Mould-on-the-Wold

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "zanooda2" <zanooda2 at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom@> wrote:
> 
> > So, what are some of the translations?

zanooda:
> Usually it's just different variations of "plowed wasteland" or "moldy moor/wasteland" :-). Once I met also something like "mounded highland" - I'm not sure I translated it back correctly, but it means that the earth was mounded and this way highland was created. Something of the sort :-).
 
potioncat:
> > I was reading an article about the difficulties of translating 
> > medical/health information--and in particular how tricky some 
> > of our English phrases and idioms are.
 
zanooda:
> Yes, very tricky, especially for those who are not living among native speakers :-). You can never learn all this just from textbooks :-).

Geoff:
I feel that "ploughed wasteland" and "mouldy moor/wasteland" miss 
the point completely.

If I may refer you to post 39626, I wrote:
My dictionary defines "Wold" as:
noun (especially in British place names) a piece of high, open,
uncultivated land or moor.

This does not imply wasteland, or ploughed land.

My vision of "wold" is coloured by Tolkien's occasional reference
 to "the Wolds of Rohan".

If you are familiar with "The Two Towers", his descriptions of Rohan 
are of a green, grassy country of low rolling hills which are beautiful 
and open.

I believe he based Rohan on the Berkshire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire 
Downs, places familiar to him. These are areas of long rolling 
downland 40-50 miles west of London. Another tip of his hat is that 
the Berkshire Downs are the home of many of the big racing stables 
in the UK.