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King Ottokar’s Sceptre is the eighth work in The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé and sequel to The Black Island. It was originally published as Tintin in Syldavia in Le Petit Vingtième between 1938 and 1939.

Synopsis[]

The story starts with Tintin finding a lost briefcase and returns it to the owner, Professor Hector Alembick, who is a sigillographer, an expert on seals and who the same day would go to the International Sigillographical Congress. He then shows Tintin his personal collection of seals, including one which belonged to the Syldavian King Ottokar IV. Tintin then notices that both he and Alembick are under surveillance. Suspecting a Syldavian connection, Tintin offers to accompany Alembick to Syldavia via Frankfurt and Prague for research.

A package is delivered to Tintin's apartment. Thompson and Thomson take custody of it, as Tintin was out, and decide to open it. The two were almost killed as the package actually contained a bomb. Tintin and the Thompsons gave chase to the culprits but were unsuccessful in their pursuit. Tintin's suspicions were further aroused when, while speaking to Alembick on the phone and hears a cry for help and the sounds of a struggle. He rushed to Alembick's apartment only to find an undisturbed professor packing his clothes for the trip in preparation for their trip.

Herge-ottokar01

Sporovitch (right) and the other agent behind the bomb plot, were alarmed that Tintin had survived the explosion.

After boarding the plane Tintin begins to suspect his Alembick. Tintin reads a brochure about Syldavia where it mentions that the reigning King must possess the sceptre to rule or he will be forced to abdicate, a tradition established after a past king used the sceptre to defeat a would-be assassin. Every year, he is obliged to ride in a parade on St. Vladimir's Day carrying it, while the people sing the national anthem. Tintin realizes that the Alembick travelling with him does not smoke and doesn't seem to need the spectacles he wears, while the Alembick he first met smoked and had very poor eyesight. During a layover, Tintin fakes a fall and grabs Alembick's beard, thinking it is false and Alembick is an imposter. However, it is in fact a real beard. Tintin subsequently decides to let the matter drop but then, while flying over Syldavia, it is the pilot of the plane who opens a trap door and Tintin drops out, landing in a haywagon. Tintin begins to suspect that there is a plot afoot to steal the sceptre of King Ottokar IV.

Tintin survives and informs local police of his fears regarding the plot. However, the police captain is part of the conspiracy, and he organises an ambush in the woods where Tintin will be eliminated. Tintin evades death, and heads to the capital city Klow in a car carrying the opera singer Bianca Castafiore. Leaving the car to evade Castafiore's singing, Tintin is arrested and survives another assassination attempt before heading to Klow on foot. Arriving in the city, he meets the King's aide-de-camp, Colonel Boris Jorgen, and warns him of the plot. However, Jorgen is also a conspirator and organises a further unsuccessful assassination attempt aimed at Tintin. Meanwhile, the imposter pretending to be Alembick is allowed into Kropow Castle, where the sceptre is kept. Tintin finally succeeds in personally warning the King about the plot and they both rush to Kropow Castle, only to find that the sceptre is missing.

Ottokar IV's Sceptre

The picture of Ottokar IV's sceptre in a travel brochure.

Detectives Thomson and Thompson are summoned to investigate but their theory on how the sceptre was stolen — the thief throwing the sceptre through the iron bars over the window — proves to be incorrect. Tintin looks out the window, and when going out he sees some cannons at a toy store nearby. Then he gets an idea. Professor Alembick had asked for some photographs to be taken of the sceptre, but the camera was a spring cannon in disguise, which allowed him to shoot the sceptre out of the castle through the window bars into the nearby forest.

While searching in the forest, Tintin spots the sceptre being found by agents of the neighbouring country of Borduria. He pursues them all the way to the border and manages to wrestle the sceptre from them. In the wallet of one of the thieves he discovers papers that show that the theft of the sceptre was just part of a major plan for a coup d'etat in Syldavia by their long-time political rival, Borduria. Tintin steals a ME-109 from a Bordurian airfield (whose squadron is being kept ready to take part in the envisioned "Anschluss" of Syldavia) to fly it back to the King in time. However, he is shot down by the Syldavians who have naturally opened fire on an enemy aircraft violating their airspace. He lands safely enough and manages to make the rest of the journey to Klow on foot.

Meanwhile the Interior Minister informs the King that rumours have been spreading that the sceptre has been stolen and that there have been riots against local Bordurian businesses, acts which would justify a Bordurian takeover of the country. The King is about to abdicate when Snowy runs in with the sceptre (which had fallen out of Tintin's pocket) and gives it to the King. Tintin then gives the King the papers he took from the man who stole the sceptre. They prove that the plot was masterminded by Müsstler, leader of the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät, a political organisation. The King takes action by having Müsstler and his associates arrested and the army mobilised along the Bordurian frontier. In response, the Bordurian leader pulls his own troops back from the border, though he stresses his own country's "desire for peace" and criticises Syldavia's "strange" behaviour (in the same room is a map and details of the planned invasion of Syldavia).

The next day, St. Vladimir's Day, Tintin is made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Pelican, the nations highest honour and Snowy receives a small green ribbon. They are the first non-Syldavians to receive such an award. Further inquiries by the authorities reveal that, in a classic Ruritanian plot device, Professor Alembick is one of a pair of identical twins: Hector Alembick was kidnapped and replaced with his brother Alfred who left for Syldavia in his place, who did not smoke and did not wear glasses, thus proving Tintin's suspicions of an imposter.

St Vladimir's Day Parade

The King displaying the sceptre during the annual parade on St Vladimir's Day from within his carriage.

Following this, Tintin and Snowy return home by a flying boat with Thomson and Thompson, who suffer momentary panic when the aircraft appears to be falling into the sea at the end of the flight. The reader is treated to a rare "wink to the camera" from Tintin, who points out their error, and they laugh about it so much that they do indeed fall into the sea as they disembark.

Continuity[]

Appearances[]

Characters[]

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Organizations[]

The Adventures of Tintin

LS | TC | TA | CP | BL | BE | BI | KO | CG | SS | SU | RR | SC | PS | LB | DM | EM | CA | RS | TT | CE | FS | TP | AA | guide to abbreviations

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