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King Ottokar's SceptreKing Ottokar's Sceptre (originally Le Sceptre d'Ottokar) is a one of a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Herg, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. King Ottokar's Sceptre is the eighth in the series. Tintin goes to Syldavia, a European country invented by Herg, and prevents a takeover by the neighboring Bordurians. The Storyline Tintin finds a briefcase and returns it to the owner, Professor Hector Alembick, who is a sigilographer. He shows Tintin his collection of seals, including one belonging to a Syldavian king, and asks Tintin to help him arrange a trip to Syldavia for research. The seal contains the Syldavian motto, "Eih bennek, eih blavek", and a picture of a pelican. The motto actually means "Here I am and here I stay" in the popular (Flemish) dialect of Brussels. The whole Syldavan language is based on the slang of the Marolliens, i.e. the people of the popular quarter of Brussels, written in gothic characters and with some s' and z' thrown in to make it sound more "Slavic". The use of Marollien slang is a staple of Herg's humor, although it is lost on non-Belgian (and many Belgian) readers. On the plane Tintin begins to suspect a plot. The Alembick who rides with him doesn't smoke and has different eyeglasses than the one he met with the seal collection. Then the pilot pops open a trap door and Tintin falls out and lands in a haywagon. In Syldavia, the king must possess King Ottokar's Sceptre to rule, and every year he rides in a parade showing it, while the people sing the national anthem ("Rejoice, Syldavia!/This is our king/The sceptre is his witness/Of its feats I will sing!" ("Syldaviesn unite!/Praise our King's might;/The Sceptre his right!" in some English translations)). The sceptre is a rod with a pelican atop. Tintin succeeds in warning the king despite the efforts of what seems like half the country, which are in on the conspiracy against Muskar. Once he suceeds in warning the King, they then rush to the treasure room just in time to find the sceptre missing and Alembick, the photographer Czarlitz, and some guards unconsious. Puzzled, Tintin wanders around and notices a spring cannon in a toy store. He returns to the treasure room with a stick the size of the sceptre and shows that the camera is really a spring cannon in disguise. Tintin crosses the river to look for the scepter in the birch forest. It is found by Bordurian agents, whom he follows. At the border, Tintin wrests the scepter from a Bordurian and takes a plane, which is shot down. He makes the rest of the journey by foot; Snowy runs in with the sceptre (which had fallen out of Tintin's pocket) just as King Muskar is about to abdicate. The king makes Tintin a knight of the Order of the Golden Pelican, the first foreigner to be so honored. He also finds out that Alembick is a pair of identical twins; Alfred was substituted for Hector before leaving for Syldavia. Like earlier albums The Blue Lotus and The Broken Ear, King Ottakar's Sceptre has a political subtext. Written in the late 1930s, the storyline reflects real-life events which were taking place in Europe at the time. The unseen ruler of Borduria is called Mustler, obviously a combination of Mussolini and Hitler, and Syldavia represents the peaceful, agrarian countries which the Axis powers were threatening.
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