The arumbaya fetish

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Tim is on the trail of a fetish like this. This statue, which is in the collection of the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, was Hergé's model.

The Arumbaya Fetish ( French original title: L'oreille cassée , lit. "The Broken Ear") is the sixth comic book in the Tintin series by the Belgian comic artist Hergé . The story first appeared in the magazine Le Petit Vingtième from 1935 to 1937, then as a complete volume in 1937. It was redrawn and colored in 1943.

action

Tim also comes across a workshop full of fetishes

An approximately 40 centimeter high fetish in the form of a statuette , which originally belonged to a South American Indian tribe, the Arumbayas, is stolen from the Museum of Ethnology in Brussels . The next day he finds himself in the museum with an anonymous letter. In it, the thief apologizes and explains that it was only about a bet. Tim realizes that it is a fake, because the original fetish has a broken ear.

Tim learns that a sculptor has died and suspects that he made the fake and was then murdered. A visit to his apartment confirms this suspicion. Tim tries to get the sculptor's parrot into his hand, but two Latin Americans, Alonzo Perez and Ramon Bada , are also on the trail of the parrot and thus the fetish. They break into Tim and try twice to murder him. During the second attempted murder, they try to run him over with their car. Tim manages to determine the identity of the two and overhears them. Tim hears the parrot testifying that a certain Rodrigo Tortilla killed the sculptor.

Through the conversation between Alonzo and Ramon, who know the murderer personally, Tim learns of their plan to rob Tortilla of the fetish on the ship trip to South America. Tim follows them aboard and, despite the best efforts of Perez and Bada, is not discovered. After the two murdered Tortilla, they discover that Tortilla also only had a replica of the fetish. Tim arrests them both and has them handed over to the authorities in San Theodoros, a fictional small state in South America . There the two murderers are released immediately. Tim is lured ashore by state authorities and is to be executed by a firing squad. Shortly before the execution, General Alcazar's rebel army seizes power, a figure who will appear several times in later adventures. Before the execution, Tim had gotten very drunk and cheered General Alcazar, which is why the rebels consider him a hero. Alcazar immediately appointed him colonel and personal adjutant , both of whom regularly play chess against each other. Alonzo and Ramon, who have become officers themselves, continue trying to murder Tim.

Tim is saved from another attempted murder by Alonzo and Ramon by a lightning strike. He overpowers them and puts them in jail. Meanwhile, rival oil companies, General American Oil and British South-American Petrol , San Theodoros and the neighboring state of Nuevo-Rico are trying to embark on a war. The arms dealer Basil Bazaroff supplies both sides. Tim is asked by one of Bazaroff's accomplices to use his influence at Alcazar to urge him to go to war with Nuevo-Rico. Tim indignantly rejects this request and thus creates mortal enemies. First, Tim is said to be shot by the hit man Pablo. This attempt fails and Tim confronts Pablo. After he begs for his life, Tim lets him run out of generosity. Bazaroff's henchman now constructs an intrigue and lets Alcazar believe that Tim is a spy for Nuevo-Rico. Without listening to Tim, Alcazar decides to arrest and execute Tim. Tim finds himself on death row again. Out of gratitude, Pablo frees Tim and provides him with a getaway car. Tim flees to Nuevo-Rico in a San Theodorian military vehicle, which starts the war. Tim is captured by the military in Nuevo-Rico. He escapes and flees into the jungle, where a plantation owner first helps him. Tim goes to the Arumbaya tribe. There he meets the white explorer Ridgewell, who has decided to stay with the Arumbayas. Ridgewell tells Tim about the researcher Walker. His companion Lopez stole the fetish and a diamond from the Arumbayas . Out of anger, the Arumbayas murdered the expedition members of Walker's group, only Lopez was able to escape. Tim concludes that the diamond was hidden in the fetish. Tim leaves the Arumbayas and meets Ramon and Alonzo again. He overpowers them and finds a note with Alonzo that confirms his suspicion about the hiding place of the diamond. Alonzo and Ramon free themselves and throw Tim into a river, which manages to swim ashore and make his way back to civilization. In the meantime, the two states have again concluded a ceasefire.

Tintin drive home and discover that large numbers of copies of the fetish are now being produced. Tim finds out that the original was in the sculptor's estate. The sculptor's brother sold the original to a wealthy American who is on board a transatlantic liner on his way to the USA . He flies to the ship in a seaplane and meets Alonzo and Ramon again, who have just stolen the American's fetish. You drop the fetish, it breaks and the diamond slips over the deck and falls into the ocean. In a fight, Tim and the two criminals fall behind. Tim is rescued, Alonzo and Ramon drown. Both are brought to hell by little devils in a scene that is unique for the entire Tintin work. The American gives the fetish to the museum in Brussels, where it is patched up and takes its old place again.

background

The story begins with the longest scene from Tim's everyday life, and for the first time, readers are also shown Tim's simple apartment on Labradorstrasse in Brussels . Tim's day begins with a morning exercise radio program. Such were broadcast in Belgium from 1935, the very year the Arumbaya fetish was first printed. After learning of the theft of the fetish, he drives to the museum, because his instinct as a reporter tells him to come across a "hot" story.

The story contains many allusions to the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay in 1932 and 1935, in the course of which over 100,000 people lost their lives. In this war the rival oil companies Standard Oil and British Petroleum played a role, which Hergé alienated to General American Oil and British South-American Petrol . The character Basil Bazaroff is based on the real arms dealer Basil Zaharoff . The figure of the ethnologist Ridgewell bears the traits of the explorer Percy Fawcett , who disappeared in the Brazilian jungle in 1925. Hergé skillfully mixes real and fictionalized place names in order to make his work timeless on the one hand and to give it a certain credibility on the other.

Hergé's portrayal of the Indians of South America is probably based on very extensive documents, especially on the Jivaro . The blowguns that are used in the second part, the quivers and arrows correspond very precisely to those of this people. The pictures of the Ethnographic Museum in History are replete with numerous works that can be seen in one way or another in the real museums of Brussels and Tervuren . The central subject of the volume, the fetish of the Arumbaya, is an image of a real fetish that can still be admired today in the royal museums of art and history in Brussels. This is a 55 centimeter tall image of a male Chimú deity who was worshiped in Peru. The statue was made between 1200 and 1438.

The work can be read very differently. On the one hand it is a crime story, on the other hand a satire on military dictatorships and Western great powers that do not shy away from starting a war in order to assert their economic interests. The “Never Again War!” Movement had not yet made itself heard.

The language of the Arumbaya is based on the Brussels dialect and Spanish idioms, it becomes a subtle joke for Brussels people.

Comparison of 1930s and 1940s editions

The black and white version from the 30s and the colored version from the 40s are very similar, but there are some differences:

scene 1930 edition 1940s edition
Tim takes a bath while listening to the radio. The news begins with the Italian war in Abyssinia. The news starts right away with the theft of the fetish.
Tim is reading a book about the Arumbayas. Tim dreams that he will be attacked by an arumbaya with a blowpipe at night. he wakes up and realizes that he has been bitten by the mosquito. Tim doesn't have a nightmare. A similar scene is later used in "The Seven Crystal Balls".
After Perez and Ramon were arrested on board the Bonn coat of arms, Tim received a letter asking him to come ashore. The steward who brings Tim the letter is more drunk than usual. He feels guilty because it was he who contributed to the tortillas murder. Despite his red nose, the Stewart is quite sober.
Trickler decides to hire someone to kill Tim. Pablo is the liaison to the killer. The killer is Juan Paolino, the "Terror of Las Dopicos" and the best shooter in the country. The liaison man is Rodriguez and the killer is Pablo.
Trickler's killer and Ramon both fail to murder Tim. Paolino claims not to know the client, as that is so common in this business. Pablo admits that it was Rodriguez who hired him. This one works for tricksters.
When Tim is on death row for espionage, Pablo / Juan Paolino, who has been pardoned by him, decides to free him. Tim wants to stay in the city first, but is then persuaded to flee. Tim flees without discussion.

Re-use of the figures

In later albums, The Seven Crystal Balls , Coal on Board and Tim and the Picaros there will be a reunion with General Alcazar. In Tim and the Picaros, Tim meets Pablo and the Arumbayas (including Ridgewell) again. On page 47 of the album Der Fall Bienlein , Mr. Trickler can be seen among the guests at the Hotel Zsnôrr in Bordurien, but he and Tim do not notice each other. A personal meeting with Trickler does not take place until the unfinished album Tim und die Alpha-Kunst , in which he and the main characters are guests in the villa of the magician Endaddin Akass.

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Farr: In the footsteps of Tim & Struppi , Carlsen, Hamburg 2005, p. 64.