Tintin Forums

All that said, it's quite true that in books after Soviets and Congo there aren't that many direct references to Belgium, or portrayals of famous Brussels landmarks and locations. I wonder if the reason for this is that, as early as the mid 1930s, Hergé had his eye on breaking into a readership beyond Belgium and wanted to make Tintin seem more of an everyman (or everyboy!) character in terms of his nationality.

Hey Balthazar, that's an excellent point which I had not really considered.

I think Herge also succeeds at making an "everyboy" with the way he drew Tintin -- simplistic, unspecific facial characteristics, and the "boy-and-his-dog" theme, among others.

thanks balthazar for a lecture

My eyes are 40 years old and yours 39. It is nice that you youger people are willing to help olders. It looked BELG... and something to me.

I am more than happy to leave lecturing to you or jock or someone else. I have being avoiding searching the backgrounds of Tintin on purpose and I try to figure things out by reading the albums. It's just me and Tintin. It is bit same what I'm doing now (searching Aristotle)All I have, is the books.

Hi,

Well, if all of you have red Tintin In The Land of The Soviets, Tintin was on a train to Brussels and he was caught saying about home.

Yes, I have not read SOVIETS or CONGO but I understand these two early books have referenced Belgium.

Hey! Is it called "26 Labrador Road" in French? Surely not, it must be something like 26 Rue de la/du (Labrador).

I don't think Herge meant it, but I always think of a Labrador Dog when I see where Tintin lived. (My dog is of labrador breeding, but only partly so.)

I think it's Rue de Labrador in French and I think I read somewhere that it's a real street in Brussels, but I may have got that completely wrong. Someone on this forum will know.

In any case, I'd guess that the street was named after the Canadian coastal region of Labrador, or even after the after Portuguese explorer João Fernandes Lavrador who, together with Pêro de Barcelos, sighted that bit of coast coast in 1498 (where would we be without Wikipedia?), rather than after the dog itself (which was first bred there). But I agree that a dog is what the street name brings to mind.

If you're browsing this thread, yamilah, I seem to remember that part of your hidden-code theory is that Portugese has some special significance in the Tintin books, so the fact that Tintin lives in a street possibly named after a Portugese explorer, and the fact that lavrador is apparently a Portugese title meaning landowner (Wikipedia again), might be of interest.

The traslators (or whoever) were British and wanted to make it look like Tintin was British. For example they make him use the imperial system for measurments and he buys things in pounds.
What annoys me the most is The Secret of 'The Unicorn'. They put a British flag on it and later gave Marlinspike's address as England. I was furious they were trying to make Tintin British just because they didn't want their country to be left out.
They had no right to stuff up the translations, something should have been done to stop them,

They had no right to stuff up the translations, something should have been done to stop them

I read in the article on the interview with MT & LLC that Hergé gave them full permission and approval to anglicize Tintin in an attempt to make him appeal to a wider audience.

Since I only read the English version, I somehow always imagined Tintin to be of British origin, although I knew the creator was a Belgian.

In the end, for me, his nationality doesn't matter one bit.

sliat_1981
I was furious they were trying to make Tintin British just because they didn't want their country to be left out. They had no right to stuff up the translations, something should have been done to stop them,

Eh? What makes you think they didn't want their country to be "left out" (whatever that means), and why does it tax you so?

The changes were made to the books to try and make them a success, after they had already flopped once in English.

It is difficult enough for any book to succeed in the English-speaking world, and books in translation have an even harder time, so the intent of Methuen was to give Hergé's works the best possible opportunity to be a hit - which they largely did.

All changes were made in consultation with Hergé, so if he didn't want to stop them (and he even encouraged them) what exactly is the problem you see with them?

I think it's Rue de Labrador in French and I think I read somewhere that it's a real street in Brussels, but I may have got that completely wrong. Someone on this forum will know.

Indeed it does, I visited it just two days before Hergé's birthday. It doesn't look one bit like the street in the albums. Pretty soon I will post pictures from the real street in northern Brussels.

It is a testament to Hergé's genius as a creator that Tintin is just as convincing an Englishman as a Frenchie or Belgian.