Tintin Forums

Hi, I'd just like to return to the part of the original question regarding how the names of monarchs are dealt with in other translations, specifically German:

The Castafiore Emerald, p.11 - Original French has Henry XV and Louis XIII, German translation has Henry XI ("Heinrich XI.") and Louis XIII ("Ludwig XIII.")

-I can't understand why they made the change to Henry XI, as the joke remains the same (there was never a Henry XI or Henry XV or France or even of any of the smaller states that went on to form Germany) and it adds nothing for the German readership. I'd say this joke might remain a bit obscure to the average reader of the German edition.

The Secret of the Unicorn, p.14 - English translation has "Charles II". The German version doesn't mention the name of the monarch specifically, but refers only to the "Sun King" ("Sonnenkönig"). This means that it must be Louis XIV of France, as this was his popular name and he was on the throne in 1698, the year given in the German edition (rather than 1676 in the English edition). Incidentally, the flag on the Unicorn (literally translated as "Einhorn") is the same in the German book as in the original French edition.

-Both translation decisions are very much in keeping with the overall style of the German translations, as they do not particularly seek to change the setting of the books to Germany or any other German-speaking country. Although "Schloss Mühlenhof" (for Moulinsart/Marlinspike) is Germanised, most actual place names are maintained - on p.54 of The Seven Crystal Balls, for example, Haddock and Tintin drive to Saint-Nazaire as in the French edition, rather than a German port or somewhere fictional (as in the English edition, where they drive to "Westermouth").

Thanks for the correctional info. I must have been misremembering someone saying that the German translations moved Marlinspike to a German setting. I wonder if the English translations are unique in attempting to convey the impression that the location of Marlinspike (and the origin of its furniture) and Sir Francis's naval career were in their own country, rather than in Belgium and France.

Yes, as I explained, I understand that - however the translation hasn’t put any puns in for him (or the reader) to be laughing at; he just talks for a bit, and falls over. It’s a singularly humourless effort by the translator, in what is already a very pedestrian and un-nuanced translation.

As to where this falls in the story (or indeed in which of the two stories in the book) I can’t remember, as it was a library book which I no longer have (as it happens, I no longer have a local library either, as they shut it to cut costs…).

The rule of thumb used by the translators of Asterix seems to be the best expression of it to me (and given the great success of that series, it appears to work): they actually note the number of jokes, gags and puns in a book before they start. Then if they can’t adapt a joke in situ (so, for example, if a pun can’t be found to match one in French), they compensate for it by adding another joke there or elsewhere.

So here Hergé is engaging a school-pupil level of joke, and that is his primary aim; what would make an eleven-year old boy or girl, say, laugh? It therefore seems to me right and proper that you translate that intention directly, rather than just addressing the words. You might get away with leaving it; you certainly get more of the flavour of Hergé’s wit by changing it.

Balthazar

I'm wondering too now if maybe the English translations are unique in changing the Country's setting (Marlinspike, Marlinshire) and related references, locations (Westermouth, etc), period furniture, Kings and Navy, house's history, and all related context.

It does seem, so far anyway, that even where Moulinsart has been renamed elsewhere in other translations, like German (Schloss Muhlenhof), Dutch (Kasteel Molensloot), Danish (Mollenborg Slot), and i think the Swedish, Norweigan, and Icelandic too, in most or maybe all other references not much else has been changed to suggest it's own national identity and settings context, perhaps other than slight differences in the Castafiore Emerald's "Kings" reference of number rather than new names (as in variant language versions of "King Henry" and "King Louis".

The related references to the houses location, Unicorn history (King, Navy, flag, etc), and other locations elsewhere (St.Nazaire or Westermouth, etc), and Moulinsarts historic context, all help to add and explain the translations given or unchanged in Castafiore's "Kings and furniture" joke.

[b][/b]

It also occured to me that another reference of comparison and historic or national context to the location of Moulinsart in the various language translations (and to help identify settings) is found in Seven Crystal Balls (page.3, panel.6) where Captain Haddock tells Tintin (at Marlinspike, Marlinshire, in the English translation) that Professor Calculus "is convinced that there's a SAXON burial-ground in the neighbourhood".

I'm fairly sure that i've also read somewhere that in the original Belgian and French, this reference is to "a MEROVINGIAN" burial-ground, and again maybe the same historic and national context setting is unchanged in the same and other translations, as with the Castafiore "Kings and furniture" reference, and Unicorn's "King and Navy" references?

Again in keeping with the changed "Kings, furniuture, history of house, and locations of Moulinsart/Marlinspike, maybe it is only in the English (Marlinshire context) translation that "Merovingian" history becomes "Saxon" , or is it another history elsewhere?

in Finnish edition.

It's Merovingian and St. Nazaire in the Swedish edition too. As far as the albums go, I think the English translations indeed are unique in changing Tintin's home country.

Two of the early Swedish translations present alternate names for Moulinsart; it was called Hökeborg (Hawk Castle) in the 1962 edition of Unicorn and Möllenborg (like in Denmark) when The Calculus Affair was published in the comic book Banggg 1966-67. BTW, "mölla" is the Danish (and south Swedish) word for "mill", just like the French "moulin".

Regarding changing a location, there are some noticeable examples involving Tintin in Congo. When published in the Portuguese paper O Papagaio in 1939, the story was called Tim-Tim em Angola, and in the French Coeurs Vaillants (1941-42) they avoided the reference to Belgian Congo by calling it Tintin et Milou dans le brousse (roughly Tintin and Snowy in The Bush). Two other examples where the reference to the Congo are removed are the album titles in Dutch (Kuifje in Afrika) and Finnish (Tintti Afrikassa).

Other changes in "Seven Crystal Balls" included towns like Palissy becoming Harlesford, Chavannes becoming Wallinghead, La Rochelle becoming Bridgeport. With such distinguished English place names you wonder why there are so many continental cars (with drivers positioned on the left-hand side) or why the local bobbies investigating Calculus' kidnapping are dressed in the uniforms of French and Belgian gendarmes and police.

I suppose that the translators left out the bit about the annual police fancy dress party.

Speaking of the Sun King, there are authors (like Serge Tisseron and Tom McCarthy) who speculates that chevalier de Hadoque in fact was his illegitimate son ("sailing in the noonday Sunne"), hence the carved dolphin and crown (=the sign of the dauphin, the heir to the French throne) above the front door of Marlinspike. And that this in turn mirrors the origin of Hergé himself, namely that his unmarried grandmother Marie Dewigne got pregnant with twins Alexis and Léon (father and uncle of Hergé) when she worked as a maid at a castle belonging to comtesse de Dudzeele. Marie later married the castle's gardener Philippe Remi, but the identity of the real father - presumably aristocratic or even royal - has never been revealed.