Literary translation as a creative activity

Abstract

The modern theory of translation is a searching of extralinguistic, socio-cultural and psychological factors that shape its strategy and norms as a creative activity. We analyse the story "Tree and Leaf" written by J. R. R. Tolkien as a creative activity. We point out 3 different types of translations made by E. Gippius, S. Koshelev and O. Stepashkina. We state that the title is a "collapsed" text that incorporates cultural, historical, ethnic, linguistic information. We also pay attention to linguistic specific of the main character’s name that has transformations in three different versions of the translation