Year: 1938

Important Characters: Tintin, Snowy, Madame Castafiore, Colonel Jorgens

French Title: Le Sceptre d'Ottokar

One of the beauties of many of Tintin's adventures is how innocently it begins. The hero does something which appears harmless, and he is gradually led into a complex web of intrigue and suspense. Before long, he is in the throws of a full-scale adventure. In King Ottokar's Sceptre, the harmless act is the picking up of a briefcase. Snowy, to his credit, warns Tintin not to meddle in the affairs of others.

The dates of the story are significant. It appeared in Le Petit Vingtième from 4 August 1938 to 10 August 1939. Only a few months before Hergé began drawing the adventure, Austria was seriously threatened by Germany. The Austrian Chancellor stepped down under pressure from the Nazis and, on the night of March 11-12 1938, German troops invaded Austria and on March 13 Hitler declared its annexation. The Anschluss was now complete and Austria was a state of The Third Reich.

Hence, the story of King Ottokar's Sceptre is nothing more than that of a failed Anschluss. Borduria tries to annex Syldavia with the help of Musstler (a cross between Mussolini and Hitler?), whose methods largely recall those of the German Chancellor. Many references allow the Bordurians to be identified with the Nazis. Their names, uniforms, aircraft, as well as a military takeover involving a fifth column infiltrated into Syldavia under the cover of a political party, the "Iron Guard". Syldavia seems to be as badly equipped for a military takeover attempt as many of the European nations of the time.

As well as militarism and politics, other elements of the book are very memorable. In this adventure we see the debut of the unforgettable Diva, Bianca Castafiore. Immediately after she offers Tintin a lift, she gives a rendition of the aria that made her famous, the jewel song from Faust. Another aspect worth mentioning is the technique Hergé uses to introduce his readers to his new invention, Syldavia: the placing of a tourist brochure at the heart of the story. This brochure is by no means inconsequential, either, as many of the political and geographical facts it contains become crucial later in the story.