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Red Sea Sharks: Skut's nationality?

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tauno
Member
#21 · Posted: 14 Feb 2008 15:12
Not taken directly from Finnish, but yes, the principle is the same. "Szut" in French is something like "Pah!" in Finnish and "Pähh!" in Estonian. But its not possible to construct same meaning with Sutt, Sütt, Sssut or something like that.
I learned to read from Tintin-albums in Finnish, so I know the Finnish books quite well :)
tuhatkauno
Member
#22 · Posted: 14 Feb 2008 22:33
tauno

Now I see what you meant by "szut & pähh". I often read the writings here too quickly to understand them properly and make an ass out of me by answering nonsense.
jock123
Moderator
#23 · Posted: 2 Sep 2013 16:33
At a related tangent, it was only listening to the audio-guide on my recent trip to the Hergé Museum that something gelled...
When I've read about Hergé being involved in Scouting (or scoutisme, if you prefer), and especially about his doing cartoons for Le Boy Scout Belge magazine, I've always read it as if they would have adopted at least an approximation of the English pronounciation (as is often done in reverse when French words or expressions come into English).
What I hadn't expected to hear was that the word "Scout" was in fact given the very markedly French pronounciation of "Scoot"!
Given that Michael Turner was as adept at and fond of word-play as Hergé, I wonder if he'd picked up on the scout/ scoot thing in conversation with him, and thought of it at all when he chose "Skut" as the name for "Szut", when the opportunity arose in Red Sea Sharks?
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#24 · Posted: 3 Sep 2013 19:11
jock123:
the scout/ scoot thing

It's funny because as a child reading it I thought that Skut's name was pronounced like 'cut', so I never really got why the Captain thought he'd said "scoot". I realised the truth when I became aware of the French version, where his name is Szut (misheard by the Captain as Szut). But he'll always be Skut to me!
gorfdota
Member
#25 · Posted: 31 Oct 2013 17:51
The question is what is an Estonian doing flying a Mosquito plane in the Middle East in the 1950s?
Did Piotr Skut leave Estonia after the Second World War?
Was he, perhaps, a Nazi collaborator?
Or does his presence in Khemed imply that the Soviet Union was surreptitiously helping Bab-el-Ekhr?
mct16
Member
#26 · Posted: 1 Nov 2013 00:34
In the 1950s and 60s it was not unusual for foreign fighters to be serving in the Middle East as army instructors or mercenaries.

Earlier in "Red Sea Sharks", we have a scene of Mull Pasha and Colonel Ahmed and a misunderstanding over the fighters attacking the armoured cars rather than Tintin and co. Mull Pasha was loosely based on John Bagot Glubb also known as "Glubb Pasha" who led the Arab Legion in Jordan.
gorfdota
Member
#27 · Posted: 1 Nov 2013 11:19
mct16, good and valid point about Glubb Pasha and Muhl Pasha. But there is no way the Soviets of the 1950s and 60s would have allowed one of their nationals to be fighting for a foreign power they did not approve of. So, either the soviets approve of Bab el Ehr, or Skut has left the Soviet Union for good, before the end of the second world war. The fact that he is piloting for Careidas later on might suggest the latter case. Therefore, he could conceivably be a nazi collaborator
mct16
Member
#28 · Posted: 1 Nov 2013 14:59
gorfdota:
he could conceivably be a nazi collaborator

Bab el Ehr is in league with Rastapopoulos who supported him through the Arabair flight company and supplied weapons through Dawson. The idea that either of them would be in league with the Soviets is very unlikely.

According to Wikipedia, the Estonians had a very mixed history during WW2. The Soviets took over in 1940, only for the Germans to "liberate" the country in 1941. Many Estonians joined the German armed forces in response to Soviet atrocities committed during the occupation (Hitler or Stalin, what's the difference?).

However, many Estonians also served in the Finnish armed forces against the Soviets and it seems that many also got as far as Britain and served in the Royal Navy and RAF against the Germans. It follows that Skut may have been one of them and if he had flown a Mosquito during the war then flying them as a mercenary some ten years later makes sense.

I doubt if Herge would have given a sympathetic character like Skut a dubious background such as being a Nazi collaborator. Other such characters are shown to be on the side of the villains: the submarine commander in "Red Sea Sharks", or Hans Boehm, the sunglasses-wearing pilot in "Flight 714" or Doctor Krollspell from the same story.
gorfdota
Member
#29 · Posted: 1 Nov 2013 15:38
mct16, your case sounds most definitely plausible. So, should we say that Skut joined the Finns, got to Britain, and found himself in the West by the 1950s? And having nothing better to do, served as a mercenary pilot in the Middle East?
marlinspike hall
Member
#30 · Posted: 3 Nov 2013 23:47
Skut is Estonian, which is cool cause I'll be going there in a few years! Mct16 is correct, they did play a big role in the second world war.

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