Tintin Forums

Tintinologist.org Forums / Curious about Tintin? (Non-album specific) /

Secret of 'The Unicorn': Messing with the ship's origin and allegiance?

RicardoOlcese
Member
#1 · Posted: 31 Dec 2018 18:27
English Wikipedia informs us that:
"The Unicorn (French: La Licorne) is a fictional 17th-century three-masted armed Royal Navy vessel appearing in The Adventures of Tintin..."

That Royal Navy is actually a link to the British Royal Navy.

I always believed La Licorne was a ship belonging to La Royale. That is, the French Royal Navy. In The Secret of 'The Unicorn' (French, and Spanish editions at least), at the end of page 14, Capt. Haddock says it expressly. Even his ancestor had a French name: Hadoque.

Oh! I just read in the French Wikipedia that: "Dans la version originale ainsi que dans la plupart des traductions, le navire fait partie de la flotte de Louis XIV et est commandé par le chevalier François de Hadoque. Dans la version anglaise, La Licorne (The Unicorn) est un bateau du XVIIe siècle voguant sous l'Union Jack, le pavillon britannique, et commandé par Sir Francis Haddock".
Well, the question is: was it right that translators ("traductore, tradittore") change the ship's allegiance? I think it's a chauvinistic, useless change in the story. I also note that they had some good ideas, like translating "Pleksy-Gladz" for "Kurvi-Tasch". But this time... I don't quite agree.
The ship should have stayed French, as its original author decided. Any opinions?
Shivam302001
Member
#2 · Posted: 3 Jan 2019 09:41
Well, given that they were essentially translating for an English audience, it is not such a questionable decision. However, if you do not like it, you can always read the French edition.

Personally, it hardly matters whether it was a French or English ship to me. Everything else would be the same in either case.
snowybella
Member
#3 · Posted: 3 Jan 2019 11:13
RicardoOlcese

The translators, Mr. Turner and Ms. Lonsdale-Cooper, actually made the ship British on purpose. When Casterman first published the Unicorn two-parters in English in 1952 (?), they had a different translation and they ended up as a massive flop. The same went with the American "Golden Press" editions.

Comics were generally frowned on in the old days, and having hard-back editions of them was unthinkable. Methuen ended up in taking a great risk.

When Methuen began printing the Tintin series (starting from Ottokar), they had to Anglicise it so the target audience - English children - could identify with it better (just a guess on my part - it might be different)...and what luck! We should be grateful of this, as if they had left Tintin clearly Belgian, then it might have ended in another flop and "no Tintin in English until Cinebook publishes it!".

Also, the reason why there is a Union Jack on the Unicorn is because when the translators asked Herge himself whether they could make it into an English boat, he fully approved of the decision, and I'm assuming he or somebody else commisioned the colouring-plate to show that.

Of course, I may be mis-remembering certain things, but the ever-reliable jock123 will know more.
jock123
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 3 Jan 2019 11:57
RicardoOlcese:
English Wikipedia informs...

I think you will find that quite a lot has been said about this on these forums already, along with discussions of the merits (or otherwise) of localization of the stories, without having to look to Wikipedia!

Take a look around to save turning over too much old ground; try these for a start:
Captain Haddock: His nationality?
Tintin: Is he Belgian in the books?
Translation of Tintin character names?

RicardoOlcese:
I think it's a chauvinistic, useless change in the story.

Well, again a bit of forum reading might pay off here too: you have to bear in mind that Casterman in 1952 had tried to launch several foreign-language editions of Tintin, and had failed to ignite interest in any of the markets it tried.
In addition to two of the books (Unicorn and Rackham) being launched in hardback, the British audience had also had a third story (Ottokar) made available, in the highly popular and prestigious weekly, the Eagle - and yet even with this level of publicity the series failed in Britain.
Both Casterman and Hergé were delighted and enthusiastic when Methuen proceeded with their relaunch of the books in new translations in 1958, and Hergé was both consulted on, and approved, any changes the translators made.
In both cases (the 1952 and 1958 versions) the books were modified to localize them, and as has been pointed out by other members, this was very much the case with children's literature both in the UK and on the continent, at the time, where Enid Blyton's British The Famous Five became the French Le Club de Cinq, and Anthony Buckeridge's English public school-boy Jennings transformed into the Norwegian Stompa at a Norwegian school (and, it has to be said, possibly exceeded the popularity of his original, as the character was adapted for several successful movies).
So I don't think the chauvinism charge has much weight behind it - the intention was simply to make the series as popular with a readership as possible, it was done in full cooperation with the original author and publisher (who undertook similar changes themselves), and it was a common practice in the publishing industry at the time.

As Shivam302001 says, if the changes bother you terribly, there are still the French originals.
RicardoOlcese
Member
#5 · Posted: 3 Jan 2019 19:11
Hi! Thanks everybody for your kind answers. The change doesn't really bother me, for sure. I didn't know Hergé himself approved of it, that's an important fact.
Anyway, about your arguments, I don't really know how the ship's allegiance, which is inserted on page 14, could be relevant for a child reading the story about pirates and treasures. He/She had already purchased the book, and started reading the story on page 1.
Furthermore, I think that a British child reading a story about what happened to a French ship, instead of making it an English ship, could promote knowledge and understanding about other peoples.
Furthermore (2), the fact that Hergé based the design of the ship from a model of a real ship of the French navy (Louis XIV era), is in my opinion a point in favour of keeping the ship French.
Thank you for the advice of reading the comics in French. Cheers and amaïh to everyone!

Oh! By the way, I forgot: I read it in Spanish, and the ship wasn't made Spanish anyway. It stays French, and depicts the white pavilion that the Bourbons (also known as Whiskey dynasty I guess) used.
Shivam302001
Member
#6 · Posted: 3 Jan 2019 19:46
Whiskey dynasty! Sounds a lot like whisky. Quite ironic, don't you think? :-)

Well, the nationality of the ship was changed for commercial reasons (which paid off, I guess) and was done with the permission of Herge. Moreover, as you said, kids do not really care much about such things unless it be a plot point. So I really don't see any harm in it.
jock123
Moderator
#7 · Posted: 4 Jan 2019 16:22
snowybella:
but the ever-reliable jock123 will know more.

Hah! That's very kind of you - but by the looks of things you remembered well...! ;-) I am guessing that we were writing our replies pretty much simultaneously (I took a bit longer because I was doing other things at the same time...)!
RicardoOlcese
Member
#8 · Posted: 4 Jan 2019 18:07
jock123
Yes... too much simultaneously to be merely a coincidence. You both are members of the Kih-Oskh conspiracy! Confess! Or, to be precise: Tell the truth!
Shivam302001
Member
#9 · Posted: 4 Jan 2019 19:26
RicardoOlcese

Well done, detective! ;-)

Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the Forum Posting Guidelines.

Disclaimer: Tintinologist.org assumes no responsibility for any content you post to the forums/web site. Staff reserve the right to remove any submitted content which they deem in breach of Tintinologist.org's Terms of Use. If you spot anything on Tintinologist.org that you think is inappropriate, please alert the moderation team. Sometimes things slip through, but we will always act swiftly to remove unauthorised material.

Reply

 Forgot password
Please log in to post. No account? Create one!