It’s week two of the Multiversity Summer Binge and our journey to read and enjoy every “Asterix and Obelix” book ever written. Today we get to journey out from the confines of the little Gaulish village and the surrounding Roman camps and get a broader idea of the people that lived during this time…and how the creators get to lampoon and make fun of them.
Today we get to journey to the untamed wilds of ancient Germany in “Asterix and the Goths” and then to Rome itself for a showdown with the mighty Caesar himself in “Asterix the Gladiator”.
Written by Rene GoscinnyArt by Albert Uderzo
Illustrated by Albert Uderzo
We’re back with everyone’s favorite indomitable Gauls as they face off against the dreaded Goths in order to rescue their druid. Then we’re traveling all the way to Rome itself for a day of chaos at the circus!
By the time “Asterix and the Goths” and “Asterix the Gladiator” had come out, the series was already a success and its sales numbers were climbing rapidly. Naturally, this meant that Asterix and company were no longer published in a magazine, but were given their own book series that would be published in their own volumes on a near yearly basis. These two books were first published in 1963 and 1964 respectively.
Asterix and the Goths
This is the first book where we step outside of Gaul and into the unconquered realm of Germania. The book continues the druid convention plotline established in the previous story, where Getafix travels to the Forest of the Carnutes to meet and compete with his fellow druids. Unfortunately, a band of Gothic warriors (no they’re not the pale kids who dressed in all black that you knew in high school, that’s what they called Germans back then) have snuck over the Roman border in order to kidnap the druid that wins the competition and bring him back to Germany in order to use said magic to rise up and conquer the Roman Empire.
Getafix winds up being the winner, which means he gets kidnapped, and Asterix and Obelix have to journey to Germania to rescue him. Couple that premise with the Romans mistaking the Gauls for Goths, a greedy Gothic chief and an even greedier interpreter, and the Gauls resolving to throw all of Germania into political chaos so they won’t threaten Gaul or Rome for the next couple of hundred years, and it’s one of the most chaotic and slapstick books in the entire series.
A quick note on the character’s names and the resulting gags: the “-rix” suffix at the end of all the Gaulish names was a real life honorific given to important Gaulish rulers throughout history. It’s also a joking homage to many of the real life Gaulish chieftains that fought against Rome at various points in time such as the famed chieftain Vercongetorix who fought and lost against Caesar at the Battle of Alesia or Dumnorix, who was the chieftain of the Helvetii tribe and was beaten by Caesar at the Battle of Arar.
Consequently, all of the Goths have names like “Metric”, “Choleric”, or “Rhetoric”, which is probably an homage to the Visigoth king Alaric who famously sacked Rome in 410 A.D.
Another interesting side note, the lettering of the comic does something pretty cool and uses different fonts to show the different languages being spoken. In this case the font used for the Gothic language is…the Gothic font.
Asterix the Gladiator
The village bard Cacofonix is the literal punchline for one of the book’s longest running gags. He thinks he’s some great artist when in reality his singing is so bad it could curdle milk and he always seems to wind up tied up and gagged at the end of every book and denied the opportunity to share his so-called gift to the world.
So naturally, it makes perfect sense for the Roman prefect of Gaul to want to kidnap Cacofonix and present him to Caesar as a gift, which is exactly what happens.
While Asterix and the rest of the village would be more than happy to see Cacofonix disappear and allow some blessed silence in their village, the fact that he was kidnapped by Romans is an insult to their honor that cannot stand. So Asterix and Obelix make their way to Rome in order to save their bard, and the ears of the entire city, from destruction.
Continued belowThis is the first time we meet a particular band of pirates that will wind up becoming another long running gag in the book series. More specifically, any time Asterix and Obelix have to travel outside of Gaul they always seem to run into these pirates and it always ends with the pirates sinking and losing their ship.
Out of all the books we’ve read so far, this is the book that is probably the most educational. While there are plenty of jokes and fighting to be had, the book does go out of its way to show how Roman life worked and how the ancient Romans lived. We have an extensive tour of Roman baths, a Roman apartment building called an “insula”, and a humorous look at what went on behind the scenes of the famous Roman games. Plus, this is also the most time we’ve spent with Julius Caesar himself…along with his dear friend Brutus, who seems strangely angry with the dictator.
It’s probably nothing, by all accounts Caesar and Brutus were very good friends, although there seems to be some sort of play by a guy named William Shakespeare that says otherwise.
Regardless, Asterix and Obelix save Cacofonix and make their way back to the village ready for another adventure; although hopefully not with too much singing.
Next week we’re taking a tour of Gaul to collect all sorts of rare and wonderful foods in “Asterix and the Banquet” and traveling even further afield to visit the queen with the nose that shaped nations (except not really) in “Asterix and Cleopatra”.
