The adventures of Asterix and Obelisk have been adapted into more than 100 languages. Translators got especially creative when it came to characters' names.
Image: picture-alliance/dpaHis name is the same in almost every language: Obelix. He is Asterix's rotund companion who fell into a cauldron of magic potion as a child and since then has possessed superhuman strength. In Icelandic, however, the name of this emotional giant is "Steinríkur," which roughly translated means "rich in stones." It probably alludes to the monoliths that he loves and carries around with him.
Obelix's best friend contrasts starkly with his stout master. The little white pup is named Idefix in both the original French and in the German translation, and his name is a word play on the French term "Idée Fixe" — a possessive or reoccurring idea or motive. For South African readers, the dog's name is also a pun relating to thought and the mind: "Witblix" is Afrikaans for "flash of genius."
The village troubadour is a lovable guy — if it weren't for his terrible voice, which always manages to annoy his neighbors. His English name, "Cacofonix," alludes to his highly jarring — cacophonous — voice, while his German name "Troubadix" is a pun on the word "troubadour," a poet-musician of the Middle Ages. In Bengali, he's named "Kawlorobix," which means "raising a racket about nothing."
His specialty is a magic potion that gives the drinker superhuman strength. In the French original, the white-bearded druid's name "Panoramix" refers to his broad knowledge. In English, his name "Getafix" reminds the reader that he is the guy to go to when you need a potion of any sort! His Serbian name is particularly creative: "Aspirinix" — a word tribute to the well-known headache medicine.
Asterix is the star of the Gauls. The petite warrior always manages to defeat the Romans using his sharp wits — and with a little help from Getafix's magic potion. It's no wonder that in Chinese, Asterix's name is translated as "Yali," which roughly means power.
When the first volume of the Asterix series, "Astérix le Gaulois," was initially published in 1961 with a print of 6,000 copies, French illustrator Albert Uderzo and author René Goscinny couldn't have predicted that it would become one of the best-selling comic series in the world.
Read more: 5 unusual things European guests steal from hotel rooms
Star and starlet
They obviously hoped it would become successful, however. For instance, the authors strategically picked a name for the title character starting with "A," allowing their comics to land at the top of alphabetic lists.
"Asterix" is derived from the ancient Greek word "asteriskos," or little star. Asterisk is also the term used in many languages for the typographical symbol of the star. Asterix was therefore predestined to become a star, not only in the stories, but also in book stores.
Read more: 5 things you probably never would have guessed were presents to Queen Elizabeth II
International bestseller
Some 350 million copies of the comics have since been published, with a third of them for the German-language market. The 36 volumes have been translated in 110 languages and dialects, including Ancient Greek, Latin, Esperanto, Palatine German, Frisian and even Low German.
Translators in different countries each had their own way of dealing with the puns of the names of Asterix and Obelix, the latter of which is a play on the French word "obélisque." Click through our High Five gallery to discover the unusual names given to the main characters of the famous series.
