''A Boy Scout Around the World'' (
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
: ''Jorden Rundt i 44 dage'', literally: ''Around the World in 44 Days'') is a travel description published in October 1928
and written by Danish
Boy Scout
A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...
and later actor
Palle Huld
Palle may refer to
* Palle (given name)
* Palle (surname)
See also
* Palli (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation ...
at the age of 15, following his travel around the world in spring 1928.
His trip was sponsored by a Danish
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
and made on the occasion of the 100th birthday of
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
, a French author of adventure and
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
. Palle Huld was chosen after having answered a newspaper advertisement; applicants had to be boys, 15 years old, able to manage in English and German and of good health.
Like the characters in Jules Verne’s 1873 novel ''
Around the World in 80 days
''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (french: link=no, Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employe ...
'' he was only allowed to travel by land and sea, not by air. The travel (on
first class) went from Denmark to Great Britain, across the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
to Canada. From the American west coast he continued to Japan,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, Poland,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and back to Denmark. He had to travel alone but was helped along the way by reporters of the newspaper, members of Danish
embassies
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
and local Boy Scouts.
The travel was followed by not only Danish newspapers but newspapers around the world and on his return to
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
he was met by a crowd of 20,000 people.
He travelled towards the west, which was the fastest but also the opposite direction of the one taken in ''Around the World in 80 Days''. Unlike the novel, he had little problems in reaching departures.
In western Canada he met
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
, who promised not to take his
scalp
The scalp is the anatomical area bordered by the human face at the front, and by the neck at the sides and back.
Structure
The scalp is usually described as having five layers, which can conveniently be remembered as a mnemonic:
* S: The ski ...
, though red scalps were at a premium.
He was impressed by the luxury of the Pacific Ocean liner; its restaurant was the size of the hall of a castle in his opinion and onboard he could play tennis and water polo. Around the world he was met by the press and he got increasingly better at handling them as the travel progressed. One question that gave him problems was about his taste in women; he told the journalist that he was too young to think of it.
He was met with generosity, many accessories for his travel such as shoes and a camera were given to him for free. He declined one offer. On board the Pacific liner he would not let a young American woman darn his socks. Later, when he visited the famous Japanese
Admiral Togo
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet ...
, he had to take his shoes off and thereby reveal the holes in his socks, which made him regret not taking the offer.
Nevertheless, Japan was his favorite country since he found everything pretty.
After his journey he was invited to, among others, Great Britain where he met with
Robert Baden-Powell
Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the worl ...
founder of the boy
Scout Movement
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...
and France where he laid flowers on the grave of Jules Verne.
Legacy
The book was translated into 11 languages and is said to have inspired Belgian
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...
to create the
Tintin
Tintin or Tin Tin may refer to:
''The Adventures of Tintin''
* ''The Adventures of Tintin'', a comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé
** Tintin (character), a fictional character in the series
** ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (film), 2011, ...
comics
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
.
The theory that Palle Huld should be the inspiration for Tintin goes back to 1988 where it was proposed by Tintin collector Stéphane Steeman in an article titled ''Les Amis d’Hergé''. He found striking resemblances between the pictures of Palle Huld's memoires and Hergé's early drawings of Tintin.
He was backed by
Philippe Goddin
Philippe Goddin (born May 27, 1944, in Brussels, Belgium) is a leading expert and literary critic of ''The Adventures of Tintin'', and author of several books on Tintin (character), Tintin and his creator, Hergé. He was general secretary of the ...
, who found it likely that especially Tintin's staged reception at
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
'
north station
North Station is a commuter rail and intercity rail terminal station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by four MBTA Commuter Rail lines – the Fitchburg Line, Haverhill Line, Lowell Line, and Newburyport/Rockport Line – and the Amtrak ...
in the guise of a 15-year-old Belgian Boy Scout, following the 1930 publication of ''
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'' (french: link=no, Tintin au pays des Soviets) is the first volume of ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper as ant ...
'', was inspired by Palle Huld's reception in Copenhagen.
It has not been possible to verify these claims by the papers left by Hergé, and Palle Huld himself had not heard of them when interviewed in 2009 on Tintin's 80 birthday.
Palle Huld died in 2010 at the age of 98 years. On what would have been his 100th birthday in 2012 the Danish version was reprinted in his honor.
Language editions
*
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
*Czech, ...
: ''Kolem světa za 44 dni...'' Praha, 1929. 172 pages
*Danish (original): ''Jorden rundt i 44 Dage af Palle'', Hasselbalch, 1928, 178 pages, preface by Jean Jules-Verne, cover: Axel Mathiesen.
[ Reprint: 2. August 2012, Peoples Press Jr., added preface by Troels Kløvedal, 161 pages.]
*Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
: ''Een reis om de wereld in 44 dagen''. Translated by Mary Schlüter-Harrix. Amsterdam, ca. 1928. 170 pages
*English (USA): ''A Boy Scout Round the World''. Translated by Eleanor Hard. Coward-McCann Inc., New York 1929. Preface by Hawthorne Daniel. 197 pages. Cover: Axel Mathiesen. (Also published in Great Britain).
*Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
: ''Pallen Matka maailman ympäri 44 päivässä''. Poorvoo (WSOY) /Borgå, 1929. 212 pages
*French: ''Le tour du monde en 44 jours''. Translation: Elna Cornet. Hachette, Paris, 1928. 165 pages, preface by Jean Jules-Verne.
*German: ''Mit fünfzehn Jahren um die Welt in 44 Tagen'', Seemann, Leipzig, 1928.
*Spanish: ''La vuelta al mundo en 44 días''. B. Bauza, Barcelona 1930
*Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
: ''Jorden runt på 44 dagar av Palle'' Åhlen & Åkerlunds Förlag, Stockholm, 1928. Translation: Signe von Vegesack. 196 pages.
Also translated to: Hungarian, Italian and Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
.[
]
See also
* Similar events inspired by ''Around the World in 80 Days''
*''North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
'', a 1994 film with a poster of a boy walking on a globe with a suitcase.
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boy Scout Around the World
1928 non-fiction books
Travel books
Baden-Powell Scouts' Association
Jules Verne
Tintin