''Asterix and the Picts'' is the 35th book in 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 ...

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

, and is the first book to be written by someone other than

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 ...

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 ...

. It was written by

Jean-Yves Ferri Jean-Yves Ferri () (born 20 April 1959) is a French writer, designer, and colourist of comics. On 25 July 2011, he was chosen as the writer for the next installment of the Asterix series created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. Uderzo person ...

and illustrated by Didier Conrad. The English-language version was translated by

Anthea Bell Anthea Bell (10 May 1936 – 18 October 2018) was an English translator of literary works, including children's literature, from French, German and Danish. These include '' The Castle'' by Franz Kafka, '' Austerlitz'' by W. G. Sebald, the ''In ...

. It takes

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 ...

across

the Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

into Scotland, where they meet the

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from e ...

. This is the duo's second journey to the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

, after visiting the

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...

in '' Asterix in Britain'' (1966).

Plot

One winter day, while searching for oysters,

and

find a young man frozen in ice washed up on the beach. They take him to the druid

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 ...

, who by the stranger's clothes and tattoos identifies him as a

Pict The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ear ...

, residents of Northern Caledonia (now

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

). Getafix is able to revive him, but the Pict has lost his voice and is unable to express himself, even in sign language; a gold ring clenched in his hand is the only clue to his background story. A minor complication ensues when a Roman

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

officer, Limitednumbus, arrives at the village to record the Gauls' activities, which Vitalstatistix allows him to do. Following Getafix's administrations, the young Pict regains only limited power of speech and the Gauls cannot understand him. One day, he chisels a map on one of Obelix's menhirs, leading to his home. With this clue, and additional enticement provided by the village women's increasing fascination for the handsome young man, Asterix and Obelix are tasked with taking him home, along with some healing elixir for the Pict's throat. As they leave in Unhygenix's fishing boat and encounter (and fight) the pirates, the Pict fully recovers his voice. He introduces himself as Macaroon and tells them how he was ambushed by Maccabaeus, the chief of the Maccabee clan, tied to a log and thrown into the loch near his home because Maccabeus is longing for the hand of Macaroon's fiancée Camomilla, the adopted daughter of Mac II, late monarch of Caledonia, in order to make himself king of all Picts. In an effort to consolidate his claim, Maccabaeus has pleaded for an alliance with Rome and secretly invited a Roman legion to his coronation. After a playful encounter with Loch Androll's monstrous resident

Nessie NESSIE (New European Schemes for Signatures, Integrity and Encryption) was a European research project funded from 2000 to 2003 to identify secure cryptographic primitives. The project was comparable to the NIST AES process and the Japanese Gov ...

, who steals the gourd with the elixir, they land and go to visit Macaroon's family. However, Macaroon learns there that Camomilla has been kidnapped by Maccabaeus shortly after his disappearance, and that Maccabaeus is going to be crowned king the next day. Asterix motivates him to challenge Maccabaeus, but Macaroon loses his voice again. Asterix and Obelix attempt to retrieve the gourd from Nessie, but in the process they stumble upon a tunnel which leads them straight to the Red Picts' dungeon, where Camomilla is kept captive. They rescue her and escape through one of the tunnels. The next day, all the Pict leaders assemble to elect their next king. As Maccabaeus advances with his Roman allies and promotes himself, Macaroon and his family arrive at the island and confront Maccabaeus; but the challenge is declared void because Macaroon has yet to recover the full use of his voice. Through a tunnel emerging right onto the assembly island, Asterix, Obelix and Camomilla arrive at the nick of time to defy Maccabaeus, and the sight of Camomilla restores Macaroon's voice. The Gauls and the Picts unite and fight the Romans and Maccabaeus (with some help from Nessie), crushing them. Maccabaeus and the Roman task force's centurion then suffer the same fate Macaroon did, being chained to a log and tossed into the freezing Caledonian waters, and Macaroon is made king of the Picts. The Gauls return home in triumph. Meanwhile, Limitednumbus has become frustrated by the constant movement of the Gauls, which does not allow him to count them properly. Obelix is about to tie him to a tree trunk and send him to the Picts, when Asterix reminds him that there is an easy way of counting Gauls: the banquet at the end of the story.

Notes

*While his voice is impaired, in the English version Macaroon keeps spouting lines from several popular Scottish songs and poems, including ''

Scots Wha Hae "Scots Wha Hae" (English: ''Scots Who Have''; gd, Brosnachadh Bhruis) is a patriotic song of Scotland written using both words of the Scots language and English, which served for centuries as an unofficial national anthem of the country, but h ...

'', ''

The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond", or "Loch Lomond" for short, is a Scottish song (Roud No. 9598). The song prominently features Loch Lomond, the largest Scottish loch, located between the council areas of West Dunbartonshire, Stirling and Arg ...

'', and ''Waly Waly''. He also makes references to some un-Scottish lyrics, including ''

Jingle Bells "Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and most commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. It has been claimed t ...

'', ''

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' (originally ''The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere'') is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–1798 and published in 1798 in the first edition of ''Lyrical Ballad ...

'', and ''

Jabberwocky "Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865). The ...

'', and the Picts quote ''

Bonnie Dundee Bonnie Dundee is the title of a poem and a song written by Walter Scott in 1825 in honour of John Graham, 7th Laird of Claverhouse, who was created 1st Viscount Dundee in November 1688, then in 1689 led a Jacobite rising in which he died, beco ...

'' at Macaroon's coronation. These citations do not exist in the original French version; instead Macaroon keeps inserting occasional taglines based on popular music titles into his speeches, including ''Jingle Bells'', ''

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album ''The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. Following t ...

'', and ''

Stayin' Alive "Stayin' Alive" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees from the ''Saturday Night Fever'' motion picture soundtrack. The song was released in 1977 as the second single from the ''Saturday Night Fever'' soundtrack. The band co-produced ...

''.

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 ...

, the book has a score of 3.63 out of 5.

References

External links

Official Website Page
{{Asterix Picts, Asterix and the 2013 graphic novels France–Scotland relations Comics set in Scotland Cultural depictions of Scottish people Fiction set in Roman Britain Picts in fiction