Asterix and the Golden Sickle (1962)

La serpe d'or

A sparkling adventure with a soft edge.

Notable Nomenclature

• Metallurgix: Parisian sickle-maker cousin to Obelix.
• Clovogarlix: Sickle trafficker.
• Navishtrix: Head of sickle trafficking syndicate.
• Surplus Dairiprodus: Prefect of Gaul.

Presenting a pretentious thematic undercurrent...

Continuity; lack-thereof and other gaffes...

• The multi-hued-haired Cacofonix of the early adventures (here he sports white locks) is first presented in his capacity as teacher (p1).
• Obelix is introduced properly as a travelling companion to Asterix (p3).
• First visit of Getafix to the Forest of the Carnutes annual druids' convention (p2).
• First running gag in Asterix: A&O keep getting arrested by the same patrol (pp 14, 21, 34) (Kessler)
• Anachronistic reference to destruction of Pompeii (p14).
• First use of Cockerel as Gaulish national symbol (p18). (Kessler)
• First sight of Obelix eating a boar without going through the inconvenience of jointing it (p41).
• For the first time (the now yellow-coiffured) Cacofonix is inconvenienced at the banquet. In this instance he isn't even afforded his usual tree spot - the very last frame shows him tied and gagged in a moonlit room, the distant feast visible through its doorway.

Cleverness and contemporaneity...

• A&O carry on their conversation while they bash a band of bandits (p4).
• Roman road XII carries a "Danger Slippery Flagstones" sign (p5).
• Asterix decries the architectural pollution implicit in Roman aquaduct construction (p6).
• Even in ancient times Paris is overcrowded with traffic jams; and the Seine is polluted with discarded amphoras (p7).
• Navishtrix's drinking establishment features a bardic band and a cloakroom (pp 10-14).
• Traffic on the freeway is held up by roadworks manned by slaves (p19).
• The fellow prisoner cannot accept the defeat of Vercingetorix (pp 22-23).
• The multilingual tour-guide recommends a night in the Mola Rubra (Moulin Rouge).
• The forest will become the Bois de Boulogne (p25).
• The horde of sickles is categorised into "Small", "Medium", "Large" and "Outsize" druids (p30).
• All it requires for Obelix to smash a gate is to let his stomach hang loose (p36).
• Metallurgix is facially identical to Obelix (p40).
• A famous seasonal Paris song is seemingly already extant (p42).
• A rural village girl thirsts for knowledge of Parisian fashion (p42).

Obelix has a tender side...

• Displays a big heart to match his big stomach as he weeps buckets over his kidnapped cousin (pp16 and 17).
• Has an protracted attack of petulence when he loses a bet with Asterix (pp 25-27).

Good or what?

If Asterix the Gaul introduces "Village under Threat", one of the two main categories that comprise - more or less - all of the Asterix books; this one introduces the "Asterix in..." category, in which the mismatched double act further the cause of Chauvinism in climes new. This one is basically "Asterix in Paris" - and as such is an entertaining adventure without ever appiring to the comedic heights of later "Asterix in..." adventures.