Syldavia

From Free net encyclopedia

Syldavia is a fictional Balkan country featured in the adventures of Tintin by Hergé. The language spoken is Syldavian. It probably occupies a region around Celje in northern Slovenia; some place it in the Vojvodina area.

Syldavia is a monarchy, ruled at the time of the King Ottokar's Sceptre story by Muskar XII.
The capital is Klow, formerly Zileheroum, at the confluence of the Moltus and Wladir Rivers.
Other cities are Niedzdrow, Istow, Dbrnouk, and Zlip.
The population of Syldavia is 642,000 with 122,000 living in Klow. The country's flag is similar to that of Albania.
It speaks Syldavian, a Slavic-sounding West Germanic language written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Curiously, the Latin alphabet is used by the royal court, and the Cyrillic letters used are a straight transcription from the Latin letters (e.g., "sz" is written "сз" rather than "ш").
The kingdom's motto is Eih bennek, eih blavek! which Hergé translates as Qui s'y frotte s'y pique "Who rubs himself there gets stung"-- but this is simply the motto of Lorraine, referring to its emblem, the thistle. The motto can be interpreted as a Brussels dialect rendering of the Dutch phrase Hier ben ik, hier blijf ik "Here I am, here I stay". (In the British edition, the translators rendered the motto "If you gather Thistles, expect Prickles.")

The way the countryside of Syldavia is depicted in the comic indicates that the country should be somewhere more to the south of the Balkan peninsula. Its landscape is depicted as arid and barren, resembling Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia or even Bulgaria. Villages show mosques rather than churches (although these could be former Turkish-built mosques converted into churches, like the Mezquita cathedral in Córdoba, Spain, since the royal court appears to be Christian). Mention of Turks and pelicans also seems to indicate a more southerly location of this imaginary country. A panel in Destination Moon, p. 61, seems to show the Syldavian lunar rocket launching from north of the Danube.

The country's national airline is Syldair.

Syldavia is also called The Realm of the Black Pelican. (It has also been described as "Belgium disguised as a Slavic country".) Syldavians seem to be fond of mineral water, which does not go down well with the whisky-drinking Captain Haddock, one of Tintin's travelling companions.

The origin of the people of Syldavia is obscure.
The modern Syldavia was formed in 1127 when a tribal chief Hveghi drove away Turkish conquerors and took the name Muskar.
Borduria conquered the country in 1195 until Ottokar I drove them away in 1275.
King Ottokar IV decreed that the ruler of Syldavia must have hold on the sceptre, otherwise he loses his authority.
This custom had a power of law as late as 1939.

In 1939 Syldavia was nearly invaded by its neighbor Borduria, as part of a plot to oust king Muskar XII. The situation was very similar to that of Anschluss in Austria in 1938 (though the conclusion was not the same). Tintin had a hand in defusing the situation.

In the 1950s Syldavia also had a secret but successful space program in the area of Sprodj.

In their book Tintin Ketje de Bruxelles (Casterman, 2004 ISBN 2-203-01716-3), Daniel Justens and Alain Préaux have documented how the Syldavian language is based on Marols or Marollien, the dialect of the Marolles, a working class (though now trendy) quarter of Brussels. Marols, which Hergé learnt from his grandmother, is a Flemish dialect incorporating many words of French origin as well as a sprinking of Spanish dating back to the occupation of the Low Countries during the Spanish Inquisition ( circe 1500).

Tintin stories with Syldavia: