The Secret of the Unicorn

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Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Le Secret de la Licorne)
Cover of the English edition
Publisher Casterman Date 1943 Series The Adventures of Tintin (Les aventures de Tintin) Creative team Writer(s) Hergé Artist(s) Hergé Original publication Published in Le Soir Date(s) of publication June 11, 1942 - January 14, 1943 Language French ISBN ISBN 2-20-300110-0 Translation Publisher Methuen Date 1959 ISBN ISBN 1-40-520622-5 Translator(s) Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner Chronology Preceded by The Shooting Star, 1942 Followed by Red Rackham's Treasure, 1944

The Secret of the Unicorn (Le Secret de la Licorne) is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. The Secret of the Unicorn is the first part of one of the four multi-book stories in the Tintin series, the story continuing in Red Rackham's Treasure

The Secret of the Unicorn is the eleventh in the series of The Adventures of Tintin.

[edit] The storyline

There is an amazing epidemic of wallet-snatchings around a town in Belgium (visibly Brussels, if we are to judge by the drawings of the Old Street market). Thomson and Thompson - who, during the course of the story, eventually lose their wallets by the dozens to the thief - look for the culprit at the Old Street Market where they meet Tintin. Tintin buys a boat model of an old ship for Captain Haddock, but, as he does, two men try to haggle it off him. The first is a Mr. Ivan Ivonovitch Sakharine, the second is later revealed to be Barnaby. Sakharine calls up later, seeking to convince Tintin -unsuccessfully- to sell his ship, but leaves his card. A little while later, the mainmast is broken by Snowy, and Tintin repairs it.

When the captain visits Tintin, he sees the ship and reacts with astonishment. Haddock takes Tintin back to his apartment and shows him a portrait of one of his ancestors, Sir Francis Haddock, the captain of a 17th century navy vessel. In its background is the very same ship, called "The Unicorn" (a French ship in the original; in the English translation part of the fleet of Charles II of England, and a Union Jack has been inserted as the flag flown by the Unicorn) When Tintin and the captain return to Tintin's flat, to investigate, the model boat has been stolen. Tintin visits Sakharine, accusing him of having stolen it. While he discovers an identical ship in Sakharine's collection, it is evidently a different one, for in this case, the mast isn't broken. The ship carries the letters "UNICORN" on the back. When Tintin returns home, he finds that his flat has been ransacked, and while cleaning up he finds a mysterious parchment. He figures out that it holds the clue to finding treasure. He rushes to the Captain's place.

The captain, meanwhile, has taken out some heirlooms that had belonged to his great ancestor: a cutlass, a hat, and a journal which tells of how in 1676 he destroyed the pirates led by Red Rackham. Eagerly the captain reads it out aloud to Tintin, sometimes getting a bit carried away while describing the battle scenes. Tintin himself is so taken in by the story that he does not even bother to take off his raincoat.

The pirate Red Rackham had just stolen some diamonds from a Spanish navy vessel when he engaged Sir Francis Haddock in battle. Although the volleys fired by Sir Francis destroyed Rackham's much smaller ship, the pirates managed to overpower the French sailors; all but Sir Francis were either killed or forced to walk the plank. Red Rackham's crew took over the Unicorn, stowing the jewels and treasure on board. Sir Francis escaped, killed Red Rackham in hand-to-hand combat, and escaped after igniting a long fuse in the munition hold. As Sir Francis rowed to the safety of an uninhabited island nearby, the Unicorn exploded, killing the rest of the pirates.

The boat model which was stolen is just one of three which hold three parchments which will give the treasure's location. Tintin is later kidnapped by the Bird Brothers, two unscrupulous antique dealers, who believe that he possesses the parchments. They are behind the stolen model ship, because they have discovered the second parchment and have figured out that they needed all three to decode the clue to the treasure's location. The parchments themselves, however, were stolen by a kleptomaniac specializing in wallets, who was the thief looked for by Thomson and Thompson and who is eventually cornered with Tintin's help.

By the end of the story, Tintin and Haddock have the parchments, and discover where they will find the treasure, by combining the parchments to read 20°37′42″N, 70°52′15″W. The sequel, Red Rackham's Treasure, continues the story.

[edit] Trivia

The Secret of the Unicorn was Herge's personal favourite of all the Tintin albums until the completion of Tintin in Tibet in 1960.

The Adventures of Tintin
Creation of Tintin · Books, films, and media · Ideology of Tintin
Characters:	Supporting · Minor · Complete list
Miscellany:	Hergé · Marlinspike · Captain Haddock's exclamations