Well, I learned something here, rather appropriately given that the story is fundamentally about the Normans learning something. The original French language title of the book was 'Astérix et les Normands' and 'Normands' translates to Norsemen rather than Normans. Now, I'm English, so immediately think of the Normans as being the French, who famously invaded us in 1066 in what's now known as the Norman Conquest. However, the joke's on me because those Normans, who live in Normandy, are the descendents of Norsemen, who invaded them in the 9th century.

In other words, the Normans of 1066, who were only Normans because they'd been invaded by the Normans, now Norsemen, beat Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066 right after he'd beaten the original Normans at the Battle of Stamford Bridge only three weeks earlier. Who knew? I didn't, but I do now.

The crux of the story here is that the Normans, meaning Norsemen, appear to be exactly what we might expect of stereotypical Vikings. They worship Odin and Thor, they drink apple brandy out of the skulls of their enemies and they don't know the meaning of fear. Except they want to. They're civilised warriors who treasure knowledge and are a little bit miffed that everyone else seems to know fear except them, so they decide to set sail to invade somewhere so the locals can let them know what fear means. A further important detail is that they've heard that fear lends you wings and they'd really like to fly.

Take a wild stab where they pick to invade. Go on. Yes, it's a certain village in Gaul where the locals have no fear either, except of the sky falling on their heads. Cue the action.

As the Normans are a new race to the series, they have a new naming convention and their names all end in -af, like their chief, Olaf Timandahaf. In fact, after they land in Gaul and our indomitable villagers hear names like Psychopaf, Epitaf, Cenotaf, Transportcaf, Chiffchaf and Nescaf, they have to laugh about how funny they are. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Did you hear that, Getafix, Cacofonix, Operatix, Acoustix, Polyfonix, Harmonix?" That's funny but it's also a very strong comment on how everyone else is always different while we forget that we're everyone else to them.

Yes, all the expected jokes are here. There's at least one about the Normandy Landing, a lot about the Norman Conquest and one about the Battle of Hastings. "Make haste!" cries Olaf Timandahaf. "Hasting's the word!" replies one of his men. I appreciated the "fighting on the beaches" gag, an astute nod to one of Winston Churchill's most famous speeches, which happened to be about the War in France. The best, though, to my way of thinking, is a simple pun that comes out of nowhere. The roads in the north are apparently not very safe, as one cop finds when someone overtakes his four-reindeer-power police chariot at the top of a hill. "So what?" the bad driver replies. "Mine's a Norse-drawn chariot!"

I need to rewind a moment to point out another crucial detail, namely the arrival in the village of a new character, Vitalstatistix's nephew, Justforkix. He lives in Lutetia, which is now Paris, with his father, Doublehelix, and therefore only knows the easy city life. Doublehelix is sending him to his brother's village on holiday so the indomitable Gauls can make a man out of him. As such, he's the only Gaul present when the Normans arrive who's actually frightened of them, a detail that is not lost on them, just misinterpreted. Suddenly they think he's the expert on fear, so they kidnap him to teach them.

While he's only there for that misinterpretation (and to grow as a character in exactly the way his father wants by facing and conquering his fear), Justforkix provides quite a lot of comic relief. He arrives in the village right after his father's letter, screaming to a halt in a sports chariot made in Mediolanum (i.e. Milan). It's so sleek that it looks like a roaring fish. Asterix throws him a welcome ball, which gives Cacofonix an opportunity to shine (they'll only let him play, not sing). However, he knows the modern styles in Lutetia, so grabs Cacofonix's lute and rocks out as the Rolling Menhirs, while dancing like Elvis Presley (or Elvix Preslix, I guess). The girls love it.

All this joking, storytelling and character building plays out really well, but there are things that we fully expect from an 'Asterix' book that simply haven't arrived yet. Each of these books ran to forty-four pages of story, albeit in large format, and those suddenly seem to be speeding on past with no Romans and no fight scenes. That's unheard of! The first true fight scene arrives on page nineteen, with Asterix and Obelix wiping the beach with the Normans as they look for Justforkix. The Romans finally show up on the page after that. By page twenty-two, everyone's going at it in the same fight, which is glorious because the Gauls share the Romans with the Normans.

If you haven't worked out where this is going yet, I won't spoil it for you but it does involve a bard who's already been given far more to do in this book than tends to be the case. That's because, at the ball Asterix threw for Justforkix, the kid suggested that Cacofonix might go down well back in Lutetia, so he keeps bugging him about it. After he eventually brings peace between the Gauls and the Normans, he even gets to enjoy the traditional final page banquet while the blacksmith, an uncredited Fulliautomatix, is tied up instead, having been the bard's most vocal critic. To top it all, the final panel includes "it is, after all, thanks to the bard that all's well that ends well..." Ha.

Talking of the final page, the action never really leaves Gaul this time out, so there isn't much of a chance for the pirates to show up and be sunk by the Gauls. However, Goscinny and Uderzo sneak it in right at the end, as the Normans head home. The head pirate only asked them if they'd "made any good conquests lately". That, of course, is "a Norse chestnut". I am rather surprised that the translators didn't manage to shoehorn in "A Norse! A Norse! My kingdom for a Norse!" but they did a great job otherwise though.

Next up, 'Asterix the Legionary', in which Asterix and Obelix join the Roman army and bump into Julius Caesar again. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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