MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

David Gaider’s Dragon Age: The Calling –

Translation and Analysis

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2021

Supervisor: Author:

Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. Petr Prokop

Declaration

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this bachelor thesis and that all the sources used are listed in the bibliography.

Prohlášení

„Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou práci (bakalářskou, diplomovou, rigorózní, závěrečnou práci CŽV) vypracoval/vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“

In Brno, 2021

…………………………

Petr Prokop Annotation

This bachelor thesis deals with the comparison of the chosen parts of the two translations of Dragon Age: The Calling and translation of specific names, words, and expressions connected to the Dragon Age universe found in the book. The thesis is divided into two parts: the theoretical part contains a brief description of translation and translation methods, further a short chapter about the importance of the context, a part about the subject of lexical equivalence, and a description of the Dragon Age series, its world, the issues with canonicity and a short chapter about the Dragon Age: The Calling itself. The Practical part consists of two parts: the first part compares the selected parts of the official Czech translation to the translation of the author of the thesis with the focus on illogical and non-sensical parts, mistakes in meaning, parts that diverge from the original book, and parts that mislead the reader based on the context of the book and the whole Dragon Age universe. The second part contains the description of the chosen names, words, and expressions connected to the Dragon Age universe found in the book. Furthermore, the author of the thesis provides the translations of the chosen expressions and approved official versions found in the official Czech translation and offers explanations for why those versions are suitable.

Key words

Dragon Age: The Calling, translation, analysis, David Gaider, fantasy, corpus, lexical equivalence, Dragon Age series, literature

Anotace

Tato práce se zabývá porovnáním vybraných částí dvou překladů knihy Dragon Age: The Calling a překladem specifických jmen, slov a výrazů spojených s Dragon Age univerzem obsažených v této knize. Práce se dělí na dvě části: teoretickou, která obsahuje krátkou charakteristiku překladu a překladatelských metod, dále krátkou kapitolu o důležitosti kontextu, část o podstatě lexikální ekvivalence a popis Dragon Age série, světa, problémů s kánonem a krátkou kapitolu o Dragon Age: The Calling. Praktická část se skládá ze dvou částí: první porovnává vybrané části oficiálního českého překladu s překladem autora práce a zaměřuje se na nelogické a nesmyslné části, chyby ve významu, na části, které se bez důvodu odchylují od originální knihy a části, které mohou mást čtenáře na základě odlišeného kontextu v knize a celého Dragon Age univerza. Druhá část obsahuje popis vybraných jmen, slov a výrazů spojených s Dragon Age univerzem, které se nacházejí v originální knize. Autor dále poskytuje překlady těchto výrazů a jím schválené oficiální překlady z české verze a vysvětluje, proč jsou tyto verze přijatelné.

Klíčová slova

Dragon Age: Volání, překlad, analýza, David Gaider, fantasy, korpus, lexikální ekvivalence, série Dragon Age, literatura

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. for his patience and guidance during the process of writing the thesis. I would also like to express my gratitude to my family and friends for their never-ending support. Table of contents

Introduction ...... 7 1. Theoretical part ...... 8 1.1 About translation ...... 8 1.2 Methods of translation ...... 10 1.3 Semantic, pragmatic, and contextual aspects of texts ...... 12 1.4 Lexical Equivalence ...... 13 1.4.1 Absolute counterparts ...... 14 1.4.2 Partial Equivalents ...... 14 1.4.3 Formal differences ...... 15 1.4.4 Denotational differences ...... 16 1.4.5 Connotational differences ...... 18 1.4.6 Pragmatic differences ...... 20 1.4.7 Zero Equivalents ...... 21 1.5 Description of Dragon Age series ...... 21 1.5.1 World of Thedas ...... 23 1.5.2 Canon and continuity ...... 24 1.5.3 About Dragon Age: The Calling ...... 25 2. Practical part: Translation and analysis of the differences in the meaning ...... 26 2.1 Translation, comparison, and analysis ...... 26 2.2 Translation, comparison, and analysis of specific Dragon Age names, words, and expressions ...... 72 Conclusion ...... 89 References ...... 91

Introduction I am personally interested in fantasy literature and particularly the Dragon Age series. I sporadically read the Czech translations. However, I wanted to review the translation for my friends who would like to read Dragon Age books and get into the series. After the first read, the translation seemed passable. Overall, it was quite good. However, after a close analysis and comparison with the original, I discovered a lot of mistakes that I missed. The main reason to choose the second book in the series is that it is my personal favorite and I feel like it is the one plagued with mistakes. I believe this book deserves slightly better treatment than it gets.

I went through a few reviews of this book, and no one mentions the illogical things or mistakes in the meaning in the Czech version. The readers mostly focused on the lore inconsistencies related to the timeline and certain details disagreeing with Dragon Age: Origins.

One of the reasons why I chose this topic is that I wanted to work with translation and find out whether it is the subject worth pursuing for me or I should rather focus on different things in the future.

The first part of the thesis presents the translation and its methods, lexical equivalence theory, and description of the Dragon Age series. The second part deals with the mistakes in the official Czech translation, their comparison with my translation, and analyzes the differences between them. The last (but not the least) part describes and analyzes the particular words, names, and expressions connected to the Dragon Age universe. The author of this paper provides his own versions and alternatives of the words together with the approved versions from the official Czech translations and supplies the reasons for the chosen versions.

My goal is to analyze crucial mistakes and things that changed in the official translation seemingly for no reason and determine their cause. Furthermore, I extract specific Dragon Age vocabulary from the original book, analyze it and provide my own version and alternatives combined with the approved version from the official Czech translation - I expect that some versions will remain the same, some will need to adjust, and some will be replaced.

I believe this paper might provide an insight into the process of translation and inspire people who want to know more about translating. It could also prove to be a useful tool for publishing houses to get an idea of how to translate a specific vocabulary connected to a particular universe.

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1. Theoretical part

1.1 About translation

There are numerous points of view and opinions on how to define translation. To this day, new theories and knowledge enter the field of translation, which is exceedingly broad and develops alongside new languages.

One could say that translation is merely the process of changing words of source language into words in targeted language that have either identical or almost identical meaning. However, such a view is too simplified to fully grasp the matter of translation.

Foremost, the translation needs to transfer a message from source language into targeted language. The goal is to preserve the author’s intentions and ideas. Translators should avoid altering the text to suit their intentions. (Newmark, 1988, p. 5). According to Mounin (1999), the translation cannot simply reproduce, or be, the original.

Needless to say, translation is a time-consuming process consisting of several steps. To illustrate, Levý (1983) presents his flow chart of the translation process. In the beginning, the author chooses the form and content of the original text and writes it in the source language. After that, translators read the text and apply all the available skills and knowledge to “decode” the original work and then translate it into the targeted language. The translation in TL get to the readers, who further interpret the text presented by translators. In the end, all participants acquire their unique way of understanding the text.

FIGURE 1: The communicative chain (Levý, 1983, p. 44) in English

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Generally, the act of translation most commonly occurs between two entirely different languages. However, translation can occur inside one language as well. Munday (2016, p. 9) introduces three translation categories:

1) intralingual or “rewording”: translation process occurs within one language 2) interlingual or “translation proper”: original text in source language is transferred into targeted language 3) inter-semiotic or “transmutation”: interpretation of one semiotic system by signs of another semiotic system, e.g. a written text is translated into a different mode, such as movie or painting

Since the thesis deals with translation from English to Czech, it goes without saying that interlingual translators need to possess the knowledge of both languages. Levý (1983, p. 17) mentions three basic areas that need to be mastered:

a) The knowledge of the source language – translator must be able to understand and interpret the source language in a correct way. b) The knowledge of the target language – this is arguably the most important skill to master in order to produce a high-quality translation. Most translation takes place from the source language into the translator’s mother tongue, since “that is the only way you can translate naturally, accurately and with maximum effectiveness.” (Newmark, 1988, p. 3). c) The subject matter of the source – translator should read the original text at least twice. The first read should mainly serve to get the general idea of the source text, while the second one decodes the text, uncovers the author’s intentions and ideas. Furthermore, the best procedure to approach the translation is selected. The translator should get familiar with the work of the author, his style, and other characteristic traits.

Furthermore, translators should attempt to adequately balance contrasting pairs of rules in order to achieve the highest possible quality of translation. Savory (1957, p. 49) supplies twelve statements of a good translation in the list down below:

1) A translation must give the words of the original. 2) A translation must give the ideas of the original.

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3) A translation should read like an original work. 4) A translation should read like a translation. 5) A translation should reflect the style of the original. 6) A translation should possess the style of the translator. 7) A translation should read as a contemporary of the original. 8) A translation should read as a contemporary of the translator. 9) A translation may add to or omit from the original. 10) A translation may never add to or omit from the original. 11) A translation of verse should be in prose. 12) A translation of verse should be in verse.

Levý (1983, p. 33-34) provides the same set of rules and states the following: “The principles of translation are defined as decisions made between contradictory statements.” The translator’s style is determined by leaning more towards one or the other principle.

1.2 Methods of translation

There are various methods and strategies that may be used to translate a text. The following chapter lists the translation methods described by Newmark (1988, p. 45-47).

Word-for-word translation

The aim is to preserve original word order and the words themselves obtain the most common meaning available without context. Cultural words are translated literally. The purpose of word- for-word translation is to understand the SL.

Literal translation

This process searches closest TL grammatical constructions in comparison to their SL counterparts. Translation of lexical words is out of context.

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Faithful translation

The reproduction of the precise contextual meaning of the SL text while respecting the constraints of the TL grammatical structures. The method remains faithful to the author’s original intentions. Cultural words are transformed to suit the TL.

Semantic translation

It takes into consideration the aesthetic aspect of the SL language and compromises the meaning where appropriate. This method is quite flexible, follows creative aspects of SL to the maximum, on the other hand, flexible translation does not allow adjustments to contextual meaning.

Adaptation

It is application is mainly found in translations of plays. The themes, characters, and plots follow the original. However, the SL culture is replaced by TL culture and background in order to aim at TL reader or spectator.

Free translation

It transfers the content without the form of the original, the result is a long paraphrase that barely reminds a translation.

Idiomatic translation

It reproduces the message of the original but disrupts meaning with favored colloquialisms and idioms which do not exist in the original.

Communicative translation

The exact contextual meaning is conveyed, both content and language are acceptable and comprehensible to the reader of TL.

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Newmark (1988, p. 45) further displays a V diagram to show which methods are biased towards SL and which ones towards TL:

SL emphasis TL emphasis

Word-for-word translation Adaptation

Literal translation Free translation

Faithful translation Idiomatic translation

Semantic translation Communicative translation

According to Newmark (1988, p. 47), only two of the methods described above accomplish the two main goals of translation: accuracy and economy. It is quite common to encounter more than one method in every translation, depending on the translator’s goals and aims. Knittlová et al. (2010) mention that the methods approved by Newmark (semantic and communicative) can be found in every translation to varying degrees, based on the type of the text and its focus. Newmark (1988, p. 8) states that a translator is constantly faced with choices and needs to make consistent decisions, which also applies when choosing the translation method.

1.3 Semantic, pragmatic, and contextual aspects of texts

In general, one must grasp all contextual, pragmatic, and semantic aspects in order to properly understand any given situation.

According to relevance theory, the context of a particular utterance is a “psychological construct”, which is part of the assumptions made by the reader about the universe. The reader depends on such assumptions to interpret a given utterance. Hatim and Mason (1990) support the theory, claiming that the task of the reader is to create a model of the meaning stated by the writer. A model needs to be consistent with provided information in the text and gathered knowledge about the universe. (Alwazna, 2017, p. 42).

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According to Knittlová (2000, p. 6), the fundamental component of any text is the semantic aspect (content), further divided denotative (literal meaning) and connotative part (stylistic and expressive coloring of a language unit).

The witness was running away as fast as she possibly could.

Svědkyně utíkala pryč, co jí nohy stačily.

The denotative part expresses the situation: the witness was running away (“svědkyně utíkala pryč”). The connotative aspect expresses feelings invoked by certain words and phrases – the witness was in danger and that is why she ran so fast (expressed by the Czech phrase “co jí nohy stačily” to invoke the oppressive or dangerous feeling).

The pragmatic aspect deals with the usage of adequate language means in social situations, in other words, the knowledge of what to say, when, and why:

• the language is used for different communicative purposes: greeting (Hello, How it’s going?), information transmission (I’ll come by your house tomorrow and we can talk.), requests (Can you tell me your ID?) • adjustment of the language based on the situation – talking to an adult vs. talking to a child, language used at work vs. language used at a party

1.4 Lexical Equivalence

One can characterize translation as the process of replacing equivalents in the SL text for the ones in TL. However, an equivalent must be understood as a culmination of all aspects of lexical units: its form, lexical and semantic contiguity, meaning, style, grammar, and context.

This part of the thesis deals with lexical equivalence in the context of translating from English to Czech. It is based on the work of the Czech translation theorist Dagmar Knittlová and her publication K teorii i praxi překladu. According to Knittlová (2000, p. 33), there are three types of lexical equivalence – absolute, partial, and zero, which will be further discussed in the following chapters1.

1 Translated by the author of the thesis, Petr Prokop 13

1.4.1 Absolute counterparts

Knittlová (2000, p. 33) considers absolute equivalents to be the words with the same denotation and connotation aspects in the same context. Most absolute counterparts are in the anthropocentric category – people around us, body parts, items forming our closest surroundings, animals, time data, and abstract things closely connected to humans. Those terms are always clear in their denotative meaning: ear : ucho, bed : postel, cat : kočka, etc.

The issue is quite complicated: generally, Czech verbs often carry more information than English nominal ones, they are semantically richer (tenses and forms). Thanks to that, there is only a limited amount of full verb counterparts, which leaves a lot of space for translators to express themselves and their skills. These verbs can be divided into several groups, but they are all connected to humans and processes around them: a) labeling human actions: eat : jíst, smile : usmívat se, b) existence of a state and its changes: be : být, sleep : spát, mental processes, specifically connected to perception: see : vidět, listen : poslouchat, making a sound, verbalization: sing : zpívat, relations: have : mít, modal stance: must : muset.

These verbs are often accompanied by additional information, which either leads to semantically richer Czech counterparts or extra options to choose from.

Absolute adverbial counterparts can be found among those, which describe some kind of objective attribute, e.g. white : bílý, wet : mokrý.

Absolute equivalents have one other characteristic in common – most times they either consist of one-word or multi-word both in source and targeted language – brother : bratr, make notes : dělat si poznámky, lie down : lehnout si (Knittlová, 2000, p. 34).

Lastly, it should not be a big surprise to cover the fact that most equivalents are partial due to all differences between English and Czech in many areas.

1.4.2 Partial Equivalents

It is inarguable that Czech and English are two entirely different languages not only typologically but also culturally, socially, and historically. They diverge in traditions, collocations, and phraseological structures. Due to all the previously mentioned differences, it comes without surprise that most equivalents are partial and not absolute.

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Partial equivalents can differ in formal, denotative, connotative, or pragmatic aspects, and those differences tend to occur more than one at the same time and rarely appear individually (Knittlová, 2000, p. 35).

1.4.3 Formal differences

One-word or multi-word expressions

Czech and English diverge in one major area – English is an analytical language, whereas Czech is a synthetic language. English expressions are generally multi-word because nouns and their modifiers happen to be separate words and more explicit than their Czech counterparts. These points are illustrated in a couple of the following English examples: apple tree : jabloň, Nurses’ Station : sesterna, in the first place : předně (Knittlová, 2000, p. 36). Multiword expressions in English often convey either a positive or negative attitude towards an object, which can be observed in the subsequent examples: old lady: stařena, poor man : chudák, little cousin : sestřenka. In those cases, premodifiers carry both denotative and connotative meanings. The same combination of meaning aspects is included in one-word Czech counterparts.

English proves its analytical nature in phrasal verbs. On the other hand, the Czech language utilizes one-word counterparts with prefixes: pick up : zvednout, go away : odejít, carry off : odvézt, jump up : vyskočit (Knittlová, 2000, p. 37).

Czech, while being predominantly a synthetical language, contains some analytically formed expressions. Many English verbs derived from nouns have multi-word Czech equivalents, demonstrated on a couple of examples: trapped : lapený do pasti, be benched : zůstat sedět na lavičce.

There are some Czech equivalents that have not reached their one-word stage in contrast to their English counterparts (cog : ozubené kolečko).

Czech multi-word expressions are the result of increased intensity and expressivity (laugh : válet se smíchy).

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Explicitness or implicitness

Multi-word expressions are generally more explicit, their explicitness is conveyed by the higher amount of clearly specified and stated information (fetch one one’s hat : smeknout). Translators sometimes add extra information, which is only implied in the SL, to achieve higher explicitness (lobby : hotelová hala). Translators might interpret too abbreviated expressions more explicitly (dull lumps : lampy se slepými cylindry). Increased explicitness can be caused by non-existent equivalents (controls : páčky a kolečka). During the process of verbalization (English nouns are transformed into Czech verbs), additional information is put in the text (till dawn : dokud se nerozední). Descriptive and explicit expressions prolong the TL target, in turn, translators should compensate with compression (Knittlová, 2000, p. 39) - omitting unnecessary parts whenever it is possible (at two o’clock : ve dvě, in black suits : v černém, he rang the bell : zazvonil). The translator’s subjectivity may lead to decreased explicitness (polished to high glitter : naleštěný).

Noun groups and prepositions

Czech translation often contains a preposition signalizing the relationship between noun groups (garage key : klíče od garáže). Positions of both premodifier and head are important in order to interpret the text correctly (music club : hudební klub vs. club music : klubová/taneční hudba). Czech noun groups may be quite long (heat-resistant glass lamp shades : lampová stínidla ze žáruvzdorného materiálu). In some cases, translation of noun groups can lead to various results: for example, a new government organization is either nová vládní organizace or organizace nové vlády (Knittlová, 2000, p. 40). Only broader context helps translators to decipher the correct version. If the first part of a multi-word expression is a color and the second one is material, both Czech interpretations can be used (a black cotton T-shirt translated to both černé bavlněné triko and triko z černé bavlny).

1.4.4 Denotational differences

The semantic differences between languages are the result of their unequal abstraction levels, mismatched worldviews, and both languages usually highlight different features of a sign. The referred reality is either the same or fulfills the same function in the text, which means that denotation is barely changed (Knittlová, 2000, p. 41).

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Specification

One of the most common semantic differences between English and Czech is that the Czech text contains extra semantic aspects. This occurs when the translator’s goal is to make the text more understandable by specification, the result is that the TL text is filled with hyponyms. On the contrary, generalization leads to substitution by hypernyms but seems to occur less often.

Specification occurs most frequently when translating verbs from English to Czech (Knittlová, 2000, p. 42). We can observe this at verbs connected to transport and movement (go, come, arrive, leave, etc.), these verbs do not include the semantic aspect of how the movement is realized, they are ambivalent in that area (unlike the Czech ones who contain it). Thanks to that, English movement verbs have several partial equivalents in Czech (go as jít/jet/odjet/vyrazit, come/arrive as přijít/přijet and leave as odejít/odjet).

The Czech perception verbs tend to be time-defined, focused on an object and whether a sense is actively used or not (see : vidět/zahlédnout, look : dívat se/podívat se, listen : poslouchat/poslechnout si).

Czech verbs describing mental states often cumulate semantic aspect (think : myslet/přemýšlet/vzpomenout si).

The semantically poor verb be has more Czech equivalents, which change based on the surroundings and the manifestation of the reality: be awful : vypadat hrozně (appearance), be in the kitchen : být v kuchyni (position), be at the races : chodit na závody (recurring actions).

The Czech language offers a lot of equivalents for the English verb make when describing a specific way something is created: make cobweb : upříst pavučinu, made of planks : stlučený z prken.

In conclusion, Czech verbs are generally more specific and semantically richer. Other word classes are rarely enriched by extra semantic aspects and references.

Generalization

It is the process of increasing the degree of abstraction in the text by generalization or substitution by hypernyms. Generalization takes place if there is no specific counterpart of an object, e.g. storebread : chleba, marcona almonds : ořechy (typu Marcona). In other words, the issue of zero equivalence is solved by generalization in a way that is suitable for the Czech

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reader (Knittlová, 2000, p. 53). Some English nouns are more specific than their Czech equivalents. The translators that aim to be too specific could create a nonsensical translation (Route simply translates into ulice). Products and company names unknown to the Czech audience can be replaced by a general term (Campbells : polévka z konzervy).

Contiguity

The basic semantic aspects remain the same, but certain semantic features differ without adding or removing them. There are many types of contiguity, one of the basic and quite common one is the substitution by cohyponyms (the process of replacing one word with another with the same analogical function: waterhole : příkop).

Contiguity is apparent when transforming the whole object into a part of it and the other way around: face : hlava, throat : krk, chest : plíce. Another way is to substitute the cause for consequence: motion stars : blikotavé hvězdičky, and the consequence for cause: stand-up collar : tvrdý límec (Knittlová, 2000, p. 54).

1.4.5 Connotational differences

In general, most words are neutral in connotation but there are some expressive or intensifying ones (and good dictionaries mention that). Expressiveness is understood as highlighting the message to achieve a greater impact on the reader’s perception. This is achieved by influencing feelings and emotions. In English, emotionality is quite often only implicated in the text. On the other hand, Czech is rich in language means to express emotions. In some cases, emotionally neutral English expression equals to Czech diminutive word: star : hvězdička, son : synek (Knittlová, 2000, p. 58). However, it is not always the case for diminutives to carry the emotional attitude (map : plánek, wheels : kolečka). There is no connection between the usage of interjections in English and Czech, the frequency is higher in the former one.

Vulgarisms

Their usage must be carefully considered (based on the time period and society). The higher the number of vulgarisms in the text, the lower their effect becomes. Translators need to evaluate which vulgarisms should be regarded as taboo in TL and carefully adjust the text.

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Intensification

The meaning of intensifiers generally describes the degree of intensity of an emotion, attitude, or evaluation without closer specification.

Intensification might be connected to the feeling of pleasure/displeasure and approval/disapproval (Knittlová, 2000, p. 65). Some of them can express both positive and negative evaluation: she invented this terrific board game : vytvořila tudle senzační deskovku, I had this terrific stomachache : příšerně mě bolel žaludek. Intensifiers quickly lose their effect and meaning when used repeatedly. Emotionality and intensity intermingle, so English intensifiers correspond to Czech diminutives (very slowly : pomalinku). Emotionally neutral adverbial very is one of the most frequently used intensifiers with many equivalents in Czech depending on the fact whether the message is spoken, formal or informal, etc. Certain intensifiers like pretty, damn, goddam, hell are so frequently used that they lost their denotative aspects and connotative meaning is more prominent (he is pretty tall : je hrozně vysoký, you are damn right – to si teda piš).

The emphasizer just can serve to emphasize a time period (I just arrived at work. : Zrovna jsem dorazil do práce.), given collocations with limiting, defining meaning (jen tak – just enough : jen tak akorát, těsně – just before sunset : těsně před západem slunce). A similar function provides the emphasizer right, but it is found less frequently than just.

Downtoners diminish the intensity and are further divided into compromizers (sort of, kind of – I was kind of surprised that he could not make it), minimizers (hardly – he hardly ever thought of others : skoro nikdy nemyslel na ostatní) and approximators (about – she is about twenty years old : je jí tak okolo dvaceti). Reducing intensity implies the speaker’s unwillingness to clearly take a standpoint, there is an effort to mitigate a claim (Knittlová 2000, p. 70-71).

To sum up, English and Czech intensifiers very sporadically correspond. Their purpose is to increase the expressiveness of the message in the text, the topic of intensifiers seems to be very subjective for each translator.

Stylistic connotation

Neutral English lexical units are often matched by stylistically connotated Czech counterparts, further divided into several categories: a) expressive (head : kebule, makovice), b) colloquial (mother : máma), c) representing common Czech (catch : načapat), d) dialectial (a girl :

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děvčica), e) slang (friend : kámoš, team : mančaft), f) professionalisms (patient : pacoš). The most common counterparts are expressive, colloquial, and common Czech expressions. On the other hand, professionalisms, regional dialects, and slang terms occur infrequently.

Translators are supposed to choose Czech stylistic equivalents based on collocation, subjective taste, and experience but should be aware of the author’s intentions and keep the text stylistically similar to the original one (Knitlová, 2000, p. 81).

1.4.6 Pragmatic differences

Pragmatic differences happen to be the product of distinct linguistic and non-linguistic backgrounds of SL and TL readers. These differences are taken into consideration by translators who make various changes to accommodate TL reader’s needs. The following techniques are essential when dealing with pragmatic differences:

Adding information

Translators include additional expressions if they assume that the original text is either too abstract or unfamiliar for the TL reader. These general expressions identify and classify unknown objects, places, institutions, etc. into appropriate concept areas (Brazos : řeka Brazos, at Huntsville, Alabama : u vesmírného letového střediska Huntsville, Forbes : magazín Forbes).

Omitting Information

Omission serves to leave out redundant information from the text. Specific changes in translation lead to generalization or substitution by more general expression: Dr. Pepper : limonáda (Knittlová, 2000, p. 82). The whole expression can be replaced by the generalized one (academic building : škola). If TL does not offer detailed segmentation and specification of reality, translators should consider the usage of hypernymy (dorm/day room : pokoj).

Substitution by analogy

It is quite common to replace certain references in SL for others in TL in order to make the text familiar to the target audience. Substitution by analogy helps to solve issues whenever the

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meaning of the expression is lost through literal translation. The most frequent occurrence of substitution seems to be in units of measurement: about 8 inches : asi dvacet centimetrů, to be 5’2 : měřit 157 cm, one hundred miles an hour : 160 kilometrů za hodinu, 100 pounds : 45 kilogramů. The substitution enters translation from Czech to English as well: v sedm ráno : at 7 am. Translators should aim to preserve rough conversion of units: 10 yards : 9 metrů (not 9,144 metrů). Between analogy and self-explanatory expressions stands translation of regional expressions: grits : kukuřičná kaše. (Knittlová, 2000, p. 82-83).

Self-explanatory expressions

These expressions are used as the last option for the translators who encounter unfamiliar situations and references: quart: láhev whisky, in the Revolutionary War : v bojích o nezávislost.

1.4.7 Zero Equivalents

If equivalent in TL does not exist, we talk about zero equivalence or non-equivalent lexicon. A zero equivalent can be replaced by a borrowed word or its “Czechification”, generalized expression, periphrasis, or functional analogy (Knittlová, p. 84). Those processes usually lead to partial equivalents. Some of the options when dealing with zero equivalents are provided down below:

Czechification/adaptation: Cadillac : cadillak, Buscephalus : Bucefalus, Maric : Marik.

Calque (or at least partial): South Carolina : Jižní Karolína

Names, geographical terms, and terms found in certain (mostly in recently created) fields happen to be borrowed quite often: Alfred : Alfred, New York City : New York City, hardware : hardware.

Omitting from the TL: jar of her walking : její krok.

1.5 Description of Dragon Age series

Dragon Age is a fantasy media franchise primarily centered around video games. Dragon Age is an intellectual property of Canadian game developer BioWare. Nowadays, the publisher Electronic Arts owns the entirety of BioWare.

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There are multiple subgenres of fantasy. Most Dragon Age entries fall under the category of high or epic fantasy. Certain installments (such as Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II) explore either dark fantasy or sword and sorcery subgenres to varying degrees. Dragon Age seems to take inspiration from A Song of Ice and Fire by G. R. R. Martin, especially in the morally ambiguous world, treacherous political machinations, and lastly in characters put in no-win scenarios.

The Dragon Age series takes place in the fictional fantasy world of Thedas, whose setting takes heavy inspiration from medieval Europe and European folklore. For example, the nation of Ferelden is based on medieval England, while Orlais on renaissance-era France. Fun fact: the word “Thedas” is a shorthand for “The Dragon Age Setting.” (A Beginner’s Guide to All Things Dragon Age, Hamilton, 2014).

Dragon Age is a vast series consisting of video, mobile, flash, and browser games, novels, books, comics, a tabletop role-playing game, both live-action and animated movies. All 35 released installments (to March 1, 2021) are included in the table below, sorted chronologically by their release date. (Dragon Age, Dragon Age Wiki, n.d.).

Table 1: List of Dragon Age media

Media type Title Release date Novel Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne March 3, 2009 Webcomic series Dragon Age: Origins September – October 2009 Novel Dragon Age: The Calling October 13, 2009 Flash Game Dragon Age Journeys November 3, 2009 Video Game Dragon Age: Origins November 3, 2009 Tabletop RPG Dragon Age January 25, 2010 Webcomic series Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening February – March 2010 Comic Dragon Age by IDW March 1, 2010 Webcomic Dragon Age: The Revelation March 1, 2010 Video Game Expansion Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening March 16, 2010 Animated Web Series Dragon Age: The Warden’s Fall May 22, 2010 Anime Film Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker June 7, 2010 Video Game Dragon Age II March 8, 2011 Flash Game Dragon Age Legends March 18, 2011 Live Action Web Series Dragon Age: Redemption October 10, 2011 Novel Dragon Age: Asunder December 20, 2011 Comic Series Dragon Age: The Silent Grove February – March 2012 Comic Series Dragon Age: Those Who Speak August – November 2012 Comic Series Dragon Age: Until We Sleep March – May 2013 Book April 30, 2013

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Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Mobile Game Volume 1 December 5, 2013 Novel Heroes of Dragon Age April 8, 2014 Book Dragon Age: The Masked Empire June 4, 2014 Novel Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 September 16, 2014 Browser Game Dragon Age: The Last Flight November 7, 2014 Video Game Dragon Age: The Last Court November 18, 2014 Comic series Dragon Age: Inquisition December 2015 – April Dragon Age: Magekiller 2016 Book November 18, 2014 The Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition Book May 12, 2015 Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Comic series Volume 2 May – September 2017 Novel Dragon Age: Knight Errant July 31, 2018 Book Dragon Age: Hard in Hightown October 18, 2018 Comic series Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 2 October – December 2018 Comic series Dragon Age: Deception January – March 2020 Book Dragon Age: Blue Wraith March 10, 2020 Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights

1.5.1 World of Thedas

Thedas is the only continent in the known world. It is mostly inhabited by humanoid races – elves, dwarves, humans, and kossith (large beings with huge horns on their heads). Thedas is a place where class, heritage, and race are important factors determining societies and political dynamics. A significant portion of the series consists of power struggles and internal conflicts between and sometimes within numerous factions and organizations. The most powerful nations on the surface are: Tevinter Imperium controlled by mages and a famous slave nation, Antiva is all about wine and fashion, Orlais is an empire famous for its chivalry, desire for expansion, and religious nature. Ferelden is a more reserved nation: its people prefer simple things, and they often keep to themselves. Nevarra is a nation in central Thedas focusing mostly on the afterlife. Free Marches is a confederation of mostly human city-states and Rivain, a simple nation producing a lot of tea. There are also The Qunari, which is a totalitarian regime governed by three leaders (triumvirate) and each represents a different aspect of the society: the body (military), the soul (religion/laws), and the mind (working class).

There are mostly ruins of the former dwarven kingdom under the surface of Thedas. Nowadays, dwarven civilization is reduced to a couple of separated cities with their own unique societies, troubles, customs, etc. Dwarves rarely care about the people outside their borders.

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Many people possess the gift of magic, however, not everyone is able to control it properly. Mages can access the Fade, a metaphysical realm that is ordinarily accessible only to people that dream (except dwarves, they neither dream nor wield magic). Only people capable of magic can directly influence the Fade and affect demons, spirits, and dreamers found in it, which makes mages quite powerful. However, mages can also be possessed by demons and turn into super dangerous creatures called abominations. In most nations, mages must be a part of the Circle of Magis, where they are looked after by the Templars. Everyone outside the Circle is a hunted apostate, excluding the nation of Tevinter.

The title of the most dominant organization in Thedas belongs to the Chantry, a monotheistic religion worshipping a god known as The Maker. The Chantry teaches that magic should never rule over man but serve him. Humans represent the majority of the Chantry followers. Dwarves have their system of the living gods called ancestor worship (however, its character can hardly be described as religious). Elves continue to worship their ancient Elven Pantheon.

The calendar is divided into “Ages”, a 100-year segments, starting with the founding of the Chantry (1:1 Divine Age). These periods are named after the important events in the last year of the previous era. For example, the Dragon Age is named after the resurgence of dragons after many centuries. The time period before the Chantry is referred to as Ancient (500 years before the establishment of Chantry would be -500 Ancient).

There are numerous threats all over Thedas: darkspawn (a humanoid race of magically tainted creatures) dwelling under the ground most of the time, but during the Blights, they resurface under the command of the corrupted Old God in the form of a dragon. An ancient order of Grey Wardens protects all of Thedas before the Blights. The other threats are cults and paramilitary groups such as Venatori and Red Templars, demons from the Fade, and dragons.

1.5.2 Canon and continuity

The Dragon Age canon remains to be the subject of fandom discussions to this day. Video games count as the main canon and generally overrule all other media. The two first novels (Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne and Dragon Age: The Calling) are canonical as well, confirmed by their author David Gaider: “The two prequel novels are canon-- there is nothing for them to conflict with. […]” (David Gaider – will the novels and comic books influence the game?, Dragon Age Wiki, 2013). However, the other novels and media follow the internal

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BioWare canon separated from the Dragon Age video games. Nevertheless, some aspects of “non-canonical” media may be used later in future games, as is the case with Dragon Age: Asunder character named Cole, who serves as a companion in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

1.5.3 About Dragon Age: The Calling

As previously stated, the book was published in October 2009 and serves as a prequel to the video game Dragon Age: Origins (written by the lead writer of the game David Gaider). The book is translated by Jakub Mařík, who supposedly started his translation career around 2010, so it must have been one of his first professional gigs in translation.

Dragon Age: The Calling takes place several years after the previous novel Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. Maric, the prince of Ferelden, leads the resistance against the Orlesian usurpers. Ferelden’s forces defeat Orlesians at the battle of the river Dane and bring the freedom of Ferelden back in a couple of following years.

The story of the book is centered around a company of Grey Wardens (an ancient order of warriors fighting against darkspawn) and their secret mission. They have come to the kingdom of Ferelden to ask the king Maric and his right hand Loghain for a favor – one of them needs to guide them through the dwarven underground network called the Deep Roads. Maric and Loghain are now the two last living people who ventured around Ortan Thaig (a dwarven city of a sort). Maric agrees due to various reasons (one of them is a prophecy of the upcoming Blight). The secret mission revolves around finding the former Commander of Grey Wardens, Bregan, and eliminate him before he reveals the locations of the Old Gods to prevent the next Blight. Bregan is however found by a sentient darkspawn known as The Architect. However, the darkspawn does not want to corrupt Old Gods but kill them and find a middle way between humanity and darkspawn. The Architect’s plan is to taint all the big cities in Thedas and turn everyone into Grey Wardens (if they survive).

The group encounters many obstacles on their way through the Deep Roads (a lot of darkspawn, corruption, a dragon, and a powerful desire demon). The group is later caught, but three members (Fiona, Duncan, and Maric) escape to the surface, only to be captured by First Enchanter Remille, who is cooperating with The Architect just like Bregan, Genevieve, and Uma, who decided to change the sides throughout their journey. Unfortunately, Kell, Julien, and Nicolas did not make it out of the Deep Roads. At the end of the book, teyrn Loghain Mac

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Tir finds out about the plan by a chance and interrupts it together with the Ferelden army at Circle of Magic in Kinloch Hold.

This list includes key characters in alphabetic order:

The Architect – a speaking, intelligent darkspawn emissary

Bregan – former Commander of the Grey Warden in Orlais; Genevieve’s brother

Duncan – a young Warden, a former thief

Fiona – an Orlesian elven mage and Grey Warden at the same time

Genevieve – current Commander of the Grey Wardens in Orlais; Bregan’s sister

Julien – a Grey Warden; partner of Nicolas

Kell ap Morgan – a senior Grey Warden and Commander’s lieutenant

Loghain Mac Tir – teyrn of Gwaren and Maric’s right hand

Nicolas – a Grey Warden; partner of Julien

Remille – First Enchanter of the Circle of Magi in Ferelden; an Orlesian mage

Maric Theirin – The King of Ferelden

Utha – A dwarven Grey Warden and a member of Silent Sisters

2. Practical part: Translation and analysis of the differences in the meaning

2.1 Translation, comparison, and analysis

There is always a part of the original text on the left, the official Czech translation in the middle, and the author’s translation in the right column. In this part of the thesis, the author compares his translation with the official Czech translation done by Jakub Mařík. The parts in question are highlighted in bold text. Then, there is an explanation and context for the differences in the text (e.g. illogical parts, parts that could mislead the reader and parts that diverge from the original book for no reason, mistakes in the meaning, then parts and situations that are out of

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the context taking into account the pragmatic and Dragon Age universe context). The examples are sorted chronologically in accordance with the original book.

Original English Text Official Czech Translation My translation

Canticle of Threnodies. Chvalozpěv ztracených. Chvalozpěv nářků.

It is the title of one of the chapters of the Chant of Light, the main liturgy text of the church called the Chantry. The Canticle tells the story of the creation of the world and the fall of men. Threnodies are either dirges or lamentations. “Chvalozpěv ztracených” would include stories about lost ones or lost souls, however, the canticle rather covers the failings of men, their sorrow, and grief. “Chvalozpěv nářků” is a calque – “nářky” is the Czech equivalent of laments and dirges.

Less than a year earlier, the Zhruba před rokem mohl Není tomu ani rok, co mohl only way Duncan would Duncan vidět vnitřek paláce Duncan vidět vnitřek paláce have seen the inside of a jedině se špičkou meče jedině se špičkou meče palace would have been at vězeňské stráže v zádech. vězeňské straže v zádech. the sword-point of a prison

guard.

This part introduces one of the main characters called Duncan and mentions a change in his life that occurred some time ago. However, it is unclear how long ago. “Zhruba před rokem” translates to “around a year ago” and might imply that the event could happen more than twelve months ago. In contrast, “Není tomu ani rok” clearly puts a cap (a year ago at the absolute maximum). The book later reveals that Duncan became a member of the Grey Wardens approximately half a year ago, which is the event implied in the text.

Really, if anyone was Ve skutečnosti na něj mohli Když už by na něj měl staring at him it should všichni zírat kvůli šedé někdo zírat, tak kvůli šedé have been for the grey tunic tunice, kterou nosil, tunice ozdobenou he wore, adorned with the ozdobené symbolem symbolem řvoucího symbol of a rearing griffon. řvoucího gryfa. U každého griffona, kterou nosil. U In any other nation in Thedas jiného národa v Thedasu by každého jiného národa that griffon alone would have samotný gryf vyvolal v Thedasu by samotný

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drawn raised eyebrows and pozdvihnutá obočí a nervózní griffon vyvolal pozdvihnutá nervous glances… but not in pohledy… ale ne ve obočí a nervózní pohledy… Ferelden. Here it was all but Fereldenu. Tady byl velká ale ne ve Fereldenu. Tady byl unknown. neznámá. velká neznámá.

The original text is purely hypothetical, and I try to incorporate that into my translation. Duncan previously lists a couple of reasons why people in Ferelden might be staring at him (his armor, daggers, darker skin). He states that they should look at him because of his Grey Warden tunic, but they do not. Naturally, the whole construction in Czech must be hypothetical as well. According to the official translation, Duncan comes to the conclusion that it could be the tunic he wears, which contradicts the original text.

He avoided her glower. “I Uhnul před jejím pohledem. Uhnul před jejím pohledem. trust you are satisfied?” she „Věřím, že jsi spokojený,“ „Seš sám se sebou demanded. kárala ho. spokojený?“ vyžadovala.

“Maybe if I’d gotten away „Možná bych byl, kdybych „Možná bych byl, kdyby mi with it.” se s tím dostal pryč.“ to prošlo.“

“Don’t be a child.” „Nechovej se jako dítě.“ „Nechovej se jako dítě.“

Firstly, “I trust you are satisfied?” must be a question in the Czech version as well because Genevieve authoritatively asks Duncan if he feels good after the crime he committed. Secondly, “kdybych se s tím dostal pryč”, is literal translation and not the idiom like in the original text. Nevertheless, I must admit that literal translation almost works because Duncan stole an item but got caught. However, Duncan does not talk about running away with the thing he stole but rather about avoiding the consequences of the crime.

She let him go and turned Pustila ho a otočila se Pustila ho a otočila se back to the hovering First k přikrčenému Prvnímu k čekajícímu Prvnímu Enchanter. “I trust the King čaroději. „Věřím, že král už čaroději. „Věřím tedy, že is ready to see us, then? We je připraven nás přijmout. král je připraven nás won’t have to come back?” Nemáme se tedy vrátit?“ přijmout? Nebudeme se muset vracet?“ “No, he’ll see you. Come.” „Ne, on vás přijme. Pojďte.“ „Ne, on vás přijme. Pojďte.“

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The First Enchanter is waiting for Genevieve to speak to him (“čekající”), he is not crouching before her. In the official translation, Genevieve announces that the King is ready to see them. Then, she suddenly asks whether they should return (it is quite unclear where). It does not make a whole lot of sense to me and it might be confusing for some readers. My version lets Genevieve ask indirectly whether the King is ready in the first question (she hopes he is). In the second one, Genevieve asks directly whether they should come back later or not.

Eight years ago, both of you „Před čtrnácti lety jste oba „Před jedenácti lety jste oba traveled in the Deep Roads,” putovali Hlubokými putovali Hlubokými cestami,“ vysvětlovala cestami,“ vysvětlovala Genevieve explained. Genevieve. Genevieve.

There was a lack of time during the editing of the original text (which is also incorrect this time) resulting in the imprecise number of years, however, I do not understand how the official translation supplements the different number than the original. This time, we can only make it through with the lore information. The book is happening eleven years (9:10 Dragon Age) after the Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, where Maric and Loghain traveled together through Deep Roads in 8:99 Blessed Age. This particular mistake occurs several times in both versions with the same numbers each time, so it is enough to discuss it only once in this paper.

“You journeyed through the „Cestovali jste Hlubokými „Cestovali jste Hlubokými Deep Roads under eastern cestami pod východním cestami pod východním Ferelden, a place no dwarf Fereldenem, místy, kam Fereldenem, místy, kam has traveled in well over a v průběhu století nezavítal v průběhu století nezavítal century. Or at least lived to žádný trpaslík, který by žádný trpaslík. Nebo alespoň tell the tale.” přežil, aby o tom mohl žádný, který by přežil, aby vyprávět.“ o tom mohl vyprávět.“

Genevieve explains to Maric and Loghain that they are most likely the only two people who traveled in certain parts of Deep Roads who could help them. Genevieve offers two explanations: either no dwarf explored the same parts of Deep Roads, or on the other hand, did but died doing so. My translation includes the former variant as well as the latter one. On the other hand, the official translation omits the first possibility.

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“Do you remember the witch „Pamatuješ si čarodějnici „Pamatuješ si čarodějnici we met in the Korcari v Korcarijské pustině?“ v Korcarijských Wilds?” he began. začal. divočinách?“ začal.

“Pustina” generally describes a hollow land without anything on sight (wasteland). The Korcari Wilds, unexplored lands in the south-eastern Ferelden, consist of swamps, many trees, dangerous creatures, and ruins. I consider “divočina” to be much closer to the original meaning than “pustina”. I also translated it into plural (“Wilds” -> “divočiny”).

Each Blight had come close Každá Nákaza měla blíž ke Každá Nákaza měla blízko to destroying all of Thedas, zničení celého Thedasu, to ke zničení celého Thedasu, to something the Grey Wardens Šedí strážci věděli lépe než Šedí strážci věděli lépe než knew better than anyone. kdokoliv jiný. kdokoliv jiný.

It looks like a small difference at the first glance, but it is still notable. “Měla blíž” explicitly states that each Blight was closer and closer to the destruction of Thedas, however, that is neither the case in the original text nor in the lore. In fact, the First Blight has been closest to the ruination of Thedas. “Měla blízko” fits better due to the fact that every Blight was still quite close to ending the life on Thedas.

Maric felt about ten years Marik se cítil o deset let Marik se cítil o deset let older, hunched over on his starší, hrbil se na trůně starší, hrbil se na trůně throne and nowhere near a poblíž nebyl nikdo, kdo a zdaleka nepřipraven vést ready to lead anyone by ho provedl tím, co bude kohokoliv kamkoliv. anywhere. následovat.

Currently, Maric is not in the best form. He feels like he is not ready to lead Grey Wardens into one of the most terrible places on Thedas (or anyone anywhere, actually). The official translation mentions that Maric had no one to help him through what is coming next – while this might be true (if we exclude all Grey Wardens, of course), it is a huge deviation from the original text. Personally, I am not quite sure there is anyone qualified enough to traverse the depths of the Deep Roads and prepared for their terrors.

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Perhaps the Grey Wardens Možná se Šedí strážci mýlili. Možná se Šedí strážci mýlili. were wrong. Or perhaps they Nebo to možná věděli celou Nebo to možná věděli celou had known all long, and it dobu, jen to bylo jedno dobu, jen to bylo jedno was yet another of the secrets z dalších jejich tajemství, z dalších jejich tajemství, they kept, even from someone které střežili dokonce i před které střežili dokonce i před as high ranking as himself. někým tak vysoce někým tak vysoce postaveným jako on. postaveným jako on. It wouldn’t be the first time, he thought bitterly. Nemohlo se to stát poprvé, Nebylo by to poprvé, pomyslel si hořce. pomyslel si hořce.

In the official translation, Bregan only guesses that the Grey Wardens has previously hidden vital information from him. However, he is certain that it has already happened (most likely several times, based on the reaction).

Better to fall on one’s sword, Bylo by lepší padnout na Bylo by lepší padnout na end it quickly and cleanly no vlastní meč, skončit to rychle vlastní meč, skončit to rychle matter what the Maker a čistě, bez ohledu na to, co si a čistě, bez ohledu na to, co si might think of it. Better that o tom pomyslí ostatní Šedí o tom pomyslí Stvořitel. than to walk slowly out into a strážci. Lepší než pomalu Lepší než pomalu kráčet sea of darkness and be kráčet mořem temnoty a mořem temnoty a utopit se drowned in it. utopit se v něm. v něm.

Clearly, one can take a closer look and find out that Grey Wardens are not written in the original text. I am inclined to trust David Gaider’s version rather than the translation. If we look at the issue from the lore perspective, I think that Grey Wardens would not care. He entered the Deep Roads to die, and that is all that matters to Grey Wardens. They will not search the Deep Roads to find his body and examine whether he committed suicide or not. I suspect that Bregan means that his suicide could affect his afterlife judgment by the Maker.

He would contract a wasting Nakazil by se zhoubnou Nakazil by se zhoubnou illness, bringing madness chorobou, která přinášela chorobou, která přinášela and delirium and eventually šílenství, vidiny, a nakonec šílenství, delirium, an agonizing death. i bolestivou smrt. a nakonec i bolestivou smrt.

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Hallucinations (“vidiny”) are one of the symptoms of delirium, but those two are not entirely interchangeable. I must admit I cannot figure out why the simplification would be necessary – I do not consider “delirium” a particularly unknown or confusing word.

It was filled with many Byla plná sloupů, některé Byla plná sloupů, některé pillars, some half crumbled, napůl zhroucené, jiné se napůl zhroucené, jiné se others reaching to a distant natahovaly ke vzdálenému natahovaly ke vzdálenému ceiling. All of them were stropu. Všechny pokrývaly stropu. Všechny pokrývaly covered in black fungus and černé houby a plíseň. černé houby a nákaza. corruption.

The corruption is a result of darkspawn spreading their taint everywhere. Even though it might look like a mold at the first glance, those two things are vastly different. A single touch can potentially taint you and turn you into a ghoul or Grey Warden. In the worst case, you do not survive the transformation. The word “nákaza” is used in the book for corruption, I simply fix the inconsistency.

This was some kind of Tohle bylo něco jako Jednalo se o jakýsi druh fortress, long abandoned by pevnost, kterou před pevnosti, kterou před the dwarves when their dávnými lety opustili dávnými lety opustili ancient kingdoms were trpaslíci, když jejich prastaré trpaslíci, když jejich prastaré overrun by these creatures. království zamořily tyhle království zamořily tyhle stvůry. stvůry.

Bregan describes that he is running through an abandoned fortress, however, the official translation interprets it like “this was something like a fortress”, which tells readers that it was only reminiscent of a fortress (something similar to it but not exactly). It actually is a specific fortress type, but Bregan is not familiar with it.

That point could tear his Ten hrot mu mohl snadno Ten hrot mu mohl snadno throat out easily; just put it up proseknout hrdlo, jen přiložit proseknout hrdlo, jen přiložit to his neck and with one swift ke krku, jednou rychle ke krku, jednou rychle jerk it would be done. There trhnout a bylo by. Nebyl trhnout a bylo by. Pak už by would be no way they could způsob, jak by z něj mohli nebyl žádný způsob, jak by

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get the location of the Old dostat umístění Starých z něj mohli dostat umístění Gods from him then. No bohů. V žádném případě Starých bohů. V žádném way that he would be nebude zodpovědný za případě by nebyl responsible for the začátek další Nákazy, za zodpovědný za začátek beginning of another další invazi těch stvůr do další Nákazy, za další invazi Blight, another invasion of zemí na povrchu. těch stvůr do zemí na the surface lands by these povrchu.

monsters.

Bregan is in a desperate situation and thinks hard whether it is not better to commit suicide or be a prisoner of darkspawn. If he went forward with it, darkspawn would not be able to obtain the vital information – the locations of the Old Gods. The official translation pictures the situation as if darkspawn are unable to gain the information in any way (because there are missing links between the sentences). In the end, Bregan did not commit suicide and let the incoming creatures kill him. However, the Architect saves him a few moments later.

“Is that truly your „A vážně ti vadí jen tohle?“ „A vážně ti vadí jen tohle?“ objection?” Zamračila se. Kell se na ni Zamračila se. Kell se na ni She scowled. Kell looked at podíval bez sebemenšího podíval bez sebemenšího her without any hint of náznaku úsklebku a ona si náznaku úsklebku a ona si mockery, and finally she nakonec povzdechla a nakonec povzdechla a sighed and turned to glance podíval se směrem podíval se směrem in the Commander’s k velitelce. „Myslím si, že k velitelce. „Myslím si, že direction. “I don’t think she by jí bylo jedno, i kdyby by jí to bylo jedno, i kdyby would care even if it was.” k tomu došlo.“ V hlase jí to tak bylo.“ V hlase jí Her voice carried less zaznělo mnohem méně zaznělo mnohem méně bitterness than she felt. roztrpčení, než kolik cítila. roztrpčení, než kolik cítila.

Fiona is objecting that bringing King of Ferelden could cause trouble (in reality, she does not like him for many (mostly personal) reasons at the moment), and Kell asks her if that’s the only thing that bothers her. In the official translation, “i kdyby k tomu došlo” (“even if it came to that/even if it happened”) is simply out of place and context because it does not seem to follow up on Kell’s question in a logical way.

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She’d learned a long time ago Už dávno se naučila, že nemá Už dávno se naučila, že nemá never to take such men at podobné muže soudit podle podobné muže brát za slovo. face value. obličeje.

“At face value” is the idiom describing the fact that you accept something as it is without further investigation. However, the official translation says that Fiona should not judge Marik only by his face (which would be closer to the idiom “judge a book by its cover”).

Fiona had called them “the Fiona jim s pořádnou dávkou Fiona jim s pořádnou dávkou Tranquil” with a fair amount odporu říkala „Kliďasové“. odporu říkala „Kliďasové“. of distaste. … … … Když proběhl kolem, Když se ten muž ploužil As the man glided past, Duncan se natáhl a chňapnul kolem, Duncan se natáhl Duncan reached out and po svazku klíčů, který a chňapnul po svazku klíčů, snatched a ring of keys that zahlédl u jeho opasku. který zahlédl u jeho opasku. he spotted on the man’s belt.

In the second part of the thesis, there is a detailed description of the Tranquil. First of all, he would never run due to his “condition” (Tranquils move in a very calm manner, almost unnaturally). Secondly, “glide” certainly does not imply running or sprinting. “Ploužil” feels like a proper word to describe Tranquil’s slow movement around the Circle of Magi.

The giant set of golden Sbírka zlatých talířů na zdi Zlaté váhy na zdi by také scales against the wall also by také mohla něco hodit, mohly něco hodit, byly však seemed elaborate, if far too byly však příliš velké, aby je příliš velké, aby je mohl large to carry out. mohl odnést. odnést.

I am quite uncertain how hard it would be to hide golden plates, but I am absolutely convinced that stealing scales and getting them out of the Tower unnoticed is near impossible. Duncan is weighing its cost, but he comes to the conclusion that he cannot carry the set with him.

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There in the depths of the Tam v hlubinách země Tam v hlubinách země earth they dwelled, přebývají, jako mor nákazu přebývali, jako mor nákazu šíří šířili Spreading their taint as a plague, growing in number a jejich řady rostou, dokud a jejich řady rostli, dokud until they were a multitude. nedosáhnou dostatečného nedosáhli dostatečného počtu počtu And together they searched ever deeper until they a nezačnou spolu pátrat a spolu pátrali hlouběji než found their prize, mnohem hlouběji. kdy předtím.

Their god, their betrayer. Dokud nenajdou svou Dokud nenašli svou odměnu, své bohy, své odměnu, svého boha, svého

zrádce. zrádce.

This fragment of the Chant of Light describes the events that have already happened (based on its first versions occurring around -130 Ancient, it for sure speaks of the First Blight), so the whole text should be translated into past tense. I also altered the last line a bit – darkspawn always find only one Old God at the time, never more (Old Gods are slumbering at different places all over Thedas) – one is enough to start the Blight because he unites the darkspawn hivemind, so they stop searching for a time.

If the darkspawn were able to Pokud by zplozenci dokázali Pokud by zplozenci dokázali use the captured Grey využít zajatého Šedého využít zajatého Šedého Warden to find their Old strážce, aby nalezli své Staré strážce, aby nalezli své Staré God, then a new Blight bohy, pak začne nová bohy, pak by započala nová would begin. Their threat Nákaza. Jejich hrozba se Nákaza. Jejich hrozba by se would suddenly become najednou stala velmi najednou stala velmi very real. Provided reálnou. Přinutila reálnou. Za předpokladu, Genevieve and the others Genevieve a ostatní, aby že Genevieve a ostatní mu were telling him the truth. mu řekli pravdu. říkali pravdu.

Maric starts to doubt that the Grey Wardens told him the truth about the Bregan and the darkspawn threat. The official translation (“Přinutila Genevieve a ostatní, aby mu řekli pravdu.”) implies that the threat is so huge that they were forced to spill the beans, but that is

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not the case at all. The whole segment is hypothetical, and I tried my best to reflect that fact in my translation.

“Cailan. He is five years old, „Cailana. Ano, je mu devět.“ „Cailana. Ano, je mu pět.“ yes.”

Unlike the previous case (traveling through the Deep Roads eleven years ago), the original text provides the correct number this time. Maric’s son, Cailan, was born in 9:05 Dragon age, five years before the events of the book. Unfortunately, I cannot explain the difference between the two numbers and how the official translation acquired the number nine.

“And if there are those who „A pokud tu jsou tací, kteří „A pokud tu jsou tací, kteří do not believe as I do, then I tomu nevěří tak jako já, budu tomu nevěří tak jako já, budu will be forced to act without donucena jednat bez vaší donucena jednat bez jejich their aid. I do need your pomoci. Tak zoufale vaši pomoci. Potřebuji vaši help, desperately so. But if pomoc nepotřebuji. Ale pomoc, přímo zoufale. Ale you cannot lead us in the pokud nás nebudete moci pokud nás nebudete moci Deep Roads, then go . . . vést Hlubokými cestami, pak vést Hlubokými cestami, pak return to your son, Maric. No jděte… vraťte se ke svému jděte… vraťte se ke svému one will blame you for doing synovi, Mariku. Nikdo vám synovi, Mariku. Nikdo vám so, least of all I.” nebude vyčítat, když to nebude vyčítat, když to uděláte, alespoň já ne.“ uděláte, nejméně ze všech já.“

Genevieve speaks to Maric and tells him if he does not believe in the mission and does not want to lead them through the Deep Roads, he should turn return to Denerim. And if there are others who do not believe her (presumably other Grey Wardens), she will continue without their help, not only Maric’s. Furthermore, Genevieve would not travel to the royal palace to ask the king or his right hand to aid them if she was not desperate. The official Czech translation states the opposite: she is far from being desperate.

It seemed to him like it had Připadalo mu, jako by Připadalo mu, jako by been forever since he had uplynula věčnost od doby, uplynula věčnost od doby,

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been able to remember what kdy si dokázal vybavit, jaká kdy si dokázal vybavit, jak Rowan looked like. Rowan byla. Rowan vypadala.

Maric tries to recall (presumably) Rowan’s face (he previously talked about his son having her eyes), but he slowly forgets. The official translation focuses on the fact that he cannot remember what kind of person Rowan was, while close, is not the correct approach. “jak Rowan vypadala” is the literal translation of the original text that fixes the mistake.

She didn’t avert her gaze, Neuhnula před jeho Neodvrátila svůj pohled and he sheepishly decided pohledem a zbaběle se a zbaběle se rozhodl, že it was best to turn his rozhodla, že bude nejlepší bude nejlepší obrátit attention elsewhere. obrátit pozornost jinam. pozornost jinam.

This part states that Fiona continues to stare at Maric, and he decides that it would be easier to look somewhere else and hope she will stop gazing. In Czech, the roles are swapped in the second sentence (he -> she). Furthermore, “neuhnula před jeho pohledem” sounds out of context to me, it implies that she physically moved away from his sight.

“He had to hide the bottles „Musela před ním láhve „Musel před ní láhve from her, and she would schovávat a on mě vždycky schovávat a ona mě always send me to find posílal, abych je našla. vždycky posílala, abych je them for her. I always did. Vždycky jsem je našla. našla. Vždycky jsem je He used to call me Little Říkali mi Malá našla. Říkal mi Malá Spoilsport.” kazisvětka.“ kazisvětka.“

Utha tells the company a bit from her childhood. Her father was an alcoholic who hid the bottles from his wife. Utha’s mother was continously sending her to find them and give them to her. The father was obviously unhappy and kept calling Utha Little Spoilsport. However, the official Czech translation says that both parents used the term, which is quite improbable, and once again, I believe the original text foremost. Additionally, the roles of parents are for some unknown reason swapped in the official translation.

Duncan had never met Duncan se s Breganem nikdy Duncan se s Breganem nikdy Bregan, having joined the nepotkal, k řádu se přidal nepotkal, k řádu se přidal

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order months after the man měsíc potom, co on odešel měsíce potom, co on odešel had left for his Calling. kvůli svému Volání. kvůli svému Volání.

The journey itself from Montsimmard (the Grey Warden Headquarters in Orlais) to Orzammar must have taken some time. The official translation states “měsíc” (‘a month), so a simple change to plural (“měsíce”) is enough. There is the word “months” written in the original text, and we know that Duncan was Grey Warden for approximately half a year, which certainly makes the timeline possible.

Being part of the Grey Být součástí Šedých strážců Být součástí Šedých strážců Wardens was not something mu nepřinášelo potěšení. mu nepřinášelo potěšení. that had brought him joy. It Nebylo to přímo utrpení, ale Nebylo to přímo utrpení, ale had not been a misery, spíš strádal, než by žil. spíš život, který přetrpěl. precisely, but rather a life

he had endured.

Bregan admits that being a member of Grey Wardens was not fulfilling him. However, the official translation implies that he lacked essential things in life and suffered. However, that is a little bit exacerbated. Bregan claims that it was not that bad, but he was cruising through his subpar life more than he enjoyed it, and that reflects in my translation – “spíš život, který přetrpěl” (literally “rather a life he had endured”). I preserved the emphasis on “endured” occurring in the original text.

Perhaps his sister had always Možná se jeho sestra vždy Možná jeho sestra vždy craved popularity among dožadovala uznání prahla po tom být oblíbená the other Wardens, and ostatních Strážců a zašla by mezi ostatními Strážci would have gone to great hodně daleko, kdyby si a zašla by hodně daleko, lengths to get it if she myslela, že ho tak může kdyby si myslela, že je toho thought it was possible to získat. možné dosáhnout. achieve.

Bregan thinks that his sister has always wanted to be popular among Grey Wardens. The official translation exchanges popularity for respect. The second highlighted sentence is enriched by “tak” which results in the original sounding “if she thought that it was possible to achieve it

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that way”, nevertheless, we do not obtain the information from the text and makes the addition redundant.

Watching him, perhaps? Dohlíží tu na mě? Nebo mi Dohlíží tu na něj? Nebo mu Or probing into his magií pátrá v myšlenkách? magií pátrá v myšlenkách? thoughts with its magic?

This is one of the illogical things I mentioned in the introduction. The whole original book is from the third person, there are no parts from the first person. Hence the adjustments from the first to third person in my translation.

The beautiful humming Překrásné hučení dosáhlo Překrásné hučení dosáhlo reached a crescendo, an crescenda, orchestr vtíravých crescenda, orchestr vtíravých orchestra of insistent sound zvuků hrozil, že ho roztrhá zvuků hrozil, že roztrhá that threatened to tear his na kusy. jeho mysl na kusy. mind apart.

Bregan hears mysterious humming in his head (Grey Wardens call it the Calling), and it starts to overpower his thoughts and mind. However, the official translation does not translate it as his mind is being torn apart and instead explicitly states Bregan himself would be soon torn apart by the humming.

“I suggested that you heard „Předpokládám, že slyším „Naznačoval jsem, že slyšíš the call. You do, do you vábení. Slyšíš ho, že ano?“ volání. Slyšíš ho, že ano?“ not?”

The sentient darkspawn called Architect suspects that Bregan hears the call of the Old Gods and wants to get his confirmation. The official translation puts forward the fact that the Architect himself hears the call, but he himself denies it later, making the official translation incorrect. Furthermore, I do not understand why the Architect only “presumes” that he hears the “lure” of the Old Gods, that sounds quite non-sensical to me.

He had been called here by I mě sem přivolali Staří I on sem byl přivolán the Old Gods, too, he bohové, uvědomil si. Byla to Starými Bohy, uvědomil si.

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realized. It was their song jejich píseň, co mě přilákalo Byla to jejich píseň, která ho that had lured him into the do Hlubokých cest, říkala přilákala do Hlubokých Deep Roads, that had told mi, že je čas vyrazit. cest, říkala mu, že jeho čas him his time was up. nadešel.

As previously mentioned, the book never tells the story from the first-person but third-person perspective. The official translation alters the purpose of the song to lure Bregan into the Deep Roads and then it is his time to go somewhere without further explanation. For Grey Wardens, the “song” is the Calling – time to go to the Deep Roads and die has finally come, so they do not fully transform into darkspawn.

They had never Nikdy jí to otevřeně Nikdy to otevřeně acknowledged that fact nepřiznal. Nikdy o tom nepřiznali. Nikdy se o tom openly. It was never spoken nemluvili, nikdy se o tom nemluvilo, ani se o tom of, never even alluded to nezmínil, i když oba znali nikdy nezmínili, přestože despite the fact that they pravdu. oba dva znali pravdu. both knew the truth.

Bregan confessed to Architect that he joined Grey Wardens only because of his sister Genevieve. Grey Wardens would not take her in the Order without him joining as well. The important is to acknowledge the fact that they both knew that was the case, not only Bregan (like in the official translation).

It made no move to approach Neudělal ani krok, aby se Neudělal ani krok, aby se him, content merely to let k němu přiblížil, když se k němu přiblížil, ponechal him convulse. křečovitě rozesmál. ho zmítat se v křečích.

Bregan was so disgusted by the number of darkspawn he felt in close proximity that he started to shake and convulse. There is certainly no indication in the original text that he started laughing (“rozesmál se”) or that he had any similar reaction at all. He was simply twitching and trying to regain his composure.

“I wish to end it.” The „Přeji si to ukončit,“ „Přeji si to ukončit.“ Architect stood and walked Architekt vstal, přešel Architekt vstal, přešel

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to the edge of the cavern, and k okraji jeskyně a díval se do k okraji jeskyně a díval se do stared out into it with eyes ní očima, o kterých si byl ní očima, o kterých si byl that Bregan was sure could Bregan jist, že dohlédnou Bregan jist, že dokážou see far better in the dál než ty lidské. vidět ve tmě mnohem lépe darkness than any human. než ty lidské.

The official translation mentions only the aspect that the Architect’s eyes can see further. However, to see far better in darkness means both greater distance and higher quality of objects observed by the eyes. I translated the original text literally to avoid the previously discussed issue.

The creature said it as if this Netvor to řekl, jako by to Netvor to řekl, jako by to should not be alarming in the nebylo ani trochu děsivé, ale nebylo ani trochu děsivé, ale slightest, but the truth was pravdou bylo, že přemýšlení pravdou bylo, že that not thinking about nad tím, co se mu stalo, byl nepřemýšlet nad tím, co se what was happening to him jediný způsob, jak se mu stalo, byl jediný způsob, was the only way he could nezbláznit. jak se nezbláznit. keep from going mad.

Bregan has been transforming into a darkspawn (or something between humanity and darkspawn) for quite some time, and he finds it horrifying. The part of the official Czech translation “že přemýšlení and tím, co se mu stalo” (“thinking about what happened to him”) is missing the negation and entirely contradicts David Gaider’s words.

Was it not the job of the Grey Nebylo povinností Šedých Nebylo povinností Šedých Wardens to seek an end to the strážců najít způsob, jak strážců najít způsob, jak darkspawn threat? And ukončit hrozbu zplozenců? ukončit hrozbu zplozenců? A when had they ever A kdy se vlastně dostane ke kdy se vůbec blížili ke actually been close to splnění tohoto úkolu? splnění tohoto úkolu? succeeding at that goal?

The Architect told Bregan that there might be a way for humans and darkspawn to live together. Bregan thinks about the cooperation with the creature because Grey Wardens never came close

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to ending the Blights. It is not about him getting close to that goal but saying that Grey Wardens failed to prevent the threat in the form of the question.

We need to stand apart Musíme stát při nich, Musíme si držet odstup, i from them, even if they i když se nás budou kdyby nás oni sami museli have to push us away to pokoušet odstrčit. odstrčit stranou abychom make us do it. je ochránili.

Bregan and his Grey Warden mentor Kristoff discuss what it means to be a Grey Warden. They need to keep the distance from ordinary people in order to make hard decisions. The official Czech translation makes sense without context. However, it states “musíme stát při nich”, which is the opposite of what the original text presents. I changed “make us do it” into “abychom je ochránili” to add the context.

At the time Bregan had Časem Bregan přemýšlel – Tehdy Bregan přemýšlel – thought, What hard jaká těžká rozhodnutí? jaká těžká rozhodnutí? decisions?

Young Bregan had no idea about hard decisions. On the other hand, the older one has (presumably) made a lot of them as the Commander of Grey Wardens in Orlais. The original text makes a time reference back to the dialogue between Bregan and Kristoff, not the following years.

Ignoring the idea that he Zapudil myšlenku, že by ho Když pomine fakt, že by byl would be attacked the napadli ve chvíli, kdy by napaden ve chvíli, co by se moment he showed himself vyšel na povrch, jeho kůže ukázal na povrchu s kůží on the surface, his skin as byla stejně poskvrněná poskvrněnou jako u corrupted as any mad jako u šílených ghúlů, každého šíleného ghúla, ghoul’s, it occurred to him napadlo ho, že možná právě napadlo ho, že emisarovy that perhaps there was to by se hodilo do plány možná mají něco do actually something to the emisarových plánů. sebe. emissary’s plan.

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Bregan did not get rid of the thought (and made it invalid) that he would be attacked the moment he showed on the surface. He certainly would be in any case. He was no longer a human. In isolation, it might be true that it is good news for the Architect that Bregan has nowhere to go now. In the original text, Bregan starts to think that the darkspawn’s plan has some merit because it is the only option left.

“This thing you have „Ta věc, kterou plánuješ,“ „Ta věc, kterou plánuješ,“ planned,” he began slowly. začal pomalu. začal pomalu.

“Yes?” „Ano?“ „Ano?“

“You aren’t just unleashing „Ty to nechceš jen tak „Neplánuješ jen tak něco something on humanity? rozšířit mezi lidi? Tvrdil jsi, vypustit na lidstvo? Tvrdil You said that the darkspawn že i zplozenci se s námi musí jsi, že i zplozenci se s námi needed to meet in the middle setkat napůl cesty, že ano? musí setkat napůl cesty, že as well, yes? You must have Musíš mít nějaký plán i pro ano? Musíš mít nějaký plán a plan for them, too.” ně.“ i pro ně.“

The Architect slowly gets to the core of his plan. Bregan asks The Architect if the plan also includes his darkspawn brethren, not only the sacrifice on human part. In the official translation, Bregan sounds surprised that he does not want to unleash that “something” on humanity, thus missing the point of the question (if he does not plan to get rid of the humanity and darkspawn are left untouched).

Julien fingered the hilt of Julien se požehnal. Julien nervózně poklepal his greatsword nervously. jílec svého obouručního

meče.

Julien definitely did not cross himself, even though he starts praying to the Maker. The issue lies in the fact that it is a Christian custom, and it has no place in the Dragon Age world. The original meaning is that he nervously tapped on the hilt of his greatsword (“nervózně poklepal jílec svého obouručního meče”).

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“There may be a way. . . ,” „Možná je cesta…“ začala „Možná je tu způsob…“ Genevieve began nejistě Genevieve, ale pak se začala nejistě Genevieve, ale uncertainly, but then paused. odmlčela. pak se odmlčela.

I assume that Genevieve is supposed to tell us (the readers) that there is a way they can use to escape. “Možná je cesta…” does not indicate that a road/way exists but that a road is crumbled or blocked (or something similar).

She grabbed the genlock’s Chytila zplozencův Chytila zplozencův crude metal pauldrons and primitivní železný primitivní železný vaulted over its head, not nárameník, přehoupla se mu nárameník, přehoupla se mu letting go, and when she přes hlavu, nepustila se a po přes hlavu, nepustila se a po landed on the other side she dopadu na druhé straně dopadu na druhé straně used the inertia to throw the využila setrvačnosti, aby využila setrvačnosti, aby creature over her and into stvůru přehodila přes hlavu stvůru přehodila přes hlavu three more not several feet a odhodila mezi další o tři a odhodila mezi další tři o away. stopy dál. několik stop dál.

The important detail here is that Utha threw a darkspawn into three others, who then fell on the floor. The official Czech translation “odhodila mezi další o tři stopy dál” mentions that she threw one into others who were standing exactly three feet away, which is not the case.

The second attacker didn’t Druhý útočník si osudu Druhý útočník si ztráty notice the loss of its svého druha nevšiml nebo svého druha nevšiml, a ani companion, or even slow. jen nemínil zpomalit. nezpomalil.

The official translation turned this situation into “either/or” situation. However, I think that the point of the original text is to imply that a darkspawn neither spotted the death of his comrade nor slowed down, it just continued to attack the company.

He managed to hold on to Pokoušel se udržet meč, ale Dokázal udržet svůj meč, his longsword, but even then i tak si jen taktak neuseknul ale i tak si s ním jen taktak he only barely kept it from vlastní hlavu. neuseknul vlastní hlavu. cutting his own head off.

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“Pokoušel se udržet meč” might imply that Maric actually failed to do so. In reality, while he almost killed himself, the longsword remained in his hands.

Canticle of Silence 3:6, Chvalozpěv ticha 3:6, Chvalozpěv ticha 3:6, Dissonant Verse původní verze nesouladý verš

Dissonant Verses were crossed out from the canonical Chant of Light. “Původní verze” suggests that they were replaced, not completely left out. I propose to call it “nesouladý verš” (it is deemed unfit to stay in the Chant of Light because of the Chantry’s propaganda).

Was it trying to brush him To se ho snaží smést? Třetí To se ho snaží smést? Třetí off? A third one seemed like stalaktit vypadal, že by to stalaktik vypadal, jako že it was about to successfully mohlo hrozit, a tak se by se mu to mohlo úspěšně do so, and he strained hard prudce naklonil na dračím povést, a s velkou námahou to pull himself up onto the krku, aby mu uhnul. se vyškrábal na drakův krk dragon’s neck and out of a mimo kolizní kurz. the way.

The part “že by to mohlo hrozit” lacks connection to other parts. Furthermore, Duncan pulled himself up onto the dragon’s neck while he was holding onto his daggers in the creature’s neck, Duncan was not sitting on the dragon at the moment.

“It’s just moss,” she said. „Je to jen mech,“ řekla. „Je to jen mech,“ řekla. “No, I mean it’s not „Ne, já tím myslel, že není „Ne, já tím myslel, že není corrupted. Do you notice zkažený. Všimla sis, jak zkažený. Všimla sis, jak there’s very little evidence of málo stop po zplozencích málo stop po zplozencích the darkspawn around here? kolem je? Od chvíle, kdy kolem je? Od chvíle, kdy Ever since we left the Deep jsme opustili Hluboké cesty. jsme opustili Hluboké cesty. Roads. „Asi sem moc často nechodí. „Asi sem moc často nechodí. “They probably don’t come Kvůli drakovi.“ Kvůli drakovi.“ this way often, thanks to the dragon.” „Ale není to jejich potřeba? „Potřebují vůbec? Myslel Myslím tím to, jak všude jsem si, že nákaza se šíří šíří nákazu.“ všude.“

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“Do they need to? The corruption spreads everywhere, I thought.“

Maric wonders whether darkspawn need to be present for the corruption to spread or not. He thought that it was spreading without their aid, spontaneously. I am not aware of any other darkspawn needs except looking for the Old Gods, but I might be mistaken.

“I didn’t have a very „Mě příliš zbožně „Mě příliš zbožně religious upbringing,” she nevychovávali,“ odpověděla nevychovávali,“ odpověděla responded wryly. Which ironicky. Bylo to jen ironicky. To bylo slabé was an understatement, but nedorozumění, ale jak by on slovo, ale jak by on mohl how could he know what it mohl věděl, jak se žije věděl, jak se žije v odluce? was like in the alienages? v odluce? Tam žádné kaple Tam žádné kaple nebyly, There were no chantries nebyly, a když kněží přišli, a když kněží přišli, tak there, and when the priests tak s almužnami s almužnami a s laskavými came it was with alms and a s laskavými radami pro radami pro ubohé elfy many words of benevolent ubohé elfy a spoustou slov a spoustou slov o jejich advice for the poor elves and o jejich ztrátě… a spoustou ztracených a zvrácených their lost, wicked ways . . . ostražitých templářů, kteří způsobech… a spoustou and a large number of wary kněze hlídali, aby nepřišli ostražitých templářů, kteří templars to guard the priests k žádné újmě. kněze hlídali, aby nepřišli from harm. k žádné újmě.

The official translation states that Fiona having little religious upbringing is a misunderstanding. I am afraid that the original text points out that elves get almost no religious education, but Maric did not know that and just learned it. The second highlighted part does not speak about what elves lost. Generally, the Chantry (and humans overall) does not care about things elves lost (they have taken their homeland, lives, and dignity). The Chantry desires to convert all elves to Andraste’s teachings to control them.

“Whatever I may think of „Ať už si o vás myslím „Ať už si o vás myslím you, King Maric, I don’t cokoliv, králi Mariku, cokoliv, králi Mariku, want you to die. I did have to nechci, abyste zemřel. nechci, abyste zemřel.

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do it, and there’s no need to Musela jsem to udělat a není Musela jsem to udělat a není thank me.” nutné mi za to děkovat.“ nutné mi za to děkovat.“

“No, there is.” „Ne, je.“ „Ale ano, je.“

The reply in the official translation does not make sense. The answer should either be “Ne, není.” or “Ano, je.”. In other words, both words need to be positive or negative. Fiona states that it was her duty to save his life. She does not want his thanks, so Maric’s answer has to contradict that. I added “ale” to put the emphasis on the contradiction.

What was a debt to an elf, Čím byl slib elfce, Co pro takového muže or a mage, to such a man? kouzelnici, od muže jako znamenal dluh vůči elfce či on? kouzelnici?

The official translation shifts the focus on what the promise means to Fiona rather than the debt to the King of Ferelden (Maric). Fiona thinks that Maric can ignore his words far too easily and not repay his debt due to the power imbalance, so the whole question needed a lot of changes.

With any luck he would S trochou štěstí na celou S trochou štěstí na celou simply forget the matter. In záležitost prostě zapomene. záležitost prostě zapomene. fact, that’s what would Vlastně se to možná už dělo. S největší most likely happen. pravděpodobností to tak

dopadne.

Fiona hopes that Maric forgets his debt. Then she thinks about it further and comes to the conclusion that it is the most probable outcome anyway. In the official translation, Fiona says that Maric probably start to forget the matter already, but he just told her, so I find this quite unlikely to be the case.

He stared at the lad with Chápavě se na mladíka Soucitně zíral na mladíka, compassion, maybe even díval, možná možná i s porozuměním, with understanding, but he i s porozuměním, ale ale neřekl ani slovo. remained silent. zůstával potichu.

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Maric shows compassion and tries to understand how Duncan, who does not experience the best moments of his life at the moment, currently feels. The official Czech translation states the same thing twice (“chápavě se na mladíka díval" and “možná i s porozuměním”). The solution should have been to completely remove either first or second part. Alternatively, it could have been replaced by the translation of the original text (in my version “soucitně zíral na mladíka”).

“The Wardens have the Right „Strážci mají Právo odvodu,“ „Strážci mají Právo odvodu,“ of Conscription,” Fiona vysvětlila Fiona. vysvětlila Fiona. explained. … … … Když tě řád chtěl, byl jsi Když tě řád chce, jsi If the order wants you, zrekrutován. zrekrutován. you’re recruited.

There is one small detail changed in the official Czech translation. The sentence “Když tě řád chtěl, byl jsi zrekrutován.” is in the past tense, which might imply that Grey Wardens cannot freely recruit new members, or they are not bringing any “fresh blood” into the order, and that is wrong lore-wise. For example, Grey Wardens recruited Duncan and Fiona half a year and a year ago, respectively. Hence the tense shift into the present.

“What is he doing here with „Co tady s námi dělá?“ trval „Co tady s námi dělá?“ trval us?” he insisted. “He’s some na svém. „Je to jen pouliční na svém. „Je to jen pouliční gutter rat you picked up in krysa, kterou jsi sebrala ve krysa, kterou jsi sebrala ve Val Royeaux. A murderer! A Val Royeaux. Vrah! Zloděj! Val Royeaux. Vrah! Zloděj! thief! He doesn’t belong in Do řádu nepatří.“ Do řádu nepatří.“ the order. „Řekla jsem, že patří,“ „Řekla jsem, že patří,“ “I say he does,” she seethed. zasyčela. zasyčela

“His presence demeans us „Jeho přítomnost nás „Všechny nás ponižuje all!“ ohrožuje všechny!“ svou přítomností!“

Nicolas is in the heated argument with Genevieve and says that someone like Duncan does not deserve to be in the order like Grey Wardens and that his presence lessens them all. He considers Duncan to be an embarrassment to the order. In the official translation, however, he claims that “His presence threatens us all!” which is not quite right. I would personally give some credit to

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the official translation because it makes some sense – after all, he ran away and proved to be unreliable to a certain degree. Despite the previous sentence, I follow what is written in the original text.

In the face of the darkspawn Tváří v tvář hrozbě Tváří v tvář hrozbě threat, mutiny was normally zplozenců by vzpoura zplozenců, vzpoura běžně not an option. nebyla řešením. nebyla k mání.

I must give some credit to the official translation. I agree that mutiny would hardly be the solution when you would try to escape the horde of dangerous creatures. However, the original text most likely points out that, in normal circumstances, mutiny almost never happens, and that it is extremely rare when it does (because why would anyone try to get rid of the leadership when darkspawn tries to kill them). I took a bit of liberty and did not translate the sentence literally.

Maybe there was no way Možná teď nebyl způsob, jak Možná teď nebyl způsob, jak back now, and would have se vrátit zpět, i kdyby se Kell se vrátit zpět, i kdyby Kell been no way back even if zorientoval. prosadil svou. Kell had gotten his way.

I suspect that the idiom in the original text was not recognized, and that is what led to the incorrect translation. Kell is a very skilled hunter (and he is not the only one who could potentially remember the way back), so he could identify the route back by checking the tracks. However, the impossibility lies in the fact that they were too deep and would most likely be unable to fight through the darkspawn horde. The segment is about Kell winning the argument and taking the leadership from Genevieve (“i kdyby Kell prosadil svou”).

With passion’d breath S dychtivým dechem se S dychtivým dechem se does the darkness creep. zplozenec plíží. temnota plíží.

It is the whisper in the Je šepotem v noci, co Je šepotem v noci, lží tížící night, the lie upon your spánek tvůj tíží. tvůj spánek. sleep.

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Instead of the word darkness (“temnota”), the official translation exchanges it for darkspawn (“zplozenec”). The second part misses the word lie (perhaps it was overlooked during the process of translation).

He stood up slowly, Pomalu vstal a zamrkal, Pomalu vstal a zašklebil se, wincing at the aches he felt když ho rozbolelo celé tělo. když ho rozbolelo celé tělo. throughout his body.

In my opinion, Jakub Mařík might have confused the word “wincing” for “winking”. It is a very unusual detail to incorporate at that moment because I do not see any correlation between feeling aches throughout the body and winking. I worked with the version that Bregan made grimaces to express his pain (“zašklebil se”) instead of winking.

It was a strange, insistent Bylo to zvláštní, neustálé Bylo to zvláštní, neustálé scratching. cvakání. škrábání.

The reader finds out shortly after that the sounds are made by a quill used by the Architect. The Czech word “Cvakání”, while not that far off, has a different meaning – something makes a clicking sound. The more suitable equivalent for scratching (for example with nails or fangs) is “škrábání”.

Curiosity slowly overcame Zvědavost pomalu zesílila Zvědavost pomalu his apprehension. v obavy. překonala obavy.

Bregan tells us that he slowly (but surely) overcame his fear and hesitation to follow the scratching sound, not that his curiosity rose to such a level that he was worried/afraid (“zvědavost pomalu zesílila v obavy”) to investigate the source of the sound.

It should have bothered Mělo by ho to znepokojovat Představa o vyvolání him more, the idea of víc, ta představa, že vyvolá genocidy takového rozsahu initiating such genocide on genocidu takového by ho měla znepokojovat such a scale. rozsahu. víc.

The Architect presents his plan to Bregan – he wants to taint all humanity. During the process, many will die, and others will turn into Grey Wardens. However, Bregan is not as bothered as

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he should be by the atrocious thought. The official Czech translation states that he will start the humanity genocide himself. However, that is not quite right, as shown in the segment below. I swapped the order of the sentences in my translation to introduce the idea first to avoid unnecessary pronouns.

“So you need my help. To „Tak ty potřebuješ moji „Tak ty potřebuješ moji bring about this change in pomoc. K rozšíření této pomoc. K rozšíření této humanity.” změny mezi lidmi.“ změny mezi lidmi.“

The Architect spread its Architekt rozhodil rukama. Architekt rozhodil rukama. hands. “Not at all.” „Ne tak docela.“ „Vůbec ne.“

Bregan assumes that the Architect needs his help to spread the taint among humanity, but the Architect strictly tells him that his help in that matter is not necessary (that specific part of the plan does not include Bregan at all). The Architect needs Bregan to learn the locations of the remaining Old Gods to slay them (with Bregan’s help). The Architect states he absolutely does not need Bregan’s help to taint humanity, however, the official Czech translation supplies “not entirely” and I think that leaves the unnecessary ambiguity in the text when David Gaider had explicitly written “not at all”.

“I knew that one day you „Věděl jsem, že ten den „Věděl jsem, že se jednoho would come.” Now the jednou nadejde.“ dne ukážeš.“ Zplozencův darkspawn’s fervor returned, Zplozencův zápal se vrátil, zápal se vrátil, teď Bregana and it stared at Bregan teď Bregana probodával probodával mléčnýma intensely with its milky eyes. mléčnýma očima. „A když jsi očima. „A když jsi přišel, “And I knew that when you přišel, věděl jsem, že tě sem věděl jsem, že tě sem dokážu came, I would be able to dokážu přivést a že uvidíš přivést a že uvidíš pravdu, bring you here, and that you pravdu, která před námi která před námi leží.“ would see the true purpose leží.“ „Věděl jsi to?“ that lies before us.” „Věděl jsi to?“ „Měl jsem vizi.“ “You knew it?” „Měl jsem vizi.“ “I had a vision.”

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Unfortunately, the official translation does not provide any context for “ten den” (the day) the Architect speaks about. He does not state that he knew the specific day Bregan would show up. In the original text, the Architect tells Bregan that he had a vision, so he knew that Bregan is going to come to the Deep Roads one day. It is not necessarily a huge issue, but it might confuse some readers because the first line is a bit isolated in meaning.

He knew of the Fade, and Věděl o Závoji a co Věděl o Úniku a co znamená what it meant to walk its znamená chodit po jeho chodit po jeho cestách. roads. cestách.

There is no way that Bregan could walk on the roads of the Veil (“Závoj”). The Veil is an invisible, magical barrier which divides the real world and the waking one. Hence it is impossible to do such thing as traverse the Veil for anyone, because it is not a place. The Fade is a place where ordinary people are dreaming at the night and the source of Mage’s powers. These mistakes that are somehow left in the translation might confuse the readers, so it is important to double check.

Utha stopped as soon as they Jakmile opustili jeskyni, Jakmile opustili jeskyni, left the cavern, kneeling and Utha se zastavila, poklekla a Utha se zastavila, poklekla a putting her hand to the položila dlaň na zem. Už to položila dlaň na zem. Už to ground. She had done this udělala několikrát, zavírala udělala několikrát, zavírala several times already, closing oči, jako by mohla cítit něco, oči, jako by mohla cítit něco, her eyes as if she could feel co ostatní ne. Kamenný co ostatní ne. Kamenný something within the stone smysl trpaslíků, myslel si smysl trpaslíků, domníval that none of the others could. Marik, i když už uplynulo se Marik, i když ho nikdy Dwarven stone-sense, mnoho let od doby, kdy nikoho neviděl použít. Maric suspected, though he jeho použití viděl naposled.

had never actually seen anyone use it before.

There are heavy changes that occur in the official translation. Maric tells us that he only speculates (“domníval se”) what it could possibly be that Utha is doing, but he has never seen anyone perform it. Two last sentences (“i když už uplynulo mnoho let od doby, kdy jeho využití viděl naposled”) does not correspond at all with the original text, so I presume that Jakub Mařík

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took a lot of liberty in translation. In conclusion, that last part explicitly claims that he had seen the stone-sense many years before, which is quite a big difference compared to the original text. Nevertheless, I must give some credit to this – eleven years ago, Maric traveled with the company of dwarves called Legion of the Dead in the Deep Roads. There, he could potentially encounter stone-sense in action. As previously stated several times, I consider David Gaider’s version to be the one to trust.

“We all make mistakes, „Všichni děláme chyby, „Všichni děláme chyby, Duncan. Some of them are Duncane. Některé nás Duncane. Některé budou going to cost others dearly. můžou stát naše milované. stát ostatní pěkně draho. What’s important is that your Důležité je, že tvé úmysly Důležité je, že tvé úmysly intentions were good, and byly čisté a že jsi se poučil byly čisté a že jsi se poučil that you learn from what z toho, co jsi udělal.“ z toho, co jsi udělal.“ you’ve done.”

I suspect that the official translation tries to make the situation about the Duncan’s actions that led to Julien’s death. However, Maric speaks generally about the consequences of mistakes and indirectly points out his own from the past (for example, killing his love interest Katriel in a fit of anger).

They trudged through Plahočili se úseky, které byly Plahočili se úseky, které byly portions that were flooded zaplavené mělkou brakickou zaplavené mělkou brakickou with shallow, brackish water vodou, a dalšími, co byly tak vodou, a dalšími, co byly tak and others that were so thick zanesené nákazou, že si zanesené nákazou, že si with the corruption they černým povlakem museli černým povlakem museli needed to cut a path through cestu prosekat. Na to se cestu prosekat. Na to se the black film. Maric’s sword obzvlášť hodil Marikův meč, obzvlášť hodil Marikův meč, was particularly suited for runy na něm jasně zářily, runy na něm jasně zářily, this, its runes glowing když zkaženost před nimi když před sebou donutil brightly as he forced the sekal na kusy. zkaženost ustoupit. foulness to part before him.

One of the Maric’s dragonbone sword properties is that the corruption retreats and shrinks before the light of the runes. The official translation mentions the similar thing twice: “si

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černým povlakem museli cestu prosekat” (they needed to cut through the black film) and then similarly with “když zkaženost před nimi sekal na kusy” (when he cut the foulness into pieces). I rather incorporated the aspect of the foulness retreating before the glow (“když před sebou donutil zkaženost ustoupit”).

Canticle of Erudition 2:1 Chvalozpěv učenců 2:1 Chvalozpěv učenosti 2:1

Erudition is a trait you associate with a knowledgeable person who has studied a lot, whose Czech equivalent is “učenost”. The word “Učenci” in the official translation describes learned people (scholars).

Fiona’s spell had done the Fionino kouzlo odvedlo Fionino kouzlo odvedlo trick, and the ointment had svou práci a mast měla svou práci a mast zmírnila managed to relieve much zmírnit bolest, která mu od bolest, která mu od bitvy of the ache that had been bitvy otravovala tělo. otravovala tělo. plaguing him since the

battle.

The official translation states that the ointment was supposed to help with the pain, or it is only about to relieve it. However, in the original text, the pain does not bother Duncan anymore, and he feels much better than before. A tense change into past simple does the trick.

She made several gestures, Udělal několik gest, většině Udělala několik gest, most of which Duncan z nich Duncan nerozuměl. většině z nich Duncan couldn’t understand. nerozuměl.

The segment says that Duncan did not know the meaning of the gestures Utha (the dwarven woman and Silent Sister) made. Even though it might be only a typing error in the official translation, it still needs to be addressed and fixed because the error could cause misunderstanding.

“There is a trail,” Kell „Jsou tu stopy,“ upozornil ho „Jsou tu stopy,“ upozornil ho commented from nearby. Kell. Kell.

“But it is his?” „Ale jsou jeho?“ „Ale jsou jeho?“

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The hunter looked at Maric Lovec se na Marika podíval Lovec se na Marika podíval with his pale eyes and said bledýma očina, nic neřekl, bledýma očina, nic neřekl, nothing, the answer in them ale jeho odpověď byla jasná ale jeho odpověď byla jasná clear: He didn’t know. – nevěděl to. Genevieve je – nevěděl to. To ovšem Genevieve was not letting ale nenechala zastavit. Genevieve nezastavilo. that stop her, however.

Genevieve (for the reasons reveal later) tries to speed up and find her brother as soon as possible. She does not care whether the tracks were Bregan’s or someone else’s. Genevieve goes forward without taking into consideration Kell’s opinion. The point is that she completely ignores him. Perhaps she did not let them stop/rest, but that is Jakub Mařík’s interpretation, not mine.

WHEN THE DWARVEN KDYŽ MĚ TRPASLIČÍ KDYŽ MĚ TRPASLIČÍ PRINCE CALLED TO ME, PRINC ZAVOLAL, SLÍBIL PRINC PŘIVOLAL, I GRANTED WHAT HE MI VŠE, PO ČEM POSKYTNUL JSEM MU DESIRED. AND I HAVE TOUŽÍM, A JÁ ČEKAL TO, PO ČEM TOUŽIL. A WAITED IN THE V TEMNOTÁCH NA TU, JÁ ČEKAL DARKNESS FOR ONE TO CO MĚ VEZME ZPÁTKY V TEMNOTÁCH NA TU, TAKE ME BACK INTO NA SVĚTLO. A TY JSI CO MĚ VEZME ZPÁTKY THE LIGHT, AND YOU PŘIŠLA. NA SVĚTLO. A TY JSI HAVE COME. PŘIŠLA.

This part is told by a very powerful desire demon (extremely dangerous and cunning), currently in possession of a skeleton. A dwarven prince accepted the offer of this particular desire demon that granted his wishes. Unfortunately, the official translation has mixed it up a bit. Firstly, a dwarven prince did not provide him everything because the demon is waiting for a mage to possess and leave after centuries of inactivity. Secondly, their roles of granting anything are swapped. Furthermore, I exchanged the word “zavolal” (called) for “přivolal” (summoned), it might imply that he shouted at him or he phoned him, which does not fit in the text.

The mahogany vanity that Zdi dominoval Zdi dominovala had been a gift from the mahagonový psací stůl, dar mahagonová skříňka, dar Antivan royal family od antivanské královské od antivanské královské

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dominated the wall. His rodiny. Na desce ležely rodiny. Na nočním stolku grandfather’s dwarven-made trpaslíky vyrobené brýle jeho ležely trpaslíky vyrobené spectacles sat on the small dědečka, velmi draze brýle jeho dědečka, velmi desk, retrieved at great pořízené od jednoho draze pořízené od jednoho expense from an Orlesian orlesiánského šlechtice orlesiánského šlechtice nobleman in Nevarra, and z Navarry, a vedle tlustý z Navarry, a vedle tlustý next to them was the svazek o králi Calenhadovi, svazek o králi Calenhadovi, cumbersome tome on King kterým se poslední rok kterým se poslední rok Calenhad that he had been pomalu prokousával. pomalu prokousával. slowly making his way through for the last year.

Firstly, a vanity describes a wooden cabinet with a mirror above it. It is a piece of luxury furniture and a gift from the royal family. A mahogany table (while being a quite valuable possession) is not exactly a gift to amaze someone in such high circles. I might be wrong, to be fair. Secondly, there is little reason to have a piece of wood (“deska”) to keep things on them. If I could speculate, I would say that this is a mistake caused by translating the original text too literally. The small desk most likely represents a bedside table, judged by the spectacles. That is the main reason why I use it in my translation (“noční stolek”).

Everything had a strangely Všechno nepřirozeně zářilo, Všechno nepřirozeně zářilo, unnatural sheen, the corner of vše na okrajích jeho výhledu vše na okrajích jeho výhledu his vision fuzzing as if none bylo rozmazané, jako by se bylo rozmazané, jako by nic of this were distinct enough to nacházelo příliš daleko, z toho nebylo dostatečně to be real. aby to bylo skutečné. zřetelné na to, aby to bylo skutečné.

Maric is experiencing the Fade out of his dream and out of the borders of the demon’s illusion. It truly has a dream-like quality, and everything seems a bit transparent and unreal. With the explanation provided above, I am a bit confused by the official Czech translation “jako by se to nacházelo příliš daleko” (as if it was too far) because the fuzziness has nothing to do with the distance.

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“From Highever, in fact. My „Z Hornoživ. Můj syn si to „Z Hornoživ. Mému synovi son still misses it a great sotva pamatuje, ale já se stále nesmírně stýská, deal, as do I.“ nikdy nezapomenu.“ stejně jako mně.“

The official translation provides its own changed version that diverges from the original text. “Můj syn si to sotva pamatuje, ale já nikdy nezapomenu.” implies that Duncan was too young to remember Highever. In fact, they both miss Highever a lot every day. My goal was to incorporate “a great deal” found in the original text as well. I came up with “nesmírně stýská”, which portrays the fact that they miss their hometown immensely.

The lad frowned and Mladík se zamračil a Mladík se zamračil a followed his gaze, turning to sledoval, kam se dívá, a když sledoval, kam se dívá, a když sport her with a degree of se otočil a uviděl ji, dost ho to se otočil a uviděl ji, dost ho to surprise. He backed away překvapilo. Opatrně ustoupil, překvapilo. Opatrně ustoupil, warily, going for his daggers, natáhl se po dýkách, ale ona natáhl se po dýkách, ale ona but she held a hand to show zvedla ruce, aby mu ukázala, zvedla ruce, aby mu ukázala, she was unarmed. “A little že je neozbrojená. „Nový že je neozbrojená. „Trochu young, aren’t you?” she Loghain, mám pravdu?“ mladý, ne?“ zeptala se asked with a slight grin. zeptala se s lehkým s lehkým úšklebkem. Duncan turned and looked úšklebkem. Duncan se otočil Duncan se otočil a nevěřícně incredulously at Maric. a nevěřícně se na Marika se na Marika podíval. podíval.

I do not have the faintest idea how the sentence “Nový Loghain, mám pravdu?” appeared in the official translation. First of all, it is incredibly insulting to Duncan (in my opinion, because Katriel hated Loghain). Secondly, Katriel does not know Duncan at all, so drawing any conclusion on her part is silly. I could speculate a bit: when Duncan went for his daggers, he was ready to get rid of her just like Loghain did in the past. In fact, Katriel simply points out Duncan’s age. However, there might be more to the question than it seems. Is she mocking Duncan’s age or Maric’s choice of friends? Is she just genuinely surprised by Duncan’s age? The only way to know for sure is to ask David Gaider himself.

She smiled at Duncan, but Usmála se na Duncana, když Usmála se na Duncana, když seeing his stunned expression si však všimla jeho si však všimla jeho

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and his gaping mouth, she zaraženého výrazu a zaraženého výrazu a looked quizzically at her otevřených úst, tázavě se otevřených úst, tázavě se husband. “Is something podívala na svého muže. podívala na svého muže. amiss?” she asked him. „Propásla jsem něco?“ „Něco v nepořádku?“ zeptala se ho. zeptala se ho.

In vacuum, “propásla jsem něco?” (Did I miss anything?) is not an issue. However, the previous sentence tells us that Duncan looked shocked when he spotted her, so Genevieve assumed that something might be wrong, and thanks to that, I changed my version accordingly (“něco v nepořádku?”).

Genevieve stared at Duncan Genevieve se s hrůzou Genevieve se s hrůzou with dread. He felt podívala na Duncana. Ten se podívala na Duncana. Ten se immeasurably better now cítil mnohem lépe, když Guy cítil mnohem lépe, když Guy that Guy was gone, but he odešel, ale i tak nevěděl, co odešel, ale i tak nevěděl, co didn’t know what to say. říct. „Vy to nevíte, že ne?“ říct. „Ty nic netušíš, že ne?“ “You don’t know, do you?” zeptal se jí, zoufale doufal, že zeptal se jí, zoufale doufal, že he asked, hoping beyond se mýlí. se mýlí. hope that he was wrong.

Duncan and Genevieve are on a first-name basis throughout the whole book, so it is very improbable that Duncan suddenly uses the polite form of address. It is only a little detail, but I like consistency (most of the time), so it had to occur in the thesis.

“I wish I could ask you to „Kéž bych tě mohl požádat o „Kéž bych tě mohl požádat o forgive me.” odpuštění.“ odpuštění.“

She reached up and tenderly Něžně ho pohladila po Něžně ho pohladila po brushed aside his hair with a vlasech a smutně se usmála. vlasech a smutně se usmála. sad smile. “Forgive „Odpusť sám sobě,“ řekla. „Odpusť sám sobě,“ řekla. yourself,” she said. “And „A odpusť mně.“ Pak se „A zapomeň na mě.“ Pak se forget me.” Then she turned otočila a odešla. otočila a odešla. around and walked away.

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Maric feels embarrassed to even mention forgiveness. We could speculate that Katriel forgave him, based on her reaction. Katriel tells Maric that he finally needs to forgive himself and he should forget her (he obviously does not wish to stay with her in the Fade). In the official translation, there is “a odpusť mně” (forgive me), which is not only grammatically incorrect but also contradicts the original text.

They traveled for a long time. Putovali dlouho. Nebyla si Putovali dlouho. Nebyla si She wasn’t even certain just ani jistá jak dlouho ani jistá jak dlouho. how long, and kept her mind a soustředila se na udržování Soustředila se na udržování focused on maintaining the světla své hole, aby světla své hole a na light from her staff and dosahovalo stopu před pokládání jedné nohy před putting one foot in front of ostatní. druhou. the other.

The original text speaks about Fiona being barely able to walk. She needs to intensively focus on making every single step (I translated it literally, there were no changes necessary) and keeping the lights on. However, the official translation entirely omits the former part. I would love to give Jakub Mařík’s version some credit, but if Fiona is their source of light, she most likely goes first. There is no reason for her to unnecessarily drain her mana to create a huge light.

“Maker take your „O obezřetnost ať se „Ať se Stvořitel udáví tvou caution!” she snapped postará Stvořitel,“ odsekla obezřetností!“ odsekla angrily. rozčileně. rozčileně.

The official translation did not portray Genevieve’s anger properly. I admit it is only my own opinion. However, she was almost raging and then started hitting people. Genevieve sounded too calm for the person who was ready to beat up her companions in the blink of an eye. I experimented a bit in my translation: the Maker should eat up all of Kell’s caution (I used a little bit exacerbated version and colorful language).

A stain was visible all along Na celém předloktí byla Na celém předloktí byla his forearm, much smaller patrná vyrážka, i když patrná skvrna, i když mnohem menší než ta mnohem menší než ta

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than Genevieve’s but still Genevievina, ale i tak hodně Genevievina, ale i tak hodně prominent. velká. velká.

The stain (“skvrna”) is the darkspawn taint. It certainly is not a random, ordinary rash (“vyrážka”). Generally, a rash is found only on someone’s skin. The taint infects the body from the inside until it finally overwhelms the entire body and turns everyone into a ghoul or Grey Warden.

There was no stopping now, Ono to ale nekončilo. Teď už však nebylo cesty however. nazpět.

Genevieve went too far to give up and turn back (the taint rapidly spreading throughout her body did not help either). I must admit that I appreciate the “meta” comment in the official translation: it was not over (“ono to ale nekončilo”). Unfortunately, I had to replace it. I could not translate original word by word, so I was looking for the closest equivalent. I came up with the following translation: there was no turning back now (“teď už však nebylo cesty nazpět”).

Her balance wavered, but by Vrávorala, ale čistě silou vůle Vrávorala, ale čistě silou vůle pure force of concentration se nutila pokládat nohu před se nutila pokládat nohu před she made herself place one nohu. Už jsem zašla daleko, nohu. Dostala jsem se až foot in front of the other. I pomyslela si. Teď toho sem, pomyslela si. Nebude have come this far, she nenechám. Zastavím mi to odepřeno. Zastavím thought. I will not be denied Nákazu. Nákazu. now. I will stop the Blight.

Genevieve reached her destination and was mentally preparing herself to slay her brother to stop the Blight from occurring. She means she got too far to turn back now, not that she went too far (by doing something terrible, for example). The second highlighted part makes sense, but it diverges from the original text. Genevieve says that nothing is going stop her on the way to stop the Blight.

Almost without warning, she Téměř bez varování vycítila Téměř bez varování vycítila received a sense of blížícího se zplozence. blížící se zplozence. Pevněji darkspawn approaching.

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She tightened her grip on her Pevněji sevřela meč a čekala. sevřela meč a čekala. Proč je greatsword and waited. Why Proč si ho nevšimla dřív? nevycítila dřív? hadn’t she detected them sooner?

The official translation explicitly states that Genevieve detected only one darkspawn. I am not aware of the fact that Grey Warden would be so precise, but I cannot definitely eliminate the possibility. However, the other part in the bold text mentions them, and I think that is a decisive factor to assume that Genevieve did not know the exact number. Furthermore, Genevieve was wondering why she was not able to detect darkspawn sooner, not that she was not able to see them (for the context, Genevieve was traveling in complete darkness, she would not be able to spot anything further than several meters at best).

They raced ahead down the Hnali se novou chodbou, ze Hnali se novou chodbou, ze new passage, evidence of špíny zplozenců vyčnívaly špíny zplozenců vyčnívaly rubble appearing amid the kousky sutin. Skalnaté stěny kousky sutin. Skalnaté stěny darkspawn filth. Ancient tu lemovaly prastaré sochy, tu lemovaly prastaré sochy, statues lined the rocky walls většinou tak poškozené většinou tak poškozené here, most of them so a pokryté houbami, že je a pokryté černotou, že je crumbled and covered in sotva rozeznali. sotva rozeznali. blackness that they could … … barely be recognized as such. Běželi, trhaně dýchali kvůli Běželi, trhaně dýchali kvůli … vyčerpání a panice. Marik vyčerpání a panice. Marik They ran, breathing hard zakopl o neviditelný kámen zakopl o nerovnou zem from exertion and panic. na cestě a Utha se k němu a Utha se k němu vrhla Maric stumbled on a patch vrhla a podepřela ho, než a podepřela ho, než mohl of uneven rock and Utha mohl spadnout. spadnout. darted in to steady him before he fell.

In the official translation, the surroundings are covered by mushrooms (“houbami”). This causes a huge issue: it would suggest that it is not the darkspawn corruption but merely a mold

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or something similar. In the first sentence, David Gaider explicitly states that the remains are covered by the darkspawn filth. Blackness can easily be translated into Czech as “černota”.

Even though the world of Thedas is a magical place, invisible stones have no place in it. The line “Maric tripped over the invisible stone lying on the road” put a smile on my face. In reality, Maric lost balance due to uneven terrain.

The foul stench of burned Odporný zápach spáleného Z odporného zápachu flesh threatened to masa byl nesnesitelný. spáleného masa téměř overwhelm him. omdlel.

I think it is correct to assume that the smell of burned flash might be unbearable (“byl nesnesitelný”). Nevertheless, the original text goes further than that. There might be more than one interpretation, but in my mind, I imagine that Maric almost fainted from the smell. The result roughly translates to “He almost fainted from the foul stench of burned flesh”. I went with my gut during the translation process and interpreted it a little bit more than in other cases.

“That’s too bad,” he „To je moc zlé,“ zamumlal. „To je moc zlé,“ zamumlal. muttered. “I’d hoped we’d „Doufal jsem, že jsme je „Doufal jsem, že jsme je gotten them all.” dostali všechny.“ dostali všechny.“

“There’s no end to them.” „To se nikdy nepodaří.“ „Není jim konce.“ She looked weary, the fight Vypadala unavená, už Vypadala unavená, už all but gone out of her as she nedokázala vzdorovat, když nedokázala vzdorovat, když warched the darkspawn viděla hordu zplozenců, jak viděla hordu zplozenců, jak horde’s inevitable approach. se k nim nezadržitelně blíží. se k nim nezadržitelně blíží. Kell yelled somewhere far Kell v dálce něco zakřičel a Kell někde v dáli zakřičel a off, and Hafter howled in Hafter zavyl bolestí. Hafter zavyl bolestí. pain.

Fiona despairs that there are too many darkspawn to be dealt with, and their numbers are too great. The official translation is correct in the grand scheme of things, to Jakub Mařík’s credit. Nevertheless, exhausted Fiona only adds that they failed to kill all darkspawn (I would say present ones) because there are too many of them. Jakub Mařík shifts the focus to the overall picture (that it is not possible to truly kill all darkspawn in the world).

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The second point might be a bit of a nitpick: the official translation unnecessarily lures the reader to know what Kell yelled because it might be important, but it is never revealed, of course.

Blessed are they who stand Požehnáni budiž ti, kdož Požehnáni jsou ti, kdož before před tebou stojí, stojí před

The corrupt and the Poskrvnění a nakažení, Nakaženými a zvrácenými, wicked and do not falter. přesto však nepodlehli. a nepoleví.

Blessed are the Požehnáni budiž strážci Požehnáni jsou strážci peacekeepers, the míru, strážci spravedlnosti. míru, šampioni champions of the just. spravedlivých.

“Požehnáni budiž ti, kdož před tebou stojí, Poskrvnění a nakažení, přesto však nepodlehli” would imply that corrupted people stand before the Maker himself and do not give up yet. However, the whole segment is about those brave enough to face the corrupted ones (presumably darkspawn) and do not hesitate to take action. Additionally, I decided to exchange “strážci” (guardians) for “šampioni” (champions) to keep my translation closer to the original text.

As evil as it looked, I tak ale vypadal Na to, jak démonicky however, it walked with a démonicky, když klidně vypadal, šel klidně a calmness and sense of self- a sebejistě vešel dovnitř, uvědoměle, což svědčilo o awareness that spoke svědčilo to o jeho jeho inteligenci. volumes of its intelligence. inteligenci.

The official Czech translation has one glaring issue – the construction of the highlighted sentence seems quite unfortunate. There is no link between the last two sentences. The official version then presents the situation that the Architect’s evil look is a sign of his intelligence. The correct way to think about the segment is that even though he looked evil, his behavior suggested that he must be intelligent.

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“If you actually wish to „Chceš s námi mluvit? Tak „Chceš s námi mluvit? Tak speak with us, then free us. mluv. Proč nás tu držíte jako mluv. Proč nás tu držíte jako Why keep us prisoner?” vězně?“ vězně?“

… … …

“Until we’ve had a chance „Bylo to pro vaše dobro. „Dokud vám to to explain, this is for your Potřebovali jsme vám to nevysvětlíme, je to pro own good.” nejdřív vysvětlit.“ vaše vlastní dobro.“

The Architect, Bregan, and now Genevieve kept the rest of the group prisoner as a safety net. They want to convince the remaining Grey Wardens and Maric to join them. They have not managed to tell them the plan, not yet. However, the official translation is in past tense and tells us that the group already knows what is going on, but they do not.

“What if it’s not insane? „Co když to není žádné „Co když to není žádné What if insane is continuing šílenství? Co když je šílenství? Co když je to fight a hopeless battle šílenství pokračovat šílenství pokračovat when we have the chance to v beznadějné bitvě, když v beznadějné bitvě, když do something about it?” máme šanci něco změnit?“ máme šanci něco změnit?“

“Is it hopeless?” „To snad nemáme žádnou „To snad nemáme žádnou naději?“ naději?“ “Sure seems that way,” he snorted. “You ever met a „Určitě to tak vypadá,“ „Vypadá to tak,“ zabručel. Grey Warden who’s happy zabručel. „Už jsi někdy „Potkala jsi někdy Šedého about it? How many more potkala nějakého šťastného strážce, co by s tím byl Blights are we going to fight Šedého strážce? V kolik smířený? V kolik Nákazách before we lose? We could Nákazách ještě musíme ještě budeme bojovat, než stop that!” bojovat, než prohrajeme? prohrajeme? Mohli bychom Můžeme to zastavit!“ to zastavit!“

“Sure” in “Sure seems that way” does not need to be translated at all. “Vypadá to tak” is more than enough for confirmation. The official Czech translation wrongly portrays the issue around the fact that no Grey Warden is happy with the situation around the Blights. Instead, we learn that all Grey Wardens are generally unhappy, which is unlikely. In the last sentence, Duncan

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only speculates whether they can stop the Blights or they cannot. He does not possess such information.

The third time that Duncan Když se Duncan potřetí vrátil Když se Duncan potřetí vrátil came back from one of his z krátké výzvědné mise, z krátké výzvědné mise, brief scouting missions, he mračil se. Marik si všiml mračil se. Marik si všiml was scowling. Maric noticed čerstvé jíchy odkapávající čerstvé jíchy odkapávající fresh ichor dripping from his z jeho dýky. „Odteď je to jen z jeho dýky. „Odteď je to jen dagger. “It will only be a otázka času,“ zaklel. otázka času,“ zaklel. matter of time now,” he „Viděl tě?“ zeptal se ho Kell. „Viděl tě?“ zeptal se ho Kell. groused. „Jistěže ne. Myslíš ale, že si „Jistěže ne. Myslíš ale, že na “Did it see you?” Kell asked nás nevšimnou?“ to nějak nepřijdou? him.

“Of course not. You think they won’t notice anyhow?“

The original text does not say anything specific about darkspawn spotting the group. The question is meant generally – Duncan assumes darkspawn will eventually somehow find out about the death of their brethren. The question in the official translation diverges from the original text, it asks about completely different thing.

“How many are we talking?” „O kolika se bavíme?“ „O kolika se bavíme?“ zeptal Maric asked them. zeptal se jich Marik. se jich Marik.

“A hundred,” Kell „O stovkách,“ odpověděl „O stovce,“ odpověděl Kell. responded. “Maybe more.” Kell. „Možná víc.“ „Možná víc.“

Kell’s guess is around one hundred, perhaps even more. The situation seems dire already: they are a group of five (three people, an elf, and a dog). They cannot fight their way out anyway. Furthermore, I assume that the higher number of darkspawn would be hard to guess accurately. David Gaider tells us only a hundred, and I believe his (written) word.

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As soon as her back Když odhalila záda, všiml si Když odhalila záda, všiml si appeared, he noticed the tell- na nich viditelných známek na nich viditelných známek tale sings of corruption šířící se nákazy. Skvrny byly šířící se nákazy. Skvrny byly spreading. The stains were malé, ale nápadné, malé, ale nápadné, small, but noticeable, and he nepamatoval si, že by tam nepamatoval si, že by tam didn’t remember seeing něco viděl, když se spolu něco viděl, když se spolu anything when they lay minulou noc milovali. minulou noc milovali. together not a night before. Fiona se najednou začala Fiona se najednou začala Fiona began to shake třást, zakryla si oči dlaněmi třást, zakryla si oči dlaněmi suddenly, covering her eyes a rozvzlykala se. „Viděl jsi a rozvzlykala se. „Vidíš with her hands and stifling je?“ zeptala se ztrápeným je?“ zeptala se ztrápeným an exhausted sob. “Do you hlasem. hlasem. see them?” she asked, her „Ano.“ „Ano.“ voice anguished. „Jistěže jsi je viděl. Jak bys „Jistěže je vidíš. Jak bys je “Yes.” je mohl nevidět?“ mohl nevidět?“ “Of course you do. How could you not?”

The official translation shifted the tense from present to past in both highlighted sentences. Fiona takes her clothes off and asks Maric whether he sees them. They laid together the night before, so she could potentially be asking whether he saw them back then. I sincerely doubt Maric would not tell her anything or completely overlooked the stains. Besides, he explicitly points out that he did not see remember seeing any corruption on her body (at least in the original text).

“I am a Grey Warden,” she „Jsem Šedý strážce,“ „Jsem Šedý strážce,“ sighed. “And an elf. And a povzdechla si. „A elfka. A povzdechla si. „A elfka. A mage. And even if that were kouzelnice. A i kdyby to kouzelnice. A i kdyby to not enough, I am suffering samo o sobě nestačilo, jsem samo o sobě nestačilo, jsem from the taint. My time is stižená nákazou. Můj čas se stižená nákazou. Můj čas se limited.” krátí.“ krátí.“

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“I don’t care about that.” „Na tom mi nezáleží.“ „Na tom mi nezáleží.“

“I do.” He saw that there „Mně ano.“ Poznala, že „Mně ano.“ Poznal, že would be no arguing with hádat se s ním nemá smysl. hádat se s ní nemá smysl. her. “And I care about you.” „A záleží mi na tobě.“ „A záleží mi na tobě.“

Originally, Maric is the one who gives up the argument, not Fiona. Perhaps Jakub Mařík misread the original text or thought that when the sentence occurs in the same line as Fiona’s replies, it is also her who do not want to argue anymore (“Poznala, že hádat se s ním nemá smysl.”). Such a mistake could easily stay unnoticed because the difference lies in a single letter.

“We need to get out of here,” „Musíme odsud vypadnout,“ „Musíme odsud vypadnout,“ Duncan muttered, limping zabručel Duncan a kulhal zabručel Duncan a kulhal toward them. směrem k nim. směrem k nim.

Maric waved him on up the Marik ho vysadil na Marik ho rukama pile. He wasn’t as small as hromadu kamení. Duncan popoháněl směrem k Fiona was, but she was sice nebyl malý jako Fiona, hromadě. Duncan sice exhausted enough that she byl však tak vyčerpaný, že nebyl malý jako Fiona, jenže would need help through. by se bez pomoci neobešel. ta byla tak vyčerpaná, že bude potřebovat pomoc dostat se skrz.

Firstly, Maric was only gesturing and waving towards Duncan and was signaling to him that Duncan should be the first to crawl through the hole. Maric was not physically helping him to get on top of the debris. I took a bit of liberty in my translation (“Maric was hurrying him up with hand gestures towards the pile.”). Secondly, the original text points out that Fiona (not Duncan) was too exhausted to crawl through after she cast the fireball.

The one who repents, who Ti, kdož se kají a mají víru, Ta, jež se kají a věří, has faith, se nezachvějí před temnotou Neotřesena temnotou Unshaken by the darkness světa světa, of the world, a poznají pravý mír. se dočká skutečného klidu.

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She shall know true peace.

The official translation includes multiple people. However, the Canticle mentions just one female person (if I had to guess, the woman would be the prophet Andraste). In addition, “true peace” has a different meaning than the Czech word “mír” (a period with no wars). It is supposed to expresses “klid” (inner peace).

“The Grey Wardens possess „Šedí strážci mají imunitu, Šedí strážci mají imunitu, a resistance that allows them která jim dovoluje přežít. I která jim dovoluje přežít. I to survive even if their když jsou jejich těla když jsou jejich těla bodies eventually become nakažena. Jsi živoucím nakažena. Jsi živoucím tainted. You are living proof důkazem střední cesty, důkazem střední cesty, that a middle path exists, a cesty, na které by naši lidé cesty, na které by naši lidé way for our peoples to exist mohli žít v harmonii.“ mohli žít v harmonii.“ in harmony.” Zmateně se zamračila. „Ale Zmateně se zamračila. „Ale She frowned in confusion. v řádu kvůli tomu aby todle fungo…“ Potom “But in order for that to musíme…“ Pak na něj vytřeštila oči. . . .” Then her eyes went vytřeštila oči. wide with shock.

“In order for that to” has nothing to do with the order of Grey Wardens. Genevieve realizes that the plan is to taint everyone and turn them into Grey Wardens. The official translation adds unnecessary details in the last sentence, which do not occur in the original text (Genevieve does not look directly at the Architect at the moment).

“It may yet be resolved. It „Musí se to vyřešit. Musí, „Ještě se to může vyřešit. must, lest we lose our only jinak ztratíme naši jedinou Musí, jinak ztratíme naši opportunity.“ příležitost.“ jedinou příležitost.“

“It will,” he assured the „Vyřešíme to,“ ujistil „Vyřeší se to,“ ujistil darkspawn, then looked zplozence, pak se tázavě zplozence, pak se tázavě questioningly at his sister. podíval na svoji sestru. podíval na svoji sestru. “Provided Genevieve gets „Pokud si Genevieve „Pokud se Genevieve přenese přes své

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over her cold feet and helps zachová chladnou hlavu a pochybnosti a pomůže us.” pomůže nám.“ nám.“

The official Czech translation includes “must” twice in a row. In the first sentence, the Architect implies that it might (not must) be resolved, hence the changes in my version. Bregan’s first reply should be left vague (it is not specified who will resolve it) as it is in the original text. Furthermore, “get over cold feet” implies that Genevieve needs to get over her doubts about the Architect’s plan instead of keeping a cool head.

She was just like the rest of Byla stejná jako ten lidský Byla stejná jako všechen ten the human waste out there, odpad tady, nebo snad ne? lidský odpad tam venku, wasn’t she? nebo snad ne?

The official translation says “tady” (here/there) instead of “out there”. The phrase is often used for any place (anywhere in the world, except here). In my translation, I decided to use the closest equivalent I could think of (“tam venku”) with the addition of the Czech word “všechen” (which is omitted in the official translation).

Despite everything she had Navzdory všemu, co udělala, Navzdory všemu, co udělala, done, he had still managed se k ní na konci pokoušel se k ní nakonec přece jen to reach her in the end. dostat. Když na ni vykřikl, dostal. Když na ni vykřikl, When he had shouted to her, podívala se na něj, a on v ní podívala se na něj, a on v ní she had looked at him, an in znovu viděl ženu, kterou znovu viděl ženu, kterou that moment he had seen the znával, než ji pohltilo znával, než ji pohltilo woman he knew before this šílenství. šílenství. madness had eaten her up.

In the end, Duncan managed to sway Genevieve on his side. However, the official translation interprets it differently. He was trying to reach her even after all the things she has done (while that may be the case, this part is supposed to show that Genevieve was still a reasonable person after all).

Duncan gripped his black Duncan pevně sevřel černou Duncan pevně sevřel černou dagger tightly and crept dýku a v širokém oblouku se dýku a v širokém oblouku se

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around the First Enchanter in plížil k Prvnímu čaroději. plížil k Prvnímu čaroději. a wide arc. He didn’t want to Nechtěl, aby si ho všiml, Nechtěl, aby si ho všiml, be noticed, and clearly a spěchal ke kouzelníkovi, a naběhnout na kouzelníka rushing at the man as když teď Marik nebyl jako Marik by ničemu Maric did was not going to ničeho schopen. neprospělo. do anything useful.

Duncan assessed the situation and deduced that rushing the First Enchanter would not help at all. He needed to attack the wizard in a smarter way. However, “spěchal ke kouzelníkovi” (“he rushed towards the wizard”) counters the point that Duncan makes in the original text. I would give the official translation some credit: Maric was indeed incapacitated. Nevertheless, Duncan explains that he should not act impulsively like Maric. He does not mention that Maric is unable to fight.

“I’m… better. Cailan was „Je mi… lépe. Cailan byl „Je mi… lépe. Cailan byl as upset as you can tak rozčilený, že si to tak rozrušený, že si to imagine. He still can’t nedokážeš představit. Pořád nedokážeš představit. Pořád believe that I’m not just nechce uvěřit, že znovu nechce uvěřit, že znovu going to disappear again; the nezmizím. Matka Ailis mi nezmizím. Matka Ailis mi matron has to coax him off ho musí sundávat z nohou ho musí sundávat z nohou of my legs every time I see pokaždé, když mě vidí. Má pokaždé, když ho vidím. Je him. He’s like me in a lot of mě hrozně rád. Nechápu, že jako já v tolika ohledech. ways. I can’t believe I didn’t jsem si toho nevšiml dřív.“ Nechápu, že jsem si toho see that before.” nevšiml dřív.“

Cailan was heavily upset (“rozrušený”) by Maric’s actions, rather than angry (“rozčílený”). “Matka Ailis” is a specification based on the previous book Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. I must give a substantial amount of credit to the official translation because the change mentioned above is valid. I decided to keep “Matka Ailis” in my translation. The last mistake could be attributed to misreading the sentence “He’s like me in a lot of ways.” and exchanging it for “He likes me in a lot of ways.” (“Má mě hrozně rád.”). Nevertheless, the original text states that Cailan is a small copy of Maric, and they are very alike.

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“Well, I guess I like boring „No, hádám, že máš ráda „No, hádám, že mám rád things.” He grinned at her. nudné věci.“ Ušklíbl se na ni. nudné věci.“ Ušklíbl se na ni.

Maric acknowledges in front of Fiona that he likes boring stuff. The official Czech translation for some reason swaps the characters. I, of course, had to include it in the thesis because it might confuse the readers.

Maric sat down on the steps Marik se posadil, když mu Marik se posadil, když mu before his legs simply gave nohy prostě vypověděly nohy prostě vypověděly out on him. službu. službu.

… … …

“Andraste’s grace, but „Při Andrastině milosti, tohle „Při Andrastině milosti, tohle Loghain isn’t going to like se Loghainovi líbit nebude.“ se Loghainovi líbit nebude.“ this.” „Tak to být nemusí,“ řekla. „Tak mu o tom neříkej,“ “So don’t tell him,” she Fiona předala dítě Duncanovi řekla. Fiona předala dítě said. Fiona handed the child a se zasmušilým výrazem si Duncanovi a se zasmušilým off to Duncan and then sat přisedla k Marikovi. výrazem si přisedla next to Maric, her expression k Marikovi grim.

“Tak to být nemusí” (It does not have to be that way) implies that Fiona thinks that Loghain might react in a different way than Maric suggests. In reality, Fiona explicitly states that Loghain does not need to know. They can keep their son hidden from him.

“Maybe not, then. What „Tak asi ne. Co budeš… co „Tak asi ne. Co budeš… co do… what happens normally se obvykle stane, když má se obvykle stane, když má when a Grey Warden has a Šedý strážce dítě? Určitě se Šedý strážce dítě? Určitě se child? It must happen, to už stalo.“ to už stalo.“ surely.” „Stalo. Dítěte se vzdáme. Už „Stalo. Dítěte se vzdáme. Už “It does. We give the child jsem jim řekla, že jsem pro jsem jim řekla, že jsem up. I told them I already had ně vybrala vhodné místo.“ vybrala vhodné místo.“ a place in mind.”

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Fiona confirms that she has found a place for her baby boy because she cannot take care of him due to unfavorable circumstances in her life. The official translation unnecessarily adds the word “ně”. First of all, it is grammatically incorrect (it should be “něj”) and is redundant in the process of understanding the text.

2.2 Translation, comparison, and analysis of specific Dragon Age names, words, and expressions

There is always the original English version on the left, the official Czech version in the middle, and the right column offers version(s) created by the author of the thesis and approved official Czech version(s). Firstly, a short description of the particular expression is supplied. Then follows the part that provides the reasoning why the official translation is either suitable and can be included in the approved category, or in contrast, why they are excluded. Furthermore, the author provides the explanation and reasoning behind his versions. The goal is to find a suitable or acceptable equivalent based on the description, meaning of the word, and the lore information acquired by the author of this paper. In the descriptions provided down below, the additional words connected to the Dragon Age universe might occur, however, these are not taken from the original book. The words are alphabetically ordered by their English version.

Original English Version Official Czech Version My Versions and Approved Official Czech Versions

alienage odluka odluka

Alienage – An isolated part of human cities inhabited by elven citizens. Alienages are extremely dirty, lots of services that are considered essential by humans are unavailable. Elves living in alienages do not have the same rights as humans. However, if an elf kills a human, the consequences are harsh. If the situation is reversed, no one except elves cares. Elves that try to live in human parts of a city are often targets of discrimination and violence. Humans rarely bother themselves in overseeing alienages and let the elves fend for themselves.

The Czech word odluka (a self-explanatory expression that results in a partial equivalent) roughly describes the alienage – an isolated city part (designated for elven citizens and separated by walls from humans). Alienages can be compared to a ghetto, but I dislike

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oversimplifications. There have been numerous attempts from my side to find an alternative or create a new one (e.g. elfkláva), but in the end, the results have been less than satisfactory.

bann bann bann

Bann is the lowest nobility title in Ferelden (only knights are ranked lower). Banns are supposed to rule over bannorns (a group of united freeholders) and defend them. Quite unusually, they are elected to get this position and title. However, they are placed under the command of a teyrn. Banns hold quite a lot of power – the ruler of Ferelden needs them on their side at Landsmeet (a parliament of a sort) to pass laws without issues – if they overrule monarch, the decision is final.

It is just a name (or label) given to this particular title, there is no link between the name and meaning. I do not see a reason to change it, I rather treat it as a borrowed word (no change). Hence the original name is preserved. Bann’s power and rank seem to be between zeman and baron, so a completely new term would be needed. However, I would once again name a title, and bann is already accomplishing that.

bannorn

bannorn bannorn bannornství

bannornie

Bannorn – A group of united freeholders that chooses to join a lord’s castle (either a bann or arl) and then pay their allegiance to them. Those are chosen strategically – no one wants to pay for the soldiers who arrive far too late to defend them. Descendants of previous owners rarely change their allegiance – when it happens, it is usually due to spite and to start feuds with neighbors. There are thirteen known bannorns all over Ferelden.

There is more than one solution – firstly, a borrowed word bannorn can be used in the Czech translation. However, I wanted to make the options a little bit more interesting, so the words bannornství and bannornie have been invented (the original word bannorn mixed with the suffixes of panství and baronie). In the past, panství/baronie functioned as administrative units. Frankly, it is not perfect – those units were the private properties of landlords who owned everything, including their subordinates. Taking only one part of its description (the

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administrative part) is a deliberate decision on my part. Once a bannorn swear allegiance to a bann or arl, they technically become subordinates of that bann or arl.

Blight Nákaza Nákaza

Pohroma

Blight – A cataclysmic event that starts the moment darkspawn find one of the Old Gods and taint him, turning him into Archdemon. He or she possesses the power to unify the darkspawn hivemind. Shortly after the awakening, Archdemon leaves Deep Roads for the surface, and darkspawn follow him. The Blight is accompanied by weather changes – dark clouds are all over the sky, and the land withers wherever Archdemon goes. Blight can be ended only by a Grey Warden (they are able to permanently kill the leader of Blight). There are five Blights to date. The origin of the Blight is unknown. Lots of explanations have been brought to the table, but none has been confirmed.

Nákaza is like an illness or disease, it just compares the Blight to a disease (analogy). Pohroma is introduced as a second option – the word similar to catastrophe (it expresses that some terrible event has occurred). The Blight is often described as the end of the world due to its potential to corrupt and destroy everything in its path. Both options previously presented are only partial equivalents. There is most likely no perfect translation for Blight.

Zpěv světla

Chant of Light Zpěv světla Chorál světla

Hymna světla

Chvalozpěv světla

The main liturgy text of the church called Chantry. It is based on the tale and teachings of the prophet called Andraste (supposedly the bride of the Maker of the world). The Chant covers a tremendous variety of subjects such as the story of Andraste, a huge chunk of human history, the founding of the Chantry, or cosmogenesis. The Chant of Light has been changed several times over the history of Thedas to suit newly emerged cults and their needs. The most common version is compiled by Andrastian Chantry - it is separated into eight Canticles, further into stanzas and verses.

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There is almost nothing wrong with Zpěv světla, except it is the generalization of the Chant of Light. Perhaps, it could be replaced by Chorál světla (that is a calque, a literal translation) due to its religious character. Nevertheless, it is possible to search deeper and go under the surface of the term. The Chant of Light is simply a file of canticles or hymns. Czech equivalents for those two words are hymny and chvalozpěvy. Then we proceed by changing the terms to the singular - the results are Hymna světla and Chvalozpěv světla. While the specification may be out of place, I think it can further help Czech readers to get a better picture.

Chantry Oltář Církev

Chantry – The most dominant church in whole Thedas, predominantly consisting of humans. It is based on the teachings of the prophet named Andraste – Chant of Light. Chantry was officially founded by the first emperor of Orlais, Kordillon Drakon. Its followers are known as Andrastians.

The main goal of The Chantry remains to convert everyone to their teachings – they believe that everyone needs to be “saved”, and once this is done, the Maker will come back and restore the world to glory.

There are four core principles:

• Magic is dangerous and corrupted. Its purpose is to serve humanity. • Humankind’s pride and arrival in the Golden City caused its destruction and created darkspawn. • Andraste was the prophet of the Maker turned into a martyr, and everyone’s duty is to honor her. • Humankind needs to seek penance in order to earn Maker’s forgiveness – once everyone praises the Maker, he will turn Thedas into a paradise.

There are two main factions – Andrastian Chantry and Imperial Chantry – the latter one is situated in Tevinter with drastically altered principles (especially the first rule).

Chantry as an Oltář is incorrect because Oltář is a part of any church called altar (the place where the offerings are placed). The lack of religious organizations in Thedas (elves do have their Pantheon but no organization (a church) facilitates the worshipping, dwarves worship their ancestors but once again no formal institution represents the faith, and the Qunari follow the

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rules of the non-religious social system called Qun) led towards generalization and simplification of my translation: I choose to call it The Church – in Czech Církev.

cloudhead mrakebule mrakebule

mrakovice

Cloudhead – A name given to humans and elves by dwarves, in other words for the residents living under the sky. Dwarves live under the surface in the cities called thaigs, and they are prohibited to go on the surface. If they do so, they lose their caste (inherited social status) and are forbidden to return. The term cloudhead is most likely a bit insulting if we consider the fact that dwarves living under the surface despise the outsiders.

The original word is a conjunct, consisting of “cloud” and “head”. During the process of making the Czech equivalent, the goal was to preserve the combination of two words. My final version happens to be the fusion (and a pun at the same time) of the Czech words mrak (a cloud) and makovice (a poppyhead). This process results in the creation of mrakovice.

Makovice is used as a replacement for hlava just like kebule or palice. The reason behind the chosen word is that it is a very informal (borderline insulting) synonym to the head (same as kebule). The intention is to avoid the usage of vulgarisms, this word falls into the category of expressive stylistic changes. Mrakebule found in the official translation, all in all captures the meaning of cloudhead and remains as one of the suitable options.

Mrakovice and mrakebule are interchangeable terms, both fulfill their function mentioned above and thus can be used in the Czech text.

darkspawn zplozenci zplozenci

tmoneřádi

Darkspawn – A race of tainted creatures that corrupts and kills everything in its path. Most of the time, darkspawn dwell underground. During the Blights, they eventually leave for the surface (under the command of an Archdemon). There are numerous theories about darkspawn origin, none of them has been confirmed. It is said that the taint sustains darkspawn to such levels that they do not need to eat at all. Darkspawn are spawned by broodmothers, each corresponding to the original race. There are four types – hurlocks (human version), genlocks

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(dwarven version), shrieks (elvish version), and ogres (kossith version). Those variations are further divided into ranks – alpha, omega, emissaries, etc.

Darkspawn as zplozenci works because they are spawns (plodi) of taint. There is one other reason to preserve this translation made up for Dragon Age: Origins: it is incredibly iconic for the whole series. My proposed alternative is the newly created word tmoneřádi – which comes from the fact that they are tainted spawns of dark magic and evil forces. The Czech word neřád is used for an evil person, so my conclusion is that it could fit for darkspawn as well.

Deep Roads Hluboké cesty Hluboké cesty

Hluboké silnice

Deep Roads – A system of dwarven highways built deep underground. The Deep Roads once served as a safe passage between dwarven cities called thaigs. Furthermore, it provided an additional way to get on the surface (except the thaigs), mainly for trading purposes.

Unfortunately for dwarves living underground, Deep Roads were overrun during the First Blight. Dwarves that survived darkspawn onslaught sealed themselves in Orzammar and Kal- Sharok. Deep Roads contains a lot more than routes from one thaig to another, and anyone brave (or crazy) enough can explore its forgotten places and become rich. Unfortunately, too few ever come back from the depths of Deep Roads.

Both calques Hluboké cesty and Hluboké silnice may be used in the Czech translation due to the main function of the Deep Roads (providing a way to travel underground). One could object that silnice should not be used in that case, because it is a road used by vehicles. However, in Moravia, silnice is often used to describe any kind of road, not only motorways.

deepstalker hlubolez hlubinostopař

Deepstalker – A lizardly creature whose head and neck are reminiscent of a worm. The danger comes from its huge mouth and teeth, which are intimidating when spotted. They are able to camouflage themselves so well that it is practically impossible to discern them from stone when remaining still. Deepstalkers hunt little creatures underground, but in a large group, they can even attack a dwarf or human. They often stalk their prey long enough until they are isolated, however, they rarely attack groups.

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The official translation seems to take a little bit different take on deepstalker with Hlubolez. Hlubo is part of the word hluboký or hluboko (deep or deeply). However, it is unusual to use just a part of it. However, it is quite difficult to defend the second part of the compound – lez – because it describes the activity of crawling. In fact, deepstalkers walk and run on two legs and do not crawl at all.

The word chosen to represent this creature is a compound hlubinostopař. Firstly, hlubina translates into deep or abyss, it is a place with a huge distance going inwards. The second part is composed by stopař – description of a person or animal that stalk and follow their prey (the more appropriate word would most likely be pronásledovatel, however, it is quite long itself without adding the second part, and the goal is to keep it as a one-word compound).

Únik

Fade Únik Vysnění

Nestálost

Fade – A metaphysical world tied to the physical world of Thedas and separated by the magical barrier called Veil at the same. Its substance is sometimes called ‘ether’. In its raw form, the Fade is a twisted landscape of dark rock and a substance called raw lyrium with inconsistent gravity – these parts would correspond to the gaps between the dreams (in Dragon Age: Inquisition, the main character was able to get there physically, it looked similar to the description provided above). However, the Fade is shaped and shifted by dreams of those who sleep and are dreaming there. Nevertheless, when they wake up, they forget everything they have seen. Demons and Spirits use those dreamers and their dreams to change the landscape, often in a very cruel and confusing way. Mages can stay conscious there, Dreamer mages are able to kill others in the Fade. Dying for an ordinary person in the Fade is a great shock to the body, but for those who are ‘awake’ there (like Dreamer mages), it can potentially lead to their demise.

Willpower and beliefs are crucial in the Fade. Everything exists due to dreamers’ thoughts and emotions. Magic works differently in the Fade because it does not follow natural rules. Mages can draw a lot of power from the Fade when they sleep, and they have greater shaping capabilities to change the Fade than an ordinary person.

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The official translation of the Fade is Únik, possibly based on the fact that people ‘escape’ there while dreaming, and that is one way to translate the Fade. I am inclined to use Vysnění – if dreamers’ wishes and dreams are strong enough, the Fade can change to their own desires, basically they can “dream up” whatever they want. One of the descriptions speaks of ever- changing or fleeting land, hence Nestálost is introduced.

Frostback Mountains Zmrzlé hory Ledohřebenné hory (shortened as Frostbacks) (Ledohřebeny)

Frostback Mountains – Those massive rocks create a natural border with Orlais in the western Ferelden. It runs from the Waking Sea in the north all the way down to uncharted territories in the south. Wild people called Avvar inhabit the lower parts of the mountains. Frostbacks are very inhospitable, the upper parts are permanently covered in ice. In summer, it is possible to grow plants in the lower parts of the mountains.

Frostback Mountains’ lower parts are covered by ice only eight months in a year, so Zmrzlé hory is overgeneralized name. On the other hand, it works for permanently frozen crests and summits of the mountains – hence the usage of hřeben (firstly, the term is used for hills or mountains that stretch over long distances and do not reach huge heights, or more importantly for the analysis, it describes the highest part of the mountains). The process of combining led (ice) and hřeben (peak) results in the creation of Ledohřebenné hory and its shortened version Ledohřebeny.

genlock svíjivec svíjivec

svalok

Genlocks are the offsprings of dwarven broodmothers. They are short, bald, pale white or yellowish creatures with sunken cheeks. They fight with sophisticated weapons, and they are known for making traps and even siege engines. Genlocks’ resistance against magic is genetically inherited from dwarves. However, genlock emissaries are able to wield magic. There are many variations of genlocks: archers, assassins, warriors, emissaries, and necromancers. However, shortly after the release of Dragon Age: The Calling, genlocks were repurposed and changed into a more monster-like appearance and made significantly less intelligent.

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Svíjivec can be kept for the original “goblin-like” form of genlocks, whereas for their later appearance (more muscular one), I invented a completely new name: svalok. The process of translation is identical to hurlock – to keep two syllables and adapt the second part to lok. Sval corresponds to a muscle and adding the suffix lok forms svalok.

Grey Wardens Šedí strážci Šedí strážci

Šedí dozorci

Grey Wardens – An ancient order of warriors dedicated to fighting darkspawn. Grey Wardens drink darkspawn blood in the process called The Joining. If they survive, they become stronger and gain the ability to slain Archdemon (an ordinary person cannot achieve that). However, this process is quite dangerous, and not many initiates survive it. Those “lucky’” ones become partially connected to darkspawn hivemind and can detect their presence. Eventually, the corruption reaches the point of no return, and those old Grey Wardens go to Deep Roads to kill as many darkspawn as possible before they pass.

On the one hand, Grey Wardens are defenders of humanity. On the other hand, they keep darkspawn in check. So, while Šedí strážci translated into Grey Guardians, it is not a huge issue due to the function of Grey Wardens.

Grey Wardens watch over darkspawn and has built a lot of strongholds at different locations to barricade entrances from Deep Roads. That is the reason why it is fitting to call them Šedí dozorci – they imprison darkspawn to a certain level. Furthermore, it is a literal translation (a calque).

Highever Hornoživy Věčnovrchy

Highever – Situated far in the north of Ferelden, Highever remains as one of the two last teyrnirs. It is the ancestral home of the Couslands (the second or third most powerful family in Ferelden). It used to be an outpost of Amaranthine Bannorn, but after the war, which lasted thirty years and was instigated by the Couslands, Highever won its independence from Amaranthine. Nowadays, it consists of a castle, city, and alienage. Highever is an important place during the events of the Fifth Blight (Dragon Age: Origins tells this story), which takes place twenty years after the Dragon Age: The Calling.

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I must admit that I personally would not translate Highever as Hornoživy, but that does not mean it is wrong. However, I felt like I can create my own version, and after a while, Věčnovrchy came to my mind. It accounts for High (vrchy are top parts of hills or mountains, it is supposed to indicate a huge height and Highever is situated in the mountains) and věčno stands for Ever (or rather everlasting).

hurlock vířivec brutlok

Hurlock is a human variation of darkspawn. Hurlocks do not belong to the brightest sort and barely think on their own. They need strong leadership to tell them what to do and where to go. There are several Hurlock variations – grunt, alpha, emissary, etc. Each version specializes in different combat techniques, but every type is extremely dangerous on its own. Hurlocks are particularly infamous for killing their victims in an extremely bloody and brutal way.

Hurlock is a word specifically made-up for Dragon Age series, so it is particularly hard to draw any real-life connections. I closely examined hurlock behavior, abilities, and sound effects. In the end, brutlok originated from their merciless and brutal nature. At first, the attempts to create an alternative led nowhere, but then the progress was made – taking the second part of their original name – lock – and adapting it to Czech spelling (lok). The goal is to preserve one word with two syllables, brutální or brutalita is reduced to brut in order to fit the set requirement.

ichor jícha hnis

Ichor – A cold, black fluid that flows through the veins of every darkspawn. Those unlucky enough to encounter darkspawn claim that the stink of the liquid is overwhelming and almost unbearable. It is commonly referred to as “darkspawn blood”. The drop of archdemon (the leader of darkspawn and the Blights) and a lot of regular darkspawn ichor is used to create hybrids called Grey Wardens – warriors protecting Thedas from darkspawn. However, drinking darkspawn blood often results in death or a slow transformation into a ghoul.

Ichor describes two things. It is either a fluid running through the veins of gods or a watery discharge from a wound. Darkspawn creatures cannot be further from godhood, they are the mockery of life and purity.

Jícha (blood of the gods) in isolation serves just fine, but as shown above, the context proves it should be replaced. My version introduces hnis (a watery discharge) as the only option.

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However, I must include the fact that a watery discharge is usually transparent, white, or yellow liquid. Darkspawn are changed to such a degree that we could call them dead man walking. The taint sustaining darkspawn is most likely caused by some dangerous and powerful magic, whose effects might have resulted in turning their “blood” black.

Joining Přijímání Přijímání

Spojování

Joining – An initiation rite to join the ranks of Grey Wardens. Unfortunately, too few recruits get through the process, and in the case of failure, the death itself is horrifying to witness and immensely painful. It is supposed to test mental and physical resistance. A special mixture needed to consume during the rite contains a single drop of Archdemon blood (the leader of the Blight) and a lot of regular darkspawn blood. It is served in a silver chalice. However, further details of this process are tightly kept by Grey Wardens. Every single new Grey Warden becomes permanently attached to darkspawn hivemind (with significantly reduced effect) and obtains the ability to slain archdemon.

The Joining as Přijímání is spot on – it includes both receiving darkspawn blood as well as joining the order. However, my goal is to provide an alternative option – Spojování means connecting two things. After the ingestion of darkspawn blood, a person is not only forever connected to darkspawn hivemind, but their Grey Warden comrades as well.

Kinloch Hold Kinlochova tvrz Pevnost Kinloch

Kinloch Hold – An ancient fortress with a single huge tower situated on an island on Lake Calenhad. Built by original inhabitants of Ferelden called Avvar (alongside dwarven builders), it served as a reliable place to hide and repel any bloodthirsty attackers. However, the power of Tevinter mages proved too strong even for the walls of Kinloch Hold, and Tevinter left the place in ruins.

Nowadays, the headquarters of Ferelden’s mages (also known as Circle of Magi) can be found there. Mages’ constant need for lyrium provisions attracts a lot of merchants to offer their goods alongside Orzammar’s lyrium supplies.

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Kinloch is the original Avvar‘s name for Lake Calenhad (Kin Loch). From there, the translation itself is quite straightforward. One may assume that “Hold” is taken from stronghold (the purpose of the place supports that claim) and its Czech equivalent is pevnost.

The official translation is misleading not once, but twice. Czech word tvrz used to describe a stone building similar to castle which was found in rural area or in close proximity to a village, modern conception (since baroque era) expresses a system of artillery defenses. Dragon Age world takes place in medieval times where magic and other supernatural elements are added.

Kinloch is not a person, so this place cannot be named after someone. Hence the possessive form Kinlochova is misplaced and therefore incorrect.

Paragon Paragon Paragon

Paragon – It is an honor (officially it does not count as a title) given to the best of dwarves for various reasons – warfare, inventions, and even for something simple as being an ideal member of a certain caste. Paragons are named by Assembly (dwarven parliament of a sort) after long consideration because naming new Paragon may upset the delicate political and social balance – Paragons are above the kings and create their own noble houses which are joined by dwarves from every caste. There are only a few Paragons each generation. In certain events, they are needed in the king’s elections – they can give their support to candidates and almost guarantee them the throne.

It ought to remain unchanged – it is a dwarven name for their heroes. My attempts to create a new word would result in a change for the sake of a change and it is not done in other cases in the thesis (teyrn, bann, thaig, etc.). However, it is important to preserve the capital letter “P” in order to distinguish it from the Czech word paragon (a receipt/chit).

Redcliffe Rudoskalí Rudoskalí

Rudoútesí

Redcliffe is situated on the western shore of Lake Calenhad in southwest Ferelden. It consists of a village (inhabited mainly by fishermen and merchants) and castle, which is connected to the village by the bridge. The strategic and defensive value of the castle is immense – if anyone wants to invade Ferelden through the southwest route, they must take Redcliffe castle first. Due to the advantageous placement (close to the neighboring nation called Orlais and dwarven

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Orzammar), Redcliffe has become one of the major trading settlements in Ferelden (competing with the capital city Denerim).

Frankly, both versions of translation (Rudoskalí and Rudoútesí) are quite accurate. Redcliffe gained its name thanks to the huge red cliffs towering over it. There are both cliffs and mountains in close proximity of village and castle – útes translates into a cliff, and skála into a mountain. However, the latter version is preferred due to the iconic red cliffs and it is also a literal translation.

Shaperate Správcovství Administrátorství

Shaperate – One of the most important dwarven institutions, the place of knowledge and records. Some call it a living library. The people working there are historians, scholars, judges, genealogists, and philosophers from the noble cast. Shaperate is supposed to be apolitical, but in certain cases, the Memories were rewritten or hidden from the public.

The main function is to record dates and other information on the so-called Wall of Memories (the culmination of thousands of years of dwarven history and society). Shaperate also serves as the main place to obtain the enchantments (the process of inscribing lyrium runes on an item). Regulations and changes in dwarven society and its structure are overseen by Shaperate as well. Dwarven Assembly (the central legislative body) often seeks Shapers as judges in disputes because they are considered apolitical and objective in such matters. However, in some sensitive matters, such as royal family murders or a new Paragon is to be declared, the Assembly leaves the Shaperate out of the decision-making. Despite all the talks of their objectivity, the records are ‘the truth’ according to the Shaperate and its members. The Shaperate is also in charge of golems and maintains their functionality.

Správce would be a suitable option, however, the chairman of the Assembly is called steward, which would directly translate into Czech Správce, and the function of Assembly is closer to the function of the stewardship. Hence Správcovství is in need of an adjustment: the Shaperate administrates records, oversees golems, regulates dwarven society, and work with rune enchantments; Administrátorství is one of the best terms to be found because they maintain the “system” (and provide services).

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Shapers Správci Administrátoři

Shapers – Drawn from the noble cast, those dwarves are highly respected – some consider their task to be almost sacred. They seek out knowledge and record it – sometimes venturing deep in Deep Roads to uncover tons of hidden secrets. Furthermore, Shapers serve as judges in disputes and maintainers of golems.

The leaders of their respective branches are Shaper of Memories, Shaper of Stone (keeps records of work, marriages, and other domestic information), Shaper of Runes, and Shaper of Golems.

Správce (stewards, not administrators) is not necessarily out of place, but as previously mentioned, steward already exists as the main position in the Assembly. Administrátor is very close in meaning to Správce, however, it incorporates a bit better the fact that they “administrate” and “observe” dwarven society.

shriek křikloun ječoun

vřískoun

Shriek – Elvish variation of darkspawn. Shrieks acquired their name from their defining screeching cry. Shrieks are described as extremely agile and quick, but they are mostly feared due to their stealth skills. They are able to sneak through enemy ranks to reach vulnerable targets and assassinate them. They use two jagged blades attached to their forearms, which can be infused by tainted blood to make their attacks even more horrendous.

While křikloun generally describes a person or creature who cries loudly, however, shriek’s cry is high pitched, short and those who hear it find themselves in fear. Czech words jekot or vřískot are extreme variations of křik. The personalized verbs ječoun and vřískoun are my final Czech versions of shriek.

Silent Sisters Mlčenlivé sestry Mlčící sestry

Tiché sestry

Silent Sisters – A fighting order consisting of female dwarven warriors, who have taken vows to stay completely silent and are essentially prohibited to make any sound at all. In order to

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achieve this, they cut out their own tongue with a knife, which they keep in their possession as a reminder of the vows.

The order was founded after the death of a dwarven warrior called Astyth the Grey, who fought for women’s right to become soldiers. No one listened to her, so she cut out her tongue and trained until she became the champion of Proving Grounds (Orzammar’s fighting tournament held in an arena). What is far more fascinating is that she won bare-handed. Silent Sisters often use fists to fight, however, they can use any weapon of their choice if they wish so. If a dwarven woman desires to join Silent Sisters, she must complete a process called ‘Blooding’. She has to show her worth in Proving Grounds by defeating opponents. Once she emerges as the victor, they cut out their own tongue, and vows are completed.

In the official translation, there are two different words for silent - mlčenlivé and tiché. First of all, there needs to be only one version (Jakub Mařík should have chosen between this or that, which indicates that the translation is not properly checked). Tiché should not be considered, because it is often used to describe someone who is quiet, not necessarily silent.

I suggest third option - mlčící. It induces that they are silent all the time. For quite some time, I considered to include mlčenlivé – but the fact that it rather describes tendency to be silent than intention, it does not seem to fit. To make the case even less appealing, it is used more of a character attribute and without a doubt, there is no way that all Silent Sister are natural non- talkers. The chosen word must portray several key factors – Silent Sister do not talk at all, they keep quiet purposefully and more importantly, willingly. Thus, mlčící remained the only suitable option.

silverite silverit silverit

Silverite – Valuable white-blue material suitable for a lot of different branches of industry. Dwarves use silverite in making jewelry, runes (armor and weapon enhancement), and in weaponsmithing. On the contrary, humans discovered silverite’s healing effects and found its place in apothecaries and healers’ bags. Silverite is known for its one special property – it does not rust at all. This is the cause of the traditional belief that it is effective against poison.

The name itself – Silverite – can be mistakenly associated with silver, but it is not the same metal at all. They are both used in jewelry (and occasionally some ceremonial weapon), on the other hand, their properties differentiate a lot.

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In our reality, there are many precious stones like jadeite, alexandrite, or tanzanite. Their Czech equivalents are almost identical, except dropping “e” at the end – jadeit, alexandrit and tanzanit. By following this pattern, silverit is created and it coincidentally agrees with the official translation.

Tevinter Teneve tevinterština

In Dragon Age: The Calling, Tevinter describes more than one thing – first of all, it is a mage land far in the north (Ferelden is situated in the southeast part of Thedas) and one of the most powerful nations, officially called Tevinter Imperium. Secondly, and more importantly for the analysis, Tevinter coincidentally means the language of those people. Tevinter Imperium once ruled almost whole Thedas and the remains of the language can be found even in such remoted lands as Ferelden. The issue is a bit more complex since the introduction of the word Teneve instead of Tevinter – nevertheless, in Dragon Age: The Calling it is still called Tevinter, not Teneve.

Even though we cannot discount the information mentioned above, my Czech version is tevinterština. The main point for the change into tevinterština is that at the first glance, Teneve does not imply any connection to languages. Languages in Czech take suffix -ina and often a couple of other letters to accustom the form of the word (-št in our chosen word tevinterština, for example).

teyrn teyrn teyrn

tejrn

Teyrn – The highest nobility title of Ferelden. Teyrns arose from among the banns for extraordinary deeds they did. Teyrns serve as military leaders after kings. They rule over teyrnirs (a union of bannorns) and appoint arls to arlings (strategically important places). They can call upon arls and banns to help, but teyrns are obliged to aid them too. Nowadays, there are only two teyrns – that of Gwaren and Highever. King can use his power to name additional teyrns if he desires so.

Teyrn as a title is quite reminiscent of that of a duke or archduke (they used to be military leaders as well). Since it is a label given to a certain title (just like bann), teyrn should remain as it is. If there is one change to be made, teyrn can be adapted into tejrn.

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thaig thaig thaig

tajg

Thaig – A dwarven name for their underground cities, which are linked by Deep Roads. Thaigs can be found almost everywhere under the surface of Thedas. The exact number is, however, lost and forgotten. Nowadays, every single city except Orzammar, Kal’hirol, and Kal-Sharok is overrun by darkspawn. Lurking through an abandoned thaig is one of the most dangerous tasks anyone could ever do. Numerous creatures, such as huge spiders, might await in the darkness of Deep Roads and thaigs. Many valuable things and secrets are still left in those thaigs, so if someone is crazy enough, they can try their luck and fight abilities.

Thaig means “city”, there is no need to change it, because it is a dwarven name for their underground settlements. Nevertheless, it is possible to adapt its spelling for Czech readers (the problem lies namely in ignoring “h”, a similar example is Thajsko, in which “h’” is pronounced), a simple change to tajg is a way to avoid the issue with its pronunciation.

Tranquil Kliďas Zklidněnec

Tranquils – Mages who were forcefully cut off from their connection to the Fade, making them unable to cast any spells or dream in the Fade. This process, Rite of Tranquility, is usually done as a necessity so mages cannot be possessed by demons and do not turn into abominations – extremely dangerous creatures. Unfortunately, it is accompanied by a side effect: their emotions vanish completely. As a result, Tranquils act in an unnaturally calm manner, and they are often kept as servants in Circles of Magi. It was thought that the Rite of Tranquility could not be reversed. That was disproven a couple of years later after the events in Dragon Age: The Calling.

Zklidněnec expresses that someone (in this case a mage) is forcefully pacified or calmed down – it is rarely done willingly (mostly to avoid the Harrowing – an initiating rite of mages which involves confronting a demon in the Fade with only two outcomes – either winning or perishing). Kliďas describes someone with the certain personality trait – willingly or naturally calm or serene person in every situation. Close examination of Tranquil’s character (fully inert person) suggests that they have no personality, which means Kliďas is a bit out of place. One could say they are turned into empty vessels.

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Veil Závoj Závoj

Opona

Veil – A metaphysical barrier between the physical world (or the waking world) and the Fade. It is extremely difficult either for spirits or mortals being to go through physically. However, many dreamers’ and mages’ consciousnesses go there and wander. The Veil is not a physical object, none can touch or feel it. It is a magical creation to repel or stop the Fade to spill into the waking world. The Veil tends to be weakened in places where a lot of death occurred, or enormous magic power was used. It is also particularly thin at night due to a lot of people dreaming and spirits are being most active. Blood magic can be used to temporarily tear the Veil apart. Tears in the Veil are greenish and difficult to fix.

The best available Czech word for Veil is Závoj – the literal translation and metaphor fits as well. There is a second solution provided by the author of the thesis – Opona – Veil is the curtain between the worlds just like the one between the audience and stage.

Conclusion

This bachelor thesis analyzed the selected parts of the official Czech translation of the book Dragon Age: The Calling by David Gaider, its comparison with my translation, and explained the differences between them. Furthermore, certain words specifically tied to the Dragon Age universe were described and analyzed. The author of this paper provided his versions and alternatives combined with the approved official Czech versions.

The theoretical part summarized what translation is about and its methods. Additionally, it dealt with the subject of lexical equivalency and described the Dragon Age universe in detail.

There are numerous examples of inaccuracies in meaning and other areas in the official Czech translation. Unfortunately, many mistakes did not make it into this paper.

I was able to determine some factors that affected the final version of the official translation. Firstly, the mistakes were quite often caused by misinterpreting the original situation, context, meaning, and intention of the author. Secondly, the lack of time could be the factor as well – the publishing house wanted the translation out as soon as possible, most likely due to the huge success of the video game Dragon Age: Origins. Thirdly, there were several deliberate changes

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made in the official Czech translation that contradict the original text (exchanging “Maker” for “Grey Wardens” in one of the segments, for instance). Moreover, the acquired Dragon Age knowledge proved to be quite useful during the process of writing the thesis. In Jakub Mařík’s defense, he did not have access to many resources I used (and that could lead to many mistakes) – Dragon Age Wiki, all the other Dragon Age media (Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 1 & 2, for example). Furthermore, I assume that Mařík had to follow certain things established in the translation of Dragon Age: Origins (led by a team of twelve people) and could not fully explore all the possibilities in his translation. I was unable to confirm his involvement in the translation of Dragon Age: Origins. Therefore, I cannot credit or discredit him for most of the official Czech expressions presented in the second part of the thesis.

In the last part, some expressions from the official Czech translation were left unchanged and moved into the category of approved words (Únik, Závoj, Rudoskalí). On the other hand, many words were completely replaced for various reasons (incorrect interpretation, a better option was found, etc.) – Kliďas, křikloun, Správci. A few expressions were enriched by additional Czech equivalents suggested by the author of the work (Opona, Spojování, Šedí dozorci). Lastly, a couple of words remained the same as the original (Paragon), others were slightly adjusted (silverit) or contain both solutions (thaig + tajg, teyrn + tejrn).

I decided to write this paper because I wanted to experience the translator’s role and the process of translation to find out whether I enjoy translating. For the most part, the process was a great and valuable experience, but also a bit frustrating due to my nature (I was always dissatisfied with the results). In the end, translation turned out to be a quite time-consuming activity. I had the urge to improve and change the thesis again and again, which was stressful and tiresome. However, I reflected upon the experience, and I believe translating could be a good occasional side job in my life, but I do not think I can do it full-time.

My first suggestion for future research is to take all the Dragon Age media and obtain all the specific Dragon Age vocabulary in order to create completely new Czech equivalents (to make a little dictionary of a sort). In addition, some entries in the series have not been translated to Czech, so I would suggest that a brave soul might provide their translations. Lastly, someone could also analyze other Czech translations of Dragon Age installments.

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References

Primary sources Gaider, D. (2009). Dragon Age: The Calling. New York: Tor Books.

Gaider, D. (2010). Dragon Age: Volání. FANTOM Print.

Secondary Sources

Alwazna, R. Y. (2017). Pragmatic Aspect of Translation: The Interpretation-Based Inference and Its Implication for Translation [Online]. AWEJ for translation & Literary Studies, Volume 1, 39-51. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol1no4.3 (Cited March 23, 2021)

Dragon Age Wiki (n.d.). Dragon Age Wiki. https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Age_Wiki

Gelinas et al. (2013). Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 1. Dark Horse Books.

Gelinas et al. (2015). Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 2. Dark Horse Books.

Hamilton, K. (2014). A Beginner’s Guide To All Things Dragon Age [Online]. Kotaku. Retrieved from https://kotaku.com/a-beginners-guide-to-all-things-dragon-age-1658487212 (Cited March 29, 2021)

Hatim, B. & Mason, I. (1990). Discourse and the Translator. London: Routledge.

Knittlová, D. (2000). K teorii i praxi překladu (2. vyd). Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého.

Knittlová, D., Grygová, B., & Zehnalová, J. (2010). Překlad a překládání. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Filozofická fakulta.

Levý, J. (1983). Umění překladu (2., dopl. vyd). Praha: Panorama.

Mounin, G. (1999). Teoretické problémy překladu. Praha: Karolinum

Munday, J. (2016). Introducing translation studies: theories and applications (4th ed). London: Routledge.

Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation. New York: Prentice-Hall International.

Savory, T. H. (1957) The art of translation. London: Cape.

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Online dictionaries

Harper, D. (2021) Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/

Merriam-Webster (2021) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/

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