There aren't as many puns in 'Asterix and the Soothsayer' as in most earlier albums, but there is a running joke that I absolutely adored. In fact, I can't think of another one over the eighteen books before this that works better, because it's wrapped in many layers and leads to much frustration. Fortunately all that frustration isn't heaped onto an indomitable Gaul, but on a visitor who shows up during a storm when they're not seeming quite so indomitable. After all, the only thing they fear is the sky falling on their heads and when is that more likely to happen than during a storm?

It's not a demon or monster, as the shadow on the cover art may suggest, but a "traveller caught in the storm" who's looking for shelter. Of course, he's also the titular soothsayer, Frolix by name, and he's a fraud. The superstitious Gauls with an entire pantheon of gods—Intelligentsia is listed as MI5 and Mania is surely one of the lunatic fringe—fall for his manipulations immediately. Only Asterix remains on the side of common sense, mostly because Getafix is away at the annual druid conference and his absence is why this entire story is able to happen.

Ever-playful, Goscinny includes an entire page in parentheses so he can explain what soothsayers are. A need for examples allows him to insert the pirates for a couple of panels and Caesar for an important one—"As long as Brutus is near you, O Caesar, you will have nothing to fear!" says one charlatan. Only a few are real, like the one foreseeing a cottage that is apparently Uderzo's own and the one foreseeing buildings in such impeccable detail that we see a photograph of brutalist skyscrapers—apparently La Défense in Paris. The rest, as Goscinny emphasises are fakes.

Of course, we don't need that to see that Frolix is a fake because he either gives predictions that are givens, like how the weather will improve when the storm ends, or ones that people just want to hear, like telling the wives of the village that they'll have beautiful clothes and heaps of jewels. And he gets plenty of opportunity because, after the storm lifts and he heads back onto the road, he camps out in the forest so those wives can visit him for consultations. He even ensures a strong flow by telling them not to tell anyone else. It's Social Engineering 101. Suddenly everybody takes their fish or their chickens for a walk.

This is all well and good but it it's a soft build and it needs a payoff. Fortunately that arrives when the Romans capture him and take him to the camp at Compendium to present to their centurion, Voluptuous Arteriosclerosis. He pretends to be a real soothsayer until the centurion tells him the orders from Rome that require him to arrest all real soothsayers. So he pretends to be a fake but Arteriosclerosis has him predict what he'll roll with two dice and he gets it right. Now he's stuck in a catch-22 situation that circumstance only makes worse.

I absolutely adore this setup which becomes the running joke of the album. Frolix is a fake but the centurion thinks he's a real soothsayer because all his predictions suddenly come true. The more he tries to convince him that he's a fake, the more he seems like a real soothsayer with fantastic predictive ability. And that's not good because real soothsayers get locked up. So he conjures up a way to avoid that fate, namely to persuade the Gauls to leave their village. It works, temporarily, but Asterix figures out what's going on and sets up a lesson for everybody, which is priceless.

Frankly, it's that cleverly constructed running joke that makes this one work best and how Asterix counters Frolix with panache, with able assistance from the returning Getafix. Down the list is the detail that Impedimenta, after Frolix promises her that she'll have everything she wants from the future, starts calling her husband, Vitalstatistix, Piggywiggy like she did when they were courting, which the villagers find absolutely hilarious. What's missing are punny names, beyond a couple of Romans, the centurion and a special envoy from Julius Caesar called Bulbus Crocus.

There's another running joke in Frolix, who like other soothsayers tells fortunes by killing animals and examining their entrails, tries to examine Dogmatix, which makes Obelix want to punch him. There's another moment for the pirates but Goscinny once again keeps it to a minimum. Running jokes have to be kept varied and from taking over. And there's a great moment after the scam is revealed when Getafix lets the women of the village have some magic potion. I don't believe that happened in any prior volume, but it's frankly even more fun watching them thump Romans than letting their husbands do it. Again, variety is the spice of life and I'm sure they'd agree with me.

All that makes 'Asterix and the Soothsayer' a strong entry in the series but one that unfolds with uncharacteristic simplicity. Frolix effectively establishes himself in the minds of the superstitious villagers but Asterix counters it. In between is a peach of a running joke. It's a two-line synopsis. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so, even if I miss all the puns. ~~ Hal C F Astell

For more titles by René Goscinny click here
For more titles by Albert Uderzo click here