Asterix and the Goths by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 3

With the third album, the Asterix adventures now step outside of Gaul for the first time, taking our heroes into neighbouring Germania. Goths have appeared in both the previous adventures but now we get to see a full depiction of the neighbouring country. It's another sign that this is a series determined to show the full range of its scope fairly early on and not confine itself merely to the relations between the Gauls and the occupying Romans.
However, for an adventure that literally crosses frontiers, this story takes some time. It's not until page 18 of 43 that we actually enter Germania. Beforehand the focus is on Getafix's visit to a conference of druids and then on confusion amongst the Romans on the frontier as they get confused between the Goths and Asterix and Obelix, resulting in a lot of misidentity and runarounds. These scenes have a charm to them, but do drag a little given the main appeal of the adventure. It's also a little dubious that Getafix would be allowed to enter the strength magic potion in a contest for new methods and there must surely have been some other way for him to have unwittingly demonstrated it to the Goth spies - maybe perhaps an accident in the forest that required super strength to rescue a druid. There's some fun moments in this part of the story and some fun jokes, but invariably the reader's attention is drawn to the latter part of the tale as we enter ancient Germany.

This story was originally published just a generation after the occupation of France by the Germans. So far in the series there hasn't been a particularly overt use of the Romans as proxies for the Germans, but now we get to see France's most recent occupiers directly. And it's the portrayal is very negative, showing a brutal, war mongering race devoted to militarism and conquest. There are a lot of anachronisms in the portrayal, with the emphasis on the distinction between the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths owing more to the 1960s, when Germany was divided between West Germany and East Germany, rather than 50 BC when this distinction isn't so well recorded. The Goths wear helmets reminiscent of the Pickelhauben worn by the Germans until the end of the First World War, the scene in the arena has the feeling of a political rally right down to the draped flags and the symbols used to portray Gothic swearwords include the swastika. Given the nature of the story and the space available it's inevitable that shortcuts are taken with the presentation of the resolution, but the story as a whole shows many of the Goths to be easily susceptible and highly treacherous, with even allies and family members turning on one another, and each Goth approached by the Gauls easily avails themselves of the opportunity to raise an army and turn on their leaders. This is a tale that isn't pulling its punches. In the real world De Gaulle and Adenauer may have been leading attempts at Franco-German reconciliation, but Goscinny and Uderzo were instead showing that not all the French were feeling quite so positive about their neighbours. The lesson at the end of the story is exceptionally blunt, namely that the way to check German expansion is to keep the peoples divided and squabbling amongst themselves so they won't have time to think about invading their neighbours. For a story written less than a century after German unification and now in an era of new division it is all too obvious message.

The series is also still developing ideas about how to do the storytelling, as shown with a special page entitled "The Asterixian Wars" which humorously tells of all the Gothic leaders attacking one another, with many ambushes and backstabbings, constant conflict and even illogical attacks as weaker chiefs turn on each other. It's not strictly necessary to the story which has already established the civil war created by the heroes but it makes for a nice piece towards the end. Elsewhere the characters continue to be developed, with Asterix getting involved by volunteering to be Getafix's bodyguard on the way to the conference and Obelix coming too simply because "Menhirs are out of season at the moment", rather than the story contriving a connection to justify his inclusion. Of the rest of the regular cast only Cacofonix makes any noticeable appearance as the other villagers rapidly prevent his attempts to mark first the departure and later the banquet celebrating the return with a song.

The story is slightly weakened by being the third of only three tales so far to see a situation that threatens to end the supply of magic potion to the village, with Getafix once again kidnapped. In the English-language this problem was less noticeable in the previous Hodder Dargaud editions which numbered the series in the order in which they were translated, but with both the original French publication and now the Orion editions the repetitiveness does start to show. Fortunately the story doesn't play up the potion aspect too much and instead concentrates on Asterix and Obelix going to rescue their friend but it does show a need to broaden out the range of problems to respond to.

Overall this is quite an enjoyable adventure. It may drag a little in the first half but there's plenty of good humour throughout and it presents a strong threat to be overcome with thought and imagination rather than the Gauls simply bashing their way in and out of a situation. The depiction of the Goths may be reflective of its time but it makes them a strong foe to be overcome. This is easily the best story so far.