Posted by Robert Thompson on October 07, 2008 at 21:36:33 user robert.
In Reply to: Re: Weihnachtsferien - Winter Holiday in German posted by Mountaineer on October 06, 2008 at 19:12:43:
The edition with which Ransome was so cross was indeed the 1933 Der Kampf um die Insel.
Each of the six German editions had a different translator:
1933 - Der Kampf um die Insel (SA) - W. Fronemann
1948 - Weihnachtsferien (WH) - Martha Röhn
1948 - Die unfreiwillige Seefahrt (WD) - Therese Herzog
1966 - Der Kampf um die Insel (SA) - Edith Gradmann-Gernsheim
1968 - Im Schwalbental (SD)- Wolf Klaußner
1979 - Seeräuberkönigin Li (ML) - Sybil Schönfeldt
Both translators of SA leave out the Ruth/ruthless pun altogether. Other languages that do manage the pun are French, Russian and Czech.