Q136: A nice surprise

No tricks...

No gimmicks...

Just a simple honest question...
What century was Syldavia conquered? Book and page an optional extra.

Nothing too taxing for the weekend :)

Conquered in 1195. 12th century. It's in King Ottokar's Sceptre. Going to have a stab at the page number as... book not at hand... page... Tintin reading stuff on plane... page... close-ish to the middle of the book... page 22?

Congratulations toydreamer!

It is in fact on Pg7 where we first learn of the date of Syldavias conquering. After Tintins episode at the Klow restaurant he decides to do some research...

Not to worry as it was only an extra bit of info.

A point to you, and the next question setting duties.
Welcome to the trivia challenge!

Ranko
Just a simple honest question...
What century was Syldavia conquered? Book and page an optional extra.

To be precise, before the 1195 conquest by Borduria, Syldavia was also conquered by:

- Slavonic tribes (6th century)
- Turks (10th century)
- Slavonic again (12th century) (Zileherum, 1127 / Hveghi = King Muskar I)

see King Ottokar's Sceptre (p.19)

As the Slavonic -the Syldavians to be- are connected with the origins of Cyrillic, maybe Herge was inspired somewhere by some unique letter of that bygone alphabet?
see http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cyrillic.htm

yamilah
To be precise, before the 1195 conquest by Borduria, Syldavia was also conquered by:

- Slavonic tribes (6th century)
- Turks (10th century)
- Slavonic again (12th century) (Zileherum, 1127 / Hveghi = King Muskar I)

You are absolutely right yamilah. However, the first time we find out about Syldavia is from what we assume to be an encyclopedia that Tintin is reading.(pg7) Therefore the general view - and the one Tintin would subscribe to (until he reads the "travel brochure" on the plane) - is that Syldavia was conquered in the 12th century by the Bordurians. Anyway, Syldavia wasn't much of a country to conquer before the 12th century was it?

Could you clarify your last statement? Do you mean inspired to create something (I.E. Syldavians) by reading/studying Cyrillic?

Thanks,
Ranko

He shoots... he scores. ;)

Nice one. I'll get my head down and come up with something suitably cunning which should take you guys all of about 30 seconds to work out. :)

Ranko
Could you clarify your last statement? Do you mean inspired to create something (I.E. Syldavians) by reading/studying Cyrillic?

Yes! To be precise, by reading/studying Cyrillic, comparing it with its Slavonic avatar, and looking for ...'faults*' in the books.

I'll get my head down and come up with something suitably cunning which should take you guys all of about 30 seconds to work out. :)

We usually give 24 hours for the winner of the last point to post the next question (see the Rules thread). As you're a beginner to the quiz you can have 48... so until 10:41 GMT tomorrow.

Ed

yamilah
To be precise, by reading/studying Cyrillic, comparing it with its Slavonic avatar, and looking for ...'faults*' in the books.

You start this sentence with "To be precise...", yet you aren't being precise at all! The words:
"...comparing it with its Slavonic avatar, and looking for ...'faults*' in the books..."
are totally imprecise, because I (and I suspect most forum members) don't know what you mean by them.

If you genuinely want to be precise, please just tell us precisely which unique letter in those old cyrillic alphabets on that linked web page you're talking about, and then tell us precisely what you think that cyrillic letter inspired Hergé to come up with. We might agree with you or disagree, but at least if we know what you're saying we can take an interest and respond!

I'm sure it's not your intention, but I'm afraid your habit of drip-feeding us your ideas in the form of cryptic questions or enigmatic, oblique suggestions makes you sound as if you think you're some kind of guru and that we're your disciples!

So, please - try and explain what you mean in a simple statement or hypothesis. Those old cyrillic alphabets you've found look fascinating, so if you think Hergé might have studied such things and incorporated them into his Balkan-located work, I'm sure we'd all be interested.

I'm sorry toydreamer but for the benefit of the quiz we have to move on. Better luck next time!

The next question is open for anyone to set.

Ed