Q160: Jesus & Tintin

It is Lent now and here's something to contemplate.

The utterance of Christ in Matthew 26:52 is actually written down in one Tintin album. Where is the text?
Again name the album and give the pagenumber with a short explanation.

The exact passage is...

"Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.

But I can't think where it could be????

tintin in america or even the secret of the unicorn comes to mind.

Does captain haddock say it when he talks about saint francis haddock????

I am going to guess the page number as well??

errr page 22

Sorry I don't have my tintin books with me so it is hard for me to tell...

It's better to give a clue.

"all who draw the sword will die by the sword"

That's what I am looking for, and those are not the identical words which are in Tintin, but the message is the same.

Furthermore the text is not in a talking balloon (I don't know if "talking balloon" is the correct term, but I hope you'll understand)

My question turned to be a real mess, but I count on your cleverness and patience.

Hey

The question shouldn't be this difficult.

The text is not in a balloon and the message of the text is:
"who live by the sword shall perish by the sword" or
"all who take swords will die by swords"

Lintondrums didn't answer correcty, I have something else in mind. There is a rather long story (in that album) concerning the issue. I hope the different editions don't cause the difficulties.

Hello everyone

It is a time to tell the answer. I'm a little bit embarrassed, because there is a possibility that I have asked an impossibe question, I don't know yet. The case is clear in Finnish edition but after posting the question I realized that I don't have King Ottokar's Sceptre in English. I was a fuss-pot.

OK. In Ottokar's Sceptre Tintin reads the travel brochure of Syldavia. There is a story of Ottokar IV (pg. 21). He was attaced by baron Staszrvits with a sword. Ottokar dodged the blow and hit back with his sceptre. Then he said "Eih bennek, eih blavek!" which is approximalety "who live by the sword shall perish by the sword" according to the Finnish edition.

I know the rule 2, so I need your help. Could someone tell how "Eih bennek, eih blavek!" is translated in English edition?

If it doesn't mean "who live by the sword shall perish by the sword" or something alike, I need to be punished hard.

I am waiting for the verdict of the tintinologist team.

Hi tuhatkauno.

The wording of that bit of the Syldavian history brochure in the English edition of the book reads:

"... at the same time crying out in Syldavian: 'Eih benneh, eih blavek,' which can be said to mean: 'If you gather thistles, expect prickles.'"

So, not exactly the same aphorism as "He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword." However, the two sayings are quite close in meaning (even though a prickle from a thistle is a bit less severe than death by sword), so even though you're probably right that your question breaks rule two, you shouldn't feel too embarrassed!

Incidentally, I wonder how Hergé translates 'Eih bennek, eih blavek' in his original French-language version. Somehow, "gather thistles, expect prickles," sounds to me like it might be the work of the English translators, rather than a direct translation of a French or Belgian proverb or aphorism. But I don't know.

In any case, "He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword" doesn't seem quite the best saying for the king in the Syldavian story to be uttering, partly because the man who's attacked him with a sword hasn't died by a sword blow at all, but by being clobbered with a sceptre, and more fundementally because Jesus meant something very different anyway. In it's biblical context, "Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword" is meant as a violence-achieves-nothing, turn-the-other-cheek sort of message. Jesus is talking to one of his disciples (who's just drawn a sword and chopped off part of an ear of one of the people who's come to arrest Jesus), and telling him to put his sword away and not put up a fight against their enemies - the opposite of what the sceptre-weilding Syldavian king is doing!

Balthazar
Incidentally, I wonder how Hergé translates 'Eih bennek, eih blavek' in his original French-language version. Somehow, "gather thistles, expect prickles," sounds to me like it might be the work of the English translators, rather than a direct translation of a French or Belgian proverb or aphorism.

The French version gives the translation as "Qui s'y frotte s'y pique", or "Whoever rubs himself there gets stung." Wikipedia also offers the suggestion it may be a rendering of the Dutch "Hier ben ik, hier blijf ik" which means "Here I am, here I stay".

Thanks for that info, Richard. Looks like the English translators' proverb about being prickled by thistles is a bit closer to Hergé's proverb about being stung than the Finnish translator's more biblical aphorism about swords.

Mind you, although "Whoever rubs himself there gets stung" isn't biblical, it does sound like the sort of thing children might be told at a moralistic church school! But I fear I may be lowering the tone.

Thanks Balthazar and Richard

From the viewpoint of an English reader the question was quite impossible to answer, the proverb in the album differs from my clue a lot, though the teaching is same.

"The sword" led in the wrong direction. I didn't believe the proverb could be something else than the swordproverb of Jesus, because there was a baron swinging his sword and then he and his sword were lying on the ground. Just what the proverb says.

Then I realized something must be wrong because nobody gave any answers. The question is only a bit difficult for Finns I suppose, but very difficult for you, if you are not magicians.

In the future I'll formulate my questions more carefully. And now I'll wait for the judgement and somebody should take over and ask a further question or what?

It was a misjudged question, in that it didn't relate to the English version as the rules state. But I don't think your trangression was serious enough to forfeit you a point.

As a reminder, please could all question-setters remind themselves of the Rules, and check that the question relates to the modern English versions.

The next question is open to anyone to set.