The great crossing

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The great crossing (French original title: La Grande Traversée ) is a comic strip in the Asterix series, written by René Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo . The comic first appeared in 1975 as the 22nd volume in the series. The two heroes Asterix and Obelix reach him after a storm with their boat on the coast of North America , where they meet Indians living there . The comic served as a template for the cartoon Asterix in America , published in 1994 .

action

The fishmonger Verleihnix in the Gallic village no longer has fresh fish because the ox cart from Lutetia did not arrive due to a strike by the ox cart drivers due to high hay prices. The druid Miraculix urgently needs this ingredient for the magic potion. Asterix and Obelix then decide to take a boat out to sea to catch fish. Obelix takes Asterix's request to throw the net out all too literally. A storm prevents them from returning and so Obelix in particular is suffering from increasing hunger. On a pirate ship they can steal a birthday banquet, which Obelix can eat quickly except for an apple. You get caught in another storm and lose your bearings.

After a long journey, they come to a coast and go ashore. There they meet unknown animals (turkeys), which they call Gurugurus , and strangely painted Romans (Indians). You are in America. After initial communication difficulties and after they have demonstrated their strength brought about by the magic potion, they are accepted into the tribe and invited to hunt. When the chief Obelix wants to marry his daughter, they sneak away at night because Obelix does not want to become the son-in-law of a centurion. A canoe used for the escape turns out to have been leaked, and so they have to swim to an island to save themselves.

A little later, Vikings under Erik the blond [sic!] Also reach the coast. They consider Asterix and Obelix to be natives and offer them glass beads to ingratiate themselves, but they also have problems communicating. Only Idefix and Erik's Great Dane Møpsen become friends. When the Indians discover them, Asterix and Obelix, who consider the Vikings to be peddlers, want to use force to board the Viking ship on which they also want to use force to bring the Vikings. So everyone storms on the ship and with Obelix 'help they can quickly gain distance to the coast. They travel together to wintry Northern Europe. When the Vikings arrive home, the chief of the tribe, Ivar the terrible [sic!], Refuses to believe that Erik has discovered a new world. In the face of Asterix, Idefix and Obelix, however, his doubts disappear. After a joint feast, they want to sacrifice the two and then set off into the new world. However, Asterix and Obelix are able to flee after a "nice scuffle" with the help of the Gallic prisoner Fortwienix. As a fisherman, Fortwienix had the bad luck of meeting the Vikings on one of their raids, and on the way back helps Asterix and Obelix to catch the fish they need. They get back to their village and bring the fish they long for. The magic potion can now be brewed again and the Gauls celebrate the good end of the adventure with a feast at which Verleihnix disdains the fish they have brought with them.

Remarks

When Obelix first encountered a supposed Roman, 50 stars are shown on a blue background after he knocked out the Indian - a reference to the American flag . A little later, three American cockades appear over the head of an unconscious Indian. Another allusion to the USA is Asterix's attempt to attract the attention of passing seafarers from a cairn with a torch in its raised hand. Here he assumes the pose of the Statue of Liberty .

Further anachronistic references to the later history of the USA are the discovery of America by the Vikings, the remark that the island was the purest melting pot , which would have been an apt expression especially in the time of the great immigration wave around 1900, the apostrophization of the New World as the land of unlimited possibilities as well as the consumption of the stuffed turkey, which is traditional in the USA especially on Thanksgiving . Another allusion to the colonization of America by the Europeans is how the Vikings (similar to the later European conquerors) try to ingratiate themselves with Asterix and Obelix (the supposed natives) with cheap jewelry.

Quotations and literary allusions can also be found in this Asterix volume. Adaptations of Happy Birthday and of the Black Whale to Ascalon are sung by Viktor von Scheffel and passages from William Shakespeare's Hamlet are quoted at least twice : “To be or not to be” and “Something's rotten in my state.” Obelix's statement “You follow blushing their traces ”, on the other hand, is borrowed from Friedrich Schiller's Lied von der Glocke , and Neil Armstrong's saying“ One small step for me, one big leap for mankind ”is put into the mouth of the Viking Erik .

publication

The story was preprinted in 1975 in the Sud-Ouest newspaper. The first edition of the book La Grande Traversée followed in the same year by Dargaud as volume 22 of the series. In Germany, the story was shown for the first time in issues 15/1975 to 10/1976 of the magazine MV-Comix . The first German edition of the book was published by Ehapa in January 1977 . With the new edition in 2002 this volume got a new cover picture.

The volume was published in English, Spanish, Turkish and Low German , among others .

See also

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