English translations of Asterix

Lore & Background

The English translations of Asterix began with Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, whose first volume, Asterix the Gaul, was published by Brockhampton Press in 1969. Bell retired in 2016 due to ill health and died in 2018; Hockridge died in 2013. Adriana Hunter currently serves as translator, with Asterix and the Chariot Race being her debut. Earlier English-language versions appeared in British comics: an edited-down version of Asterix the Gaul ran in Valiant from 1963 as 'Little Fred and Big Ed,' and a version of Asterix and the Big Fight appeared in Ranger magazine in 1965–1966 as 'Britons Never, Never, Never Shall Be Slaves!' with characters renamed.

Reader's Guide

Bell and Hockridge were praised for maintaining the spirit and humor of the French original even when direct translation was impossible, as with puns. For example, in Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield, Obelix redistributes water in spa pools, and the druid asks Vitalstatistix, 'Where are your Gauls?' The French reply plays on a famous quote, but the English version becomes 'Pooling your resources,' a double entendre. In Asterix in Britain, a joke about a melon (French for bowler hat) is lost; the English version substitutes a reference to 'London Bridge Is Falling Down.' Sometimes the translators added their own humor, as in Asterix and the Goths, where a Goth chief's line becomes 'Ours is not to reason why,' from Tennyson's poem. Name translations also adapt jokes: the bard Assurancetourix becomes Cacofonix, alluding to cacophony, while the camp Babaorum becomes Totorum (a pun on 'tot o' rum').

Did You Know?

• The first English translation of an Asterix story appeared in the British comic Valiant in 1963, titled 'Little Fred and Big Ed.'
• In the American newspaper syndication (1977–1979), five albums and part of a sixth were serialized, with art reworked for daily and Sunday strips.
• The National Geographic featured an Asterix comic strip in its May 1977 issue, the first comic strip ever to appear in the magazine.
• One of the Roman camps, originally Babaorum (a pun on rum baba), was translated as Totorum, a play on 'tot o' rum.'