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

Asterix ''Asterix'' ( or , "Asterix the Gauls, Gaul"; also known as ''Asterix and Obelix'' in some adaptations or ''The Adventures of Asterix'') is a Franco-Belgian comics, French comic album book series, series about a Gaulish village which, thanks ...

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 i ...

, 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 ''Asterix, Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Born in France to a Jewish family from Poland, he spent his chil ...

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 wit ...

. 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 René Goscinny (; ; 14 Augu ...

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 language, Danish. These include ''The Castle (novel), The Castle'' by Franz Kafka, ''Aus ...

. It takes

and Obelix across the Channel into Scotland, where they meet the

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in the Scotland in the early Middle Ages, Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pic ...

. This is the duo's second journey to the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, 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 Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

, after visiting the Britons in '' Asterix in Britain'' (1966).

Plot

One winter day, while searching for oysters,

and Obelix find a young man frozen in ice washed up on the beach. They take him to the druid Getafix, who by the stranger's clothes and tattoos identifies him as a

Pict PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. It allows the interchange of graphics (both bitmapped and vector), and some limited text support, between Mac applications, an ...

, residents of Northern

Caledonia Caledonia (; ) was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the forested region in the central and western Scottish Highlands, particularly stretching through parts of what are now Lochaber, Badenoch, Strathspey, and possibly as ...

(now

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

). 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 (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

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, 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 In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...

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'', '' The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond'', and ''Waly Waly''. He also makes references to some un-Scottish lyrics, including '' Jingle Bells'', ''

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' (originally ''The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere''), written by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797–98 and published in 1798 in the first edition of '' Lyrical Ballads'', is a poem that recounts th ...

'', and ''

Jabberwocky "Jabberwocky" is a Nonsense verse, 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' ...

'', 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, 1st Viscount of Dundee, John Graham, 7th Laird of Claverhouse, who was created 1st Viscount Dundee in November 1688, then in 1689 led a Ja ...

'' 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'', 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 December 1977 by RSO Records as the second single from the ''Saturday Night Fever'' soundtr ...

''.

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 readi ...

, 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 Works set in Roman Britain Picts in fiction