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King Ottokar's Sceptre

King Ottokar's Sceptre (Le Sceptre d'Ottokar) is the eighth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle for its children's supplement Le Petit Vingtième, it was serialised weekly from August 1938 to August 1939. Hergé intended the story as a satirical criticism of the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, in particular the annexation of Austria in March 1938 (the Anschluss). The story tells of young Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy, who travel to the fictional Balkan nation of Syldavia, where they combat a plot to overthrow the monarchy of King Muskar XII.

King Ottokar's Sceptre was a commercial success and was published in book form by Casterman shortly after its conclusion. Hergé continued The Adventures of Tintin with Land of Black Gold until Le Vingtième Siècle forced closure in 1940, while the series itself became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. In 1947, Hergé coloured and redrew King Ottokar's Sceptre in his distinctive ligne-claire style with the aid of Edgar P. Jacobs for Casterman's republication. The story introduces the recurring character Bianca Castafiore, and introduced the fictional countries of Syldavia and Borduria, both of which reappear in later stories. The first volume of the series to be translated into English, King Ottokar's Sceptre was adapted for both the 1956 Belvision Studios animation Hergé's Adventures of Tintin and for the 1991 Ellipse/Nelvana animated series The Adventures of Tintin.

Synopsis
Having discovered a lost briefcase in a Belgian park, Tintin returns it to its owner, the sigillographer Professor Hector Alembick, who informs the reporter of his plans to travel to the Balkan nation of Syldavia. Tintin discovers agents spying on the professor and follows those responsible to a nearby Syldavian restaurant. An unknown man agrees to meet with Tintin but is found unconscious and appears to have amnesia. Shortly after, the reporter receives a threatening note and is then the target of a bomb attack; Tintin survives the latter when police detectives Thomson and Thompson intercept the bomb. Suspecting that these events are linked to Syldavia, Tintin decides to accompany Professor Alembick on his forthcoming visit to the country. On the plane journey there, Tintin notices Alembick acting out of character, and suspects that an imposter has replaced him. Reading a brochure on Syldavian history, Tintin theorises that the imposter is part of a plot to steal the sceptre of the medieval King Ottokar IV from the current King Muskar XII before St. Vladimir's Day, thus forcing him to abdicate.

Forcibly ejected from the plane by the pilot, 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 of 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, seeking permission to meet the King. 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.

With the aid of Thomson and Thompson, who have recently arrived in Syldavia, Tintin discovers how the conspirators smuggled out the sceptre from the Castle and pursues the thieves, first by car and then by foot across the mountains. He is able to prevent the sceptre being carried over the border into neighbouring Borduria, discovering a letter on one of the conspirators. It reveals that the plot has been orchestrated by Müsstler, a political agitator who runs both the Syldavian Iron Guard and the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät (ZZRK), a subversive organization which intends to have Borduria invade and annex Syldavia. Entering Borduria, Tintin commandeers a fighter plane and heads to Klow, but the Syldavian military shoot him down. Parachuting, he continues to Klow by foot, returning the sceptre to the King on St. Vladimir's Day and securing the monarchy. In return, the king makes Tintin a Knight of the Order of the Golden Pelican; the first foreigner to receive the honour. Tintin later learns that the imposter was Alembick's twin brother after police arrest Müsstler and rescue Professor Alembick.

Background
King Ottokar's Sceptre was not the first Tintin adventure to draw specifically on contemporary events; Hergé had for instance previously made use of the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria as a political backdrop for the setting in The Blue Lotus. This time, Hergé had closely observed the unfolding events surrounding the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany. In producing this story, he was particularly influenced by the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938. The Munich Agreement and the subsequent Nazi invasion of the Sudetenland followed in October 1938. Three weeks after King Ottokar's Sceptre finished serialisation, Germany invaded Poland. By this point, the threat to Belgian sovereignty posed by Nazi expansionism was becoming increasingly clear. By 1939, the events surrounding the Italian annexation of Albania made Hergé insist his editor publish the work to take advantage of current events as he felt "Syldavia is Albania". Later Hergé denied that he had just one country in mind.

Hergé claimed that the basic idea behind the story had been given to him by a friend; biographer Benoît Peeters suggested that the most likely candidate was school and scouting friend Philippe Gérard, who had warned of a second war with Germany for years. Tintin scholars have claimed Hergé did not develop the names Syldavia and Borduria himself; instead, the country names had supposedly appeared in a paper included in a 1937 edition of the British Journal of Psychology, in which the author described a hypothetical conflict between a small kingdom and an annexing power. Reportedly, the paper, by Lewis Fry Richardson and entitled "General Foreign Policy", explored the nature of inter-state conflict in a mathematical way. Peeters attributed these claims to Georges Laurenceau, but said that "no researcher has confirmed this source". Instead, a paper by Richardson entitled "Generalized Foreign Politics: A Story in Group Psychology" was published in The British Journal of Psychology Monograph Supplements in 1939, but did not mention Syldavia or Borduria. In any case, given the publication date, it is unlikely that it was an influence on King Ottokar's Sceptre.

Hergé designed Borduria as a satirical depiction of Nazi Germany. Hergé named the pro-Bordurian agitator "Müsstler" from the surnames of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Italy's National Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. The name also had similarities with the British Union of Fascists' leader Oswald Mosley and the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands' leader Anton Mussert. Müsstler's group was named after the Iron Guard, a Romanian fascist group that sought to oust King Carol II and forge a Romanian-German alliance. The Bordurian officers wore uniforms based on those of the German SS, while the Bordurian planes are German in design; in the original version Tintin escapes in a Heinkel He 112, while in the revised version this is replaced by a Messerschmitt Bf 109. Hergé adopted the basis of Borduria's false flag operation to take over Syldavia from the plans outlined in Curzio Malaparte's Coup d'État: The Technique of Revolution.

Syldavia's depiction was influenced by the costumes and cultures of Romania and the neighboring Balkan region. The mosques that appear in Hergé's Syldavia are based on those found throughout the Balkans, while the appearance of the Syldavian village, featuring red-tiled roofs and minarets, may have been specifically inspired by the Bosnian town of Mostar. Syldavia's mineral rich subsoil could be taken as a reference to the uranium deposits found under Romania's Carpathian Mountains – later to be mentioned directly in the eventual Destination Moon. Tintin scholars have noted that the black pelican of Syldavia's flag resembles the black eagle of Albania's flag, and that Romania is the only European country to which pelicans are native.

The name Syldavia may be a composite of Transylvania and Moldavia, two regions with historical ties to Romania. Czech, Slovak, and Bohemian history influenced the Syldavian names, while several medieval Bohemian kings were the inspiration for the name "Ottokar". The Polish language influenced Hergé's inclusion of –ow endings to the names of Syldavian places, while Polish history parallels Hergé's description of Syldavian history. The Syldavian language used in the book had French syntax but with Marollien vocabulary, a joke understood by the original Brussels-based readership.

However, despite its Eastern European location, Syldavia itself was partly a metaphor for Belgium – Syldavian King Muskar XII physically resembles King Leopold III of Belgium. Hergé's decision to create a fictional Eastern European kingdom might have been influenced by Ruritania, the fictional country created by Anthony Hope for his novel The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), which subsequently appeared in film adaptations in 1913, 1915, 1922, and 1937. Many places within Syldavia are visually based on pre-existing European sites: the Diplodocus in the Klow Natural History Museum is based on the one in the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin; the Syldavian Royal Palace is based on both the Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin and the Royal Palace of Brussels; and Kropow Castle is based on Olavinlinna Castle, constructed in fifteenth century Savonia – a historical province of the Swedish Kingdom, located in modern-day Finland. For the revised version, Kropow Castle was drawn with an additional tower, inspired by Vyborg Castle, Russia. The United Kingdom also bore at least one influence on Syldavia, as King Muskar XII's carriage is based on the British Royal Family's Gold State Coach.

Original publication
King Ottokar's Sceptre was first serialised in Le Petit Vingtième from 4 August 1938 to 10 August 1939 under the title Tintin En Syldavie ("Tintin in Syldavia"). It would prove to be the last Tintin adventure to be published in its entirety in Le Petit Vingtième. From 14 May 1939, the story was also serialised in the French Catholic newspaper, Cœurs Vaillants. In 1939, Éditions Casterman collected the story together in a single hardcover volume; Hergé insisted to his contact at Casterman, Charles Lesne, that they hurry up the process due to the changing political situation in Europe. The Nazi–Soviet Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed the day Hergé delivered the book's remaining drawings; finishing touches included the book's original front cover, the royal coat of arms for the title page, and the tapestry depicting the Syldavian's 1127 victory over the Turks in "The Battle of Zileheroum" on page 20. Hergé suggested that for this publication, the story's title be changed to The Scepter of Ottokar IV; Casterman changed this to King Ottokar's Sceptre.

King Ottokar's Sceptre introduced the recurring character of Bianca Castafiore to the series, who appears alongside her pianist Igor Wagner. It also witnessed the introduction of antagonist Colonel Jorgen, who reappears in the later Tintin adventures Destination Moon and its sequel Explorers on the Moon. The Alembick brothers' inclusion echoes the Balthazar brothers' inclusion in The Broken Ear.

After the conclusion of King Ottokar's Sceptre, Hergé continued The Adventures of Tintin with Land of Black Gold until Germany placed Belgium under occupation in 1940 and forced the closure of Le Vingtième Siècle. The adventure Land of Black Gold had to be abandoned.

Second version, 1947
The story was redrawn and colourised in 1947. For this edition, Hergé was assisted by Edgar P. Jacobs. Jacobs oversaw changes to the costumes and background of the story; in the 1938 version, the Syldavian Royal Guards are dressed like British Beefeaters, while the 1947 version has them dressed in a Balkanised uniform similar to the National Guards Unit of Bulgaria. Jacobs also inserted a cameo of himself and his wife in the Syldavian royal court, while in that same scene is a cameo of Hergé, his then-wife Germaine, his brother Paul, and three of his friends – Édouard Cnaepelinckx, Jacques Van Melkebeke, and Marcel Stobbaerts. Hergé and Jacobs also inserted further cameos of themselves at the bottom of page 38, where they appear as uniformed officers. While the character of Professor Alembick had been given the forename of Nestor in the original version, this was changed to Hector for the second; this had been done so as to avoid confusion with the character of Nestor, the butler of Marlinspike Hall, whom Hergé had introduced in The Secret of the Unicorn. Editions Casterman published this second version in book form in 1947.

Subsequent publications and legacy
King Ottokar's Sceptre became the first Tintin adventure to be published for a British audience when Eagle serialised the comic in 1951. Here, the names of Tintin and Milou were retained, although the characters of Dupond and Dupont were renamed Thomson and Thompson; the latter two names would be adopted by translators Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner when they translated the series into English for Methuen Publishing in 1958.

Casterman republished the original black-and-white version of the story in 1980, as part of the fourth volume in their Archives Hergé collection. In 1988, they then published a facsimile version of that first edition.

Critical analysis
Harry Thompson described King Ottokar's Sceptre as a "biting political satire" and asserted that it was "courageous" of Hergé to have written it given that the threat of Nazi invasion was imminent. Describing it as a "classic locked room mystery", he praised its "tightly constructed plot". Ultimately, he deemed it one of the best three Tintin adventures written before World War II, alongside The Blue Lotus and The Black Island. He also thought it noteworthy that in 1976, archaeologists discovered a sceptre belonging to a 13th-century King Ottokar in St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague. Hergé biographer Pierre Assouline believed that the story had the atmosphere of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, with "added touches" from the films of Erich von Stroheim and Ernst Lubitsch. Fellow biographer Benoît Peeters thought that it exhibited "a political maturity" and "originality". Further, he felt that Hergé was able to break free from the "narrative limits [of] ... too much realism" by the use of Syldavia as a setting.

Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier called King Ottokar's Sceptre "a Hitchcockian thriller" which "recaptures the paranoid ambience" of Cigars of the Pharaoh. They compared the pace of the latter part of the story to that of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones films before noting that despite the "horrors of the real world" that are present with Borduria's inclusion, they do not interfere in "the pure escapist nature of the adventure". Ultimately they awarded it three stars out of five.

Michael Farr opined that the adventure has "a convincingly authentic feel" due to the satirical portrayal to Nazi Germany, but that this was coupled with "sufficient scope for invention" with the creation of Syldavia. He compared it to Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. Farr preferred the colour version assembled with E.P. Jacobs' aid, however. Deeming it "particularly successful", he thought that it was "one of the most polished and accomplished" adventures in the series, with a "perfectly paced and balanced" narrative that mixed drama and comedy successfully.

Literary critic Jean-Marie Apostolidès of Stanford University asserted that the inclusion of the Iron Guard evoked Colonel François de La Rocque's Croix-de-Feu. Noting that the figure of Müsstler was "the Evil One without a face", he expressed disbelief regarding Hergé's depiction of Syldavia, as there were no apparent economic problems or reasons why Müsstler's anti-monarchist conspiracy was so strong; thus, "mass revolution remains schematic".

Literary critic Tom McCarthy identified several instances in the story that he argued linked to wider themes within the Adventures of Tintin. He identified a recurring host-and-guest theme in Alembick's visit to Syldavia, and believed that the theme of thieving was present in the story as Alembick's identity is stolen. Another theme identified within the series by McCarthy was that of the blurring between the sacred and the political; he saw echoes of this in King Ottokar's Sceptre as the King has to wait three days before appearing to the Syldavian public on St. Vladimir's Day, something that McCarthy thought linked to Jesus Christ and the Resurrection. McCarthy also opined that a number of characters in the book visually resembled Captain Haddock, a character who would be introduced in the subsequent Tintin adventure, The Crab with the Golden Claws.

Adaptations
King Ottokar's Sceptre was the first of The Adventures of Tintin to be adapted for the animated series Hergé's Adventures of Tintin. The series was created by Belgium's Belvision Studios in 1957, directed by Ray Goossens and written by Greg. The studio divided King Ottokar's Sceptre into six 5-minute black-and-white episodes that diverged from Hergé's original plot in many ways. It was also adapted into a 1991 episode of The Adventures of Tintin television series by French studio Ellipse and Canadian animation company Nelvana. The episode was directed by Stéphane Bernasconi, and Thierry Wermuth voiced the character of Tintin.

Tintin fans adopted the Syldavian language that appears in the story and used it to construct grammars and dictionaries, akin to the fan following of Star Trek's Klingon and J. R. R. Tolkien's Elvish.

title: King Ottokar's Sceptre


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The Red Sea Sharks

The Red Sea Sharks (Coke en stock) is the nineteenth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comic series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The story was initially serialised weekly in Belgium's Tintin magazine from October 1956 to January 1958 before being published in a collected volume by Casterman in 1958. The narrative follows the young reporter Tintin, his dog Snowy, and his friend Captain Haddock as they travel to the fictional Middle Eastern kingdom of Khemed with the intention of aiding the Emir Ben Kalish Ezab in regaining control after a coup d'état by his enemies, who are financed by slave traders led by Tintin's old nemesis Rastapopoulos.

Following on from the previous volume in the series, The Calculus Affair, The Red Sea Sharks was created with the aid of Hergé's team of artists at Studios Hergé. Influenced by Honoré de Balzac's The Human Comedy, Hergé used the story as a vehicle in which to reintroduce a wide range of characters who had first appeared in earlier instalments of the series. The story dealt with the trade of enslaved Africans across the Arab world. However, in the 1960s the story generated controversy as Hergé was repeatedly accused of having portrayed the Africans in a racist manner. He was upset by these claims, and made alterations to the depiction of the Africans in later reprints. Hergé continued The Adventures of Tintin with Tintin in Tibet, and the series as a whole became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. The Red Sea Sharks was critically well-received, with various commentators describing it as one of the best Tintin adventures. The story was adapted for both the 1991 Ellipse/Nelvana animated series The Adventures of Tintin and the 1992-3 BBC Radio 5 dramatisation of the Adventures.

Synopsis
In Brussels, Tintin and Captain Haddock bump into an old acquaintance, General Alcazar. Returning to Marlinspike Hall, they find that another acquaintance, the Emir of Khemed, Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab, has been overthrown by his nemesis Sheikh Bab El Ehr, and that the Emir has accordingly sent his son, the disobedient Abdullah, to stay at Marlinspike for his own protection. The police detectives Thomson and Thompson visit, informing Tintin that Alcazar is seeking to purchase military aircraft from J. M. Dawson. After further investigation, Tintin discovers that Dawson has also sold military aircraft to Bab El Ehr.

Realising that the only way to be rid of Abdullah is to restore the Emir's control of Khemed, Tintin, Haddock, and their dog Snowy travel to the Middle Eastern country. However, the trio narrowly survive a bomb planted aboard the plane to kill them as a result of Dawson discovering that Tintin spied on him, and are able to slip into the city of Wadeshah unobserved. There they meet an old friend, the Portuguese merchant Oliveira da Figueira, who helps them to escape the city and ride on horseback to the Emir's hideout. During the journey, they evade armoured cars and fighter planes ordered to intercept them by "Mull Pasha", who is actually Tintin's old nemesis, Dr. Müller.

Later, the Emir welcomes Tintin and Haddock. It then transpires, from Emir's explanation, that there is an ongoing slave trade through Khemed that is operated by the international businessman called "the Marquis di Gorgonzola", who falsely offers transport to African Muslims on the pilgrimage to Mecca, but then sells them into slavery somewhere along the journey. Tintin, Haddock and Snowy leave for the Red Sea coast and board a sambuk for Mecca, but are attacked by fighter planes. Tintin shoots one down and rescues its mercenary Estonian pilot, Piotr Skut. The four are picked up by di Gorgonzola's yacht, the Scheherazade, but are soon offloaded onto the SS Ramona, a tramp steamer. Di Gorgonzola, it turns out, is another of Tintin's previous adversaries, Roberto Rastapopoulos.

The Ramona is one of Rastapopoulos' slave trading ships, and when a fire breaks out aboard it during the night, the ship's commander Allan and his crew cowardly flee, leaving Tintin, Haddock, Snowy and Skut aboard along with a consignment of African slaves. With Haddock taking on the ship's captaincy, they are successfully able to put out the fire. However, Rastapopoulos orders a U-boat to destroy the Ramona, with the ship taking evasive manoeuvres to survive, ultimately being rescued by a fighter from the cruiser USS Los Angeles after Tintin dispatches numerous distress calls. The Los Angeles chases down the Scheherazade and attempts to capture di Gorgonzola, but he fakes his own death and escapes via a mini-submarine. Tintin, Haddock and Snowy return to Belgium and learn that the Emir has recaptured Khemed and that Abdullah can return home. Their relaxation is cut short by insurance salesman Jolyon Wagg, who has arranged to use Marlinspike for an auto rally.

Background and publication
Hergé was inspired to develop the plot for The Red Sea Sharks after reading a magazine article detailing the continued existence of the slave trade within the Arab world, in which it was claimed that African pilgrims headed to Mecca were being enslaved during the journey. Hergé included a reference to this slave trade in the story's original French title, Coke en Stock ("Coke on Board"), which referred to the slave smuggler's use of "coke" as a codeword for the enslaved people.

Before writing the story, Hergé had read Balzac et son monde ("Balzac and His World"), a 1955 book written by his friend Félicien Marceau. Intrigued by the work of Honoré de Balzac, Hergé was inspired by how Balzac kept reusing characters from his previous stories and he subsequently adopted this trait for The Red Sea Sharks, in which a wide range of characters from The Adventures of Tintin make a reappearance. Hergé also introduced a new character, the Estonian pilot Piotr Skut, who would later reappear in Flight 714 to Sydney.

To produce accurate illustrations for the Ramona, Hergé and his assistant Bob de Moor travelled aboard a Swedish cargo vessel, the MS Reine Astrid, from Antwerp to Gothenburg and back, during which they took photographs and drew sketches. Hergé had also collected press clippings depicting the Christina, a motor yacht owned by the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, and used them as the basis for his depiction of Rastapopoulos' ship, the Sheherezade. The aircraft, cars, and machinery that appear in the story were drawn by Roger Leloup, one of the members of the Studios Hergé. In one scene in the latter part of the story, Hergé included a frogman, whose depiction was drawn from a press clipping of Lionel Crabb. His depiction of the Emir's hideaway palace cut from the rock was based on the Al Khazneh in Petra, Jordan, which he had seen in an issue of National Geographic.

Hergé's growing interest in art was reflected in the story, as he included a copy of Alfred Sisley's Le Canal du Loing at Marlinspike Hall. He also included paintings by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró aboard Rastapopolous' Scheherazade. Muller's pseudonym in the story, Mull Pasha, was based upon the British soldier Glubb Pasha. The character of Piotr Skut was based on Remi Milk, an Estonian pilot who escaped to Sweden from Estonia in an Arado floatplane. In the final scene, Hergé included cameos of both himself and his friend and colleague Edgar P. Jacobs.

The story began serialisation in Belgium's Tintin magazine in October 1956, before being serialised in the French edition of the magazine in December. It was then published in book form by Casterman in 1958. Upon the story's British publication in 1960, Coke en Stock was renamed The Red Sea Sharks.

Racism allegations and alterations
Hergé had been accused of exhibiting a racist attitude toward Africans in an earlier story, Tintin in the Congo, and potentially hoped to exonerate himself from such criticism by depicting Tintin and Haddock freeing African slaves in The Red Sea Sharks. In preparing the latter story he had consulted a colleague who worked for an African-themed magazine, L'Afrique et le Monde ("Africa and the World"); they translated some of the passages that Hergé wished to include in the story into Yoruba. However, in January 1962 an article in the magazine Jeune Afrique criticised Hergé for a racist depiction of Africans in the story, an accusation that would be echoed in other publications. These claims focused on the African characters' simplistic use of pidgin language, which was similar to the speech patterns used in Tintin in the Congo.

 * African: "You speak well, Effendi. Wicked Arab, very wicked. Poor black men do not want to be slaves. Poor black men want to go to Mecca".
 * Haddock: "Naturally, I realise that. But I repeat if you go there, you'll be sold as slaves. Is that what you want?"
 * African: "We not slaves, Effendi. We good Muslims. We want to go to Mecca".

Hergé biographer Benoît Peeters expressed the view that "for the most part these attacks were extremely unfair". Hergé was emotionally affected by the accusations, and made changes to the book for its 1967 reprint accordingly; here he changed the Africans' speech patterns, giving them improved grammar. However, he left Haddock speaking pidgin in response to the Africans.

For this version, he also made changes to the Emir's letter to Tintin; the former version had been formal in its prose, saying "Most esteemed and well-beloved friend, I entrust to you my son Abdullah, to improve his English. Here the situation is serious. Should any misfortune befall me I count on you, my friend, to care for Abdullah". In Hergé's revised edition, he adopts a more florid prose style: "This is to tell you, oh highly esteemed friend, that I entrusted to you Abdullah, my adored son. Because here the situation is serious. Should misfortune descend on me like the hawk on an innocent gazelle (for the world is made of life and death) I am sure that Abdullah will find you with warmth and affection, refuge and peace. And in doing this you will be performing a fragrant act before Allah".

Hergé also expressed regret that he depicted the death of a shark in the story, later stating that "I still believed that sharks were big evil beasts" when writing The Red Sea Sharks.

Critical analysis
Commenting on the inclusion of a wide range of characters from The Adventures of Tintin, Harry Thompson referred to the story as "a Tintin family reunion", commenting that it was "a story unusually full of the type of people Captain Haddock liked to avoid". Michael Farr believed that in reviving so many older characters, Hergé had given The Red Sea Sharks "a marked retrospective quality". Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier felt that the "crowded" nature of the story left little room for series regulars Professor Calculus or Thomson and Thompson, and resulted in the new character of Skut serving only as "a nice supporting character, but nothing more". The Lofficiers stated that "Hergé was doing some house-cleaning of his past works and characters before embarking on something more serious and with more personal resonance", Tintin in Tibet.

Hergé biographer Benoît Peeters described The Red Sea Sharks as a "complex, ambiguous, even labyrinthine" story which was "undoubtedly the book in which Hergé ventured furthest into the creation of his own universe". He thought that "Hergé enters a new phase" with The Red Sea Sharks, as its author "seems to know his family of characters better and better, and he enjoys playing with them and his reader". Peeters noted that the book was "in some respects a continuation" of Land of Black Gold, an assessment shared by Thompson, the Lofficiers, and Farr, all of whom described it as a partial sequel to the earlier book. Thompson added that The Red Sea Sharks "atoned for the relative failure" of Land of Black Gold, believing that although it had a "rather hasty finish", it was "a first-rate thriller". The Lofficiers awarded it four out of five, stating that it was "very effective as a modern political thriller and far more believable than The Calculus Affair". They also opined that it provided an effective political commentary on the West's relationship with the Arab world. In their analysis, Tintin and Haddock seek to aid the Emir not because he is a good leader, but for their own selfish purposes (to get Abdullah out of Marlinspike), just as Western governments and corporations build alliances with Arab leaders guilty of human rights abuses in order to benefit their own interests.

Thompson felt that the inclusion of slavery as a key theme led to this book being "one of Hergé's more adult-oriented adventures". Nevertheless, Farr noted that the story contained "a good measure of humour" to balance out these darker elements. Farr drew comparisons with Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, a series of novels that was contemporary to The Red Sea Sharks and which was similarly inspired by Balzac's The Human Comedy. Hergé biographer Pierre Assouline believed that The Red Sea Sharks represented "the culmination of his golden age", which had begun with The Blue Lotus. He also commented that "it almost seemed as if Hergé had regained the pace and rhythm of his most creative period" with this story.

In his psychoanalytical study of The Adventures of Tintin, the literary critic Jean-Marie Apostolidès expressed the view that The Red Sea Sharks reflected a world in which traditional values have been degraded and everything – including human life – has become a commodity. He added that Rastapopoulos becomes "the embodiment of the global market" in this story, tying together all of the other characters and therefore replacing Tintin as the figure "at the centre of the universe". Apostolidès opined that The Red Sea Sharks amplifies "the theme of the general equivalence of everything" that is present in the series, serving as "a kind of retrospective" by introducing old characters and establishing new relationships between them. He believed that the theme of the mirage pervaded the story, appearing repeatedly in such forms as Abdullah's cuckoo clock which concealed a water squirter and the pseudonyms employed by the various characters throughout the narrative. The literary critic Tom McCarthy stated that The Red Sea Sharks exhibited a number of themes that recurred throughout The Adventures of Tintin. He believed that a scene in which one of Bab El Ehr's men spies on the Emir in his mountain hideaway reflected a wider theme of eavesdropping that features throughout the series. McCarthy also highlighted Tintin's actions in returning Abdullah to Khemed, expressing the view that it is part of a wider running theme throughout the series in which the hero takes abandoned children to their home; other instances included Tintin's discovery of an adoptive family for the orphan Chang Chong-Chen in The Blue Lotus and the delivery of the lost gypsy child Miarka to her family in The Castafiore Emerald.

Adaptations
In 1991, a collaboration between the French studio Ellipse and the Canadian animation company Nelvana adapted 21 of the stories – among them The Red Sea Sharks – into a series of episodes, each 42 minutes long. Directed by Stéphane Bernasconi, the series has been praised for being "generally faithful", with compositions having been actually directly taken from the panels in the original comic book.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: The Red Sea Sharks


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Talk:Indian

May 2013 discussion
This Index should be fixed....

Somebody is Vandalising the document - Indian means of India evewhere except for the Americans, Why these guys dont understand? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.231.206.5 (talk) 10:10, 16 May 2013
 * The fourth link under the first section heading is "Non-resident Indian and person of Indian origin". These people are of Indian (ie South Asian) origin and citizenship, but may be anywhere in the world - including the Americas. Similarly you may find "American" Indians living anywhere in the world. So I think the subheadings should just refer to "South Asia" and "The Americas" as simply and directly as possible.

 * Incidentally, any good-faith attempt at improving the encyclopedia is not "vandalism", and for your use of the word 'retarded' please see No personal attacks. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:36, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

You can see the Link here.... http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Indian?q=Indian

Why americans call native people as Indians : Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics:Hispanic Americans and Native Americans page 572 by Jeffery D

Proof - Show me one that shows otherwise

Europe http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/04/23/india-eu-trade-pact-idINDEE93M09220130423 Australia http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/29/indian-stuntman-dies-while-zip-lining-across-river/ Africa http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/world/2013/05/09/man-accused-of-raping-four-year-old-indian-girl Asia http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2013-05/15/content_16501105.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.231.206.5 (talk) 13:31, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure what you think your "proof" proves. I see no reason in these links that justifies changing the headings used in the page. older ≠ wiser 13:56, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

They are all leading news papers from respective continents and they are calling Indians as Indians (from India), So why are you modifying without showing the proof for your changes(What else u want?), Why are changing if you are not sure- This matter should be checked by some Moderators. What 7-8% (North and south americans )think is not the universal truth.

Why did you not provide any reply to my last response?

You are the one is Vandalizing the page. This matter should be reported.Anybody please let me know how to get the attention of moderators — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.231.206.5 (talk) 14:25, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

 * I still don't understand what you think your supposed proof proves or how it justifies the changes you are trying to make to the page. In every one of the links you provided, the usage is for Indians as related to South Asia, so I don't understand why you are removing the heading that groups entries pertaining to South Asia. Are you suggesting that the term "Indian" does not apply to some indigenous peoples of the Americas? Perhaps you should look closely at the first link you provided: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Indian?q=Indian older ≠ wiser 14:53, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

1) Indians means "people from India" in all the countries of Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia 2) Only in the Americas it means Native Americans.

That should be clearly mentioned in the Article. I am not changing anything related to America, Then why are you changing it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.231.206.5 (talk) 15:05, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

 * It is not only in the Americas that it means native Americans. It depends on context. For example, the BBC (not an American source) uses the term when writing about the Americas . Also consider the United Nations NGO International Indian Treaty Council. Point is that the term "Indian" is ambiguous. The dictionary definition clearly shows that and does not in any way suggest that usage is restricted by geography. The usage is governed by context. When talking about certain native Americans, the term "Indian" might be used regardless of location. Similarly, when talking about South Asia, the term "Indian" might be used regardless of location. Saying that usage is only one thing everywhere else in the world is misleading. You last edit to the page completely removed the entries pertaining to the Americas. That is unacceptable. older ≠ wiser 15:22, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
 * In Italy, to say "walking in single line" they write "fila indiana" and the explanation is where your read (translation): "The term has been used by European settlers of America (then believed "the Indies") who had noticed how many warriors of the tribe of "red-skin" proceeded in this way, each following in the footsteps of the following in order to confuse the enemy ...". "red-skin" is not the translation in american, which is, guess it: "indian". I have translated "pellerossa" with red-skin for clarity. Today it seems politically correct (but in common language there is still no difference) to say "indiano" for "people of India", "pellerossa" for the "north american indians" and "amerindi" for "central and south american indians". But for the common people "indiano" still refers to american indians as for the people of India. And in the article about Columbus  you may see repeated usage of the word "indie" for the discovered lands. --Robertiki (talk) 03:55, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

Both the sources you have mentioned prefix the Indians with their tribe name (Like sioux Indians etc.) and not just "INDIAN", I want this to be discussed with other editors, preferably with people who are not from USA, Can anyone tell me how to proceed (I am new to Wiki)?, You are MISLEADING here, prove yourself correct with reliable source or just don't make changes as what you think of Indians and I stand by what I said and I have nothing more to say. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.231.206.5 (talk) 10:39, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Response copied from this edit in a Dispute Resolution Noticeboard discussion closed there for stale and inadequate talk page discussion. 216.231.206.5 should consider responding and discussing here. — TransporterMan  ( TALK ) 14:32, 16 September 2013 (UTC) (DRN volunteer)

I have provided multiple sources and why they are disputed? I dont understand how come somebody says that Websites like BBC are not reliable? I need to get the clarification for this Incomplete information. All I want to have is provided the complete information.

There are not isolated examples. How many more sources you want? Why is he not proving his point by citing the sources other than claiming biased? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.231.206.5 (talk) 11:22, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

Why there is no reply - Why you guys are not justifying your point by providing sources? I have raised so many questions and there is no reply other than you keep telling what you think it should be correct? "None of your sources are not proving that Indians means "American Indians" anywhere",All the time they prefix American except for amerian souces, where Indians means American souces, If you cannot prove your point why should you keep the Incorrect Information. ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.231.206.5 (talk) 07:00, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

 * There is no reply because it is not clear what the issue is. If you are asking why this page points to things other than Indian people, that is because it is a disambiguation page. It points to all of the things that might be called "Indian". That includes Indian people, things from India, a make of motorcycle, at least two movies, and also Indigenous American people, among other things. If you are asking for a reply of another kind, then you will need to be more explicit. Happy editing, Cnilep (talk) 06:40, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

The issue is, when you type "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans" in the address bar it goes to display the page about American from United states instead of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_(disambiguation) page, but when you type "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indians" it goes to Disambiguation page. Both are ambiguous words ,so how come each word is treated differently? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.231.206.5 (talk) 10:14, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Misnomer
Referring to the term "Indian" as a misnomer when applied to Indigenous peoples in the Americans is self-evident. They were misnamed as such due to confusion by early European explorers about whether or not they'd found a new route to India and Columbus's mistaken belief that he had reached the Indian Ocean. See Native_American_name_controversy. Hence the term is a misnomer. Electoralist (talk) 16:45, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

 * Using that rationale, you might argue that the name of the country "India" is a misnomer. The country name comes from the name of the Indus River -- which flows mostly through Pakistan -- not India.  You might also argue that the terms West Indies and East Indies are misnomers as they have little to do with India. Moreover, if "Indian" is a "misnomer", so is the name "America."

 * The term "Indian" applied to the original inhabitants of the Americas has 500 years of history. Moreover, many American Indians, especially in the United States, call themselves "Indians" -- and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. It is likewise a well-established tenet of international practice that an ethnic group has the right to call itself what it wishes to call itself. Smallchief (talk  17:57, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

 * Naming India after the Indus River isn't a minomer as India existed for thousands of years prior to the 1947 partition. It's more a historical anomaly. West Indies is a misnomer as is the term American Indian, by definition, as American Indians are not from India. (Similarly, the name West Bengal is not a misnomer, it is an historical anomaly ever since the term East Bengal ceased to be used in what is now Bangladesh. The name America isn't a misnomer per se, it derives from Amerigo Vespucci as a name for the New World (ie the Americas) - arguably using the term American to apply to citizens of the USA to the exclusion of others in the hemisphere is a misappropriation of the word. Electoralist (talk) 20:10, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * References don't go on disambiguation pages and whether the term is a misnomer or not is largely irrelevant for the purposes of disambiguation. The Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Native Americans in the United States both describe the issues around naming. older ≠ wiser 16:55, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

One, two or even a group of people do not speak for an entire ethnicity. There are just as many if not more indigenous Americans who are intensely opposed to being referred to as Indians. Particularly native Americans from outside of North America where the word Indian/indio eventually became a bigoted epithet implying primitiveness, savagery. It’d be like insisting that all African Americans should just accept being called the N word, or Italians/Mediterraneans referred to as Guineas, Dagos, Wogs, Wops, etc… just because some African Americans/Italians don’t have a problem with it or have come to accept it. Regardless it is simply wrong, rude and arrogant and it is akin to someone named John being called Ted by an acquaintance and never having the courtesy of admitting his mistake. On the contrary the acquaintance insists that John should just learn to accept being called Ted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:388:6080:10E:FC8A:5AEE:C6DA:3456 (talk) 08:20, 7 March 2020 (UTC)

Indian English
I'm not sure I get your point here. I reverted the addition of this entry because it doesn't belong in the body of the dab page. Indian English is never called either just "Indian" or anything like "Indian language". – Uanfala (talk) 12:18, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

 * Uanfala (talk) - I didn't understand your deletion, and I don't understand your objection to my reinstatement either. I don't see that Anglo-Indians, East Indians, Indigenous languages of the Americas or many of the other entries on this DaB page are called "just" Indian? - It is difficult to imagine someone unfamiliar with the term "Indian", but someone visiting this page should see Indian English as one of our articles that may overcome their confusion, as it may be what they are looking for - Arjayay (talk) 19:43, 26 May 2019 (UTC)
 * This dab page needs some serious trimming down. The Christian community of the so called East Indians doesn't belong here (although there should be a link to the much broader East Indies). Anglo-Indians is a valid entry as these people were historically sometimes referred to as "Indians". The entry for the Amerindian languages is a valid one too – these languages are sometimes called "Indian languages". The point of a disambiguation page is to resolve the ambiguity of the title, not to be a topical index and not to list all articles with the given term in the title (see WP:PTM). – Uanfala (talk) 20:33, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

Divide the page into three pages
Indian page,

American Indian page,

Aboriginals page. FlyingNinja1 (talk) 06:25, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

"Indians" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Indians and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 September 29 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Privybst (talk) 11:28, 29 September 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Indian


text:
Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya Province, Turkey) during the time of the Roman Empire. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, toymakers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe. His reputation evolved among the pious, as was common for early Christian saints, and his legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the folklore of Santa Claus ("Saint Nick") through Sinterklaas.

Little is known about the historical Saint Nicholas. The earliest accounts of his life were written centuries after his death and probably contain legendary elaborations. He is said to have been born in the Anatolian seaport of Patara, Lycia, in Asia Minor to wealthy Christian parents. In one of the earliest attested and most famous incidents from his life, he is said to have rescued three girls from being forced into prostitution by dropping a sack of gold coins through the window of their house each night for three nights so their father could pay a dowry for each of them. Other early stories tell of him calming a storm at sea, saving three innocent soldiers from wrongful execution, and chopping down a tree possessed by a demon. In his youth, he is said to have made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Syria Palaestina. Shortly after his return, he became Bishop of Myra. He was later cast into prison during the persecution of Diocletian, but was released after the accession of Constantine.

An early list makes him an attendee at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, but he is never mentioned in any writings by people who were at the council. Late, unsubstantiated legends claim that he was temporarily defrocked and imprisoned during the council for slapping the heretic Arius. Another famous late legend tells how he resurrected three children, who had been murdered and pickled in brine by a butcher planning to sell them as pork during a famine.

Fewer than 200 years after Nicholas's death, the St. Nicholas Church was built in Myra under the orders of Theodosius II over the site of the church where he had served as bishop, and his remains were moved to a sarcophagus in that church. In 1087, while the Greek Christian inhabitants of the region were subjugated by the newly arrived Muslim Seljuk Turks, and soon after the beginning of the East–West schism, a group of merchants from the Italian city of Bari removed the major bones of Nicholas's skeleton from his sarcophagus in the church without authorization and brought them to their hometown, where they are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Nicola. The remaining bone fragments from the sarcophagus were later removed by Venetian sailors and taken to Venice during the First Crusade.

Biographical sources
Very little is known about Saint Nicholas's historical life. Any writings Nicholas himself may have produced have been lost and he is not mentioned by any contemporary chroniclers. This is not surprising, since Nicholas lived during a turbulent time in Roman history. The earliest mentions of Saint Nicholas indicate that, by the sixth century, his following was already well-established. Less than two hundred years after Saint Nicholas's probable death, the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II (ruled 401–450) ordered the building of the Church of Saint Nicholas in Myra, which thereby preserves an early mention of his name. The Byzantine historian Procopius also mentions that the Emperor Justinian I (ruled 527–565) renovated churches in Constantinople dedicated to Saint Nicholas and Saint Priscus, which may have originally been built as early as c. 490.

Nicholas's name also occurs as "Nicholas of Myra of Lycia" on the tenth line of a list of attendees at the Council of Nicaea included by Theodore Lector in the Historiae Ecclesiasticae Tripartitae Epitome, written sometime between 510 and 515. A single, offhand mention of Nicholas of Myra also occurs in the biography of another saint, Saint Nicholas of Sion, who apparently took the name "Nicholas" to honor him. The Life of Saint Nicholas of Sion, written around 250 years after Nicholas of Myra's death, briefly mentions Nicholas of Sion visiting Nicholas's tomb to pay homage to him. According to Jeremy Seal, the fact that Nicholas had a tomb that could be visited serves as the almost solitary definitive proof that he was a real historical figure.

In his treatise De statu animarum post mortem (written c. 583), the theologian Eustratius of Constantinople cites Saint Nicholas of Myra's miracle of the three generals as evidence that souls may work independent from the body. Eustratius credits a lost Life of Saint Nicholas as his source. Nearly all the sources Eustratius references date from the late fourth century to early fifth century, indicating the Life of Saint Nicholas to which he refers was probably written during this time period, shortly after Nicholas's death. The earliest complete account of Nicholas's life that has survived to the present is a Life of Saint Nicholas, written in the early ninth century by Michael the Archimandrite (814–842), nearly 500 years after Nicholas's probable death.

Despite its extremely late date, Michael the Archimandrite's Life of Saint Nicholas is believed to heavily rely on older written sources and oral traditions. The identity and reliability of these sources, however, remains uncertain. Catholic historian D. L. Cann and medievalist Charles W. Jones both consider Michael the Archimandrite's Life the only account of Saint Nicholas that is likely to contain any historical truth. Jona Lendering, a Dutch historian of classical antiquity, notes that Michael the Archimandrite's Life does not contain a "conversion narrative", which was unusual for saints' lives of the period when it was written. He therefore argues that it is possible Michael the Archimandrite may have been relying on a source written before conversion narratives became popular, which would be a positive indication of that source's reliability. He notes that many of the stories recounted by Michael the Archimandrite closely resemble stories told about the first-century AD Neopythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana in the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, an eight-volume biography of him written in the early third century by the Greek writer Philostratus. Christian storytellers were known to adapt older pagan legends and attribute them to Christian saints. As Apollonius's hometown of Tyana was not far from Myra, Lendering contends that many popular stories about Apollonius may have become attached to Saint Nicholas.

Family and background
Accounts of Saint Nicholas's life agree on the essence of his story, but modern historians disagree regarding how much of this story is actually rooted in historical fact. Traditionally, Nicholas was born in the city of Patara (Lycia et Pamphylia), a port on the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia Minor in the Roman Empire, to a wealthy family of Greek Christians. According to some accounts, his parents were named Epiphanius (Ἐπιφάνιος, ) and Johanna (Ἰωάννα, ), but, according to others, they were named Theophanes (Θεοφάνης, ) and Nonna (Νόννα, ). In some accounts, Nicholas's uncle was the bishop of the city of Myra, also in Lycia. Recognizing his nephew's calling, Nicholas's uncle ordained him as a priest.

Generosity and travels
After his parents died from an epidemic, Nicholas is said to have distributed their wealth to the poor. In his most famous exploit, which is first attested in Michael the Archimandrite's Life of Saint Nicholas, Nicholas heard of a devout man who had once been wealthy but had lost all of his money due to the "plotting and envy of Satan." The man could not afford proper dowries for his three daughters. This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment, be forced to become prostitutes. Hearing of the girls' plight, Nicholas decided to help them, but, being too modest to help the family in public (or to save them the humiliation of accepting charity), he went to the house under the cover of night and threw a purse filled with gold coins through the window opening into the house. The father immediately arranged a marriage for his first daughter, and after her wedding, Nicholas threw a second bag of gold through the same window late at night.

According to Michael the Archimandrite's account, after the second daughter was married, the father stayed awake for at least two "nights" and caught Saint Nicholas in the same act of charity toward the third daughter. The father fell on his knees, thanking him, and Nicholas ordered him not to tell anyone about the gifts. The scene of Nicholas's secret gift-giving is one of the most popular scenes in Christian devotional art, appearing in icons and frescoes from across Europe. Although depictions vary depending on time and place, Nicholas is often shown wearing a cowl while the daughters are typically shown in bed, dressed in their nightclothes. Many renderings contain a cypress tree or a cross-shaped cupola.

The historicity of this incident is disputed. Adam C. English argues for a historical kernel to the legend, noting the story's early attestation as well as the fact that no similar stories were told about any other Christian saints. Jona Lendering, who also argues for the story's authenticity, notes that a similar story is told in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana, in which Apollonius gives money to an impoverished father but posits that Michael the Archimandrite's account is markedly different. Philostratus does not mention the fate of the daughters and, in his story, Apollonius's generosity is purely motivated out of sympathy for the father; in Michael the Archimandrite's account, however, Saint Nicholas is instead expressly stated to be motivated by a desire to save the daughters from being sold into prostitution. He argues that this desire to help women is most characteristic of fourth-century Christianity, due to the prominent role women played in the early Christian movement, rather than Greco-Roman paganism or the Christianity of Michael the Archimandrite's time in the ninth century, by which point the position of women had drastically declined.

Nicholas is also said to have visited the Holy Land. The ship he was on was nearly destroyed by a terrible storm but he rebuked the waves, causing the storm to subside. Thus, Nicholas became venerated as the patron saint of sailors and travelers.

While in Palestine, Nicholas is said to have lived in a crypt near Bethlehem, where the Nativity of Jesus is believed to have taken place. Over the crypt where Nicholas is believed to have lived now stands the "Church of Saint Nicholas" in Beit Jala, a Christian town of which Nicholas is the Patron saint.

Bishop of Myra
After visiting the Holy Land, Nicholas returned to Myra. The bishop of Myra, who had succeeded Nicholas's uncle, had recently died and the priests in the city had decided that the first priest to enter the church that morning would be made bishop. Nicholas went to the church to pray and was therefore proclaimed the new bishop. He is said to have been imprisoned and tortured during the Great Persecution under the Emperor Diocletian (ruled 284–305), but was released under the orders of the Emperor Constantine the Great (ruled 306–337). This story sounds plausible, but is not attested in the earliest sources and is therefore unlikely to be historical.

One of the earliest attested stories of Saint Nicholas is one in which he saves three innocent men from execution. According to Michael the Archimandrite, three innocent men were condemned to death by the governor Eustathius. As they were about to be executed, Nicholas appeared, pushed the executioner's sword to the ground, released them from their chains, and angrily chastised a juror who had accepted a bribe. According to Jona Lendering, this story directly parallels an earlier story in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana, in which Apollonius prevents the execution of a man falsely condemned of banditry. Michael the Archimandrite also tells another story in which the consul Ablabius accepted a bribe to put three famous generals to death, in spite of their actual innocence. Saint Nicholas appeared to Constantine and Ablabius in dreams, informing Constantine of the truth and frightening Ablabius into releasing the generals, for fear of Hell.

Later versions of the story are more elaborate, interweaving the two stories together. According to one version, Emperor Constantine sent three of his most trusted generals, named Ursos, Nepotianos, and Herpylion, to put down a rebellion in Phrygia. However, a storm forced them to take refuge in Myra. Unbeknownst to the generals, who were in the harbor, their soldiers further inland were fighting with local merchants and engaging in looting and destruction. Nicholas confronted the generals for allowing their soldiers to misbehave and the generals brought an end to the looting. Immediately after the soldiers had returned to their ships, Nicholas heard word of the three innocent men about to be executed and the three generals aided him in stopping the execution. Eustathius attempted to flee on his horse but Nicholas stopped his horse and chastised him for his corruption. Eustathius, under the threat of being reported directly to the Emperor, repented of his corrupt ways. Afterward, the generals succeeded in ending the rebellion and were promoted by Constantine to even higher status. The generals' enemies, however, slandered them to the consul Ablabius, telling him that they had not really put down the revolt, but instead encouraged their own soldiers to join it. The generals' enemies also bribed Ablabius and he had the three generals imprisoned. Nicholas then made his dream appearances and the three generals were set free.

Council of Nicaea

In 325, Nicholas is said to have attended the First Council of Nicaea, where he is said to have been a staunch opponent of Arianism and a devoted supporter of Trinitarianism, and one of the bishops who signed the Nicene Creed. Nicholas's attendance at the Council of Nicaea is attested early by Theodore the Lector's list of attendees, which records him as the 151st attendee. However, he is conspicuously never mentioned by Athanasius of Alexandria, the foremost defender of Trinitarianism at the council, who knew all the notable bishops of the period, nor is he mentioned by the historian Eusebius, who was also present at the council. Adam C. English notes that lists of the attendees at Nicaea vary considerably, with shorter lists only including roughly 200 names, but longer lists including around 300. Saint Nicholas's name only appears on the longer lists, not the shorter ones. Nicholas's name appears on a total of three early lists, one of which, Theodore the Lector, is generally considered to be the most accurate. According to Jona Lendering, there are two main possibilities:
 * 1) Nicholas did not attend the Council of Nicaea, but someone at an early date was baffled that his name was not listed and so added him to the list. Many scholars tend to favor this explanation.
 * 2) Nicholas did attend the Council of Nicaea, but, at an early date, someone decided to remove his name from the list, apparently deciding that it was better if no one remembered he had been there.

A later legend, first attested in the fourteenth century, over 1,000 years after Nicholas's death, holds that, during the Council of Nicaea, Nicholas lost his temper and slapped "a certain Arian" across the face. On account of this, Constantine revoked Nicholas's miter and pallium. Steven D. Greydanus concludes that, because of the story's late attestation, it "has no historical value." Jona Lendering, however, defends the veracity and historicity of the incident, arguing that, as it was embarrassing and reflects poorly on Nicholas's reputation, it is inexplicable why later hagiographers would have invented it. Later versions of the legend embellish it, making the heretic Arius himself and having Nicholas punch him rather than merely slapping him with his open hand. In these versions of the story, Nicholas is also imprisoned, but Christ and the Virgin Mary appear to him in his cell. He tells them he is imprisoned "for loving you" and they free him from his chains and restore his vestments. The scene of Nicholas slapping Arius is celebrated in Eastern Orthodox icons and episodes of Saint Nicholas at Nicaea are shown in a series of paintings from the 1660s in the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari.

Other reputed miracles
One story tells how during a terrible famine, a malicious butcher lured three little children into his house, where he killed them, placing their remains in a barrel to cure, planning to sell them off as ham. Nicholas, visiting the region to care for the hungry, saw through the butcher's lies and resurrected the pickled children by making the sign of the cross. Jona Lendering opines that the story is "without any historical value". Adam C. English notes that the story of the resurrection of the pickled children is a late medieval addition to the legendary biography of Saint Nicholas and that it is not found in any of his earliest Lives. Although this story seems bizarre and horrifying to modern audiences, it was tremendously popular throughout the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, and widely beloved by ordinary folk. It is depicted in stained glass windows, wood panel paintings, tapestries, and frescoes. Eventually, the scene became so widely reproduced that, rather than showing the whole scene, artists began to merely depict Saint Nicholas with three naked children and a wooden barrel at his feet.

According to English, eventually, people who had forgotten or never learned the story began misinterpreting representations of it. That Saint Nicholas was shown with children led people to conclude he was the patron saint of children; meanwhile, the fact that he was shown with a barrel led people to conclude that he was the patron saint of brewers.

According to another story, during a great famine that Myra experienced in 311–312, a ship was in the port at anchor, loaded with wheat for the emperor in Constantinople. Nicholas invited the sailors to unload a part of the wheat to help in the time of need. The sailors at first disliked the request, because the wheat had to be weighed accurately and delivered to the emperor. Only when Nicholas promised them that they would not suffer any loss for their consideration did the sailors agree. When they arrived later in the capital, they made a surprising find: the weight of the load had not changed, although the wheat removed in Myra was enough for two full years and could even be used for sowing.

Gemile

It has long been traditionally assumed that Saint Nicholas was originally buried in his home town of Myra, where his relics are later known to have been kept, but some recent archaeological evidence indicates that Saint Nicholas may have originally been entombed in a rock-cut church located at the highest point on the small Turkish island of Gemile, only twenty miles away from his birthplace of Patara. Nicholas's name is painted on part of the ruined building. In antiquity, the island was known as "Saint Nicholas Island" and today it is known in Turkish as Gemiler Adasi, meaning "Island of Boats", in reference to Saint Nicholas's traditional role as the patron saint of seafarers.

The church was built in the fourth century, around the time of Nicholas's death, and is typical of saints' shrines from that time period. Nicholas was the only major saint associated with that part of Turkey. The church where historians believe he was originally entombed is at the western end of the great processional way.

Myra
In the mid-7th century, Gemile was vulnerable to attack by Arab fleets, so Nicholas's remains appear to have been moved from the island to the city of Myra, where Nicholas had served as bishop for most of his life. Myra is located roughly 40 km east of Gemile and its location further inland made it safer from seafaring Arab forces.

It is said that, in Myra, the relics of Saint Nicholas each year exuded a clear watery liquid which smelled like rose water, called manna, or myrrh, which was believed by the faithful to possess miraculous powers. As it was widely known that all Nicholas's relics were at Myra in their sealed sarcophagus, it was rare during this period for forgers of relics to claim to possess those belonging to Saint Nicholas.

A solemn bronze statue of the saint by Russian sculptor Gregory Pototsky was donated by the Russian government in 2000, and was given a prominent place in the square fronting the medieval Church of St Nicholas. In 2005, mayor Süleyman Topçu had the statue replaced by a red-suited plastic Santa Claus statue, because he wanted an image more recognisable to foreign visitors. Protests from the Russian government against this were successful, and the bronze statue was returned (albeit without its original high pedestal) to a corner nearer the church.

On 28 December 2009, the Turkish government announced that it would be formally requesting the return of Saint Nicholas's skeletal remains to Turkey from the Italian government.

Turkish authorities asserted that Nicholas himself desired to be buried at his episcopal town, and that his remains were illegally removed from his homeland. In 2017, an archaeological survey at St. Nicholas Church, Demre was reported to have found a temple below the modern church, with excavation work to be done that will allow researchers to determine whether it still holds Nicholas's body.

Bari
After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Byzantine Empire temporarily lost control over most of Asia Minor to the invading Seljuk Turks, and so Greek Christians of Myra became subjects of the Turks. At the same time the Catholic Church in the West had declared (in 1054 AD) that the Greek church, the official church of the Byzantine Empire, was in schism. Because of the many wars in the region, some Christians were concerned that access to the tomb might become difficult.

Taking advantage of the confusion and the loss by the Greek Christian community of Myra of its Byzantine imperial protection, in the spring of 1087, Italian sailors from Bari in Apulia seized part of the remains of the saint from his burial church in Myra, over the objections of the Greek Orthodox monks in the church.

Adam C. English describes the removal of the relics from Myra as "essentially a holy robbery" and notes the thieves were not only afraid of being caught or chased after by the locals, but also the power of Saint Nicholas himself. Returning to Bari, they brought the remains with them and cared for them. The remains arrived on 9 May 1087. Two years later, Pope Urban II inaugurated a new church, the Basilica di San Nicola, to Saint Nicholas in Bari. The Pope himself personally placed Nicholas's relics into the tomb beneath the altar of the new church. The removal of Saint Nicholas's relics from Myra and their arrival in Bari is reliably recorded by multiple chroniclers, including Orderic Vitalis and 9 May continued to be celebrated every year by western Christians as the day of Nicholas's "translation". Eastern Orthodox Christians and the Turks have both long regarded the unauthorized removal of the relics from Myra as a blatant theft, but the people of Bari have instead maintained that it was a rescue mission to save the bones from the Turkish invaders. A legend, shown on the ceiling of the Basilica di San Nicola, holds that Nicholas once visited Bari and predicted that his bones would one day rest there. Prior to the translation of Nicholas's relics to Bari, his following had been known in western Europe, but it had not been extremely popular. In autumn of 1096, Norman and Frankish soldiers mustered in Bari in preparation for the First Crusade. Although the Crusaders generally favored warrior saints, which Saint Nicholas was not, the presence of his relics in Bari made him materially accessible. Nicholas's associations with aiding travelers and seafarers also made him a popular choice for veneration. Nicholas's veneration by Crusaders helped promote his following throughout western Europe.

After the relics were brought to Bari, they continued to produce "myrrh", much to the joy of their new owners. Vials of myrrh from his relics have been taken all over the world for centuries, and can still be obtained from his church in Bari. Even up to the present day, a flask of manna is extracted from the tomb of Saint Nicholas every year on 6 December (the Saint's feast day) by the clergy of the basilica. The myrrh is collected from a sarcophagus which is located in the basilica vault and could be obtained in the shop nearby. The liquid gradually seeps out of the tomb, but it is unclear whether it originates from the body within the tomb, or from the marble itself; since the town of Bari is a harbour, and the tomb is below sea level, there have been several natural explanations proposed for the manna fluid, including the transfer of seawater to the tomb by capillary action.

In 1966, a vault in the crypt underneath the Basilica di San Nicola was dedicated as an Orthodox chapel with an iconostasis in commemoration of the recent lifting of the anathemas the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches had issued against each other during the Great Schism in 1054.

In May 2017, following talks between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a portion of the relics of St. Nicholas in Bari were sent on loan to Moscow. The relic was on display for veneration at Christ the Savior Cathedral before being taken to Saint Petersburg in mid-June prior to returning to Bari. More than a million people lined up in Moscow for a momentary glimpse of the gilded ark holding one of the saint's ribs.

Venice

The sailors from Bari took only the main bones of Nicholas's skeleton, leaving all the minor fragments in the grave. The city of Venice had interest in obtaining the remaining fragments of his skeleton. In 1044, they dedicated the San Nicolò al Lido monastery basilica to him on the north end of the Lido di Venezia. According to a single chronicle written by an anonymous monk at this monastery, in 1100, a fleet of Venetian ships accompanied by Bishop Henri sailed past Myra on their way to Palestine for the First Crusade. Bishop Henri insisted for the fleet to turn back and set anchor in Myra. The Venetians took the remaining bones of Saint Nicholas, as well as those of several other bishops of Myra, from the church there, which was only guarded by four Orthodox monks, and brought them to Venice, where they deposited them in the San Nicolò al Lido. This tradition was lent credence in two scientific investigations of the relics in Bari and Venice, which confirmed that the relics in the two cities are anatomically compatible and may belong to the same person. It is said that someone dies every time the bones of Saint Nicholas in Venice are disturbed. The last time the bones were examined was in July 1992.

Other locations
Because of Nicholas's skeleton's long confinement in Myra, after it was brought to Bari, the demand for pieces of it rose. Small bones quickly began to disperse across western Europe. The sailors who had transported the bones gave one tooth and two fragments chipped from Nicholas's sarcophagus to the Norman knight William Pantulf. Pantulf took these relics to his hometown of Noron in Normandy, where they were placed in the local Church of St. Peter in June 1092. In 1096, the duke of Apulia gave several bones of Saint Nicholas to the count of Flanders, which he then enshrined in the Abbey of Watten. According to legend, in 1101, Saint Nicholas appeared in a vision to a French clerk visiting the shrine at Bari and told him to take one of his bones with him to his hometown of Port, near Nancy. The clerk took a finger bone back with him to Port, where a chapel was built to Saint Nicholas. Port became an important center of devotion in the following of Nicholas and, in the fifteenth century, a church known as the Basilique Saint-Nicolas was built there dedicated to him. The town itself is now known as "Saint Nicolas de Port" in honor of Nicholas.

The clergy at Bari strategically gave away samples of Nicholas's bones to promote the following and enhance its prestige. Many of these bones were initially kept in Constantinople, but, after the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, these fragments were scattered across western Europe. A hand claimed to belong to Saint Nicholas was kept in the San Nicola in Carcere in Rome. This church, whose name means "Saint Nicholas in Chains", was built on the site of a former municipal prison. Stories quickly developed about Nicholas himself having been held in that prison. Mothers would come to the church to pray to Saint Nicholas for their jailed sons to be released and repentant criminals would place votive offerings in the church. As a result of this, Nicholas became the patron saint of prisoners and those falsely accused of crimes. An index finger claimed to belong to Saint Nicholas was kept in a chapel along the Ostian Way in Rome. Another finger was held in Ventimiglia in Liguria. Today, many churches in Europe, Russia, and the United States claim to possess small relics, such as a tooth or a finger bone.

An Irish tradition states that the relics of Saint Nicholas are also reputed to have been stolen from Myra by local Norman crusading knights in the twelfth century and buried near Thomastown, County Kilkenny, where a stone slab marks the site locally believed to be his grave. According to the Irish antiquarian John Hunt, the tomb probably actually belongs to a local priest from Jerpoint Abbey.

Scientific analysis
Whereas the devotional importance of relics and the economics associated with pilgrimages caused the remains of most saints to be divided up and spread over numerous churches in several countries, Saint Nicholas is unusual in that most of his bones have been preserved in one spot: his grave crypt in Bari. Even with the allegedly continuing miracle of the manna, the archdiocese of Bari has allowed for one scientific survey of the bones. In the late 1950s, while the crypt was undergoing much-needed restoration, the bones were removed from it for the first time since their interment in 1089. A special Pontiffical Commission permitted Luigi Martino, a professor of human anatomy at the University of Bari, to examine the bones under the commission's supervision. Martino took thousands of measurements, detailed scientific drawings, photographs, and x-rays. These examinations revealed the saint to have died at over seventy years of age and to have been of average height and slender-to-average build. He also suffered from severe chronic arthritis in his spine and pelvis.

In 2004, at the University of Manchester, researchers Caroline Wilkinson and Fraco Introna reconstructed the saint's face based on Martino's examination. The review of the data revealed that the historical Saint Nicholas was 5ft 6in in height and had a broken nose, which had partially healed, revealing that the injury had been suffered ante mortem. The broken nose appeared to conform with hagiographical reports that Saint Nicholas had been beaten and tortured during the Diocletianic Persecution. The facial reconstruction was produced by Caroline Wilkinson at the University of Manchester and was shown on a BBC2 TV program The Real Face of Santa. In 2014, the Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University produced an updated reconstruction of Saint Nicholas's face.

In 2017, two researchers from Oxford University, Professor Tom Higham and Doctor Georges Kazan, radiocarbon dated a fragment of a pelvis claimed to belong to Saint Nicholas. The fragment originally came from a church in Lyon, France and, at the time of testing, was in the possession of Father Dennis O'Neill, a priest from St Martha of Bethany Church in Illinois. The results of the radiocarbon dating confirmed that the pelvis dates to the fourth century AD, around the same time that Saint Nicholas would have died, and is not a medieval forgery. The bone was one of the oldest the Oxford team had ever examined.

According to Professor Higham, most of the relics the team has examined turn out to be too recent to have actually belonged to the saint to whom they are attributed, but he states, "This bone fragment, in contrast, suggests that we could possibly be looking at remains from St Nicholas himself." Kazan believes the pelvis fragment may come from the same individual as the skeleton divided between the churches in Bari and Venice, since the bone they tested comes from the left pubis, and the only pelvis bone in the collection at Bari is the left ilium. In the absence of DNA testing, however, it is not yet possible to know for certain whether the pelvis is from the same man.

Veneration and celebrations
Among Greeks and Italians he is a favorite of sailors, fishermen, ships and sailing. As a result, and over time, he has become the patron saint of several cities which maintain harbours. In centuries of Greek folklore, Nicholas was seen as "The Lord of the Sea", often described by modern Greek scholars as a kind of Christianized version of Poseidon. In modern Greece, he is still easily among the most recognizable saints and 6 December finds many cities celebrating their patron saint. He is also the patron saint of all of Greece and particularly of the Hellenic Navy.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Nicholas's memory is celebrated on almost every Thursday of the year (together with the Apostles) with special hymns to him which are found in the liturgical book known as the Octoechos. Soon after the transfer of Saint Nicholas's relics from Myra to Bari, an East Slavic version of his Life and an account of the transfer of his relics were written by a contemporary to this event.

Devotional akathists and canons have been composed in his honour, and are frequently chanted by the faithful as they ask for his intercession. He is mentioned in the Liturgy of Preparation during the Divine Liturgy (Eastern Orthodox Eucharist) and during the All-Night Vigil. Many Orthodox churches will have his icon, even if they are not named after him. In Oriental Orthodoxy, the Coptic Church observes the Departure of St. Nicholas on 10 Kiahk, or 10 Taḫśaś in Ethiopia, which corresponds to the Julian Calendar's 6 December and Gregorian Calendar's 19 December.

Nicholas had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, a practice celebrated on his feast day, 6 December. For those who still observe the Julian calendar the celebration currently takes place thirteen days later than it happens in the Gregorian calendar and Revised Julian calendar.

In Serbia, the most common Slava (annual ceremony and veneration of family's patron saint) is Saint Nicholas' day celebrated on 19 December.

In Monaco, the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate was built from 1874 on the site of St Nicholas's church, founded in 1252. A children's Mass is still held on 6 December in the cathedral.

In late medieval England, on Saint Nicholas Day parishes held Christmastide "boy bishop" celebrations. As part of this celebration, youths performed the functions of priests and bishops, and exercised rule over their elders. Today, Saint Nicholas is still celebrated as a great gift-giver in several Western European and Central European countries. In medieval times, Christian nuns in Belgium and France began to deposit baskets of food and clothes anonymously at the doorsteps of the needy, which gave rise to the practice of gift giving on Saint Nicholas Day. According to another source, on 6 December every sailor or ex-sailor of the Low Countries (which at that time was virtually all of the male population) would descend to the harbour towns to participate in a church celebration for their patron saint. On the way back they would stop at one of the various Nicholas fairs to buy some hard-to-come-by goods, gifts for their loved ones and invariably some little presents for their children. While the real gifts would only be presented at Christmas, the little presents for the children were given right away, courtesy of Saint Nicholas. This and his miracle of him resurrecting the three butchered children made Saint Nicholas a patron saint of children and later students as well. The custom of giving gifts on Saint Nicholas Day is popular in various parts of Christendom, with a popular tradition including children placing their shoes in the foyer for Saint Nicholas to deliver presents therein.

Santa Claus evolved from Dutch traditions regarding Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas). When the Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam, they brought the legend and traditions of Sinterklaas with them. Howard G. Hageman, of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, maintains that the tradition of celebrating Sinterklaas in New York existed in the early settlements of the Hudson Valley, although by the early nineteenth century had fallen by the way. St. Nicholas Park, located at the intersection of St. Nicholas Avenue and 127th Street, in an area originally settled by Dutch farmers, is named for St. Nicholas of Myra.

Nicholas is honored in the calendar of saints of the Lutheran Churches, as well as in Church of England and in the Episcopal Church on 6 December.

Eastern Orthodox Feast Days for Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia

 * 9 May – Translation of the relics of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker from Myra to Bari, in 1087.
 * 10 May – Passage of the relics (sojourn) in 1087 of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker through the island of Zakynthos, while on their way to Bari.
 * 20 May – Arrival of the relics in Bari.
 * 29 July – Nativity of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.
 * Movable holiday on the Sunday between 16 and 22 August – Synaxis of All Saints of Lefkados.
 * 22 September – Synaxis of All Saints of Tula (commemoration of the protection of Tula from the invasion of the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray in 1552).
 * 6 December – Commemoration of his death.

Iconography
Saint Nicholas is a popular subject portrayed on Eastern Orthodox icons, particularly Russian and Serbian ones. He is depicted as an Orthodox bishop, wearing the omophorion and holding a Gospel Book. Sometimes he is depicted wearing the Eastern Orthodox mitre, sometimes he is bareheaded. Iconographically, Nicholas is depicted as an elderly man with a short, full, white, fluffy beard and balding head. In commemoration of the miracle attributed to him by tradition at the Council of Nicaea, he is sometimes depicted with Christ over his left shoulder holding out a Gospel Book to him and the Theotokos over his right shoulder holding the omophorion. Because of his patronage of mariners, occasionally Saint Nicholas will be shown standing in a boat or rescuing drowning sailors; Medieval Chants and Polyphony, image on the cover of the Book of Hours of Duke of Berry, 1410.

In depictions of Saint Nicholas from Bari, he is usually shown as dark-skinned, probably to emphasize his foreign origin. The emphasis on his foreignness may have been intended to enhance Bari's reputation by displaying that it had attracted the patronage of a saint from a far-off country. In Roman Catholic iconography, Saint Nicholas is depicted as a bishop, wearing the insignia of this dignity: a bishop's vestments, a mitre and a crozier. The episode with the three dowries is commemorated by showing him holding in his hand either three purses, three coins or three balls of gold. Depending on whether he is depicted as patron saint of children or sailors, his images will be completed by a background showing ships, children or three figures climbing out of a wooden barrel (the three slaughtered children he resurrected).

In a strange twist, the three gold balls referring to the dowry affair are sometimes metaphorically interpreted as being oranges or other fruits. As in the Low Countries in medieval times oranges most frequently came from Spain, this led to the belief that the Saint lives in Spain and comes to visit every winter bringing them oranges, other 'wintry' fruits and tales of magical creatures.

Music
In 1948, Benjamin Britten completed a cantata, Saint Nicolas on a text by Eric Crozier which covers the saint's legendary life in a dramatic sequence of events. A tenor soloist appears as Saint Nicolas, with a mixed choir, boys singers, strings, piano duet, organ and percussion.

title: Saint Nicholas