''Asterix and the Golden Sickle'' (, "The Golden Sickle") is the second volume of the

Asterix ''Asterix'' or ''The Adventures of Asterix'' (french: Astérix or , "Asterix the Gauls, Gaul") is a ''bande dessinée'' comic book book series, series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight th ...

comic book series 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 ...

, by

René Goscinny René Goscinny (, ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the ''Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Raised largely in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended French schoo ...

(stories) and

Albert Uderzo Alberto Aleandro Uderzo (; ; 25 April 1927 – 24 March 2020), better known as Albert Uderzo, was a French comic book artist and scriptwriter. He is best known as the co-creator and illustrator of the '' Astérix'' series in collaboration with ...

(illustrations). It was first serialized in ''

Pilote Cover of the first ''Pilote'' issue #0 ''Pilote'' () was a French comic magazine published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as ''Astérix'', '' ...

'' magazine issues 42–74 in 1960.

Plot summary

Disaster strikes the Gaulish village when

Getafix This is a list of characters in the ''Asterix'' comics. Main characters Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix are the first characters with short descriptions usually listed at the beginning of each of the ''Asterix'' books (after the map of Gaul). They ...

the druid breaks his golden

sickle A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting, or reaping, grain crops or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feed ...

, as without one, he cannot attend the annual conference of druids, or cut mistletoe for the magic potion which keeps the

Roman army The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval contin ...

at bay. Asterix and

Obelix Obelix (; french: Obélix) is a cartoon character in the French comic book series ''Asterix''. He works as a menhir sculptor and deliveryman, and is Asterix's best friend. Obelix is noted for his obesity, the menhirs he carries around on his bac ...

set out for

Lutetia The Gallo-Roman town of ''Lutetia'' (''Lutetia Parisiorum'' in Latin, in French ''Lutèce'') was the predecessor of the modern-day city of Paris. It was founded in about the middle of the 3rd century BCE by the Parisii, a Gallic tribe. Trac ...

(present-day

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

) to buy a new sickle from Obelix's distant cousin, the sicklesmith Metallurgix. On the way there, they encounter

bandit Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an ...

s, but easily defeat them, and learn from a fellow-traveller that "sickles are in short supply in Lutetia". In the city, they find Metallurgix missing and make inquiries at a local inn, but the landlord professes to know nothing. He later gives a description of Asterix and Obelix to the devious Clovogarlix, who in turn directs them to his superior Navishtrix, who tries to sell them a sickle at an exorbitant price. They refuse, and defeat Navishtrix and his followers, only to be arrested by a Roman patrol. They are released by the Prefect of Lutetia, Surplus Dairyprodus, and learn from a Centurion that Metallurgix may have been kidnapped by sickle traffickers. From a drunkard imprisoned by Dairyprodus, they learn Navishtrix has a hideout at a portal dolmen in the Boulogne forest. In Navishtrix's underground store-room, Asterix and Obelix find a hoard of golden sickles, but are attacked by Clovogarlix, Navishtrix and their

minion Places *Minions, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom People * Frank Minion (born 1929), American jazz and bop singer * Fred Minion, English professional footballer * Joseph Minion (born 1957), American film director and screenwriter *Marcus ...

s. Upon defeat, Navishtrix escapes, and Asterix and Obelix follow him to Surplus Dairyprodus, who – in front of the Centurion – freely confesses to having sponsored the illegal sickle

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

for his own amusement. The Centurion releases Metallurgix and imprisons Dairyprodus and Navishtrix; whereafter Metallurgix gratefully gives Asterix and Obelix the best of his sickles. With this, they return to their village and celebrate their achievement.

Commentary

* The world-weary Prefect of Lutetia is a caricature of actor Charles Laughton, who was known for playing Roman statesmen. * Fans have noted that due to an apparent error by Uderzo, the final pages from page 36 onward are drawn with smaller panels in comic strip format, resulting in larger margins on those pages in the printed book. * "The great ox-cart race, the Suindinum 24 hours" is a reference to France's

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...

sports car race. Suindinum is the old name of Le Mans. The race is titled as the Suidinum 500 in the 2020 American edition. One of the competitors in the race is a caricature of French cartoonist

Jean Graton Jean Graton (10 August 1923 – 21 January 2021) was a French comic book author and cartoonist. Graton created the famous character Michel Vaillant and the eponymous series in 1957. Biography Graton was born in Nantes, France, in 1923. He m ...

Feature film

An animated feature film of ''Asterix and the Golden Sickle'' was produced by Dargaud Productions, which had also made a film based on the first book, ''Asterix the Gaul'', unbeknown to the authors. Goscinny and Uderzo reluctantly accepted the first film, but they firmly rejected the second, which was scrapped and never released.

In other languages

* Arabic: ''أستريكس والمنجل الذهبي'' * Bengali: এসটেরিক্স ও সোনার কাস্তে'' * Bulgarian: ''Златният сърп'' * Catalan: ''La falç d'or'' * Croatian: ''Asteriks i Zlatni srp'' * Czech: ''Asterix a Zlatý srp'' * Danish: ''Asterix og trylledrikken'' * Dutch: ''Asterix en het gouden snoeimes'' * Estonian: ''Asterix ja Kuldsirp'' * Finnish: ''Kultainen sirppi'' * French: ''La Serpe d'or'' * West Frisian: ''De gouden sichte'' * Galician: ''O fouciño de ouro'' * German: ''Die goldene Sichel'' * Greek: ''Το χρυσό δρεπάνι'' * Hungarian: ''Az aranysarló'' * Indonesian: ''Asterix dan Sabit Emas'' * Irish: ''Asterix agus an Corrán Óir'' * Italian: ''Asterix e il falcetto d'oro'' * Latvian: ''Asteriks un zelta sirpis'' * Norwegian: ''Asterix og styrkedråpene'' * Polish: ''Złoty sierp'' * Portuguese: ''Asterix e a Foice de Ouro'' * Romanian: ''Asterix si Cosorul de Aur'' * Russian: ''золотой серп'' * Scots: ''Asterix and the Gowden Heuk'' * Serbian: ''Астерикс и златни срп/Zlatni srp'' * Slovak: ''Asterix a zlatý kosák'' * Spanish: ''La hoz de oro'' * Swedish: ''Asterix och guldskäran'' * Turkish: ''Asteriks Altın orak'' * 한국어 : 아스테릭스, 황금낫을 찾아랏!

Reception

Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and read ...

, ''Asterix and the Golden Sickle'' has a score of 4.13 out of 5.

References

* The complete guide to Asterix by Peter Kessler

External links

Official English Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asterix And The Golden Sickle Cancelled films, Golden Sickle, Asterix and the Works originally published in Pilote Comics set in Paris Literature first published in serial form 1962 graphic novels Works by René Goscinny Comics by Albert Uderzo