UDK 81'255.4:821.111(73)-3 Cooper J. F. =163.6 
THE FIRST TRANSLATIONS OF LEATHERSTOCKJNG TALES IN 
SLOVENE 
Darja Mazi - Leskovar 
Abstract 
The Leatherstocking Tales represent what is probably the most valuable contribution of James 
Fenimore Cooper to the development of American literature. This article surveys briefly the first 
translation of the series, by highlighting the domestication and the foreignization procedures which 
were applied to make the books accessible for the target audience. Secondly, it discusses the interplay 
of do111~stication _ill}d forf:iglli:z:a~on \Vitllre,!lard to_!Jl~ f()f!llS and fun<;tiQns of ]J!OJlt!l" name~. __ 
INTRODUCTION 
J arnes Fenimore Cooper, one of the first American men of letters who developed 
and popularised widely diverse literary forms, has been honoured with the title of 
the "founding father of the American historical novel, exploring the contradictions of 
American society in a time of profound change" (Gray 107). James Fenimore Cooper 
was born in Gulington, New Jersey and brought up in Cooperstown in the New York 
State. Leaving Yale University without taking a degree, he became a navy officer and 
then a country gentleman in Cooperstown. His first book, Precaution (1820) was a 
failure; his second book, The Spy: the Tale of the Neutral Ground (1821), in which he 
created the character of the hero under the influence of Sir Waiter Scott, was an im-
mediate success. One of the reviewers even "hailed Cooper as the first who deserved 
the appellation of a distinguished American novel writer" (Gray 108). Just two years 
later other books followed, among which was the first of the Leatherstocking Tales, The 
Pioneers; or, The Sources of the Susquehanna: A Descriptive Tale (1823). The book 
introduced the hero Natty Bumppo who is also the protagonist of the other four novels 
of the same series: The Last ofthe Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826), The Prairie: 
A Tale (1827), The Pathfinder; or the Inland Sea (1840) and The Deerslayer; or The 
First War-Path: A Tale (1841). 
The thirteen-year time-lapse between the publication of The Prairie and of The 
Pathfinder was important for the reception of the series by the source American public; 
however, it did not have any impact on the reception of the series by Slovene readers. 
The translations of all five novels were published on the threshold of the twentieth cen-
75 
tury: The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans in 1900, and The Pathfinder, The 
Prairie and The Pioneers in 1901. Another lucky circumstance that accompanied the 
Slovene translations is that the publication chronology of the series enabled Slovene 
readers to follow the narrative chronology. Hence the chronological order of events 
described in the five novels was respected by presenting first the hero Natty Bumppo 
in his early twenties in Deerslayer, then in The Last of the Mohicans, where Natty, 
who is called Hawkeye, is in his thirties. In the translations that followed, the main 
protagonist is in his forties in The Pathfinder, in The Pioneers he is Leatherstock-
ing in his seventies, and in The Prairie he is the old trapper in his eighties. The five 
translations were numbered accordingly: The Deers layer described as Part I and The 
Prairie as Part V. 
The first translations of the Leatherstocking series prove that at the start of the 
20th century Slovenes followed the same literary trends as the rest of the western world.' 
Each of the translations testifies to the bridging of the gap between American culture 
and its literature and Slovene culture and its literary lore. The term 'culture' in the 
present context refers to "the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to the 
community that uses a particular language as its means of expression", in accordance 
with Peter Newmark's view presented in the book About Translation. 
The notion of translation and of the "related concepts such as adaptation and 
rewriting" (Lambert in Baker 130) is treated differently in various literary traditions. 
In this paper the term is used for any rendering of the text into another language in 
order to enable the non-source audience to read it (Anderman and Rogers, 2003). 
Hence, the term adaptation will have a status free from negative connotations and will 
be considered as a constituent part of the translation process. However, since transla-
tion is also "concerned with moral and with factual truth" (Newmark 1 ), the messages 
conveyed by the translations will be compared to the messages of the original texts. 
Accordingly, translations will be inspected also with respect to the "translation of 
culture" (Anderman and Rogers 88), focusing on the procedures of domestication and 
foreignization. Domestication is applied in order to render the texts more accessible to 
non-target readers, and foreignization to enable the readers to experience the foreign. 
Both strategies are as a rule combined in mainstream and cross-over literature. The 
Leatherstocking Tales have been written with an adult audience in mind but have from 
a relatively early date come also to be read by younger readers. This is, according to 
Griswold, a frequent phenomenon in the world of literature where "great writers wrote 
books for an audience composed of both children and adults" (Griswold 248). In the 
case of translation of such works, domestication is one of the prerequisites enabling 
also non-mature readers, together with those who are looking for an undemanding 
text, to be able to enjoy the books. In such a context, the translation of culture-bound 
elements, particularly proper names, is especially significant; hence this paper will 
discuss also the interplay of domestication and foreignization as revealed in the forms 
and functions of proper names. 
1 Darja Mazi - Leskovar, Ameriska mladinska proza v Sloveniji. Magistrsko delo. (Unpublished M.A. 
thesis.) Rokopis. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta, 1996. 
76 
THE TRANSLATIONS PREPARING THE GROUND FOR COOPER'S 
BOOKS 
The ground for the translation of The Leatherstocking Tales was initially pre-
pared by the first English literary text translated into Slovene: Benjamin Franklin's 
Poor Richard's Almanac. The book was published in 1812 under the title Prava pot k 
dobrimu stanu, ali ena beseda ob pravim casi. Since the book did not address a larger 
audience,2 the first real literary and cultural encounters with America and its reality took 
place a few decades later with the publication of the translations of the works written by 
the Slovene missionary Friderik Irenej Baraga.3 In order to get support for his mission 
among Indian tribes, he undertook various types of research and wrote books about the 
life and customs of the Indians from the area of the Great Lakes. One of Baraga' s most 
popular texts, Popis navad in zaderzanja Indijanov polnocne Amerike, was translated 
from his original German version Geschichte, Character, Sitten und Gebrauche der 
nord-amerikanischenlndier(The History, Character, Manners and Customs of the North 
American Indians )4• The book was translated from German by Jozef Kek and published 
in 1837. Baraga's book prepared the ground for Cooper's series. Between the two, the 
great icebreaking translations of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin or Negro 
Life in the Slave States of America (1852) attracted great attention from Slovene readers 
in 1853.Howevet-, the two Slovene versions of Uncle -Tom's Gab in -were not-translated 
from the original but from the German translation5, while Cooper's novels, by contrast, 
were all translated from the original English text. 
THE EARLIEST TRANSLATIONS OF LEATHERSTOCKING TALES IN 
SLOVENE 
The first American author who was presented to Slovene readers with a whole 
series of books was James F. Cooper. The translations of tales in which he created "the 
man of the forest" (Moore 215), the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, were published under 
the title Natanael Bumppo. Since the name was presumed to cause an excessively for-
eignizing effect, the title of the series was given on the inner title page only. The jacket 
cover thus carries the Slovene title of each individual book. The cultural background of 
the stories and the type of the novel they all belong to are indicated with a visual clue 
-with a colour illustration of undisclosed illustrator appearing on each jacket cover. In 
the hope of attracting the attention of potential readers, the image is accompanied with 
a sentence which explains the scene and has thus the function of a caption. On the title 
2 The book, which was published in Graz, did not turn out to be a particularly widely read text. 
3 Friderik Irenej Baraga, born in 1797 in Mala vas pri Dobrnicu (Slovenia), died in 1868 as the first 
bishop of Marquett (USA). Baraga was the first Slovene missionary among the Otawa and Ojibwa Indians 
about whom he wrote in his books. 
4 The German original and the Slovene translation are extensively presented and commented in the article 
"Frederick Baraga and his Book on the Manners of American Indians" written by Breda Pozar and published 
in Acta Neophilologica 6 (1973): 29-71. 
5 Uncle Tom's Cabin in the Slovene Language" by Darja Mazi - Leskovar in Acta Neophilologica, 31. 
1-2 (1998): 115-121. 
77 
page, on the other hand, there are two inscriptions that are presumably intended to miti-
gate the strong foreignizing effect of the title of the series. The first is the introduction 
of the author's name with 'Written in English' and the second is 'A tale adapted for the 
young'. In such a way the potential readers were not only given the cultural context of 
the books, but were also promised easily-readable texts. 
THE DEERSIAYER 
The first adaptation of The Deerslayer was entitled Strelec (Marksman). The first 
paragraph conveys the temporal and spatial framework of the story, indicating that it takes 
place around 1740 on the banks of the river Hudson. This setting for the action used to 
be a wilderness stretching into New England (1). In the English original, however, this 
information is embedded into a context conveying detailed historical and geographical 
background and appears in the third paragraph only. Clearly, taking into account the 
target text readers, the setting needed to be less specific. Besides, this reduction served 
the adaptation, enabling the translator to reduce the text to one fifth of its original length. 
These introduce the main hero of the series as Natanael Bumppo, called by his friends 
Natty or Deerslayer. He comes with his friend Chief Chingachgook of the Mohicans to 
th~ plaG~-that ~vokes-memories of-the events that-took-place-fifteen-years earlier. __ 
The translation brings out above all the story of the Deerslayer's fights and 
struggles with the Iroquois Indians and of his friendship with Chingachgook, called 
also Great Snake or Serpent. The Slovene adaptation is primarily a narration of fighting 
and clashes between Indians and whites, between Indian tribes themselves and between 
Englishmen and Frenchmen. Natty is presented as a brave and loyal frontiersman, re-
spected by his friends and feared by his enemies. However, his personality is only partly 
revealed. Readers get no insight into his emotional life and they are only allowed to 
discover fragments of his reflections and his serious consideration of moral issues. The 
part of the novel presenting Natty's romantic affair with a beautiful girl, Judith, does 
not appear in the target text; only the story of the young Indian chief and his sweetheart 
Wah-ta-Wah is rendered into translation. The dialogues in which Deerslayer expresses 
his ideas on life and death, good and evil, race and religion, customs and traditions are 
either completely omitted or very briefly summarized. Natty's moral image is rendered 
above all through the opinions he has about scalping, about killing and self-defence 
and about loyalty and friendship. Hence, the intellectual and moral background of the 
protagonist's views are only partly disclosed, contrary to the original where they are 
clearly explained on various occasions. 
The message of the novel, which is not conveyed by the central hero only, is fur-
thermore truncated, since the adaptation does not allow space to present the development 
of those traits of other characters which undergo radical changes due to their encounters 
with Natty. For example, there is no summarizing of a section where the white scalp traf-
ficker decides to abandon his cruel business. In accordance with the whole structure of 
the adaptation, the final paragraphs, in which Cooper comments on the passing of time, 
and the oblivion into which the crimes that Deerslayer and Chingachgook witnessed 
have fallen, are also shortened. However, the melancholic tone of the closing passage 
78 
is faithfully rendered and the Serpent's son, Uncas, is introduced. He will appear in the 
eponymous novel The Last of the Mohicans. 
THE LAST OF THE MOH/CANS 
The 'literary life' ofNatanael Bumppo continued for the Slovene readers in Pos-
lednji Mohikanec Natanael Bumppo (1900). The best known book about the character 
who was to become the "anticipation of later Western heroes" (Gray 109) turned out 
also as the most popular book among the target readers. 
Like in The Deerslayer, in this adaptation also, the tale is reduced to a story full 
of action. The commentaries on the historical, geographical, socio-political and moral 
issues that are integral parts of the story are reduced to a minimum. Most of them are 
deleted and only the ones that appear to be indispensable for the understanding of the 
story, in which Hawkeye tries to help the endangered Mohican Indians and the white 
Munro sisters, are briefly summarised. For instance, in the first chapter of The Last 
of the Mohicans, Cooper describes the historical circumstances on which the story is 
based and comments on the stance of Europe with regard to the wars and the fights with 
Indians. The Slovene adaptation leaves out the author's reflection altogether and sets 
only the locale and the time frame- for the story: "The events I would like to describe 
took place on the territory among the Great Lakes and the sources of the Hudson River, 
in the third year of the war between England and France" (1). Such a strategy reflects 
the translator's aim of reducing the text, which he manages by condensing parts of the 
tale and by leaving out whole episodes and chapters. Hence, the thirty-three original 
chapters are rendered in six Slovene chapters. In consistency with such a reduction, all 
the quotations from literary works which introduce individual chapters in the original, 
are also omitted. 
Despite the reduction, which enables an important degree of domestication, The 
Last of the M ohicans has a strong foreignizing effect. The primary source of foreigniza-
tion is simply the backward glance of the author, the American who converted the unique 
American "eighteenth-century experience into a nineteenth-century work of literature" 
(Merchant 85). The section of American history offered to the Slovene audience is, very 
much as in The Deers layer, presented in its specific, double perspective. The main hero 
is not only ready to express his standpoint but is also able to step into the moccasins of 
the American Indian. However, as Hawkeye cannot represent the variety of white settlers 
and the multitude of viewpoints of the white fictional characters, the Native Americans 
that he encounters belong to various ethnic groups and have different perspectives on 
the whites. Neither of the two racial groups is uniform and the encounters between them 
are the source of the strong foreignizing effect to the novel. 
Still, the "clear and clean division of persons into groups" (Merchant 87) makes 
also the target story transparent. The foreignizing effect may have been furthermore 
mitigated by the motif of spying. The episodes of spying, on which the plot markedly 
depends, create the atmosphere of 'mystery' which may be viewed as intrinsically 
related to the unknown environment and thus facilitating the encounters of the target 
readers with the strange and unknown in the story as a whole. Slovene readers are 
79 
faced with spying as early as in the first chapter, while the source readers meet it in 
the second chapter of the original. However, it is through the constructive communica-
tion between Hawkeye and other characters that information is shared. The source text 
readers are faced with the first significant exchange between the white protagonist and 
Chingachgook in the third chapter, whilst the target readers are faced with it as early 
as the first chapter. The frontier scout is thus introduced as the intermediary between 
the two extremes: the redskins and the whites. The former are represented particularly 
through the opposition between the Hurons and Delawares and the latter through the 
rivalry between English and French colonizers. The adaptation of the first chapter thus 
prepares the potential audience to follow the action. As the story evolves, the racial 
identity which appears at the start of the novel to be the most important indicator of 
the difference between humans, loses its weight. The former initial standpoint of the 
Indians, according to which the white man is only a cruel colonizer, gradually gets new 
features. The Mohicans, thanks to the cooperation between the main character and their 
tribal chief, start discovering the complex nature of the white men, and the newcomers 
in turn learn about the differences existing between various tribes of native Americans. 
The message of the final scene of the book, however, cannot be grasped by Slovene 
readers because Hawkeye's ideas about brotherhood among all people have not been 
sufficiently covered by the adaptation. 
THE PIONEERS 
The Leatherstocking Tales open with The Pioneers, the volume which, accord-
ing to D. H. Lawrence, contains "some of the loveliest, most glamorous pictures in 
all literature" (Berkovitch 684). According to Cooper's introduction from 1832, these 
pictures should illustrate the transformation of American society. The introduction, 
which was not translated in the 1901 Slovene adaptation, also claims that The Pioneers 
gives only a general picture of the society. The Slovene abbreviation of the long English 
title The Pioneers; or, The Sources of the Susquehanna: A Descriptive Tale with only 
the short Naseljenci (Settlers, Colonists). therefore appears to be a good solution. The 
information that the author gives about the setting is also reduced: the tale takes place 
in 1793 not far from the sources of the river Susquehanne in the state of New York. The 
original, conversely, mentions also the lake Otsego. Both names have a foreignizing 
effect, consequently, the choice to present only one Indian name, mitigates the degree 
of strangeness of the location. Additionally, it may be presumed that at the start of the 
20th century the city of New York was already known to an average Slovene reader. 
Moreover, the settlement as the locale of the tale has a domesticating effect if compared 
to the untamed nature in which the rest of the narratives take place. 
The Slovene target readers were thus offered a book which "treats history as an 
unfinished and strife-ridden process; an area of struggle between a rising and a doomed 
nation, the expanding American Republic and the beleaguered society of the natives" 
(Bercovitch 685). The new American civilization which is not represented only by 
the Native Americans, Englishmen and Frenchmen but also with a black American, is 
viewed primarily through the attitude which different groups show towards laws. Natty 
80 
Bumppo and his friends, Chingachgook and Oliver, believe that manmade law is use-
less for it does not encourage the proper relationship to the environment. Natty breaks 
a regulation and he is imprisoned even though the Judge recognises that by the norm of 
a higher law Leatherstocking is innocent. The law is not flexible and protects the new 
"market outlook" (Bercovitch 685) according to which nature is perceived as a source 
of limitless exploration. Still, in the course of the story the two views are increasingly 
difficult to tell apart. The marriage of the judge's daughter with Oliver is the most 
outstanding proof of the fusion of the two attitudes. 
The translator adapted forty chapters into eight. He completely omitted a few 
chapters, as for example the seventh chapter in which Cooper explains the connections 
between various Indian tribes and introduces John the Mohican. Moreover, he left 
out the fourth and the thirteenth chapters in which Oliver Edwards, one of the major 
characters, is put into the limelight. In the fourth chapter the young man is introduced 
as a person of exceptional physical force and presence of spirit and in the thirteenth 
chapter the local inhabitants try to uncover why Oliver came to Templeton. Despite 
the omission of the information, the message of the narrative is communicated. It is 
obvious also from the Slovene text that the young man has been raised in the spirit 
of Natty and Chingachgook. When he eventually gets possession of the land that 
belonged to his ancestors, justice is done and he can enter the organised American 
society. Slovene readers have thus been shown another important aspect of the rela-
tionship between the Indians and the whites and between the newcomers and the first 
settlers of the USA. 
THE PATHFINDER 
The introductory paragraph of Stezosledec, which is the literary translation of 
The Pathfinder, does not create the foreignizing effect of the starting chapters in the 
previously presented novels. The temporal framework is rather vague: "the second half 
of the previous century." ( 1) The spatial framework is also quite loose; just "the woods 
around the Northern-American Great Lakes" (1). However, in the original, the place 
and time of action are not indicated as early as that: the only indication of the locale 
in the first paragraph is the proper noun, America, appearing in the context the "virgin 
forests of America (1). The aim to domesticate the text is additionally revealed by the 
interpolation of the third sentence in which the translator explains that the forest in 
which a group of two women and two men were walking could not be compared to the 
woods Slovene readers were familiar with. 
"Vendar se neizmerni gozd nikakor ni dal primerjati nasemu dobro oskrbovane-
mu gozdu, kjer pazi gozdar na dobra pota in takoj odpravi vsako drvo, ki ga podere 
vihar."6 
Thus, despite the pronounced adaptation procedure which aimed at the consid-
erable reduction of pages, very much as in the three novels already presented above, 
6 However, the immense forest couldn't be compared to our (i.e. Slovene) woods which are so well cared 
for and where a forester is in charge of good paths and immediately removes every tree which has fallen in 
a storm (my transl.). 
81 
the translator considered it appropriate to emphasize that the reality described in the 
source text and the one which target readers are familiar with in their own environment 
may not be the same. Such an extention of the text proves that the translator was aware 
of the need to operate "at the frontiers of language and culture" (Bush 128) and that 
he wanted to prevent the readers from interpreting the text according to their specific 
cultural experiences. Therefore in spite of the initial linking of the text with familiar 
experience, the translator's intervention is an attempt to emphasize those aspects of the 
fictional reality that are unknown or even alien to the reader. Such a move favours the 
foreignizing aspect of the text. 
The discrepancy between reality on the one hand, and human perception and 
interpretation of it on the other, is one of the main themes of the novel and it is as such 
also presented in the Slovene adaptation. Even the cover picture on which the dying 
Sergeant Dunham, Pathfinder's friend, puts his daughter's hand into the hand of a young 
man Jasper, illustrates the scene from the novel where the reality does not correspond 
to the individual's perception. The point is this picture portrays a scene where the girl's 
father thinks that he is blessing her union with Pathfinder whom he favours as a future 
son-in-law. Natty, who has fallen in love with Mabel, eventually recognises that he does 
not really know himself and that he, a woodsman, needs the wilderness as much as the 
girl needs the town. 
-- · Tlfe-othenvhite fictional cliaractefs -alsoliaveto-go tlirougli-a-similar process -of 
adaptation of their expectations to the situations in which they have to live. The French 
captain, for example, believes that his experience at sea ensures him all the qualities he 
needs for the navigation on the Great Lakes. Only when his lack of appropriate experience 
drives him into trouble, is he willing to recognise that in an unknown environment he 
has to develop other gifts. The humour arising from initial misinterpretations and from 
the different kinds of adaptations the characters have to go through in order to survive 
characterizes also the Slovene adaptation. 
The Indians, conversely, are featured as the ones who mostly live in compliance 
with their nature and their gifts. The main hero, called also by his French name La 
Longue Carabine, believes that they are a remarkable race even though he, as a white 
man, cannot always approve of their deeds. 
THE PRAIRIE 
The last of The Leatherstocking Tales, was entitled Na preriji. Similarly to the 
other Slovene adaptations, the narrative is not preceded by any of the three introductions 
which Cooper wrote for his source readers. The first introduction from the year 1827 
would have been, however, important for the Slovene readers as well, since it helps to 
understand the whole opus concerned with Natty Bumppo. Cooper explains that his 
books try not only to respect historic facts of the period his fiction is set into but also 
to introduce the Indians through their customs. His primary aim, however, is to present 
the life of the man who moved to escape from civilization and who has been considered 
a hero in whatever environment he has found himself. 
82 
The Prairie continues Natty's story from The Pioneers. After his code of natu-
ral justice has been defeated by the institutionalised code of social justice, he enters 
the area of the prairies. The Slovene adaptation defines the historic and geographical 
framework of the narrative. The period of the narrative is 1804, since it is stated in the 
first sentence that the events took place in the year after the unification of the French 
territories with the USA, which took place in 1803. The land of immigration, the posi-
tion of the place where the action of the narrative takes place, is defined at the start 
of the first chapter. It is introduced as "the far away regions that previously belonged 
to the French Louisiana and which later joined the United States" (1). In the second 
paragraph, likewise on the first page, the topographic feature of the region is defined 
as 'the prairie.' It is the limitless prairie at the other side of the river Mississippi. In 
the first chapter of the original the place and time of the narrative are also specified. 
However, the source audience who was expected to be to a certain extent familiar with 
the geographical and historic facts related to the setting, is offered a whole range of 
footnotes giving additional information related either to the history or to the geography 
of the area in question. These footnotes are not translated and they are not necessary 
for the understanding of the abbreviated target story. The quotations from Shakespeare 
which introduce individual chapters are also omitted. 
In order to reduce the original text to a third of its length, the translator has again 
puttfie stress ori th-e adioii The coirip1ex story about the trapper is presented in-its-most 
important aspects. Natty, called in this novel also the old man, joins a group of white 
people travelling through the wilderness of the Great Plains. Despite the abbreviations 
of the text, it is obvious also from the Slovene version that the hero can help the trav-
ellers because he knows how to act in this vast plain. By observing the behaviour of 
animals and Indians, he knows the manners and morals of prairie life. Hence, the group 
can survive the series of risks triggered by the natural environment. However, due to 
the presence of the unsympathetic and belligerent Indian Sioux and of the embittered 
outcast Ishmael Bush and his brother, Natty has also to deploy all his courage, moral 
rectitude and mediation skills. Finally, the travellers regain the American settlement 
but Natty prefers to stay with Hard Heart, the young chief of the Pawee tribe who has 
helped them in the prairie. The eleventh chapter of the adaptation shows how the old 
man dies as a loved and respected adviser of the Indians and as a dear friend of the ones 
he led in the prairie. 
The text keeps many foreignizing aspects. The most outstanding are those related 
to the setting and the fictional characters. The prairie as a locale is a natural habitat 
unfamiliar to Slovenes. Accordingly, the animals, such as buffalos, were presumably 
unknown to an average reader. The Indian tribes and the differences between them 
represent another source of the impact of strangeness of this narrative. There are the 
Sioux who seem to have an almost animal-like nature and are opposed to the Pawnees, 
the noble and respectful friends of Natty. The reader is able to discover a similar op-
position in the white group: the wise old man is represented as an ideal figure and his 
chief antagonist, Ishmael, even carries a Biblical name that in itself reveals his nature to 
the target readers at a time when the culture was still strongly marked by a knowledge 
of the Bible. 
83 
WHO IS THE FIRST TRANSLATOR OF THE LEATHERSTOCKING 
TALES? 
It is obvious from the five translations of The Leatherstocking Tales that they have 
been translated by the same translator. Since the name does not appear either on the 
jacket cover or on the title page, it seems appropriate to raise the question of the name 
of their translator. The editor of the series, J anez Giontini, however, stated in the List of 
the books published for the general public and young people that The Leatherstocking 
Tales had been translated by I van Strelec. France Simonic included the same informa-
tion in Slovenska bibliografija 1550- 1900. Janez Stanonik, the author of the section 
"American- Slovene cultural relationship" in Enciklopedija Slovenije (Mladinska knjiga 
1987) claims that the series was translated by Ivan Strelec, therefore we can consider 
Strelec as the first translator of the series into Slovene.7 
THE TRANSLATION OF PROPER NAMES IN THE LEATHERSTOCK1NG 
TALES 
The Natty Bumppo books are historical novels referring to the 'real world' of J ames 
F. Cooper: the 18th century USA. As such they contain a wide range of proper names 
referring to persons and places. Since proper names are strongly culturally marked, their 
form and function in the translated text are most indicative of the domestication and 
foreignization techniques applied in the translational procedures. 
Domestication of personal names is achieved in several ways. In the case of English 
names which have a visually easily identifiable Slovene equivalent, the English names are 
replaced by the names familiar to the target audience. For example, Elisabeth and Louise 
become Elizabeta and Lujiza in The Pioneers8; Judith becomes Judita in The Deers layer; 
Alice from The Last of the Mohicans becomes Alica; Paul from The Prairie turns into 
Pavel and Richard into Rihard. Biblical names used in The Prairie were considered to 
be familiar to the Slovene readers therefore the name Esther remains unchanged in the 
translation despite the existence of the Slovenized form Ester. 
The situation is a little different with the translation of names which carry a 
meaning. For example, in the Deerslayer, Rivenoak is translated literarily into Razklani 
hrast; in The Pathfinder the Arrowhead is Puscicna ost. The many names of the main 
hero fall into the same category when they refer to some quality or possession of his. 
The Leatherstocking becomes Irhasta nogavica, Stezosledec corresponds to Pathfinder 
and Sokolje oko to Hawkeye. The same is true about the many names of Chingachgook. 
When he is called Serpent or Great Serpent, the translation calls him Kaca or Velika 
Kaca. Thus, also in the adaptations the translated names are used according to the usage 
in the original: whenever the quality or possession of the fictional character appears to 
be important for the situation in which they are caught or the circumstance they are part 
of, the components of the name are translated. 
7 lvan Strelec (1864-1914) was a teacher and headmaster. He was an amateur translator and besides 
Natanael Bumppo, he translated a few Czech articles related to teaching and learning. 
8 All the titles of the books in this chapter refer to the equivalent Slovene versions. 
84 
A number of names which do not have an easily recognisable Slovene counterpart 
are domesticated through partial alteration. For example, in a few names containing 
letters which are pronounced differently in English and Slovene, the English letters in 
question are replaced by the Slovene letters which ensure a pronunciation similar to the 
original. For instance, Uncas becomes Unkas. Another type of adaptation is related to 
the cultural context. The name Hetty, for instance, which appears in The Deerslayer, 
is modified into Ketty. The modification may remind Slovene readers of the common 
name Katarina and its derivatives, but the adapted form has neverthless not diminished 
the foreignizing impact of the girl's name, since the Slovene alphabet does not include 
the letter 'y' and the doubling of the identical consonants is not a normal feature in the 
target language. Hence the foreignizing connotation has not been abolished. 
A strong foreignizing effect is derived from those personal names which remain 
in their original form. The most prominent example of such foreignization is the usage 
of the original when referring to the main character Nattanael Bumppo with his full 
name or with the shortened Natty. The hero is referred also with his French name La 
longue Carabine which, conversely, can be found also in its translated form which is 
Dolga puska. An alien cultural context is moreover underlined with other personal names 
which retain their original form. In each novel there are several characters carrying 
original appellations. Instances include Harry March in The Deerslayer, Hiram Dolittle 
aruLBilly Kirby in The Pianeers, Dunham and Mac Nab in The Pathfinder, Ellen Wade 
and Middleton in The Prairie, and Duncan and Heyward in The Last of the Mohicans. 
Similarly the names of French and German origin remain unchanged: Hartmann and 
Montcalm are relatively familiar to the Slovene cultural context: the former due to the 
traditionally strong cultural ties with the German speaking nations and the latter thanks 
to the historical experience from the Napoleonic era. 
Despite the specificity of the target culture which must have influenced the deci-
sions about different ways of translating personal names, it is obvious that the transla-
tor was rather inconsistent in applying the domestication techniques. For example, the 
name of Uncas is changed into Unkas, but the name of Duncan, used in the same novel, 
remains in its original form. The letter 'c' is not replaced by 'k'. The question arises as 
to whether the rationale behind the changed spelling is related to the frequency of the 
appearance of the name in the series: namely, Uncas is not in the focus only in the The 
Last of the Mohicans but is also mentioned in all other novels except The Deers layer 
(which retell the events occurring before his birth). Duncan, conversely, is only one of 
the many characters in The Last of the M ohicans. 
The names of tribes are also partly altered. As a rule the Slovene endings are added 
to the base forms in order to mark the gender, number and case of nouns or correspond-
ing adjectives; this is a general and necessary strategy applied to all personal nouns 
and their corresponding adjectives. However, inconsistency can be observed in the way 
the lexical domestication is applied. Some forms adapt to the Slovene pronunciation 
and script, some only to one of them. For instance, the Mohicans become Mohikani, 
so that the right pronunciation is secured. However, Yankees are changed into Yenkezi 
despite the absence of the letter Y from the Slovene alphabet. On the other hand, the 
Iroquois are turned into Irokezi. The letter 'q', absent from the Slovene writing script, 
is replaced by the letter 'k'. A similar procedure is applied in the case of all the forms 
85 
of the name Delaware and its corresponding adjective. On the level of the script, 'w', a 
letter which is unknown to the Slovene alphabet, is replaced by the letter 'v'. Conversely, 
the letter 'w' remains in the form Pawneejci which is the Slovenized form of the name 
of the Pawnees. 
The translation of geographical names is also inconsistent. The name of the 
country, the United States, is always rendered as Zdruzene dr:lave, what is undoubtedly 
the result of the strong immigration that has been on the way for so long already that 
the Slovene name of the country completely established itself. On the contrary, New 
York and the rivers Mississipi and Hudson are always spelt in their original form. This 
applies also to the completely unknown locations like the fortress Edward or the river 
Susquehanne and the Champlain lake. Conversely, a few names are always translated. 
For instance, New England and The Great Lakes are translated as Nova Anglija, and 
as Velika jezera, respectively. The translation does not endanger understanding since 
these geographical entities must have been already familiar to the target public. It could 
be speculated that due to the writings of Baraga they were more familiar than the geo-
graphical names of other parts of the country. 
As far as the usage of French is concerned, the translator has acted consistently. 
A few sentences which Cooper puts into the mouth of fictional characters of French 
origin are not translated into Slovene. Consequently, a Frenchman asks 'Qui vire?' also 
inthe SJovene translation of The Last of the Mohicans. Even though it is obvious that 
the average Slovene reader was expected to understand basic French, such sentences 
contribute to the foreignizing impact of the translation. They highlight the image of the 
United States as a multicultural society. 
Foreignization is moreover created by the introduction of "the so-called realia, 
words and phrases that are so heavily and exclusively grounded in one culture" (Rob-
inson 222). The objects typical of the Indian culture, like moccasins and wigwams, are 
mentioned at several places. The spelling of the former is inconsistent, while the latter 
has always the same form as in the origin. An instance of the direct transposition of the 
term used in the Anglo-American culture is the usage of the term sheriff in the Slovene 
translation of The Pioneers. Moreover, despite the radical adaptation of the texts, indi-
vidual narratives include a few culturally bound sayings. They all contain the names of 
animals which are not represented in the Slovene fauna. In The Prairie brings a saying 
that "one cannot compare a horse to a salmon". A few pages afterwards there is a saying 
"a buffalo cannot be a bat" (75). On the other hand, the Indian culture is presented as to 
be unfamiliar with the donkey, an animal very familiar to the Slovenes: the Sioux women 
are shown as being frightened when they hear the strange sound of this beast. 
A foreignizing effect of the adaptations is thus underlined with the translations 
of those sections of the texts where the unfamiliar fauna and flora are mentioned. For 
instance, buffalos and alligators do not live in our ecosystems. The same applies to 
various types of landscape such as the prairie, and to ecosystems which cannot be met 
in the Central European context. Hence the setting itself is a strong foreignizing factor. 
Another source of foreignization is the cast of fictional characters representing various 
Indian tribes and languages. Despite the reduction of issues due to the adaptations, the 
translations introduce a whole panoply of themes completely foreign not only to the 
Slovene context but also to the European framework. 
86 
CONCLUSION 
The translations of The Leatherstocking Tales represent an important landmark 
in the history of translation of American literature into Slovene. This article, which has 
deliberately avoided a close analysis of the translation devices used by the first translator, 
has focused only on the strategies of foreignization and domestication. These strongly 
culturally bound narratives with settings and protagonists foreign to the experience of 
the target audience address the readers in an adapted form. The adaptations are not 
only considerably shorter than the originals, but they are also significantly simplified. 
Accordingly, they illustrate above all the domesticating translation strategies, such as 
simplification and omission. Explanation and extension are applied only exceptionally 
which is understandable since the parts of the text which would not allow for simplifi-
cation have as a rule been omitted. Consequently, the adaptations bring to the readers 
mainly stories full of action in which the characters are allowed to express their opinions 
only to the extent required for the understanding of the basic plot of the individual book. 
Despite such a translation strategy, books have raised a few issues, completely alien to 
the target environment. 
Even though the texts were translated by the same person, the adaptations treat 
culturally bound elements, particularly proper names, in a number of ways. The names 
- whiGh retain-their original form underline the foreignizing impact of the whole series. 
The names of German and French origin as well as Biblical names remain unchanged 
which is connected with the supposed cultural background of the target audience. "Even 
though there are no rules for the translation of proper names" (Nord 182), the expectation 
is that their usage is consistent. However, in these translations, various inconsistencies 
can be detected not only in the application of the domestication of different personal 
names but also in the usage of the forms of the same name. Conversely, geographical 
names and the names of tribes, which are also adapted in conformity with either the 
domestication or the foreignization strategies, are consistently used. While it is impos-
sible after this lapse of time to know what kind of impact such inconsistencies had upon 
Slovene readers of that period, it remains very instructive to see these relatively early 
attempts to render such a characteristic range of culturally specific features into a form 
acceptable to readers from a very different background. 
These first translations of The Leatherstocking Tales have provided the Slovene 
readers with a literary experience based on such an interplay of domestication and for-
eignization which enabled the expansion of the sphere of mutual understanding between 
the American and Slovene cultures. Further development of this "zone of mutual translat-
ability" (Nikolajeva 29) was later facilitated by translations of other American authors 
and in 1926 with a new and more extensive translation of The Last of the Mohicans. 
University of Maribor, Slovenia 
87 
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