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Not untranslatable. I have the same problem of not being able to read things in the original with Russian, French, Italian, Spanish. Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech etc. etc. etc. authors. But some things simply do get lost in translation. Hey, I probably miss lots of things like inside jokes by Bavarian, Swabian, Saxonian, Franconian, Rhineland, Hamburg, Berlin etc. writers!So it is untranslatable like others Tolkien's works on MythologyI have "Children of Húrin" in Russian, but haven't read this book in it, I usually read the original versions. Just not to spoil first impression. But there are many people who can't do that so there is a need for translators (I wish to be a one someday)
I've read the term "oblast", and Wikipedia offers some help. But that's another thing that might not translate well: subdivisions of countries.I don't know is it good or not, but Russian doesn't differ much in its regions. I live in the Southern Russia and don't see any trouble with writer's language that can be from North or from the East regions (I don't know how to translate the word "oblast" or "krai" which means a part of the country). I wish I could continue to study German and it would be enough for me
If you are interested in world building and in Gondor, I recommend reading the modules and maps that were created by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) for Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP). I especially recommend the modules Southern Gondor - The Land and Southern Gondor - The People and the Northwestern Middle-earth map set. Scanned copies can be found as PDF files on the internet. There is a trove of material from different role playing games on the internet. Most of the authors who created the MERP modules have studied relevant fields at university. If you are interested in fantasy that was inspired by the Byzantine Empire from an author with a doctorate degree in Byzantine history, I recommend you to read Harry Turtledove's books that are set in Videssos (e.g. The Misplaced Legion, An Emperor for the Legion, The Legion of Videssos, Swords of the Legion).
"Videssos" shrilled a bell, and I found out why quickly. In 1992, celebrating JRRT's 100 birthday, there were probably quite a few publications trying to cash in on this (though most likely only ripples compared to the merchandising cash-in eruptions for the films as of 2001 respectively 2012). The 1992 Pan Books (paperback) collection that I own, titled "After the King", edited by Martin H. Greenberg, includes in its 19 contributions only a single name that even now I recognize, Terry Pratchett, whose "Troll Bridge" is a hilarious riot. But there it is, Harry Turtledove's "Decoy Duck", with a Videssian "missionary" expedition to the "Haloga", thinly if at all disguised as Scandinavian heathen Vikings, most likely in Norway. The "Decoy Duck" of the title is a Haloga captured as a child and enslaved, who became a fervent convert and even "priest" to the Videssian creed, and was thus sent on this missionary enterprise. At least this short story, if Videssos is supposed to be modelled on Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Christianity, casts a highly unfavorable light on it.
The Misplaced Legion, An Emperor for the Legion, The Legion of Videssos, Swords of the Legion were all already published in 1987 way before JRRT's 100th birthday. I also recommend the Middle Earth Role Playing books and maps and the Other Hands and Other Minds magazine (their names are inspired by a passage from a letter of J.R.R. Tolkien). You can find them by doing a google search for trove MERP. One of the editors of many MERP books and of the Other Hands magazine was Chris Seeman, who had an M.A. in Biblical Studies with Hellenistic History (Seleucid Near East, Roman imperialism) as one of his areas of expertise at that time (he now has a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Religions and is an associate professor at Walsh University). I liked the creative effort that went into the MERP books and maps and into some articles in Other Hands and Other Minds.
