> Case in point. The film title 'Batman' was translated into
Norwegian as 'Fluttering Mouse Man'! It didn't inspire the
locals.

As a gin-u-wine Norseman, I feel obligated to supply my
expertise on this point.

"Bat" translates into "flaggermus", which is our word for the
animal, meaning, a flying or fluttering mouse.

Of course, "flaggermusmannen", translated word by word
(that is, "flagger" + "mus" + "mannen"), would be "flutter" +
"mouse" + "the man", or "the fluttermouse man", which isn't
at all as cool-sounding as "Batman".

Actually, when the Batman comic came to Norway, he was
called "Lynvingen", which would translate to "The Lightning
Wing" or something like that, which worked OK, because he
never did much bat-related stuff.

But nowadays, americanized as we are, he's called Batman
even here. So, the film title was actually "Batman" here too.

Trav"erse that "holt

(The Merriam-Webster's CollegiateŽ Dictionary and
Thesaurus are truly invaluable online aids! They even support
wildcards, so you can look up "Trav*" or "*holt" or "*olt",
"*?word" etc.)