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Tintin: Official postal address?

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jockosjungle
Member
#11 · Posted: 17 May 2005 16:08
Anyone got a postcode? That'd clear up the mystery of which country.

I wonder what would happen if you tried sending a letter to Tintin in Belgium? I wonder if the Belgium PO has a system in place to send them somwhere like the Royal Mail has with letters to Santa.

Rik

PS. Incidently I've had about 50 e-mails from the Tintin Yahoo group about this in a couple of days
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#12 · Posted: 17 May 2005 16:13
So conversely, it was the English translators who purposely added the British element!

Indeed, I wonder whether the English translation is the only one which states a country name? My German edition doesn't include it (Gebrüder M & G Vogel-Faull, Antiquare, Schloss Mühlenhof) nor does a Spanish edition I've seen.

However, like Marlinshire, Schloss Mühlenhof doesn't sound as if it would be in Belgium either.
Richard
UK Correspondent
#13 · Posted: 17 May 2005 17:27
Hmm, if Marlinspike is based on Cheverny, a 17th century French château, doesn't that mean that Marlinspike is in the Loire Valley in France?

Tintin has to get the train there from Labrador Road, which is in Brussels, so it could well be.

jockosjungle
I wonder what would happen if you tried sending a letter to Tintin in Belgium? I wonder if the Belgium PO has a system in place to send them somwhere like the Royal Mail has with letters to Santa.

The Hergé Foundation has a number of letters addressed to Tintin in its archives, so I suppose when he was alive, the letters were forwarded to Hergé - maybe the letters are now forwarded to Moulinsart?

In the French edition of Tintin and the World of Hergé, some letters were addressed to:

· Monsieur Capitaine Haddock, Monsieur Journaliste Tintin, Moulin Château, Belgique (with Belgique scribbled out)
· Monsieur Tintin, 26 rue du Labrador, Bruxelles (Belgique)
· Monsieur Hergé, Gare du Midi, "Tintin" Bruxelles

... and all arrived !

Also, the Spanish editions of the books have an odd anomaly - Marlinspike's name changes from "Castillo del Mollino" in Unicorn to "Castillo del Moulinsart" in Tintin in Tibet. The poor postman !
varun0883
Member
#14 · Posted: 17 May 2005 18:57
But officially the house number is "421" .Yes it was confirmed by Nestor himself when he attends numerous (wrong) phone calls in The Calculus Affair!
yamilah
Member
#15 · Posted: 17 May 2005 19:12
varun0883

'26' or '421'......

Well it depends on what directory you choose, or on the rows and columns you take into account...
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#16 · Posted: 17 May 2005 19:35
But officially the house number is "421" .Yes it was confirmed by Nestor himself when he attends numerous (wron/gblank)phone calls in 'The Calculus Affair"

But Nestor was referring to the phone number of Marlinspike and not the house number. In fact, there is no house number - it's just Marlinspike Hall.
jock123
Moderator
#17 · Posted: 17 May 2005 20:23
Richard
if Marlinspike is based on Cheverny, a 17th century French [i]château, doesn't that mean that Marlinspike is in the Loire Valley in France?[/i]

I think his intention always was that Marlinspike was in Belgium: why would Belgian heroes live in France? The house is obviously styled after a French château, but only in an abbreviated form (missing the wings), so it probably is in an area where a slightly more modest dwelling sufficed, rather than the Loire.

I take your point about the train, but I think it is a local Belgian train, rather than an international one - any rail-buffs who can confirm this?

And of course Marlinspike station might offer clues in the form of signage etc. (I think there might also be a Belgian post-box...).
Jyrki21
Member
#18 · Posted: 18 May 2005 00:16
jockosjungle: Anyone got a postcode? That'd clear up the mystery of which country.

Did European countries tend to have postal codes back then anyway? I believe they're a relatively new invention internationally.

Harrock n roll: Indeed, I wonder whether the English translation is the only one which states a country name?

The Hebrew edition, which translates directly out of English, likewise places Marlinspike in England.
jock123
Moderator
#19 · Posted: 18 May 2005 10:18
Jyrki21
Did European countries tend to have postal codes back then anyway? I believe they're a relatively new invention internationally.

I don't know about Brussels (in fact I didn't know any of the following, but Google is an amazing thing!), but London introduced ten lettered sectors as early as 1858; in 1917 numbered sub-divisions were added, and these became the "outbound" part of the post-code (the initial letter/ number combination).
There are only eight sectors these days (WC and EC (West Central and East Central), N, NW, SW, SE, W and E), as S and NE were reallocated to Sheffield and Newcastle.

Generally post-codes were introduced in the UK between 1959 and 1974, so it is possible that Marlinshire had one in the early days, but it may not have been until Picaros that it became available.

jockosjungle:
Anyone got a postcode?

"MA" would be my guess, Manchester having used M, and MA still appearing available (the PO seem to have missed Marlinspike/ Marlinshire off their sheet for some unknown reason...).

Given its size and status, befitting a lord of the manor, the prospect is that Marlinspike is close to the county town (if indeed the village near the Captain's house which we see at the station isn't the county seat), and Marlinshire being small (it features in no census I can see, nor is it in the Domesday Book, so it must be very small), then it probably has an outbound code of "MA1", a zero being rarely used in that position.

Can't help on an inbound part for it, I'm afraid, but might take a guess at 1AA, assuming that the "big house" was seen as a suitable place to start the sequence...

NB: The above only applies when Marlinspike is in England; can't help on the Moulinsart front... ;-)
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#20 · Posted: 18 May 2005 14:13
jock123 I think it is a local Belgian train, rather than an international one - any rail-buffs who can confirm this?

I'm not a buff but the green coloured carriages might be a clue - the Belgian national rail has the same colour today. Also, the national rail does run beyond the Belgian borders - I've travelled on the same train which Tintin takes in The Black Island (Brussels-Köln) a few times and it still looks much the same (it's green!) and the guards have their same distinctive uniform.

One of the joys of rail travel in Europe is that you never know what you're going to get. I took a train a couple of years ago from Germany to Denmark and the train which pulled in was Czech!

Back on topic: Another clue to the location of Marlinspike/Moulinsart are those local Belgian policemen we see in The Calculus Affair...

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