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I read all of them over and over again as a child, then one more full reading in my 20s. They were even better as an adult. One of the oddities is that the na
by shaneos 7y ago
I read all of them over and over again as a child, then one more full reading in my 20s. They were even better as an adult. One of the oddities is that the names in English are actually much funnier than the original French names, e.g. Unhygienix the fishmonger, Getafix the druid, Fullyautomatix who makes the weapons. These two authors brought so many hours, days and years of joy. A life well lived
- markvdb 7y agoSome of the original French ones are hilariously funny. Have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asterix_characters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asterix_characters for their meaning. I especially like "Abraracourcix" and "Assurancetourix".
- lb1lf 7y agoIn Norway, the fishmonger was named Hermetix (as in, canned food), and - two of my favourites - the Greek tour operator Setopenextrabus (Schedule an additional bus) and the drunken legionnaire Sophus Antabus.
- jacquesm 7y agoIn the UK version there is also dubbelosix...
- jacquesm 7y agoMy personal favorite is Idefix, the dog who is so imprinted on Obelix he has to follow him.
- jordigh 7y agoI used to read them in Spanish in Mexico, and I'm sad to say the early Spanish translations were pretty awful. A lot of them were done by Spaniards that apparently did not understand the puns, so they would just repeat the French names without offering any kind of translation. A lot of other jokes were translated without being apparently understood to the point where it was completely nonsensical in Spanish. It wasn't until I later learned French that I could appreciate the jokes in the names. There was also a problem that the Spanish translations were very inconsistent and between one book to another characters would have different names. For a while I envied the superior English translation. I wish we had gotten something as good in Spanish.
- copperx 7y agoI have the entire Asterix collection in Spanish (perhaps the most prized inheritance my mother left me), and I don't think the translations are as bad as you say they are. Do you have an example of a French or English pun or a name that got lost in the Spanish translation?
- jordigh 7y agoAbraracurcix, Asuranceturix... As I recall, those are the Spanish names, which make no sense. The Roman camps were called Petibonum or sometimes Hombrecitum depending on the book (inconsistent). I remember it was also always Babaorum, which makes no sense either. Just so many missed opportunities to actually bring the jokes into Spanish. There are a lot of examples that you wouldn't even realise are wrong because you wouldn't even notice that there was supposed to be a joke there.
- Yuioup 7y agoThe translators, Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, did a fantastic job with the translation.
- dwd 7y agoCacofonix the singer Impedimenta, Vitalstatistix's wife The list goes on... I recently gave away all of my scifi/fantasy novels to my nieces/nephews (my boys had read them all). The only books I now own are technical and my Asterix collection.