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Several people have mentioned to me that the title of _Legend of the Galactic
Heroes_ is based on a rather "interesting" translation. What would be a more
accurate translation of the original title (銀河英雄伝説 _Ginga Eiyū Densetsu_ )?
I've also heard that it is based on a German title, that was then translated
to Japanese, and then to English - I don't know if that is true, though.


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japanese-language legend-of-the-galactic-heroes
What is a more accurate translation of the title of Legend of the Galactic Heroes?


_**Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu**_ is a series of Japanese novels written by a
Japanese person, and is not, to the best of my knowledge, materially based on
any previously-existing work.

* * *

The 110-episode OVA series (which is probably what most viewers are familiar
with) was given the alternate title "Heldensagen vom Kosmosinsel". I don't
speak German, but various discussions on the internet suggest that
"Heldensagen vom Kosmosinsel" is not valid German. A look at
[de.wiktionary.org](http://de.wiktionary.org/) suggests that "Kosmosinsel" is
not even a word, or perhaps is a compound noun meaning "cosmos island" (which
is not idiomatic for "galaxy"; that would be "Galaxie").

Given this, it looks like the producers of the OVA figured that it would look
cool to have a faux-German title ([in Gothic font,
too!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xm3Bv.png)), ran "銀河英雄伝説" through Babelfish
(or maybe through some dude who'd had a year of German at university), and got
out "Heldensagen von Kosmosinsel". It's probably the case that the translation
went Jap -> Ger (badly) and Jap -> Eng, rather than Ger -> Jap -> Eng.

* * *

I'm not sure why you've been hearing that that "Legend of the Galactic Heroes"
is an "interesting" translation of 銀河英雄伝説 ( _ginga eiyuu densetsu_ ), though.
銀河 _ginga_ means "galaxy"; 英雄 _eiyuu_ means "hero"; and 伝説 _densetsu_ means
"legend".

It's a bit contracted to omit particles, as titles often are, but the meaning
is clear - this is a _densetsu_ about the _ginga eiyuu_ s, i.e. a _legend_
about _galaxy heroes_. Hence, **_Legend of the Galactic Heroes_**.

* * *

Note: in the comments, [@Krazer correctly points
out](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/5816/what-is-a-more-accurate-
translation-of-the-title-of-legend-of-the-galactic-
heroe/5817#comment6666_5817) that an alternate parse of _ginga eiyuu densetsu_
is as " _eiyuu densetsu_ about the _ginga_ ", i.e. "Heroic Legends from the
Galaxy". Now that I think about it, I'm not really sure which parse is
actually better, in terms of the show.


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