Tintin Forums

This is a two-part question. First, I know Tintin lives in Belgium but what albums actually state this specifically. I don't ever remember any of the albums every mentioning what country Tintin lives in or what his nationality is.

Second, what town or city does Tintin live in? In the early albums he lived at 26 Labrador Road. But in what city? Brussels? Marlinspike Hall seems to be located in a area known as Marlinspike. But is Marlinspike a town or a district or something else? And where is it in relation to Tintin's original home? It's been awhile since I read The Secret of the Unicorn and I don't own a copy but I seem to remember Marlinspike being a fair distance from Tintin's apartment on Labrador Road.

When his adventures were first published in the 1930s, Tintin's nationality was stated as Belgian. In his very first story, "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets", he is arrested by the police in Berlin and describes himself as a reporter from Brussels. In "Congo", he gave the school children a geography lesson about Belgium. In "Black Island", he is shown taking the Brussels to London train, via Ostend.

When Herge redrew the stories in the style that we have them today, he took out specific references to Belgium as Tintin's country of residence, probably in order to let readers imagine that he lived in their own country - makes it more varied and thus helps sales I imagine. The lesson in "Congo" became a simple maths course and the train in "Black Island" was now from Cologne to London via Brussels.

The street that Tintin and Haddock walk in when leaving the cinema at the beginning of "Red Sea Sharks" has been identified as the Avenue de la Toison d'Or ("Avenue of the Golden Fleece") in Brussels.

As for Marlinspike (Moulinsart in the original French), it's just an fictional little village I imagine which is a short car or train journey from Tintin's home town: Snowy gets there after about a day's walk in "Secret of the Unicorn" and Tintin travels there by train in "Seven Crystal Balls".

One anomaly mind you: if Tintin lives in Brussels, which is a very inland city, there seems to be a very active port with ships and sailors in "Crab with the Golden Claws", "Land of Black Gold" and "Red Rackham's Treasure". Are we meant to believe that he travels between Brussels and the coastal cities on a regular basis?

I'm afraid that it seems to be a case of: he's a literal man of the world of no fixed abode.

How far is Antwerp from Brussels?

I also wondered how quickly Tintin could get from Brussels to the nearest port.

So after the first two albums Tintin's nationality is never mentioned except for in the originals versions?

It takes about 40-45 minutes to get to Antwerp on the train, according to the SNCB website.

Brussels, surprisingly perhaps, does have a harbour, which connects to Antwerp by an inland navigation; I’ve not been to it, so I can’t say if it is shown in the books, or if, as Richard1631978 suggests, Tintin goes to Antwerp to see the sea.

Update: Here is a link to the official site of the Port de Bruxelles - unfortunately only in French and Dutch.

That's about it. In interviews Hergé does mention having Tintin as someone who could come from any any part of north-western Europe.

When it was pointed out that The Castafiore Emerald was somewhat unusual in that it took place in a single location and not abroad, he confirmed that it did indeed take place in Belgium - even if he does not actually specify this in the story itself.

Actually isn't the Belgian location specified in The Castafiore Emerald in the original French-language version, in the article published in Paris Flash magazine?

I've not got that book in French, but if I'm remembering correctly from some old thread on this forum or another website, the Paris Flash article has a lot of deliberately nonsensical and mixed up stuff about Belgium's geography, with Hergé making a joke about the smart Parisians' complete ignorance of Belgium - presumably something that annoyed him in real life!

However, I think it is established that Belgium, albeit their muddled version of it, is the country where Marlinspike is.

But that's all from vague memory, and I may have dreamt the whole thing! (None of that's in the English translation of the book, of course.)

It could have been this one; I think it also was touched on again more recently too, but Chevet covers the slip-ups of the reporters in the original French.

Some years ago, I went through the Tintin albums trying to figure out his "real" hometown by looking at the different clues: fairly big harbor, apparent size of the city, proximity to other named cities, etc. I remember that I found the closest match to be Le Havre in France, but it wasn't consistent. So in some albums, cities like Antwerp or Brussels could be a closer match. I haven't been to any of these cities, so the actual resemblence when it comes to architecture or "landscape" was not considered by me.

But hey, I'm just a happy amateur :-)

/Thomas, making my first posting

Thanks for the input. Le Havre, eh? I'll have to look it up.