Tintin Forums

Hey all,

This may be a stupid question but; is Jolyon Wagg meant to be Welsh? (In the English versions anyway)

Ever since I started reading the books I have pictured him as being Welsh...

Anyone agree??

For some reason I've always imagined him to have a voice exactly like Bob Grant who plays the cheeky conductor Jack Harper in the 70's sitcom On the Buses.

Ha ha ha!!
Interesting comparison.

Is he, along with people like Abdullah and others, purely in the stories to irritate the Captain?

I've never liked Wagg, but Hergé has summed up his type (pompous, self-important, unable to see he isn't wanted) brilliantly.

In Michael Farr's Tintin: The Complete Companion, he states Hergé saw him as "the Brussels sort (not only from Brussels) - smug and self-satisfied". This is in keeping with his mania for offering insurance plans for people that never asked for them, let alone wanted them in the first place.

But since the English translations "Anglicised" the stories (part of their charm is scenes at Marlinspike, although not in the main city, could be anywhere), there's no reason to suppose why he shouldn't be seen as Welsh.

After all, I always imagine Tintin as sounding decidely Oxfordian, the Captain with a Scottish tinge, and Les Thom(p)sons as upperclass twits, similar to the airmen in 'Allo 'Allo.

I've always been curious about Wagg's nationality. He's much more outgoing and obnoxious than most Europeans I've met. While I've always thought of him as being British, a friend of mine thinks he's supposed to be American. This definately makes sense, although his speech and slang are decidedly not American. However, consider the scene in "Picaros" when the bus arrives at the Picaros' camp. The Jolly Follies are dressed just like American tourists, and act just like American tourists.

I don't speak French, and haven't spent much time in Belgium. I'd like to know what inpression French-language readers get of this guy. Is he a typical Brussels type?

I used to live in Wales. I can see him as a Welshman.

I live in Wales, and to be honest, I'm not sure whether or not he could be Welsh - I often view them as annoying (even though I was born here !), although I've never really thought of him as being Welsh. My opinion is that in the BBC radio adaptations he was voiced well. I also think the Ellipse-Nelvana series did a great Wagg - that's how I generally imagine him to sound.

I can't say that he isn't Welsh (although I don't think Jolyon (a variation of "Julian") is especially Welsh in origin), and a brief look at Ancestry.com says that Waggs originate mainly in England - but I've always imagined him being like the Eric Idle character in the Monty Python "Nudge nudge!" sketch... a slightly affected, rather nasal, English voice.

It's hard to tell English from Welsh people, especially since many of the cultural differences between the two disappeared after centuries of rule by England (Welsh is primarily spoken in northwestern Wales). Can anyone tell Welshmen from Englishmen just by looking at them? But nothing suggests that Wagg is Scottish or Irish (really unlikely), which leaves Wagg being either English or Welsh. Either way, his annoying behavior makes that more attention-grabbing than his ethnicity...

snafu
It's hard to tell English from Welsh people
Not by the sound of their accents it isn't.

Can anyone tell Welshmen from Englishmen just by looking at them?
Well obviously not, but you can't tell a Scotsman or Irishman from a Welshman (or Frenchman or German or Canadian) by looking at them either.

In this case that isn't even an issue, as Hergé drew him as he imagined him to be if from Brussels.
Any inferences of his ethnicity in the translation would come from his speech patterns, and there are some distinctive features which are Welsh-isms; that he doesn't use them still wouldn't preclude him being Welsh...

Nothing suggests that Wagg is Scottish or Irish (really unlikely), which leaves Wagg being either English or Welsh.

There is absolutely no grounds for that assertion that I can see - although he is statistically more likely to be English that Scots, Irish or Welsh (just on numerical grounds), he could be any of the above - why for example is it "really unlikely" that he is Irish?

KurviTasch
Is he a typical Brussels type?

Jolyon Wagg (i.e. Seraphin Lampion in the original versions) was called 'Belgican' by Herge, as if this family father weren't just Belgian, but 'Mexican', or 'American', or something else* too...

note: French 'Lampion' means 'Chinese lantern', something Mrs Lampion/Wagg holds in the Egyptian fresco* by Herge, as if this object were able to render her name via kind of a rebus-like writing*...


* please search for related topics...