Asterix

Originally the idea was to make Asterix a genuinely heroic Gaul — a huge hunk of a warrior. Then René Goscinny thought it would be more amusing to make him small and weedy in appearance, apparently insignificant but in fact very cunning, and Albert Uderzo then came up with the idea of his inseparable friend Obelix (from obélisque = obelisk) who is indeed big and enormously strong (he fell into the cauldron of magic potion when he was a baby, and it had a permanent effect on him), but is far from bright, and endearingly childlike. Other standard characters are the village bard and the village chieftain.

In the later books, Obelix is accompanied on this page by his little dog, Idéfix in French, Dogmatix in English.

About half the adventures take place in Gaul, in and around the little village itself — it is never named, but lies on the coast of Armorica, now Brittany. In the rest of the stories, Asterix and Obelix visit places including Spain, ancient Egypt, Britain, the area of present-day Germany where the Goths live, Switzerland, Greece (for the Olympic Games, a book written for the 1968 games and translated into English for the Munich games four years later), Belgium, Corsica, even India (Astérix chez Rahazade / Asterix and the Magic Carpet), America (La Grande Traversée / Asterix and the Great Crossing, although they don’t know it is a real New World and believe they are in some Roman colony, maybe Crete or Thrace), and in the latest book (La Galère d’Obélix / Asterix and Obelix All At Sea) the fabled continent of Atlantis. They also pay several visits to ancient Rome, taking the battle into the enemy camp — the enemy being Julius Caesar, whom they treat with cheerful disrespect. In fact an almost friendly relationship eventually builds up. When Caesar and Cleopatra want to hide their baby son from the machinations of the evil-intentioned Brutus, they leave him on Asterix’s doorstep, and rebuild the Gaulish village itself when it is burnt down in the course of the ensuing complications (Le Fils d’Astérix / Asterix and Son).

In 1977 René Goscinny suddenly died of a heart attack, aged only 51. His friend and partner Albert Uderzo decided to continue the series on his own, writing the stories as well as drawing the pictures, rather than import another author, who he felt would be bound to add a new dimension not part of the original concept. He has now produced six albums by himself, continuing the tradition as before, and still alternating adventures at home and abroad. Translations of Asterix: the stories have now been translated into a vast number of languages. When Peter Kessler wrote a Complete Guide to Asterix (Hodder, 1995) the number stood at 70, and is now probably above that. Languages have included Esperanto and ancient Greek — for Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques, not surprisingly — and a large number of titles in Latin.

The history of the English translations: several English-language publishers initially turned the series down, on the grounds that it was too French to cross the Channel successfully. Eventually Brockhampton Press, the name at the time of the children’s department of Hodder & Stoughton, decided to make the venture. To translate the books they recruited a team consisting of Anthea Bell (i.e. me) and Derek Hockridge, Derek as a lecturer in French and expert on all the French topical references, Anthea as a professional translator with, at the time, a special interest in translation for children. The first English translations were published in 1969; the latest was the story mentioned above, Asterix and Obelix All At Sea, which came out in October 1996 in the original French and also, simultaneously, in the major languages of translation.

Read more...The Pictorial Element

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