GOF: US Murder vs UK Curse

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 88098

bboy_mn wrote:

> > > --- Quote Goblet of Fire - Am Ed - HB - pg 10 ---
> > > "My Lord, I must speak!" said Wormtail, panic in his voice now. 
> > > "..., if *I* (my emphasis) murder --"
> > > 
> > > "If?" whispered the second voice. "..., the Ministry need never
> > > know that anyone else has died. ..., one more death
> > > and our path to Harry Potter is clear. ..."

> What on earth could the US publishers have been thinking? I can only
> concluded that they didn't understand at all what they were reading,
> because the original UK version makes perfect sense. 

Berit replies:

It looks like the American publishers thought they'd make the text 
easier to understand by replacing the words "curse" and "obstacle" 
with "murder" and "someone dying" (don't Americans use the 
words "curse" and "obstacle"?). And they jumped to the conclusion 
that Voldemort was talking about killing someone since that was what 
happened to Bertha Jorkins. If I remember correctly it was indeed 
Crouch Jr's plan to get rid of Moody after the Triwizard Tournament, 
when he didn't need him for the Polyjuice potion anymore. But it 
still doesn't make the "translation" right because of all that 
happened before that.

Berit
http://home.no.net/berjakob/snape.html