Who is this Wayne Chapman guy, anyway?

On Hungarian Pseudotranslations

For the past three years I have been carrying out research on the cultural importation of SF and fantasy into Hungary between 1989 and 1995. While accumulating and analysing the available data I noticed with great astonishment that a considerable number of translations did not seem to have any originals. I thus had to deal with the phenomenon of pseudotranslations, understood as original texts that are paratextually presented as if they were translations. As far as I know nothing has been written on this subject from the point of view of Translation Studies apart from Santoyo (1984), Toury’s articles since 1984 and the excursus in his 1995 book1, even though pseudotranslation would seem to be a rather important factor when new elements are being introduced into a culture. The discovery of such pseudotranslations in a contemporary situation, particularly in the post-marxist Hungarian society, appeared to be an intersting starting point for an investigation on translations in our modern world. I would thus like to present some tentative ideas on these fictitious translations and the significant yet apparently unnoticed role they can play in the dynamics of literature transfer.

My research is based on a corpus of science fiction and fantasy novels published in Hungary between 1989 and 1995.2 Novels are used because this is the most popular genre, and the fluctuations concerning translational norms are presumably more explicit and easier to observe than in other genres. Yet, since the very beginning of my project, it has been hypothesised that the translation norms are not clear-cut or well defined precisely because of the relative novelty of popular genres in Hungary3.

Another important factor, recognised in other cultures as well, is that the Hungarian term ‘fantastic literature’ does not entirely correspond to the English ‘SF and fantasy’. For instance ‘fantastic literature’ includes Plato’s Politeia, or Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le petit prince.

I will summarise how I discovered the pseudotranslations and the findings the investigation has led to. The policies of the most prominent publishing houses involved in pseudotranslating will be described through a representative example, the case of the M.A.G.U.S. series. Finally, I will attempt to explain the extent, systematicity and regularity of pseudotranslations in contemporary Hungary. My goal, besides depicting a historical situation, is to discuss and possibly enrich Toury’s model.

The DiscoveryWayne Mark Chapman is currently one of the most popular fantasy authors in Hungary. His novels are published in print runs of approximately 15,000 and are quickly sold out, usually within a month. Two of his novels have had third editions, one has had second edition, which is very unusual for any popular fiction in Hungary nowadays. In second-hand circulation exorbitant sums equal to the average monthly wage were offered for his novels out of print. When in 1995 I began to research the cultural importation of popular fiction into Hungarian, it thus seemed obvious that I should start with Chapman’s novels.

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The first step in any translation research is to find data and documents. So far I have located five translations of Wayne Chapman novels, although there are references to others. The first edition of Blood Season, rendered as A Halál Havában [In the Month of Death] was published in 1991 as the ninth volume of the Griff (Gryphon) Series4. The remaining Chapman translations were published by Valhalla Páholy Kft., also a relatively new publishing house specialising mostly in SF and fantasy. When Valhalla Páholy started to publish SF and fantasy in 1992, the third of its novels was Banners of Flame, translated as Észak Lángjai [Flames of the North]. This was an immediate success and was followed in 1994 by an extended edition of Blood Season, and The Quest of Two Moons, which became Két Hold [Two Moons]. In 1995 the same publishers brought out a second “de luxe” edition of Banners of Flame, and Drop and Sea (Csepp és Tenger) appeared in 1996, Karnevál [Carnival] and A fekete dalnok [The Black Singer, containing Blood Season, Banners of Flame and Drop and Sea] in 1997. All the Chapman translations are the work of two translators, Csanád Novák and András Gáspár, who happen to be the founders, managers, and editors of Valhalla Páholy Limited.

Obviously, the next step in translation research should be the identification of the source texts. This is where the plot thickens. I simply wanted to compare the translations with the original texts, especially because the second editions were rather different, not only in length but also in ideology. I wanted to buy these novels in English. Naturally, I first went to book shops and second-hand book shops ... with no luck. I ordered the texts from the American Book Shop and was informed that they were out of print. Then I ordered them on the Internet, and received the same answer. I tried to find a copy in American university or public libraries, also via Internet, again to no avail. I searched the Net to find information on the author or the novels, all in vain. By that time I was becoming more than suspicious; I took a closer look at the translations’ paratexts.

‘Pendragon Publishing Co., Inc., London’ is indicated as the publisher of the original text in the case of the first editions of Blood Season (copyright 1987, translation 1990) and Banners (copyright 1988, English publication 1990, translation 1992). There is no imprint in the second edition of Blood Season (copyright 1987, translation 1990-94). There is, however, a reference to the original publisher: “the Hungarian publication was based upon the agreement with Thor Universal Corp.”5, appears in Two Moons (copyright & translation 1994) and in the second edition of Banners (copyright 1988-89, translation 1992-94). Moreover, the first two volumes published carried the following phrase in English: “With the most sincere written consent of the Author”. This promised good leads.

I attempted to find ‘Pendragon Publishing Company’ and ‘Thor Universal Corporation’. But neither appeared to exist in Britain or the United States. I wrote several letters of inquiry and sent faxes to the Hungarian publishing houses, receiving no reply6. Yet a better clue was closer at hand: the translators we just mentioned, the founders of Valhalla Ltd, also founded another publishing house which is called, what a surprise, Pendragon7. In Hungary, not in London.

So who was Wayne Chapman? The translations indicate that he lives in Concord, New Hampshire8, and that Blood Season and Banners belong to a series of five titles9. The novels are dedicated “to Rick, Sally-Ann, and Bob E. Howard wherever he sails”, “to the memory of two true bards, Dorsey Burnette, and Karen Carpenter”, “to Shea and Matt

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Tarling, the adventurers of the Brecon Beacons, E.M. Butler the Departed, and Wim Wenders - faraway yet so close”, “to Eddie, for everything he has done in favour of the Network HIS DEMUM EXACTIS, PERFECTO MUNERE DIVÆ”10, and “to Lisa Rowland, Martin Jarvis and Ciaran Brennan for the old-new songs. Idhir dhá láimh, Daoine fiúntach, Scrióbh an ogham, I mbanba óir”11. What reader would ever doubt that Mr. Chapman was a true American?

The Chapman translations are part of a series called M.A.G.U.S. (standing for “Miracle Adeptia Guns Urrus Sorrate”12 or the Chronicles of Adventurers), which is about the imaginary world Ynev. Since I was aware that M.A.G.U.S. was also a fantasy role-playing game I asked for information from fantasy role-playing shops, clubs and Internet newsgroups. Although almost everyone thought that they had heard of it, I could not find a copy of the game or the books but the game itself was listed among the ‘traditional’ fantasy role-playing games on the Internet (publisher: Valhalla Páholy).

In the end it was in the paratexts of the other M.A.G.U.S. novels that I found the key to the mystery. Valhalla Páholy published two further novels in this series at that time, one by Raoul Renier and the other by Martin Clark Ashton. These volumes have features similar to the Chapman translations: Hungarian titles that are slightly different from the English titles; ‘Thor Universal Corp.’ as publisher; in Renier’s case references to the location, culture and language of the author, notably Montreal as his domicile given in Author’s Note and “monsieur, mon ami, à suivre” in the preface written by ... Wayne Chapman. There is also a ‘Translator’s Note’ in this book pointing out that a ballad which plays an important role in the novel is said to be Scottish in an Author’s Note but has been modified by the author and is considered to be Old English by Hungarian literary scholars. The translator also refers to the first Hungarian translation of this ballad. All these elements indicate that these novels truly are translations:

A szerzô megjegyzéseA tizennyolcadik fejezetben olvasható ballada története nem a képzelet szüleménye; megesett valóban, ráadásul nem is Ynev mesés-ködös világán, hanem a skót felföldön, valamikor a XII-XIII. században.

Raoul RenierQuebec, 1993

(Monsieur Renier, amikor regénye cselekményéhez igazította, - mi tagadás - alaposan átgyúrta és átfogalmazta az említett balladát, amely egyébként a hazai szakirodalom szerint nem skót, hanem óangol eredetû. A fordítás alapjául Szász Károly múlt századi, veretes nyelvezetû átültetése szolgált.)

(A fordító)

[Author’s Note: The story of the ballad in Chapter 18 is not mere imagination; it really did happen, what’s more, not in the fabulous-misty world of Ynev but in the Scottish highlands sometime in the 12th-13th century. Raoul Renier, Quebec, 1993(Monsieur Renier, when framing the abovementioned ballad into the plot of his novel, - undeniably - altered and rephrased it thoroughly. The ballad is considered to have not Scottish but Old English origin by native specialist literature. Károly Szász’ beautifully phrased rendering from the last century served as basis of its translation.) (The translator)] my translation & emphasis

Now, Renier dedicated his novel “to Jeffrey, John, and Wayne, who, believe it or not, are three, separate, existing persons” (my translation). It is acknowledged in Hungarian SF

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circles13 that Jeffrey Stone and John Caldwell are pseudonyms of a Hungarian author. So it could be assumed that ‘Wayne’, very likely referring to Wayne Chapman, was also a pseudonym, just like Raoul Renier (proved to be Zsolt Kornya) or Martin Clark Ashton (identified as Zsolt Szántai). Further, there was some kind of private joke operating here, since Jeffrey Stone and John Caldwell are the pen names of one and the same person (István Nemes), while Wayne Chapman obviously conceals two (András Gáspár, Csanád Novák). So the three pseudonyms effectively correspond to three writers, but not by one-to-one correspondence! Yet there were more than three in the game. Ashton’s dedication is “to the adventurers of Ynev, the magi, but mostly to Wayne, Raoul and Dale”. The last-mentioned, Dale Avery (proved to be Zsolt Nyulászi), also published a novel in M.A.G.U.S. series in 1995 dedicated to “G.A.” (Gáspár András), as did Ray O’Sullivan (later identified as János Árpád Galántai), whose novel is dedicated to “N.C.S.” (Novák Csanád, ‘cs’ in Hungarian is considered a separate letter/sound, corresponding to the English ‘ch’ in ‘charm’). Clearly, this series was the work of a group of Hungarian writers, most of them translators specialising in SF and fantasy, who shared the same imaginary world, a phenomenon previously unheard of in Hungary. Wayne Chapman was a pseudonym, and he was not an isolated case.

There is no need to give such a detailed description of all the other revelations. Suffice to say I became aware that the possibility of pseudotranslation has constantly to be borne in mind. The other identification processes were more or less the same as for Wayne Chapman, except in those cases when the Hungarian National Bibliography clearly indicated pseudotranslation14. At least such bibliographical indications offered a first confirmation that the general hypothesis did make sense. Thus I have been able to establish that 89 novels published in that period are pseudotranslations. Some of my findings have been affirmed by later issues of the Hungarian National Bibliography. (Upon the data derived from the paratexts it was even possible to predict which one of the novels announced by Valhalla soon to be published would be a pseudotranslation.) This total is of course still not definitive.

Unfortunately, the publishers have seemed rather reluctant to co-operate with me, particularly where pseudotranslations are concerned.

The position of SF and fantasySince there was hardly any SF and no fantasy15 translated into Hungarian before the political changes in 1989-1990, the pseudotranslations cannot confirm the role and position of genuine translations within this genre, particularly because most of them are fantasy novels. According to the Bibliography of Fantastic Literature, less books were published in this genre16 under the forty-five years of Communist rule than in the seven years that followed.

Gideon Toury (1995: 40) defines pseudotranslations as follows: “texts which have been presented as translations with no corresponding source texts in other languages ever having existed - hence no factual ‘transfer operations’ and translation relationships - that go under the name of pseudotranslations, or fictitious translations.”

In the beginning of this investigation it seemed serviceable to distinguish between various types of pseudotranslations but this classification had to be discarded later since it has

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become obvious that the difference between simple (the copyright belong to the pen name) and elaborate (besides the pseudonym, other fictitious bibliographical references are also provided) pseudotranslations is purely accidental, not a completely conscious, careful fake, a collective decision, or even policy applied by some publishers.. The works in my corpus are now categorised as

Pen name: a pseudonym appears on the front cover but the copyright-holder is a Hungarian.

Pseudotranslation A: the copyright belongs to the pen name.

Pseudotranslation B: besides the pseudonym, other fictitious bibliographical references are also provided, for instance English title, English publisher, date of the English edition, or date of translation.

I consider it necessary to separate the use of pen names because this practice is commonplace in SF and fantasy and popular genres in general. I have found 358 pseudonyms of SF and fantasy writers in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Index: 1984-199617, which is created from the monthly Books Received column in Locus Magazine. Thus the use of pseudonyms, though obviously part of cultural transfer as far as popular genres are concerned, cannot totally be assigned to the importance of pseudotranslation, although, since pulp fiction with a Hungarian name on the front cover is regarded as unmarketable, the distributors often insist that the author be presented as a translator (see below).

A fictitious English title is sometimes given even when the copyright is attributed to a Hungarian (e.g. in Robert Knight’s The Dragon Bitch). Alternatively, as in Cherubion publications since 1994, a corresponding English title can be found in the imprint with the note “a mû címe angolul” [the title in English] (e.g. Knight’s Moonlight Thief). Obviously, it is of no real significance to the publisher whether the audience will uncover the author’s real identity. Indeed, one might generally doubt that any reader would look up the translator or the copyright-holder.

Although this classification may seem to complicate matters, it is quite serviceable if we want to distinguish between one-off, individual decisions and the translation policies of publishers. It is by no means accidental that, when dealing with novels by Hungarian authors, Valhalla Páholy (until 1996), Cherubion (with one exception) and Unikornis-Zrínyi (with one exception) only published fictitious translations, while the other publishers mostly brought out books simply with a pen name, or even with a Hungarian name. Cherubion appears to have a rather confusing practice, since they almost always provide their publications with fictitious English title but the copyright is usually owned by the Hungarian author and/or Cherubion itself. I am told by the publisher that he gives an English title to his books merely in the hope of future English translation and publication.

117 publishers issued at least one SF and fantasy novel between 1989 and 1995. Among those publishers who issued more than one (56) only eleven published books exclusively by Hungarian novelists. Evidently, these publishers did not regard fictitious translation as a major means of introducing and promoting the new genre. Only the publishing houses bringing out genuine translations favoured fictitious translations. Nevertheless, the practice of those eleven publishers indicates quite clearly that, despite the widely held view, it was

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possible to sell SF books with a Hungarian name, or at least it was not utterly hopeless. This, the assumed unmarketability of Hungarian SF authors, was thus not the only reason for the sudden appearance of pseudotranslations and their overwhelming majority after 1992.

Table 1. The rate of genuine translations, pseudotranslations and Hungarian originals

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995

Genuine translationsPseudotranslationsHungarian namesTotal

Two significant, parallel trends can be observed in the chronological developments: the gradual vanishing of non-English source texts, and the corresponding disappearance of the Hungarian names from the front covers. In 1996, as far as I know, only genuine translations from English and pseudotranslations (mostly pen names) can be found among the published ‘fantastic’ novels. In 1997 a few Hungarian names appeared on front covers, for instance, on the second edition of Kiálts farkast [Cry Wolf - the Hungarian expression means false alarm but it may signal real danger, what’s more, it refers to the protagonist’s name, Wolf] by András Gáspár published by Valhalla.

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Table 2. The trends in fantastic novel publication

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995

Hungarian namepen nameHungarian togetherNon-EnglishEnglishgenuine togethertotal

Of the publishing houses that brought out only genuine translations, 31 published between two and ten books, Maecenas twenty-three, Cédrus twenty-one, Európa twenty, King fifteen, Új Vénusz eleven. In all, this gives 225 novels, approximately one third of the total production in the period.

The third group of publishers brought out SF and fantasy novels written by both foreigners and Hungarians, altogether 396 publications out of 712. Of these, only ten publishers brought out pseudotranslations:

(Art) Phoenix (1990-1993), Debrecen: 8 pseudonyms out of 51 novelsBembo, Budapest: 2 out of 4Beholder (1994-), Budapest: 2 out of 8Cherubion (1992-), Debrecen: 18 out of 32Holnap, Budapest: 1 out of 7LAP-ICS (1991-), Debrecen: 6 out of 25Móra-Galaktika, Budapest: 1 out of 106Pannon (1990-), Budapest: 2 out of 6Unikornis-Zrínyi Nyomda (1989-1991), Budapest: 4 out of 17Valhalla Páholy-Pendragon-Neotek (1992-), Budapest: 29 out of 118

All of these companies are owned by Hungarians. I will not deal with Móra and Holnap because they brought out only one pseudotranslation in the period, nor with Bembo because it simply reprinted two pseudotranslations written in the thirties. That leaves seven publishers to be accounted for. These publishing houses account for 69 of the 89 pseudotranslations in this genre and period. They would thus seem to make use of pseudotranslating as an important part of their publishing policy, particularly Cherubion and Valhalla Páholy. I would thus argue with Toury’s statement (1995:43) that

the decision to put forward a text as if it were a translation is always an individual one. At the same time, there seem to be circumstances which give rise to a multitude of pseudotranslations, often from the same ‘source’ language, thus

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creating a whole tradition whose cultural significance is much greater than that of the sum of its individual members. Such a proliferation always attests to the internal organisation of the culture involved and very little else. In particular, it bears out the position and role of [genuine] translations, or of a certain sub-system thereof, within it, which the pseudotranslators simply put to use.

It seems that these publishers do not treat each case of pseudotranslation separately. Instead, they formulate a policy at the beginning, namely, that they would prefer not to publish any SF and fantasy novel with a Hungarian name on the front cover. Thus their publications written by Hungarians were obviously composed fully in accordance with this ‘initial norm’, at least after 1990. The initiator made the text producer follow the rule.

Table 2. The publications of those seven publishers that brought out both genuine and pseudotranslations.

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Pannon

Beholder

Unikornis-Zrínyi

Lap-ics

Cherubion

(Art) Phoenix

Valhalla-Neotek

Total

Anglo-Saxon authors

Hungarian authors

Pseudotranslations

Toury (1995:40) also claims that

this classification can only be applied after the veil has been lifted. Consequently, texts can be approached - and studied - as pseudotranslations only when the position they were intended to have, and once had in the culture which hosts them has already changed; whether the fact that they used to function as translations still has any reality left or whether it has been completely erased from ‘collective memory’.

But this is not the case in Hungary. The position of these texts has not yet changed; these books still function and are perceived as genuine translations by the Hungarian reader18; and what is more, by critics who do not disdain popular genres. In one of the leading newspapers19 a well-known belletrist published a lament on the regrettable situation of the book market overrun by American and English best-sellers, saying that “we could also write such books”. Obviously, he was not aware - nor are the devoted teenager fans of the Hungarian role-playing games - that quite a few novels had been written by Hungarian authors. Moreover, the Hungarian National Bibliography lists these books among the genuine translations (whereas it usually indicates pen names). In fact, it is highly improbable that any casual reader would take notice of the translator or a pen name; and

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even more unlikely that they would look up popular fiction in the National Bibliography. And yet, even if the position of these assumed translations remains the same, they can be studied as pseudotranslations by the few who are privy to the secret.

As has been mentioned, of my corpus of 712 SF and fantasy novels published in this period, 89 were certainly pseudotranslations (approximately 13%). Since I discovered more pseudonyms in romance (112 certain vs. 53 dubious cases) and a similar quantity in detective story (61 vs. 3), I assume that the percentage of pseudotranslation is equal or higher in those genres than in SF and fantasy (67 vs. 1). Consequently, we have what might be a unique opportunity to study many pseudotranslations while they still fulfil the initiators’ original intentions.1 Toury (1995: 46) makes the study of pseudotranslations and pseudotranslating an acceptable, relevant topic within

Translation Studies saying: “pseudotranslating (as a practice) and pseudotranslations (as individual manifestations thereof) nevertheless emerge as proper objects of the discipline”.

2 When necessary I will also refer to further data from beyond the given period. My corpus is based on the issues of the Hungarian National Bibliography, The Bibliography of Fantastic Literature, the list of Valhalla Páholy, Szukits and Cherubion publications, and my own findings.

3 Before the Communist regime popular genres as well as pseudotranslations did exist, even flourished, see for instance the postscripts on this subject in Yellow Books series, collections of short stories written by Hungarians with pseudonym(s) in the thirties-forties.

4 This very first fantasy series in Hungary includes, for instance, Windmaster’s Bane by Tom Deitz, Hothouse by Brian W. Aldiss, Magician by Raymond E. Feist, Kiálts farkast by András Gáspár and pseudotranslations by Gwyn Gwylin, Michael Ashcroft, Wayne Chapman and John Caldwell, all in all thirteen novels.

5 "A magyar nyelvû kiadás, a Thor Universal Corp.-al (sic!) kötött megállapodáson alapul."6 Unikornis Publishing House still exists but publishes only classic Hungarian novelists. All the employees who had

been involved in the Griff series have either retired or changed employment. The present personnel could not give any information on the Griff Series. The other publishers, except Cherubion and Szukits, refused to provide me with any information.

7 Csanád Novák is the only full partner, András Gáspár is merely a silent partner.8 See the Author's Note in Blood Season, Banners, Two Moons and the preface to Raoul Renier's Steel and Lion.9 See the back cover of Blood Season first edition; or the Author's Note in Two Moons which claim explicitly that this

novel is independent, not part of the "Gorduin Cycle". Obviously, the later published Drop and Sea and Carnival are part of the sequel.

10 Later I have found out that this ‘Eddie’ was just another pseudonym of András Gáspár.11 In fact, the use of Latin and Gaelic should give rise to suspicion but by the time of the publication of these novels

Wayne Chapman’s identity was revealed.12 Needless to say, it is meaningless in Latin.13 From radio programmes and interviews in magazines, also from his webpage.14 In the HNB those pseudotranslations were either listed under the Hungarian name, or, if under the pseudonym, it

was mentioned in brackets that it was a pen name (‘írói név’).15 The distinction between science fiction and fantasy is widely discussed by scholars and, mainly, fans. There is no

generally accepted definition of either. It seemed adequate to the purpose of this paper to acquiesce in the labels given by the publishers. The category is clearly marked on the front cover or the spine, interestingly, in English - the classifications (SF, fantasy, dark fantasy, cyberpunk, cyberthriller, and even classic) have been loaned.

16 Bear in mind that this peculiar category includes such texts as Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.

17 http://www.sff.net/locus/0start.html.18 Apparently, the mystification lost some of its importance in 1996-97; while the novels are still published with a pen

name, sometimes it clearly indicated in the imprint that the novel was written by a Hungarian person (e.g. “dr. Szalkai László regénye” in Ryan Hawkwood’s Árnyjáték).

19 Magyar Nemzet, 19 August 1995.

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Evidently, the extent, systematicity and regularity of pseudotranslations do reveal something about the internal organisation of contemporary Hungarian culture. Yet these factors also disclose that the decision to present a text as if it were a translation is not always an individual one: it is part of the policy of the publishers and distributors specialising in popular genres. The reason appears to be mostly financial: Hungarian authors are less marketable than their foreign colleagues. István Nemes informed me on email that the big distributors wanted to buy only 5,000 copies of his novel without an English-sounding pen name, while they were willing to purchase 30,000 copies of a ‘John Caldwell’ novel in 1989.

It cannot be denied, of course, that the appearance of pseudotranslations also has purely financial motives: the copyright advance is generally about $1,000-1,500 (in January 1997 $1,000 was approx. 160-170,000 HUF), while a Hungarian writer makes - gross - 50-100,000 HUF with a novel. Exceptionally popular authors may receive 1 HUF per character which, considering the average text length of 300,000 characters, is at least threefold compared with the usual payment. Further, foreign authors expect a royalty of the retail price on every copy printed, payable on publication. The same holds true of foreign artists for front covers and illustrations, which explains why the publishers replace the original paintings or photos with ones made by Hungarians. Also, a translated novel is supposed to be more marketable, and indeed it is.

Hungarian law stipulates that in addition to VAT (12%) and copyright (usually 7-10%), publishers have to pay ‘cultural incident’ (kulturális járulék, widely known as ‘giccsadó’ [trash tax]) on any book which is not a textbook or does not serve educational purposes. This is usually 1% of the cover price, although if the book includes any violence or eroticism the rate rises to 20%. The problem is that nobody has ever defined what counts as violence or eroticism. It is thus to the tax inspectors’ discretion as to whether a book contains violence or eroticism, or whether a smack in the face can be considered violent or a seductive smile erotic. In fact, all (SF and fantasy) novels could be taxable with 20 per cent. The publishers naturally prefer to pay the lower rate, even though they can be retroactively charged with the higher one at any time, which would spell immediate bankruptcy. Evidently, the publishers will expect the pseudotranslators to adopt some self-censorship in this respect. Perhaps this is the reason why the Hungarian versions of SF and fantasy avoid too much naturalism when they describe a brawl, a battle, a war, and their tone is usually quite reserved in sexual or erotic matters compared with genuine translations20.

Obviously, the Hungarian publishers specialising in SF and fantasy do not have enough assets to compete with the big international corporations that sometimes bring out books at prices cheaper than the actual production cost. International corporations also take over the book shop chains, which of course limits the distribution of books issued by small publishers. Further, small publishers are held in dependency by the big distributors, who demand 45-48% of the cover price and do not pay in advance. Publishers thus have to calculate their print runs very carefully, particularly because the distributors want to sell the novels in a very short period and will not ‘buy’ books by the same author or publisher when they cannot. This partly explains why print runs have constantly decreased since

20 See Sohár Anikó. The Cultural Importation Process of Popular Genres. The Case of SF and Fantasy in Hungary 1989-1995. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation.

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1989 (e.g. Móra published Foster’s Alien 3 in a print run of 250,000 - the highest number of copies in SF ever in Hungary - in 1992, whereas the average is approximately 4-5,000 in 1997). The diminishing number of copies is also due to continuous inflation and economic uncertainty. This has led to the practice of circulating books in circles of fans, among friends (public libraries do not purchase many SF and fantasy novels, since they detest the genre). However, the declining economic conditions have also caused a reverse side-effect, namely an ever-increasing demand for ‘escapist’ literature. Needless to say, SF and especially fantasy meets the criteria perfectly.

It would seem that the distributors initially required the use of pseudonyms as part of a strategy by which they could undertake their own marketing, thus offsetting the number of copies carrying the prestige of translated literature. Hungary, like any ‘minority’ culture, depends heavily on translation, and before the political changes (good) literary translators were held in high esteem, relatively well-paid and well-respected.

Of course, some pseudotranslations may be based on individual initiative. The cases of the two most famous novelists, Vavyan Fable (Molnár Éva) and Leslie L. Lawrence (Lôrincz. L. László) would appear to back up this notion. The former made a statement to a journalist on TV21 that she had chosen a pen name because the plot of her novels had always taken place in an imaginary country (called Line or Dalm, names that can originate from any European language); she had been very careful to avoid any reference to a particular culture or language; so it would have been odd to have a Hungarian name printed on the front cover. The case of Leslie L. Lawrence is even more illuminating, particularly about the status of different popular genres. He is a well-known scholar, yet he does not adopt a pen name when he writes science fiction, only in the case of his detective stories and thrillers. According to my classification Vavyan Fable belongs to the pen name category, while Leslie L. Lawrence’s books are pseudotranslations. However, these instances cannot be used as examples in this paper because the real identity of the authors has been revealed to the public - a rather unusual occurrence in the period.

Nevertheless, the use of pseudotranslation by Valhalla Páholy and Cherubion, both of whom specialise mostly in SF and fantasy, shows there is more at stake than personal eccentricity or private shyness. Valhalla Páholy and Cherubion published (at least) 47 fictitious translations and pseudotranslations out of (at least) 150 novels between 1992 and 1995, which means that approximately one third of their books fit into this category.

It is no accident that the owners of these publishing houses are their own managers, editors, translators and writers of pseudotranslations (Csanád Novák, András Gáspár, Miklós Héjjas). For example, István Nemes, also known as John Caldwell22, is the owner and managing director of Cherubion and the translator of numerous, mainly American, SF and fantasy novels.

Supernova 6, a catalogue of fanzines, reveals that András Gáspár and László Szalkai played a very active role in editing ANALOG “H”23, a science fiction magazine published by the local KISZ [Young Communist League] organisation at Móricz Zsigmond Grammar 21 MTV, Desszert, April 1996.22 His SF pen names are John Caldwell, Jeffrey Stone, John Gordon, David Gray, Andrew Hall, Mark F. Wil(l)son and

Donald H. Wisdone. He uses other pseudonyms when writing detective stories, romances and TV tie-ins.23 Obviously a reference, or tribute to the American SF magazine, Analog.

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School. They translated and wrote several SF short stories in 1983-1984. Supernova 6 also lists some other future pseudotranslators: György Koch alias Michael Aschroft alias Lyam Strong contributed to The Galactic Herald with Aréna24, Metamorf25, Spirál26and Supernova27; Tibor Bihon, also called Robert Knight, contributed to The Galactic Herald with Aréna, Metamorf, Supernova; István Nemes to The Galactic Herald with Aréna, Metamorf, Spirál and HELIOS28; Zsolt Kornya otherwise known as Raoul Renier to HELIOS, Metamorf and Spirál, András Harangozó alias Andrew Bellringer to Kronosz29. Quite a few other translators have begun translating for those fanzines as well (for instance, Judit Trethon, Éva Avarosy and István Molnár). Attila Hajja, the founder and editor to be of Hajja & Fiai [Hajja & Sons] and managing director of Phoenix (together with Nemes), published his short stories in Spirál. Obviously, these people have been fascinated by SF and fantasy since adolescence. No wonder they have been able to exploit the opportunities offered by the political changes, linking their hobby with business. But none of them used a pseudonym or wrote a pseudotranslation before 1989.

It is interesting but not astonishing that most of the SF publications were due to grammar school and university organisations, cultural centres and SF clubs. This hints at the current and potential audience: the SF readership is reported to be made up of mostly teenagers and young adults, men being in the majority30. During this period (1968-1988) the audience, or more precisely, the active part of it, appears to have been rather small31; independently of the publisher’s location the contributors - editors, translators, writers, reviewers - are the very same people. This must indicate enthusiasm and devotion: these people were prepared to go anywhere there was an opportunity to talk about SF, to publish their stories, even knowing that their activities were barely tolerated by the authorities and that it was rather difficult to find support (these fanzines vanished after a precious few issues).

It seems that István Nemes, Tibor Bihon, György Koch, András Gáspár, Csanád Novák and other authors (e.g. those of the M.A.G.U.S. series) form a significant group whose central activity has been to introduce and promote SF and fantasy in Hungarian with the aid of creating fictitious foreign texts, notably pseudotranslating as a means of overriding

24 Publication of GBK Club of Óbuda. 1988, pp. 60, 600 copies, eds. by Antal Monostori, József Buzás, László Jánoky et al. Only one issue was published.

25 Publication of “Metamorf” Science Fiction Club of Váci Mihály Regional and Town Cultural Centre. Two issues: 1984, pp. 32, 200 copies, ed. by Gábor Engi; 1987, pp. 48, 500 copies, eds. by István Huszár, Tibor Bihon, Sándor Fitos et alia.

26 Publication of “Kronosz” Science Fiction Club of Debrecen. Six issues ed. by György Varga between 1980 and 1988: pp. 37, 31, 54, 43, 43, 45.

27 Publication of “Galaktika” Science Fiction Club of Szeged. Different editors. Six issues between 1980 and 1988: pp. 20, 27 (250 copies), 36, 37, 82, 86.

28 Publication of GBK Club of Tótfalusi College, Kossuth Lajos University, Debrecen. Eds. by József Háger, Attila Kotán, Zoltán Kovács, István Nemes, László Petromán. 1988, pp. 40, 500 copies. Only one issue.

29 Publication of VEGA MSFE on the occasion of Hungarocon. 1987, pp. 76, 250 copies.30 For instance, the Hungarian SF discussion newsgroup, Solaria, had no female participants until I joined them in

January 1996. At that time more than 90 per cent of its members were young men, under thirty, university students or pupils in secondary schools.

31 There is no statistical information about the SF audience. The print runs (60,000-90,000) of Móra indicate a rather wide audience but taking into consideration that the Communist publishing houses were not profit-oriented—it did not matter whether their publications were sold or not—these numbers may be misleading. Since SF was merely tolerated by the authorities, it is not impossible that the print runs show the actual interest in SF. But this cannot be taken for granted.

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importance. Their works have been published by Cherubion, Pendragon, Valhalla Páholy-Neotek, LAP-ICS, (Art) Phoenix, and Unikornis-Zrínyi Nyomda. In addition to these publishers István Nemes also (pseudo)translated for Lícium-art, Móra, Oberon and Új Vénusz (one each), András Gáspár for Gondolat, King, Maecenas, Móra (only genuine translations, one each). So far I have not been able to prove the link among LAP-ICS and the other publishing houses involved in issuing both genuine and pseudotranslations because LAP-ICS Kiadói Bt. simply does not appear in the company register, and any letters are returned with a “Not known” stamp on it - which applies to Neotek as well. However, it is a fairly safe assumption that LAP-ICS also belongs to this group, or at least closely collaborates with it, because they have the same translators (e.g. István Nemes, György Szegi), an identical translation policy (they published novels by Bertram McDowell that is, by Tibor Bihon, and Mark F. Wil(l)son, house name) and a similar selection of novels.

This assembly with the interconnected roles of (pseudo)translator, editor, and publisher appears to be responsible for approximately one third of the total SF and fantasy novel production, and for 65% of the SF and fantasy pseudotranslations within the period in question. It seems that the regular and systematic use of pseudotranslation has been a very conscious and collective policy.

However, it is not impossible that such groups also exist and are active in other popular genres, most probably in the production of romance and detective stories. I have not carried out research on romance published in Hungary in this period but while hunting for data in the HNB I have seen entries which seem to indicate a very similar policy: certain publishers, Textronic, Aldina, Hati Kv., Risus, Phoenix, Hajja, LAP-ICS, to mention but a few, exclusively issued novels written by Hungarians with a pseudonym - from the Hungarian National Bibliography it is not possible to ascertain how these books might be categorised in accordance with my classification, though fictitious English titles are sometimes indicated. In order to back up this assumption, namely the possible existence of such group(s), I have searched through the 1995 volume of the Hungarian National Bibliography. Since this source does not use the category ‘romance’, the data is scant. I suppose at least about one third of the products escaped my notice32. However, it is possible to establish the genre indisputably when the novel pertains to a series entitled “Amore”, “Love & Romance”, “Wedding Bells”, “Second Chance for Happiness” and the like. This way I have found 187 genuine translations and 74 pseudotranslations (plus two with a Hungarian name), altogether 261 novels, much more than in SF and fantasy (95 novels in 1995). On the evidence of this data it seems that certain publishers, for example Textronic in Tata, Gold Book in Debrecen and Esély in Budapest, specialise exclusively in pseudotranslations. Interestingly, only one of them, Gold Book, provides the reader with a fictitious English title (e.g., Buktass le! [Get me nabbed] rendered as ‘Detective in love’; Vihar az édenkertben [Storm in Eden] as ‘Hotel love’) together with the publishing houses already well-known from the study of SF and fantasy: Hajja, LAP-ICS, Phoenix. Another noteworthy element is the poor English of these fictitious titles, most of them being mirror translations (for instance, Amikor a sirályok sírnak is ‘When sea-gulls are crying’; Egy bébiszitter viszontagságai is ‘The adversities of a baby-sitter’) sometimes evidently based 32 I did not list those novels whose author is a well-known romance writer (e.g. Barbara Taylor Bradford, Alexandra

Ripley, Danielle Steel, etc.), or those whose title suggested romance (e.g. Love’s Agent, Desire, The Lady-killer) when the genre was not clearly indicated in the HNB.

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upon an incompetent use of bilingual dictionaries (e.g., Égbôlpottyant vôlegény [Heaven-sent fiancé] is rendered as ‘Betrothed from the sky’; Csöndbe burkolózva [Subsided into silence] as ‘Wrap in silence’; Szerelem Jamaicában [Love in Jamaica] as ‘Love to Jamaica’; Titkok és félreértések [Secrets and misapprehensions] as ‘Secrets and mistakes’; Ártatlan romlottság [Innocent iniquity] as ‘White badness’). Spelling mistakes occur frequently: Csábíts el! [Seduce me] translated as ‘Temt me!’; Fullánk kisasszony [Miss Sting] as ‘Waspis miss’; Amíg te voltál ... [While you were] as ‘Whike you were ...’; A szerelem csapdájában [In the trap of love] as ‘In the trad of the love’. All in all, it cannot be excluded that pseudotranslating is a significant and conscious policy in other popular genres as well.

Toury (1995:42) also points out that

the decision to present a text as a translation, let alone compose it with that aim in mind, always suggests an implied act of subordination, namely, to a culture and language which are considered prestigious, important, or dominant in any other way. An attempt is thus made to impart to the text some of the superiority attributed to that culture, thereby manipulating the text’s reception by the audience.

This is indeed the case in Hungary. SF and fantasy is considered to be a specifically English-language genre, as most of the pseudonyms indicate: 55 of the 67 pseudonyms sound English (e.g. David Gray, Joshua Keegan, Brian McAllister). Only six of them are literal translations of the authors’ name into English: Andrew Bellringer, Andrew C. Copper, G. H. Miller, Steven Nicholas Moses, George Philip, Peter Stock. The others include five anagrams (Omnis Elim, M.V. Egh, Bian A.F., Elis Dei, G.Q. Lyn - the latter two not entirely); two with a foreign first name but a Hungarian surname (Jules Rado, Joe Kemenes); two French (Raoul Renier, Julien la Salle); one Italian and one Dutch (Francesco del Sarto, Jan van den Boomen) and one made-up pen name from the thirties (Mumbull).33 The most interesting pseudonym is Tim Zocney, a Hungarian word with ‘English’ spelling: ‘zokni’ means socks. Also, the fictitious titles are in English, with no exception.

Now let’s have a closer look at the policy of Valhalla Páholy, best represented in the M.A.G.U.S. series.

The M.A.G.U.S. seriesWayne Chapman: Észak lángjai/Banners of Flame, ã 1988 Wayne Mark Chapman, Pendragon Publishing Co., Inc. London (1990), translated by András Gáspár & Csanád Novák (1992), Hungarian edition: 1992, Walhalla Páholy, Budapest

Wayne Chapman: A Halál havában/Blood Season, [first, complete, unabridged edition], ã 1987 Wayne Mark Chapman, translated by András Gáspár & Csanád Novák (1990-1994), Hungarian edition: 1994, Valhalla Páholy, Budapest

Raoul Renier: Acél és oroszlán/Steel and Lion, [with Wayne Chapman’s preface], ã 1993 Raoul Renier, Thor Universal Corp. 1993-1994, translated by Zsolt Kornya (1994), Hungarian edition: 1994 Valhalla Páholy, Budapest

33 Romance: of the 112 certain cases 99 are English sounding; detective story: 39 (51); horror: 2 (9), and so on.

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Martin Clark Ashton: Shadoni krónika/Tale of Shadon, [New adventures on Wayne Chapman’s world!], ã 1994 Martin Clark Ashton, Thor Universal Corp., translated by Zsolt Szántai (1995), Hungarian edition: 1995 Valhalla Páholy - Neotek, Budapest

Dale Avery: A renegát/The Renegade, ã 1994 Dale Avery, Thor Universal Corporation 1994-1995, translated by Zsolt Nyulászi, Hungarian translation: 1995 Neotek, Hungarian edition: 1995 Neotek, Budapest

Wayne Chapman: Észak lángjai/Banners of Flame, [2. de luxe edition], ã 1988-1989 Wayne Mark Chapman, Thor Universal Corp., translated by András Gáspár & Csanád Novák (1992-1994), Hungarian edition: 1995, Valhalla Páholy, Budapest

Ryan Hawkwood: Farkasének/Wolf Cry, ã 1994 dr. László Szalkai, Hungarian translation: 1995 Neotek, Hungarian edition: 1995 Neotek, Budapest

Ray O’Sullivan: Sötét zarándok/Dark Pilgrim, ã 1995 János Árpád Galántai, Hungarian edition: 1995 Neotek, Budapest

Raoul Renier: Korona és kehely/Crown and Chalice, ã 1994 Raoul Renier, Thor Universal Corp. 1994-1995, translated by Zsolt Kornya (1995), Hungarian edition: 1995 Neotek, Budapest

Ryan Hawkwood: Árnyjáték [Shadow Play], ã (a novel by dr. László Szalkai) 1996 Valhalla Holding, published by Valhalla Holding 1996, Budapest

Jan van den Boomen: Jó széllel toroni partra [Fair Stood the Wind for Toron], ã (a novel by Péter Gáspár) 1996 Valhalla Holding, published by Valhalla Páholy - Neotek 1996, Budapest

Wayne Chapman: Csepp és tenger [Drop and Sea], ã 1996 Valhalla Holding, published by Valhalla Páholy 1996, Budapest

Wayne Chapman: Karnevál I-II. [Carnival], (a novel by András Gáspár) ã 1997 András Gáspár & Csanád Novák, published by Valhalla Holding, Budapest

Italics mark the fictitious English title, also in bold when different from the Hungarian, underlining indicates illuminating facts. Note that no novel in this series was published in 1993: that year was the lowest point in the publication of popular fiction written by Hungarians within this period. According to their advertisement Valhalla planned but did not publish four more M.A.G.U.S. novels in 1996: Karnevál [Carnival]34 by Wayne Chapman, Sötét térítô [Dark Converter/Tropic, the Hungarian word is polysemic but I would vote for ‘converter’] by Ray O’Sullivan, Koponya és tôr [Skull and Dagger] by Raoul Renier, and Menzini játszma [Game in Menzin] by Dale Avery. The Chapman book was announced to be published in 1992 but its publication did not take place.

All three books issued before 1995, and four out of six in 1995, are supplied with fictitious data: English title, English publisher (except Blood Season 2), English publication (except Blood Season 2, Tale of Shadon, Banners of Flame 2), Hungarian translator, date of translation. Since the first edition of Blood Season and Banners of Flame did include the references missing from the second edition, these novels can also be regarded as being equipped with the complete set. The most recent books seem to belong to the pen-name category: it is clearly shown that the author is a Hungarian person with the exception of Drop and Sea, though it should also be evident since no indication of translational status is 34 It was finally published in June 1997. The imprint claims that ‘this is a novel by András Gáspár’ [Gáspár András

regénye], and it is not equipped with fictitious bibliographical references.

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given. In hindsight the most instructive case is Wolf Cry: Dr. László Szalkai owns the copyright, yet “Hungarian translation: Neotek 1995” is printed on the second page. Well, it is not impossible for a Hungarian to own the copyright to an English or American novel, although it would be quite unusual. (The eventuality that a Hungarian wrote a novel in English seems even more unlikely.) But the second book explicitly points to the more likely assumption that Szalkai35 has written both stories. There is no way to misinterpret “dr. Szalkai László regénye” [a novel by Dr. L.Sz.]. I suppose Valhalla Páholy has a specimen copy and the editor simply forgot to delete “Hungarian translation: Neotek 1995”. Nota bene: this may also be the case with Lost Among Stars (Hungarian title: Csillaghullás [Starfall]), a Starscape novel translated by Attila Katona, whose author appears to be Lyndon B. Murray (by the way, this name is not listed among the authors in the previously mentioned Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Index or anywhere on the Internet) though the copyright belongs to Brian Daley, the well-known American SF author. Since its original publisher is said to be the illustrious Thor Universal Corporation this is indeed a dubious case. I have not been able to find an original yet, therefore it is not impossible that either “ Brian Daley” or “Published 1995 by Thor Universal Corporation” was accidentally left in the imprint - a real Brian Daley novel, The Doomfarers of Coramonde, was brought out by Valhalla about that time.

In 1996 even the fictitious English title vanished from the M.A.G.U.S. publications, even though such titles are, perhaps were, the most frequent element when a book is equipped with fictitious bibliographical data in the practice of those publishers who brought out pseudotranslations at all, 53 cases out of 89. Remarkably, the fictitious English and the ‘translated’ Hungarian titles show exactly the same pattern as the one observable in the case of genuinely translated titles: the Hungarian versions frequently do not correspond with the original. Since in 16 cases I have not found the original title yet, and 162 were written by Hungarians, 51 by non-English authors, the quantity of titles available for comparison is 430 out of which 26 are non-translations (e.g., Terror, Chocky), 221 are corresponding titles, 183 differ from the original (e.g., Clive Barker’s Weaveworld is rendered as Korbács [Scourge], or Robert Anson Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land as Angyali üdvözlet [Annunciation]). Among the fictitious English titles I have found four non-translations (e.g., Paranoia, Camelot 2020), 26 corresponding and 23 non-corresponding (see the Chapman titles).

The format can also make the given publisher or series recognisable, though the difference may be slight. Valhalla Páholy has had three types so far. At the very beginning it was 110 x 180 mm (first three books only), then 115 x 180 mm, in 1996 110 x 190 mm. The format of M.A.G.U.S. novels is the same as the other Valhalla publications. The most common format within the genre is 110 x 180 mm (e.g., Amon, Tájfun, Cherubion, Pendragon). King prefers a slightly bigger format: 120 x 195 mm, so does Maecenas: 120 x 205 mm. The rare hardcovers, for instance the Cherubion Fantasy Exclusive series, are the biggest, with 125 x 205 mm.

The front cover of M.A.G.U.S. novels - and generally of all Valhalla Páholy fantasy and sometimes SF publications - always depicts more or less ordinary human figures, which is

35 Who also ‘rendered’ two Scarlett novels into Hungarian: Audrey D. Milland’s Scarlett: South Star Rising and Scarlett: a New Beginning published by Valhalla Páholy (1994, 636pp, 21 cm, ISBN 963 85291 0 5 and 1995, 669pp, 20 cm, ISBN 963 8353 00 7).

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a very unusual feature in SF and fantasy. As Edward James (1994: 2) points out, the front cover is supposed to be genre-specific

a fantasy novel will display dragons, elves, wizards, and heroes (or heroines) with swords, mighty thews, and not very many clothes; an SF book can draw on a futuristic machinery or architecture, robots, weird alien landscapes and alien creatures. ... But most of the covers represent the core of what each genre is ostensibly about, and may suggest to you some possible divergences between genres.

This is indeed the case in Hungary - with the exception of Valhalla, presumably due to their policy of detaching the visual appearance of their books from the others. Valhalla employs regular illustrators, Csaba Zsilvölgyi, Attila Boros, Zoltán Boros and Gábor Szikszai (the latter two once worked for Unikornis-Zrínyi), which makes the publications easily identifiable as Valhalla Páholy productions, in case their logo on the spine is not enough. The M.A.G.U.S. novels have an additional logo on the front cover. The employment of regular illustrators is quite uncommon though not unheard of, for instance Cherubion also has its painters and typographers (Sándor Zubály, Károly Bera). That is not so with the logos, which practically all publishers use.

The first Banners of Flame has a full-size illustration on the front cover. The M.A.G.U.S. books issued in 1994-1995, plus Wayne Chapman’s The Quest of Two Moons (the only non-M.A.G.U.S. novel by Chapman) bear only a small, framed portrayal, not significantly bigger, sometimes even smaller, than the M.A.G.U.S. logo; full-page pictures appear to return in 1996. Full-size illustration on the front cover is practically universal in SF and fantasy.

Six books plus The Quest of Two Moon add one advertising sentence in small letters placed under the title to arouse the potential reader’s curiosity: “first, unabridged edition”36, “deluxe edition”37,“the most mystical action novel of the year”38, “new adventures in Wayne Chapman’s world”39, “with Wayne Chapman’s preface”40,“the hero of Steel and Lion returns”41, “the secret story of the manifestation war”42.

The back cover always has a framed blurb, the name of the publisher (interestingly, the name is always Valhalla Páholy, even when the novel was issued by Neotek), the price (showing inflation) and the ISBN number.

It has to be noted that genuine translations are rarely published with their original cover. So far I have found only twelve (Brian Daley’s The Doomfarers of Coramonde, William C. Dietz’s The Bodyguard, Michael A. Stackpole’s Dementia 1-243, Jonathan Wylie’s The First Named44, and the six volumes of Shadowrun series45). Valhalla Páholy has made use

36 Second Blood Season37 Second Banners of Flame38 The Quest of Two Moons39 Tale of Shadon40 Steel and Lion41 Crown and Chalice42 The Renegade

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of this practice: in two case of fictitious translation (Buxton, Morland) it is mentioned that the book has been published with the original cover.

Interestingly, the layout of M.A.G.U.S. series is not unified: different font, font size, indentation, line spacing, etc. are used in each book. For example, the use of italics is rather ambiguous: they may mark importance, foreign language, poems, thoughts, or mind speech, telepathic communication. This characteristic seems observable in all SF and fantasy publications. Also, the publications are full of typographical errors: different line spacing, different fonts, blank or semi-filled lines, bad hyphenation.

The only regular feature of the series layout is the heading; page number and the author’s name aligned to the left on odd, page number and the title aligned to the right on even pages; in three cases the alignment is centered. In addition to this series, fifteen other Valhalla Páholy novels, both genuine and fictitious translations, boast headings, one of them (Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah) has a merely decorative one. The other publishers do not follow this practice.

Pseudotranslating makes it easier to achieve a uniform text length. Valhalla Páholy appears to favour publications with about 300-330 pages in general. Of all their SF and fantasy novels only five are shorter than 290 pages, only twelve longer than 350. The text length of all M.A.G.U.S. books is between 294 and 330 pages. This obvious preference for a uniform text length is a new phenomenon in Hungary and seems to be characteristic of almost all publishers specialising in popular genres. It was most probably introduced by the international publishing houses after the political changes. It is also genre-specific46:

SF & Fantasy Romance

Phoenix 180-200 120-125

Cherubion 180-200 -

Bastei Budapest 71-75 60-80

Maecenas International no preference (272-645) 141-158

Harlequin - 88-95/287-288

However, this does not mean that the text length (number of characters) differs significantly since the publishing houses use different fonts, different line spacing, different bulk, and so on. The average text length is about 300,000-500,000 characters. The actual number of pages is strongly related to the printing costs: the publishers try to produce books as cost-effectively as possible (e.g., many books are printed in double sheets (32 pages) which means that the folios divisible by 32 are cheaper - thus the preference of

43 Published by Valhalla Páholy.44 Published by Esély.45 Published by Beholder.46 During an interview one editor of Harlequin said that “ezek arra szolgálnak, hogy az átlagos, huszonkilenc éves,

rosszul festett hajú, kielégületlen munkásnôk elolvassák ôket a metrón munkába menet vagy jövet” [These (referring to romance books and magazines) are supposed to be read by the avarege, twenty-nine-year-old, badly-died-haired, unsatisfied working women on the underground trains while commuting]. This statement seems to explain the usual text length in romance.

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Cherubion for 192 pages, of Valhalla Páholy for 320 pages). This explains the different lay-outs (e.g., more characters, smaller font).

The M.A.G.U.S. model also consists of a dedication (except Steel and Lion, Shadow Play), a motto (except Tale of Shadon, Wolf Cry, Fair Stood the Wind for Toron), and an appendix (only six cases). Since the dedications have been dealt above when describing the discovery of pseudotranslations, there is no need to go into more details. The motto is usually a short quotation from a poem or play, for instance an excerpt from Shakespeare’s King John (Act 5, Scene 2) in Drop and Sea; its content always relates to the narrative. In Banners of Flame and The Renegade there is no reference to the poet, which may mean that the poem was composed by the writer though the poem before Part 3 in Banners is Shelley’s Ozymandias.47 In other cases the motto is a brief text by the author, for instance in Shadow Play. In both novels written by Renier there is no general motto but one or two short quotations from famous persons of Ynev are placed at the head of every chapter predicting its content in an abstract way, for instance, “Erôsnek, gyôzhetetlennek érzed magad, fiam? Zabolázz meg akkor egy asszonyi lelket!” [Do you feel strong, do you feel insuperable, my son? Well then, subdue a woman’s soul!] by Rahim el-Haszra (a supporting character in Blood Season) stands before the chapter in which the hero enmeshes two women in order to make them participate in an intrigue. The appendices give data on the prominent personages, history, politics, geography, religions, and languages of Ynev, the imaginary world of the series. For example, the first Blood Season includes an appendix, two tables (pantheons and calendar of Ynev) and two maps (geography and states of Ynev). The appendix is actually a sort of general encyclopaedia with brief entries. Of course, these elaborate data serve as base for the fantasy role-playing game.

Five of the novels include an afterword by the author48; Steel and Lion adds the translator’s remarks; Drop and Sea has the publisher’s note on Mr. Chapman’s ‘liberalism’ as far as historical dates of Ynev are concerned.

These features (dedication, motto, notes and appendices) are evidently intended to consolidate the assumed translated status of these novels, and perhaps could also be regarded as an attempt at auto-canonisation since these paratextual elements are rather unusual in popular literature. They also show the enormous prestige of English-language cultures.

The policy of Valhalla Páholy suggested by the paratexts in M.A.G.U.S. books appears to be definite and clear-cut. The extratextual presentation implies fictitious translation (up to 1995) written by a man who is well up in SF and fantasy; a front cover printed in pale colours with the logo of the series, and portraying one or more human beings; a standard

47 This is very puzzling. It is obviously Árpád Tóth’s translation but certain words have been changed, which of course alters the meaning a little. These modifications in Banners 1: ‘a pusztán’ [steppe] - ‘az erdôben’ [forest], ‘lágy homok’ [soft sand] - ‘rôt avar’ [fulvous forest litter], ‘Ozymandiás’ - ’Ozymundiás’, ‘homoksík’ [desert] - ‘dzsungel’ [jungle]; Banners 2: all the previously listed changes plus ‘ôs’ - ’ôsi’ [‘ancient’, using the adjective instead of the attributive noun], ‘király légy bár’ [were you a king] - ‘király, légy bátor’ [king, be valiant]. Amending the references (from ‘desert, sand’ to ‘forest, jungle) can be explained by the fact that the narrative takes place in a forest-clad wilderness; ‘ôsi’ can be a printing error, also adjective is more conventional than an attributive noun; since the structure of ‘király légy bár’ is very unusual it can be assumed that Chapman wanted to make sense of it and thus revised a seemingly nonsensical idiom. But ‘Ozymundiás’ still remains a mystery.

48 For example, in Fair Stood the Wind for Toron the afterword signed as J.B. (Jan van den Boomen) gives thanks to Dezsô Kosztolányi and Dezsô Keresztury for their translations of two Baudelaire and one Nietzsche poems which are embedded in the novel.

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19 cm format, a text length of about 310 pages; a dedication; a motto, most frequently an excerpt from a poem; an appendix; and a short blurb, the name of the publisher, the price, and the ISBN number on the back cover.

The texts are structured differently, there is no general text model. All of them are divided into chapters, most of them numbered (except Steel and Lion, Crown and Chalice), sometimes also provided with a title (Fair Stood the Wind for Toron: the numbered days of the narrative; The Renegade: allusion to the content of the given chapter, sometimes also serving as a link among chapters). Two novels have subchapters, also entitled, in Tale of Shadon in accordance with the name of the character whose adventures are described, in Fair Stood the Wind for Toron the name of the hours divides the chapter into smaller units. The chapters are also marked with a new page. The Renegade, Wolf Cry, Blood Season and both Banners of Flame also have parts (between three and six) consisting of several chapters (between four and 19), always with titles referring to the story. Interestingly, the numbering of chapters is continuous in Wolf Cry and The Renegade throughout the novel, the numbering starts afresh within each part in the Chapman books. The parts always begin on a new page with a motto (no motto in Wolf Cry). Prologue and epilogue may occur (four and six cases respectively), but not necessarily.

An omniscient narrator is employed in all M.A.G.U.S. novels apart from Dark Pilgrim whose text is written in first person singular.

The plot can easily be summed up: the protagonist is always a young man whose task - usually to attempt the impossible - is set at the beginning; he usually has companions - even female ones are not excluded - with whom to fulfil his mission, and he does succeed despite all difficulties (little obstacles, such as his death49, will not stop him). However, all M..A.G.U.S. novels have an impaired happy ending - a love affair comes to an abrupt end, a close friend becomes maimed, a brother dies, and the like. The society described is rather conservative - it is by no means surprising that the linked role-playing game is listed among the traditional games on the Internet.

I have found a homepage called ‘Web Server Statistics for M.A.G.U.S. and Codex’ which clearly denotes the popularity of this series and the linked role-playing game, particularly if one takes into consideration that the official Valhalla Páholy webpage does not function yet50. Zealous fans have created several webpages51 for sharing information, and I suppose these provided the statistical data. Knowing that the Hungarian network is rather underdeveloped compared to the United States and Western Europe, the number of requests (4936 in January 1997) is astonishing. Another fact worth mentioning is that most of the requesting domains belong to Hungarian universities (e.g. BME, ELTE52) and research institutes (e.g. KFKI, SZTAKI53). This supports the hypothesis that the audience of SF and fantasy is composed of youngsters and people with a technical degree.

Another factor worth noting is that the development of the publishing house54 is also detectable in the names: Walhalla Kereskedelmi Bt. (1992, since then under liquidation); Valhalla Páholy Könyvkiadó Kft. (1992-1994)55; Valhalla Holding (1994-). Neotek Kultúrális [sic!] és Kereskedelmi Szolgáltató Kft., though not incorporated in the Budapest

49 For instance, in Wolf Cry three of the four protagonists die, at least once, in battle only to be revived and fight on later.

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company register, seems to be in business as an affiliated company of Valhalla Holding. This development is to be discussed elsewhere.

The textsThe basic problem in terms of textual features is whether these pseudotranslated novels have particular linguistic and stylistic models, if so, to what extent, whether it is possible to recognise (pseudo)translations, that is, whether the reader can feel that it is a foreign text rendered into Hungarian, if so, whether those ‘foreign’ elements can be pinpointed. I have tried to develop a sort of ‘cluster analysis’ to show that these texts most probably have been written by Hungarian native speakers. Thus I have searched for

- cultural referencese.g., measurement system - almost never metrical (foot, yard, mile); identifiable ‘imaginary’ cultures (dzsad is Arabic, Niare is Chinese); religious/biblical references (“S lôn este és [lôn] reggel, a második nap” [“And the evening and the morning were the second day”]); geographical names (Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma); Futapest (a popular running race throughout Budapest); chapter title “Búcsú a fegyverektôl” [Farewell to Arms]

- proper names (order of surname and given name; nicknames)e.g., Godaházy Gábor, Csopaki Benô, Tier Nan Gorduin, Kicsi Sólyom [Little Hawk], Joah Malichor, Rahim el-Haszra, Leányrabló Harass Bel Erhan, a Vérivó [Ravisher Harass Bel Erhan, the Blood-sucker]

- coined wordse.g., szkogg, karakka, Concitator, Ultimator, Mortor, ramiera, largoss, hekka, ruaf-ulam, irbis, gisvil, L’aile n’on saille, Múdan, roofissh, Hga rúnihoung rídan!, abbit, afrad, dzsenn/jan

- incorporated foreign words (most probably English and Latin)e.g., lord, wyvern, yard, jade, output, euthanasia, Bentley, Transgalactic Corporation, dollar, “Art magica arcanum semnum”, ‘per formuli’

- lexis (undistinguished, common vs. unaccustomed words/expressions, e.g. atticisms; the frequency of words belonging to the recognition vocabulary of native speakers, the frequency of loan words)e.g., kese fenevad, lélekvesztô, setét, kaspó, egykorvolt, herbalista, matéria, geográfus, aktivizál, karbunkulus, pavane, portéka, förgeteg, fortély, révület, pallérozott, porhüvely, magabízás, tanácsnok, talár, málékony, istenbarma, izented-é, gyöttek, eccer, eztet, itten, kapol, nyaggatol

- metaphors (new, unfamiliar ones vs. clichés)50 In 1996. Now they have an official webpageunder construction (URL: http://www.valhalla.hu), which can

sometimes be downloaded.51 http://pele.ilab.sztaki.hu/magus; http://osiris.elte.hu/~thaur/darton; http://www.jpte.hu/~flu/rpg (domains: two

universities, one research institute).52 Budapesti Mûszaki Egyetem [Technical University of Budapest], Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem [Eötvös

Loránd University].53 Központi Fizikai Kutatóintézet [Central Physical Research Institute], Számítástechnikai Kutatóintézet [Research

Institute of Computer Technology].54 Bt., that is Betéti Társaság, means deposit company with unlimited liability; Kft., that is Korlátolt Felelôsségû

Társaság, means limited liability company, Ltd.55 The members (Csanád Novák 50%, András and János Gáspár 30%, Zoltán Novák 20%) sold their shares to Valhalla

Holding (identical members) in 1994.

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e.g., ‘vérfagyasztó kacagás’ [blood-curdling laughter]; “a szél úgy süvített, mintha gonosz lelkek kísérnék útján” [approx. The wind whined as if evil spirits followed it about on its way]; “vértôl megfeketült fogai ódon sírkövekként sötétlettek” [approx. (his) teeth blackened by blood, darkled like ancient tombstones]; “szobrok elnyúló szörny-árnyai” [the long-stretching monster shadows of statues]; “a napsugarak lassan és melegen kúsztak arcától az ágyéka felé, miként a jó szeretô csókjai” [The sunbeams, like kisses of a good mistress, were creeping slowly and warmly from his face towards his loins], “Majd, mint únt ágyast a csapodár szeretô, hirtelen eltaszította” [Then, like a fickle lover who became weary of his concubine, he suddenly cast him/her/it off]; “A bambuszkarókon rongyos ruhák lengtek, kísérteties árnyakat fialva” [approx. On the bamboo rods ragged clothes hung loose, casting eerie shadows]

- proverbs, sayings, idioms (English, Latin, Hungarian; in their original form or rephrased)e.g., “Jött, látott, gyôzött, (aztán faképnél hagyott)” [Came, saw, conquered (then abandoned you)]; “keresték betevô aranyaikat” ([gold] instead of ‘falat’ [morsel, bite], approx. ‘to earn one’s daily bread’); “az emírség mégsem vehetô egy burnusz alá Gorvikkal” ([burnous] instead of ‘kalap’ [hat]; ‘Still, the emirate cannot be lumped together with Gorvik’); “akiket máshol már nem tûr meg hátán a homok” ([sand] instead of ‘föld’ [ground], approx. ‘who are no longer tolerated elsewhere’); ‘az idôjárás viszontagságai’ [approx. the vicissitudes of weather]; ‘szerénységem tiltja’ [approx. my modesty forbids - in Hungarian the possessive case is obligatory]; ‘kívánsága számomra parancs’ [approx. your wish is my command]; ‘hölgyeké az elsôbbség’ [ladies first!]; ‘ugrásra készen’ [approx. be on one’s toes]

- poliptoton/figura etymologicae.g., tudván tudva; mérgek mérge; “Könyörtelen voltál, légy hát most könyörületes!”

- errors (printing, grammatical, terminological)e.g., ‘kíncölöp’ instead of ‘kínzócölöp’ [torture stake]; ‘szembolt’ [possibly meaning superciliary ridge, or perhaps eye-socket]); száznyi év [approx. ‘a hundred years’ but the suffix in this expression is ungrammatical]; ‘lakájos’ [provided with a lackey] instead of ‘lakályos’ [cosy, commodious]; “a testôreim andoidok, nincsen szexuális orgánumuk” [lit. my bodyguards are androids, they do not have sexual organs - but the word ‘orgánum’ does not correspond to the English organ, it merely means ‘timbre’]

I assumed that a text written in order to look like a translation had to bear some marks of its ostensible origin that could be found and identified. For instance, I hypothesised that nominations should imitate the English way, forename/prenomen would be positioned before the cognomen/gentilitial/patronymic; or the lexicon and style of a translated work would be less ample, less rich than of an original; the incidence rate of poliptoton would be infrequent, or it would not occur at all, as against the numerosity of errors (misprints particularly in proper names); hackneyed formulae would be ubiquitous, and proverbs would not be altered. In most cases the findings have confirmed my hypotheses though when I compared the pseudotranslations with genuine ones done by the same person it has become quite clear in several instances (e.g., András Gáspár, István Nemes, Zsolt Szántai) that the findings have much more to do with the translator-author’s talent and style than with any attempt to disguise the real origin of the text.

I have also looked for the signs of (genuine) translating as established through the methods of corpus linguistics (see Baker 1996): explicitation, simplification, normalisation and

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levelling out, although it does not seem likely that such analysis will add greatly to our findings. As far as I know Hungarian corpus linguists have not yet dealt with the comparison of original and translated texts. Lacking unmistakably characteristic features of a text translated from English into Hungarian, corpus linguistics can only provide a rather general frame for investigations.

The hypothesis that the novels differ from each another according to the initiator’s intention had to be discarded in its original form. It does not seem to matter what the extratextual features may suggest: whether a simple case of pen name, or a fictitious translation with elaborate fictitious data, the text itself may smell of its Hungarian origin. The textual characteristics of the novels do diverge from one another; they are typical of the series (M.A.G.U.S., Osiris, Griff), of the publisher (Valhalla Páholy, Cherubion, Unikornis). Let me provide brief examples:

1. Cherubion, Word of Chaos by John Caldwell/István Nemes, p. 79.:

“A fogadós két habzó korsót helyezett elébük. Lucinda felemelte a sajátját, asztaltársa korsójához koccintotta, s ezzel a mozdulattal csaknem összetörte, aztán ivott; nagy, mohó kortyokban, és a hab lecsorgott széles állán. Skandar Graun megcsodálta szikrázó nôiségét, s szíve legszívesebben harsány szerelmi ódákat énekelt volna a láthatatlan húrokat pengetô dalnok hallhatatlan nótájára.” [approx. The inkeeper put two brisk jars before them. Lucinda lifted her own, clinked it against her convive’s jug almost breaking that, then drank; in long, gluttonous pulls, and the head ran down her chin. Skandar Graun admired her coruscating muliebrity, and, by choice, his heart would have sung ringing amorous odes along with the un-heard tune of the singer who was plunking invisible chords] - my emphasis

2. Valhalla Páholy, Anthico by Josh Keegan/Zsolt Szántai, p. 17.:

“... és liheg, és mászik. Hátranéz. Az adrenalin-szintje kétszáz százalékkal megnövekszik. A Bestia még mindig jön. Tovább mászik. Csak lenne nála valami kibaszott fegyver ...! De nincs. Nincs semmije, legfeljebb a két ökle meg a két lába. A sensei annak idején azt mondta, akkor jó a katona, ha a teste a legveszedelmesebb fegyvere. A barom! Ô is ugyanolyan szûkagyú, militáns állat volt, mint a többi kiképzôtiszt, csak idônként lehúzta a bakancsát, hogy mezítláb, fehér vászonruhában, fekete övvel a derekán beparádézzon a dojóba ...” [approx. ... and gasps for breath, and creeps. He looks back. His adrenaline-level increases by two hundred per cent. The Beast is still coming. He creeps on. If only he carried a bloody weapon about his person...! But he does not. He has nothing, at best, his two fists and two legs. The sensei said in the old days that a soldier was good only when his body was his most dangerous weapon. The idiot! He was a narrow-minded, military animal like all the other drill-officers, just sometimes took off his boots so as to parade in the dojo, barefoot, in white linen clothes, with a black belt about his waist ...] - my emphasis

3. Unikornis, Blood Season by Wayne Chapman/András Gáspár & Csanád Novák, p. 100:“Lan-Ro Ryen, a Kyr Birodalom hetedik légiójának hadnagya lélekszakadva rohant a vezér sátra felé. Mikor jelentették neki, hogy a szemközti dombon két félisten jelent meg, természetesen csak legyintett, azután, harcosai unszolásának engedve mégis kilovagolt, hogy saját szemével gyôzôdjön meg az igazságról. Most, hogy a jelentés helytállónak bizonyult, szinte eszelôs öröm szállta meg. Nem mintha nem állt volna készen a halálra - az életet azonban szerette, s az esélytelen küzdelmet szívesen meghagyta volna a Pusztítóknak. [Lan-Ro Ryen, lieutenant of the seventh legion of the Kyr Empire was

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running breathlessly towards the tent of the leader. When he was reported that two demigods had appeared on the adverse slope, well, of course, he just waved his hands, then, deferring to the urgency of his warriors, he after all rode out so as to see the truth with his own eyes. Now that the report had proven true, an almost delirious joy infatuated him. Not as if he had not been ready to die - but he loved life, and would gladly have given up the hopeless struggle to the Devastators.]

I emphasised the ‘mistakes’ (underline): a superfluous definitive article; clinking glasses though one is not supposed to touch glasses when drinking beer in Hungary; an ungrammatical hyphen; two fists/legs though all these paired bodily parts should be one, that is, if one loses an arm, one wil be ‘half-armed’ in Hungarian. I also laid emphasis on foul language (italics) and out-of-the-common words/expressions (bold).

It seems that the macrostructure resembles the international (Americanised) standards of SF and fantasy more thoroughly than the microstructure, and a microstructural analysis can always verify the text’s de facto origin, or at least renders it very likely. It is very interesting that though the style of the M.A.G.U.S. novels is far more elaborate (except Tale of Shadon) than for instance that of the Osiris Books (practically of any books in the genre), they still look more like translations (except Tale of Shadon), or at least they could be translations. At the same time if one makes the effort to examine the linguistic and poetic means employed in those novels the possibility that they are translations ebbs away, becoming nearly unrealistic. The occasional nonsensical, unintelligible sentences or neolalia, the incorrect grammatical structures merely augment the likelihood of translational status - nobody would suppose that a native speaker, not to mention a man of letters, would make such a mistake without the interference of another text/language/culture. However, these errors may also be caused by very strict deadlines, and remain in the text because the publishers cannot afford to employ editors and proof-readers.

The difference in presentation, for instance, between Cherubion and Valhalla Páholy, is probably due to the different target audiences. Admittedly, Cherubion aims at secondary school pupils and people with a high-school diploma, while Valhalla Páholy’s target public consists of students and the professional classes.

There is no well-marked resemblance to genuinely translated texts which are supposed to be more daedalian, involute, latent and tricky but this is not easy to establish. As Mona Baker warned us in her key-note lecture in Dublin56

Translation scholars are starting out from abstract notions such as ‘simplification’ (the idea that translators subconsciously simplify the language or message or both) and ‘explicitation’ (the tendency to spell things out in translation). These features can be expressed in a multitude of ways on the surface. (bold added)

Since corpus linguistics has not yet provided us with clear, unmistakable characteristics of a translated text as opposed to an original it does not seem possible to prove that the given text is pseudotranslation beyond doubts. The ‘cluster analysis’ can only give presumptive evidence - we must make allowances for a gifted, or brilliant translator. Nevertheless, in some cases, the plausibility of pseudotranslation is so high that proofs do not appear to be necessary.

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Toury (1995:45) formulates what the potential pseudotranslator should do to achieve the desired goal:

An author wishing to put on a serious act as a (pseudo)translator would do well to invest some efforts. S/he would not only find (or carve out) the appropriate niche for his/her prospective text (in terms of the systemic organization of the culture which would host it), such as combining a (pseudo-)source language with a text-type which would be in keeping with it. S/he would also have to invest some efforts in the formation of the text itself in away which would be sufficiently persuasive.

56 ‘Corpus-Based Translation Studies: The Challenges That Lie Ahead’ at the ‘Unity in Diversity?’ International Translation Studies Conference, 9-11 May 1996, Dublin, Ireland.

NoteThe author wishes to thank the Research Council of the Catholic University of Leuven, the Soros Foundation of Budapest, and dhaxley translations s.a. for the support they have provided for this research project.

BibliographyBaker, Mona. 1995. ‘Corpora in Translation Studies: An Overview and Some Suggestions for Future research’. in: TARGET. International Journal of Translation Studies 7:2 pp. 223-243.

Baker, Mona. 1997. ‘Corpus-based Translation Studies: the Challenges that Lie Ahead’. in: Somers, Harold ed. Terminology, LSP and Translation Studies: Studies in Language Engineering, in Honour of Juan C. Sager. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 175-186.

Bartus Zsolt & Paralla János eds. 1991. A fantasztikus irodalom bibliográfiája. I. Könyvek [Bibliography of Fantastic Literature. Part 1. Books]. Miskolc: Astreia Miskolci Sci-Fi Club.

James, Edward. 1994. Science Fiction in the 20th Century. Oxford - New York: Oxford University Press.

Gross Péter. 1988. Fantasztikus, tudományos-fantasztikus, utópisztikus, misztikus mûvek bibliográfiája [Bibliography of Fantastic, Science Fiction, Utopian, Mystical Works]. Budapest.

Hunyadi Csaba, ed. 1988. Supernova 6. Fanzin-katalógus [Fanzine Catalogue]. Galaktika Klub, Szeged. Internal bulletin. Manuscript.

Magyar Nemzeti Bibliográfia. Könyvek Bibliográfiája [Hungarian National Bibliography. Bibliography of Books]. 1989-1996. Vol. 44-51 (1-24). Budapest: Országos Széchenyi Könyvtár.

Robyns, Clem. 1990. ‘The Normative Model of Twentieth Century Belles Infideles. Detective Novels in French Translation’. in: TARGET. International Journal of Translation Studies 2:1. pp. 23-42.

Sohár Anikó. forthcoming a. ‘Genuine and Fictitious Translations of Fantasy in Hungary’. in: Proceedings of ‘Unity in Diversity’ Translation Conference, Dublin May 1996. St. Jerome Publishing.

Sohár Anikó. 1997. ‘Virtual Translations, or Cyberpunk in Hungary’. in: Proceedings of The Second International ‘Transferre Necesse Est ...’ Conference, Budapest September 1996. Scholastica, Budapest.

Toury, Gideon. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. Amsterdam - Philadephia: John Benjamins.

FictionMartin Clark Ashton. 1995. Shadoni krónika. Valhalla Páholy-Neotek, Budapest. ISBN 963 8353 70 8.

Dale Avery. 1995. A renegát. Neotek, Budapest. ISBN 963 85406 1 3.

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What pseudotranslations often do, towards the attainment of this last goal, is incorporate in their text features which have come to be associated, in the (target) culture in question, with translation - more often than not, with the translation of texts of a specific type and/or from a particular source language and textual tradition. By enhancing their resemblance to genuine translations they simply make it easier for their texts to pass as such.

The problem is that the decision in most cases was not made by the author. Since using pseudonyms and making the author’s name appear to be that of the translator were originally he distributors’ initiative towards the publishers held in dependence who in turn keep the writers in subjection, most of these SF and fantasy novels were not composed initially with the intention to present the text as a translation, and their true cultural background can (easily) be established. Of course, the selection of (pseudo-)source languages and text-types, English and fantasy fiction, are in accordance with Toury’s requirements, but the formation of the text itself is another matter entirely. Among the fictitious translations, particularly among early ones such as Gwylin’s The Absent-Minded Magician, some novels resemble neither the SF and fantasy textual tradition nor any genuine translation. Only some of the pseudotranslations issued by (Art) Phoenix and Valhalla seem to bear sufficiently persuasive resemblance to genuine translations, at the very least at first view.

Interestingly, some of these pseudotranslations, particularly in fantasy, use language in unexpected ways: their lexis and style tend to be a little archaic and highly literary, while the few SF and Cyberpunk pseudotranslations almost exclusively focus on the plot mixing SF, Cyberpunk elements with fantasy and occult, mystical occurrences, lacking the typical vocabulary and inventive, sometimes playful style so characteristic of genuine translations

Jan van den Boomen. 1996. Jó széllel toroni partra. Valhalla Páholy-Neotek, Budapest. ISBN 963 900704 8.

Wayne Chapman. 1992. Észak lángjai. Walhalla Páholy, Budapest. ISBN 963 7632 02 6.

Wayne Chapman. 1994. A Halál havában. Valhalla Páholy, Budapest. ISBN 963 8353 13 9.

Wayne Chapman. 1994. Két hold. Valhalla Páholy, Budapest. ISBN 963 8353 55 4.

Wayne Chapman. 1995. Észak lángjai [2nd edition]. Valhalla Páholy, Budapest. ISBN 963 8353 64 3.

Wayne Chapman. 1996. Csepp és tenger. Valhalla Páholy, Budapest. ISBN 963 9039 02 0.

Wayne Chapman. 1997. Karnevál 1-2. Valhalla Holding, Budapest. ISBN 963 9039 16 0ö.

Gwyn Gwylin. 1989. A szórakozott varázsló. Unikornis Kiadó, Budapest. ISBN 963 7519 15 7.

Ryan Hawkwood. 1995. Farkasének. Neotek, Budapest. ISBN 963 85475 37.

Ryan Hawkwood. 1996. Árnyjáték. Valhalla Holding, Budapest. ISBN 963 9039 00 4.

Robert Knight. 1994. Holdfénytolvaj. Cherubion Kiadó, Debrecen. ISBN 963 7841 41 5.

Robert Knight. 1995. Vörösszemû Patkány. Cherubion Kiadó, Debrecen. ISBN 963 7841 46 6.

Robert Knight. 1995. A Sárkányszuka. Cherubion Kiadó, Debrecen. ISBN 963 7841 58 X.

Raoul Renier. 1994. Acél és oroszlán. Valhalla Páholy, Budapest. ISBN 963 8353 35 X.

Raoul Renier. 1995. Korona és kehely. Neotek, Budapest. ISBN 96385291 8 0.

Ray O’Sullivan. 1995. Sötét zarándok. Neotek, Budapest. ISBN 963 85406 3 X.

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in the same subgenre (for instance, Camelot 2020 in which King Arthur, Merlin and the knights of the Round Table reincarnate in the near future to fight against Morgana and Mordred again, or Neon Bible, labelled Cyberpunk by Valhalla, in which no virtual reality, human-computer interface - sine qua non in Cyberpunk - exist). This seems to be an important point; first, because it evidently shows that these subgenres are not clearly separate in Hungarian but are still in search of their identity and niche courting approbation; second, because it also gives a fairly good idea about the readers’ expectations and thus about the cultural environment that hosts these assumed translations (for instance, in a country where surfing the Internet is still the privilege of a few, Cyberpunk will obviously not concentrate on a visualised matrix, or on human-artificial intelligence relationships).

Nevertheless, pseudotranslations imitate their English-speaking sources on a more abstract level, that is, they realise the characteristics of the (sub)genre faithfully (e.g. narrative techniques) from patterns to the indispensable happy ending. The fact that most of the pseudotranslators are devoted fans and translators of SF and fantasy elucidates their capability to introduce, adapt and promote the genre to an audience with different traditions.

One is inclined to think that the sudden appearance of pseudotranslations in 1989 and their regular and systematic use since then relates to the changed socio-political environment. The new political scene has influenced each and every aspect of life. The first six years of transformation attempted to remodel the entire society, which of course caused uncertainty and a sometimes quite creative chaos. New economic parameters and conditions, new legal regulations, new literary actors, etc. have shaped the slowly reorganising literary system struggling against old conditioning. One of the new factors is that hundreds of publishing houses have appeared on the market (although the fluctuation is rather high, most of them just published a couple of books, then vanished, but new ones have come into existence all the time) together with big international corporations. The previous distribution network collapsed, and a more divided distribution pattern has come into being.

The new cultural circumstances called for new text-types including popular fiction, doubly so as the previous system almost totally neglected this public request. Since no literary subsystem of popular genres had existed - there were only sporadic publications of this kind - the literary actors obviously turned to translation to fill in the gap, and this inevitably led to the production of fictitious foreign texts. No wonder that it was mainly the recently founded publishing houses that embraced this option.

Pseudotranslations, texts with no original in another language, seem to play a very important role in the cultural transfer during the transition from a communist regime to a market economy. It would be worth investigating the translations of pulp fiction in other ex-socialist countries as well. What is more, it may not be impossible that this phenomenon has a great significance in the case of all ‘minority’ cultures.

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