With his new golden sickle, Getafix is off to attend the druid's conference mentioned in the previous album. Asterix and Obelix escort him to the Forest of the Carnutes, but have to wait outside as they're not druids themselves. After winning Druid of the Year with his magic potion, Getafix is kidnapped by a band of Goths, who seek to use the potion to conquer Gaul and Rome. Our two friends travel to the unconquered region of Germania to mount a rescue mission, but the druid is reluctant to leave right away, as he believes the Goths still pose a threat to the Roman Empire.
As mentioned in my previous retrospective, the cultural stereotypes in Asterix are seldom anything other than good-natured, but this is a notable exception. The Goths are depicted as militaristic warmongers who eat sauerkraut, speak in Gothic script, and march in goose-stepping formation. Granted, this story was published when the Second World War was a recent memory, and there was still a lot of anti-German sentiment around, particularly in France.
There is also a Cold War allegory pertaining to the time. The Germanic peoples are mentioned as being divided into the Visigoths and Ostrogoths as a parallel to West and East Germany, and there's an element of paranoia satirising the Red Scare. Asterix and Obelix are mistaken for Goths and the Romans put a price on their heads. They later disguise themselves as Romans, and when this is discovered, the Romans all start suspecting each other of being spies, much to the dismay of General Cantakerus. This does bring with it a particularly hilarious moment when Asterix tells Obelix that if they're questioned by other legionaries, he must say "Ave and by Jupiter, I'm Legionary Obelus and my friend is Legionary Asterus." When they are confronted by two legionaries, he almost blows their cover by laughing too much at what he has to say, and later says it right...when they're in Germania and no longer posing as Romans.
I think my favourite joke is when everybody is imprisoned alongside the Gothic interpreter Rhetoric, pending execution, and Getafix plans to make some magic potion under the guise of a Gaulish soup for their final meal. Obelix calls the guard by breaking down the door to their cell, so Getafix can give him a list of ingredients. The guard returns with the ingredients and repairs the door. Not long afterwards, Obelix breaks down the door again so Getafix can ask for something else, and again because he forgot to thank him. Rhetoric then breaks down the door under the potion.
All in all, it's a good story, but some of the humour didn't age well.
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