: I have not read LoTR from cover to cover in any langauage other than the original, but have read considerable chunks in both German and French. I was pleasantly surprised that the quality of the poetry is excellent iv both cases. This is not necessariy true of the prose. The German text is very good (even though English structures shows through in places, sometimes quite blatantly), although there are some minor inconsistencies in the naming of places which would confuse people reading this text at great depth. The French text has rather more hiccups. The neatest of these is the map of The Hobbit where the word Hobbit has somehow got translated as Lapin. The appendices of LoTR are also riddled with inconsistencies which suggest the translator probably didn't understand what he was writing.

Sound like a translator that went a bit too far. In most translations, unique words like "hobbit" would not be translated.
Just for fun, click the language button at the top of the White council page, and see how your message is translated.~Aelmer