings, King was sentenced to death nine people, one God, a dark shadow places, magical. Some of the rules to find the ring, all the charms lay a heavy shadow.

Some of the intermediate results were quite charming in their own right, such as this:

Originally Posted by Bad Translator

Kings of the three seminars, open sky wizard and the Seven Dwarfs, a large stone building and nine men were sentenced to death, another for the dark magic of God where the shadows lie.

(Emphasis mine. Makes you wonder how you'd execute a large stone building, doesn't it?)

So pick your favourite Tolkien quote, fasten seat belts and have fun!