The Secret of the Unicorn
Encyclopedia
The Secret of the Unicorn (in the original French, Le Secret de la Licorne) is the eleventh title in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin
, written and illustrated by Belgian cartoonist Hergé
. Designed to be the first volume in a two-part story, the plot of The Secret of the Unicorn was continued in the twelfth Tintin adventure, Red Rackham's Treasure
. The comic was serialised from 11 June 1942 through to 14 January 1943 in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir
, before being published in book form later that year. Written in the midst of the Second World War, at a time when Belgium was occupied by Nazi Germany
, The Secret of the Unicorn is the first book in the Adventures of Tintin to avoid political themes, instead focusing purely on an adventure story, and for this reason has been described as being the first book in Hergé's middle period. It is also known for being one of only two books in the series set entirely in Belgium.
The comic's plot revolves around young reporter Tintin
, his dog Snowy
, and his friend Captain Haddock
, who discover a riddle left by Haddock's ancestor, the 17th century Sir Francis Haddock, which could lead them to the hidden treasure of the pirate Red Rackham. In order to unravel the riddle, Tintin and Haddock must obtain three identical models of Sir Francis' ship, the Unicorn
, but discover that criminals are also after these model ships, and are willing to kill in order to obtain them.
Hergé heavily researched the background to his story, ensuring that the various ships, buildings, and other features illustrated in it were based upon real life counterparts. The Secret of the Unicorn would remain Hergé's favourite of his Tintin adventures until he wrote Tintin in Tibet
(1960), which would replace it in his affections. The comic has been adapted into various other media, including for a radio series (1992), two animated television series, Belvision's Hergé's Adventures of Tintin
(c.1960) and Nelvana's The Adventures of Tintin
(1991), and the performance-capture 3D film produced by Peter Jackson
and directed by Steven Spielberg
, The Adventures of Tintin (2011).
as a gift. Two strangers, the model ship collector Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine and a mysterious figure known as Barnaby, then unsuccessfully try to independently convince Tintin to sell the model to them. Returning with the model to his flat, Snowy knocks it over and its mainmast is broken. Repairing it, and showing the ship to Haddock, the latter is amazed that it is actually a model of the Unicorn
, a 17th-century warship captained by his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. The model ship is subsequently stolen, and it is revealed that Sakharine owns an identical model of the Unicorn, although this is also soon stolen. Returning to his flat, Tintin discovers a rolled-up parchment hidden under furniture, on which is a part of a riddle that points to the location of treasure, and he realises that this must have been hidden in the mast of the model which Snowy had broken.
Informing Haddock about the riddle, the captain tells him of how Sir Francis Haddock battled with the pirate Red Rackham somewhere in the West Indies, before killing him in single combat and blowing up his ship. Haddock gets somewhat carried away in his telling of the story: destroying his flat while re-enacting the battle scenes.
Barnaby then turns up at Tintin's doorstep but is shot down by unknown assailants. Later Tintin is kidnapped by the perpetrators of the shooting. They are revealed to be the Bird brothers, two unscrupulous antique dealers who own a third model of the Unicorn. They are behind the theft of Tintin's model and Sakharine's parchment, knowing that only with all three parchments can the location of the treasure be found.
Tintin escapes from the Bird brothers' country estate, Marlinspike Hall
, whilst the Captain arrives with the police officers Thompson and Thomson to arrest them. However, it is found that they do not have two of the parchments. These are found to have been stolen by Aristides Silk, a kleptomania
c specialising in wallet-snatching. As the pickpocket is cornered, his cache of stolen wallets is found, amongst which are the Bird Brothers' wallets containing the missing two parchments. By combining the three parchments, Tintin and Haddock discover the coordinates of the hidden treasure, and begin to plan for an expedition to find it.
(The 20th Century). Pioneering this new character in the story Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
, this comic, which involved Tintin battling the socialist authorities in the Soviet Union
, was serialised in Le XXe Siècles supplement for children, Le Petit Vingtième
(The Little Twentieth), from 10 January 1929 until 11 May 1930. Proving a success, Hergé went on to pen a string of new Adventures of Tintin, sending his character to real locations such as the Belgian Congo, the United States, Egypt, India, China and the United Kingdom, and also to fictional countries of his own devising, such as the Latin American republic of San Theodoros
and the East European kingdom of Syldavia
.
As he produced these works, his political approach to the world began to change; the earliest books reflected the socially conservative
, fascist
and imperialistic
attitudes of those for whom he worked. Later he became critical of the militaristic expansionist foreign policy of Germany and Italy, with the eighth Tintin adventure, King Ottokar's Sceptre
(1939), involving Tintin battling the forces of fictional state Borduria
, whose leader, named Müsstler, was a combination of Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler
and Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini
. He continued this anti-German sentiment in his subsequent work, Land of Black Gold
, in which the main antagonist, Dr Müller, is a German intent on sabotaging the oil supply in the British Mandate of Palestine.
World War II
broke out across Europe in 1939, and Germany invaded Belgium in 1940. Although Hergé initially considered fleeing into a self-imposed exile, he ultimately decided to stay in his occupied homeland. Although it had reflected political sympathies with the Nazi regime, the occupying forces closed down Le XXe Siècle in order to secure their own dominance over the Belgian media, leaving Hergé unemployed and his story Land of Black Gold unfinished. In search of employment, he was given a job as an illustrator by Raymond de Becker
, an executive of the popular newspaper Le Soir
(The Evening), which was allowed to continue publication under German management. On 17 October 1940 he was made editor of the paper's children's supplement, Le Soir Jeunesse, in which he set about producing new Tintin adventures, The Crab with the Golden Claws
(1941) and then The Shooting Star
(1942). In this new, more repressive political climate, Hergé could no longer explore political themes in his Adventures of Tintin. As Tintinologist Harry Thompson
noted, Tintin's role as a reporter came to an end, to be replaced by his new role as an explorer, something which was not a politically sensitive topic.
With the culmination of The Shooting Star, Hergé began work on a new Tintin adventure, which would appear as The Secret of the Unicorn. Revolving around the "ultra-romantic theme" of the treasure hunt, Tintinologist Benoit Peeters
would later describe it as "an act of sheer escapism from the rigours of occupation". His decision to write a story that would span the length of two books was something which he had tried before, with the Tintin in the East story arch that was found in both Cigars of the Pharaoh
(1934) and The Blue Lotus
(1936). He considered it to be sufficiently successful that he repeated it over the next four books, The Seven Crystal Balls
(1948), Prisoners of the Sun
(1949), Destination Moon
(1953) and Explorers on the Moon
(1954).
in 1690 by the shipwright Salicon and then decorated by Jean Bérain the Elder
. He also however studied other vessels from the period, such as the Le Soleil Royal, La Couronne, La Royale and Le Reale de France, in order to better understand 17th century ship design. It was from the latter vessel that he gained a basis for his design for the Unicorns jollyboat. No ship named the Unicorn had ever been listed in the annals of the French navy
, so Hergé instead took the name, and also figurehead, for Sir Francis Haddock's fictional vessel from a British frigate which had been active in the mid-18th century.
, best known as the captain of the ship on which sailed the women pirates Anne Bonny
and Mary Read
. John Rackham was also known for his bright clothes.
Tintinologist Michael Farr
believed that the introduction of Sir Francis Haddock (François de Haddoque in the original French) was what made the book "most remarkable" due to the fact that both visually and in his mannerisms, he is "scarcely distinguishable from the captain". By introducing the character, Hergé made Captain Haddock the only character in the series (with the exception of Jolyon Wagg
, who would be introduced later) to have a family and an ancestry.
After publishing the book, Hergé learned that there had actually been an Admiral Haddock who had served in the British navy during the late 17th and early 18th centuries: Sir Richard Haddock (1629–1715). This Haddock was in charge of the Royal James, the flagship of the Earl of Sandwich
during the Battle of Solebay
of 1672, the first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War
. During the fighting, the Royal James was set alight, and Haddock escaped with his life but had to be rescued from the sea, following which his bravery was recognised by the British monarch, King Charles II
. He subsequently took command of another ship, the Royal Charles, before becoming a naval administrator in later life.
Historians have also highlighted the existence of another Captain Haddock who lived in this period, one who had commanded a fire-ship, the Anne and Christopher. It was recorded by David Ogg that this captain and his ship had got separated from their squadron whilst out at sea and so docked at Malaga
to purchase goods that could be taken back to Britain and sold for a profit. For this action, Haddock was brought before an admiralty tribunal in 1674, where he was ordered to forfeit all profits from the transaction and suspended from his command for six months.
in 1943.
In 1952, Casterman
published English language translations of both The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure, in which Moulinsart (later Marlinspike Hall) was referred to as Puckeridge Castle.
The series' Danish publishers, Carlsen
, later located a model of an early 17th-century Danish ship called the Enhjørnigen (The Unicorn) which they gifted to Hergé. Constructed in 1605, Enhjørnigen had been wrecked in an attempt to navigate the Northwest Passage
.
In his analysis of the Adventures of Tintin, the academic Jean-Marie Apostolidès characterised the Secret of the Unicorn-Red Rackham's Treasure arc as being about the characters going on a "treasure hunt that turns out to be at the same time a search for their roots."
and the Canadian animation company Nelvana
. Adapting 21 of the stories into a series of episodes, each 42 minutes long, The Secret of the Unicorn was the ninth story to be produced into the series, with the story spanning two episodes. Directed by Stéphane Bernasconi, the series has been praised for being "generally faithful", with compositions having been actually directly taken from the panels in the original comic book.
film
titled The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn directed by Steven Spielberg
and produced by Peter Jackson
was released in most of the world October - November 2011, and is slated for a US release on December 21, 2011. A video game tie-in to the movie has also been made.
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
, written and illustrated by Belgian cartoonist Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
. Designed to be the first volume in a two-part story, the plot of The Secret of the Unicorn was continued in the twelfth Tintin adventure, Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure is the twelfth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Secret of the Unicorn, and is one of very few Tintin...
. The comic was serialised from 11 June 1942 through to 14 January 1943 in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir
Le Soir
Le Soir is a Berliner Format Belgian newspaper. Le Soir was founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel. It is the most popular Francophone newspaper in Belgium, and considered a newspaper of record.-Editorial stance:...
, before being published in book form later that year. Written in the midst of the Second World War, at a time when Belgium was occupied by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, The Secret of the Unicorn is the first book in the Adventures of Tintin to avoid political themes, instead focusing purely on an adventure story, and for this reason has been described as being the first book in Hergé's middle period. It is also known for being one of only two books in the series set entirely in Belgium.
The comic's plot revolves around young reporter Tintin
Tintin (character)
Tintin is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Tintin is the protagonist of the series, a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy....
, his dog Snowy
Snowy
Snowy may refer to:* The condition of having snow; having to do with snow* Snowy , a dog companion of Tintin, a Belgian comics character* Snowy River, a river in Australia...
, and his friend Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
, who discover a riddle left by Haddock's ancestor, the 17th century Sir Francis Haddock, which could lead them to the hidden treasure of the pirate Red Rackham. In order to unravel the riddle, Tintin and Haddock must obtain three identical models of Sir Francis' ship, the Unicorn
Unicorn (ship)
The Unicorn is a fictional three-masted armed navy vessel appearing in The Adventures of Tintin comic books The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure published in 1943 and 1944, respectively...
, but discover that criminals are also after these model ships, and are willing to kill in order to obtain them.
Hergé heavily researched the background to his story, ensuring that the various ships, buildings, and other features illustrated in it were based upon real life counterparts. The Secret of the Unicorn would remain Hergé's favourite of his Tintin adventures until he wrote Tintin in Tibet
Tintin in Tibet
Tintin in Tibet is the twentieth title in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, written and drawn by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Originally serialised from September 1958 in the French language magazine named after his creation, Le Journal de Tintin, it was then first published in book...
(1960), which would replace it in his affections. The comic has been adapted into various other media, including for a radio series (1992), two animated television series, Belvision's Hergé's Adventures of Tintin
Hergé's Adventures of Tintin
Hergé's Adventures of Tintin was an animated television series based on Hergé's popular comic book series, The Adventures of Tintin. The series was produced by Belvision and aired from 1959 to 1963, with 104 five-minute episodes produced...
(c.1960) and Nelvana's The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin (TV series)
The Adventures of Tintin is an animated television series based on The Adventures of Tintin, a series of books by Hergé. It debuted in 1991, and 39 half-hour episodes were produced over the course of three seasons...
(1991), and the performance-capture 3D film produced by Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
and directed by Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, The Adventures of Tintin (2011).
Synopsis
Whilst browsing in a market in Brussels, Tintin purchases an old model ship which he wishes to give to his friend Captain HaddockCaptain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
as a gift. Two strangers, the model ship collector Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine and a mysterious figure known as Barnaby, then unsuccessfully try to independently convince Tintin to sell the model to them. Returning with the model to his flat, Snowy knocks it over and its mainmast is broken. Repairing it, and showing the ship to Haddock, the latter is amazed that it is actually a model of the Unicorn
Unicorn (ship)
The Unicorn is a fictional three-masted armed navy vessel appearing in The Adventures of Tintin comic books The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure published in 1943 and 1944, respectively...
, a 17th-century warship captained by his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. The model ship is subsequently stolen, and it is revealed that Sakharine owns an identical model of the Unicorn, although this is also soon stolen. Returning to his flat, Tintin discovers a rolled-up parchment hidden under furniture, on which is a part of a riddle that points to the location of treasure, and he realises that this must have been hidden in the mast of the model which Snowy had broken.
Informing Haddock about the riddle, the captain tells him of how Sir Francis Haddock battled with the pirate Red Rackham somewhere in the West Indies, before killing him in single combat and blowing up his ship. Haddock gets somewhat carried away in his telling of the story: destroying his flat while re-enacting the battle scenes.
Barnaby then turns up at Tintin's doorstep but is shot down by unknown assailants. Later Tintin is kidnapped by the perpetrators of the shooting. They are revealed to be the Bird brothers, two unscrupulous antique dealers who own a third model of the Unicorn. They are behind the theft of Tintin's model and Sakharine's parchment, knowing that only with all three parchments can the location of the treasure be found.
Tintin escapes from the Bird brothers' country estate, Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall is Captain Haddock's country house in Hergé's comic book series The Adventures of Tintin.The hall is modeled after the central section of the Château de Cheverny...
, whilst the Captain arrives with the police officers Thompson and Thomson to arrest them. However, it is found that they do not have two of the parchments. These are found to have been stolen by Aristides Silk, a kleptomania
Kleptomania
Kleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...
c specialising in wallet-snatching. As the pickpocket is cornered, his cache of stolen wallets is found, amongst which are the Bird Brothers' wallets containing the missing two parchments. By combining the three parchments, Tintin and Haddock discover the coordinates of the hidden treasure, and begin to plan for an expedition to find it.
Background
The Belgian comic book creator Georges Remi – who would become better known under his pen name of Hergé – first came up with the character of Tintin, a young boy reporter, whilst working at the right wing Belgian newspaper Le XXe SiècleLe XXe Siècle
Le XXe Siècle was a Belgian newspaper that was published from 1895 and 1940. Its supplement Le Petit Vingtième is known as the first publication to feature The Adventures of Tintin....
(The 20th Century). Pioneering this new character in the story Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the first title in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, written and drawn by Belgian cartoonist Hergé...
, this comic, which involved Tintin battling the socialist authorities in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, was serialised in Le XXe Siècles supplement for children, Le Petit Vingtième
Le Petit Vingtième
Le Petit Vingtième was the weekly youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle from 1928 to 1940. The comics series The Adventures of Tintin first appeared in its pages.-History:...
(The Little Twentieth), from 10 January 1929 until 11 May 1930. Proving a success, Hergé went on to pen a string of new Adventures of Tintin, sending his character to real locations such as the Belgian Congo, the United States, Egypt, India, China and the United Kingdom, and also to fictional countries of his own devising, such as the Latin American republic of San Theodoros
San Theodoros
San Theodoros is a fictional Central American country in The Adventures of Tintin. It is a satirical version of a Latin American banana republic country under the yoke of military government.-History:...
and the East European kingdom of Syldavia
Syldavia
Syldavia is a fictional Balkan kingdom featured in The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. The name was derived from TranSYLvania and MolDAVIA.-Overview:...
.
As he produced these works, his political approach to the world began to change; the earliest books reflected the socially conservative
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
, fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and imperialistic
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
attitudes of those for whom he worked. Later he became critical of the militaristic expansionist foreign policy of Germany and Italy, with the eighth Tintin adventure, King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre is the eighth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring the young reporter Tintin. It was first serialized as a black-and-white comic strip in Le Petit Vingtième on 4 August...
(1939), involving Tintin battling the forces of fictional state Borduria
Borduria
Borduria is a fictional country in the comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Syldavia. Borduria is depicted in King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Calculus Affair, and is referred to in Tintin and...
, whose leader, named Müsstler, was a combination of Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
. He continued this anti-German sentiment in his subsequent work, Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold is the fifteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, in which the main antagonist, Dr Müller, is a German intent on sabotaging the oil supply in the British Mandate of Palestine.
World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out across Europe in 1939, and Germany invaded Belgium in 1940. Although Hergé initially considered fleeing into a self-imposed exile, he ultimately decided to stay in his occupied homeland. Although it had reflected political sympathies with the Nazi regime, the occupying forces closed down Le XXe Siècle in order to secure their own dominance over the Belgian media, leaving Hergé unemployed and his story Land of Black Gold unfinished. In search of employment, he was given a job as an illustrator by Raymond de Becker
Raymond de Becker
Raymond De Becker was a Belgian journalist and writer who was born in Brussels. He edited the Belgian papers Independence and Avant-Garde...
, an executive of the popular newspaper Le Soir
Le Soir
Le Soir is a Berliner Format Belgian newspaper. Le Soir was founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel. It is the most popular Francophone newspaper in Belgium, and considered a newspaper of record.-Editorial stance:...
(The Evening), which was allowed to continue publication under German management. On 17 October 1940 he was made editor of the paper's children's supplement, Le Soir Jeunesse, in which he set about producing new Tintin adventures, The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Crab with the Golden Claws is the ninth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
(1941) and then The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star is the tenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip books that were written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
(1942). In this new, more repressive political climate, Hergé could no longer explore political themes in his Adventures of Tintin. As Tintinologist Harry Thompson
Harry Thompson
Harry William Thompson was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer....
noted, Tintin's role as a reporter came to an end, to be replaced by his new role as an explorer, something which was not a politically sensitive topic.
With the culmination of The Shooting Star, Hergé began work on a new Tintin adventure, which would appear as The Secret of the Unicorn. Revolving around the "ultra-romantic theme" of the treasure hunt, Tintinologist Benoit Peeters
Benoît Peeters
Benoît Peeters is a comics writer, novelist, and critic. He has lived in Belgium since 1978.His best-known work is Les Cités Obscures, an imaginary world which mingles a Borgesian metaphysical surrealism with the detailed architectural vistas of the series' artist, François Schuiten...
would later describe it as "an act of sheer escapism from the rigours of occupation". His decision to write a story that would span the length of two books was something which he had tried before, with the Tintin in the East story arch that was found in both Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
(1934) and The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus , first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug...
(1936). He considered it to be sufficiently successful that he repeated it over the next four books, The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
(1948), Prisoners of the Sun
Prisoners of the Sun
Prisoners of the Sun is the fourteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Seven Crystal Balls, and is one of very few Tintin...
(1949), Destination Moon
Destination Moon
Destination Moon can refer to the following:* Destination Moon , a 1950 science fiction film* "Destination Moon" , a story by Robert Heinlein adapted from his screenplay for the above...
(1953) and Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon, published in 1954, is the seventeenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is On a marché sur la Lune...
(1954).
Influences
To produce the varied backgrounds and other illustrations for The Secret of the Unicorn, Hergé drew on a much wider variety of pictorial sources, such as newspaper clippings, than he had done for any of the earlier Tintin adventures. He went to particular effort in order to depict the Unicorn as a historically accurate 17th century warship, studying the plans of naval vessels from that period which were found in the Naval Museum in Paris. As his primary influence for the fictional craft, he chose a ship named Le Brillant which had been constructed in Le HavreLe Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
in 1690 by the shipwright Salicon and then decorated by Jean Bérain the Elder
Jean Bérain the Elder
Jean Berain the Elder was a draughtsman and designer, painter and engraver of ornament, the artistic force in the Royal office of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi where all the designs originated for court spectacle, from fêtes to funerals, and many designs for furnishings not covered by the Bâtiments du...
. He also however studied other vessels from the period, such as the Le Soleil Royal, La Couronne, La Royale and Le Reale de France, in order to better understand 17th century ship design. It was from the latter vessel that he gained a basis for his design for the Unicorns jollyboat. No ship named the Unicorn had ever been listed in the annals of the French navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
, so Hergé instead took the name, and also figurehead, for Sir Francis Haddock's fictional vessel from a British frigate which had been active in the mid-18th century.
Red Rackham and Sir Francis Haddock
There was a historic pirate with a similar name to Red Rackham, John RackhamCalico Jack
John Rackham , commonly known as Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain operating in the Bahamas during the early 18th century...
, best known as the captain of the ship on which sailed the women pirates Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny was an Irish woman who became a famous female pirate, operating in the Caribbean. What little is known of her life comes largely from A General History of the Pyrates.-Historical record:...
and Mary Read
Mary Read
Mary Read was an English pirate. She is chiefly remembered as one of only two women known to have been convicted of piracy during the early 18th century, at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy....
. John Rackham was also known for his bright clothes.
Michael Farr
Michael Farr is a British expert on the comic series Tintin and its creator, Hergé. He has written several books on the subject as well as translating several others into English...
believed that the introduction of Sir Francis Haddock (François de Haddoque in the original French) was what made the book "most remarkable" due to the fact that both visually and in his mannerisms, he is "scarcely distinguishable from the captain". By introducing the character, Hergé made Captain Haddock the only character in the series (with the exception of Jolyon Wagg
Jolyon Wagg
Jolyon Wagg is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is an gregarious, simple, and overbearing man who enters the story by barging in uninvited...
, who would be introduced later) to have a family and an ancestry.
After publishing the book, Hergé learned that there had actually been an Admiral Haddock who had served in the British navy during the late 17th and early 18th centuries: Sir Richard Haddock (1629–1715). This Haddock was in charge of the Royal James, the flagship of the Earl of Sandwich
Earl of Sandwich
Earl of Sandwich is a 17th century title in the Peerage of England, nominally associated with Sandwich, Kent. It was created in 1660 for the prominent naval commander Admiral Sir Edward Montagu. He was made Baron Montagu, of St Neots in the County of Huntingdon, and Viscount Hinchingbrooke, at the...
during the Battle of Solebay
Battle of Solebay
The naval Battle of Solebay took place on 28 May Old Style, 7 June New Style 1672 and was the first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War.-The battle:...
of 1672, the first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War
Third Anglo-Dutch War
The Third Anglo–Dutch War or Third Dutch War was a military conflict between England and the Dutch Republic lasting from 1672 to 1674. It was part of the larger Franco-Dutch War...
. During the fighting, the Royal James was set alight, and Haddock escaped with his life but had to be rescued from the sea, following which his bravery was recognised by the British monarch, King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
. He subsequently took command of another ship, the Royal Charles, before becoming a naval administrator in later life.
Historians have also highlighted the existence of another Captain Haddock who lived in this period, one who had commanded a fire-ship, the Anne and Christopher. It was recorded by David Ogg that this captain and his ship had got separated from their squadron whilst out at sea and so docked at Malaga
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
to purchase goods that could be taken back to Britain and sold for a profit. For this action, Haddock was brought before an admiralty tribunal in 1674, where he was ordered to forfeit all profits from the transaction and suspended from his command for six months.
Marlinspike Hall
The name Moulinsart was an anagram of the real village of Sarmoulin.Publication
Le Secret De La Licorne was initially serialised on a daily basis in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir from 11 June 1942, whilst the French newspaper Coeurs Vaillants began to subsequently serialise it from 19 March 1944. In Belgium, it was then published in a 62 page book format by Editions CastermanCasterman
Casterman is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics, specializing in comic books and children's literature. The company is based in Tournai, Belgium.Founded in 1780, Casterman was originally a printing company and publishing house...
in 1943.
In 1952, Casterman
Casterman
Casterman is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics, specializing in comic books and children's literature. The company is based in Tournai, Belgium.Founded in 1780, Casterman was originally a printing company and publishing house...
published English language translations of both The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure, in which Moulinsart (later Marlinspike Hall) was referred to as Puckeridge Castle.
The series' Danish publishers, Carlsen
Carlsen
Carlsen is a Danish-Norwegian patronymic surname which may refer to:* Carlsen , people surnamed Carlsen* Carlsen Verlag, Danish publishing house* The Anne Carlsen Center for Children, school in North Dakota...
, later located a model of an early 17th-century Danish ship called the Enhjørnigen (The Unicorn) which they gifted to Hergé. Constructed in 1605, Enhjørnigen had been wrecked in an attempt to navigate the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
.
Analysis
The Secret of the Unicorn resembled the earlier Tintin adventures in its use of style, colour and content, leading Harry Thompson to remark that it "unquestionably" belongs to the 1930s, believing it to be "the last and best of Hergé's detective mysteries."In his analysis of the Adventures of Tintin, the academic Jean-Marie Apostolidès characterised the Secret of the Unicorn-Red Rackham's Treasure arc as being about the characters going on a "treasure hunt that turns out to be at the same time a search for their roots."
Belvision animation, 1957
In 1957, the animation company Belvision produced a string of colour adaptations based upon Hergé's original comics, adapting eight of the Adventures into a series of daily five-minute episodes. The Secret of the Unicorn was the seventh such story to be adapted, being directed by Ray Goossens and written by Michel Greg, himself a well known comic book writer and illustrator who in later years would become editor-in-chief of the Journal De Tintin.Ellipse/Nelvana animation, 1991
In 1991, a second animated series based upon The Adventures of Tintin was produced, this time as a collaboration between the French studio EllipseEllipse
In geometry, an ellipse is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is orthogonal to the cone's axis...
and the Canadian animation company Nelvana
Nelvana
Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company founded in 1971 known for its work in children's animation. It was named by founders Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith after a Canadian comic book superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s...
. Adapting 21 of the stories into a series of episodes, each 42 minutes long, The Secret of the Unicorn was the ninth story to be produced into the series, with the story spanning two episodes. Directed by Stéphane Bernasconi, the series has been praised for being "generally faithful", with compositions having been actually directly taken from the panels in the original comic book.
Motion capture film and video game, 2011
A motion captureMotion capture
Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
titled The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn directed by Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
and produced by Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
was released in most of the world October - November 2011, and is slated for a US release on December 21, 2011. A video game tie-in to the movie has also been made.
External links
- The Secret of the Unicorn at Tintinologist.org