R.I.P. Palle Huld, the Real-Life Tintin

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  12.14.10 | 2:56 PM ET

The Danish man widely believed to be the inspiration for Hergé‘s famous traveling boy detective died last week at 98. The Independent looks into the mystery behind the creation of Tintin:

The young Huld wrote an account of his adventures which was published in several languages including English, in which it appeared in 1929 as A Boy Scout Around The World. It is known that Hergé read Huld’s account. It was perhaps no coincidence that the character of Tintin surfaced for the first time the same year in Le Petit Vingtieme, the children’s section of a Belgian newspaper. Palle Huld was happy to encourage the notion that he was Hergé‘s inspiration for Tintin. But Hergé, who delighted in utterly baffling Tintinologists by using the phrase “Tintin c’est moi,” liked to keep the source of his world-renowned character shrouded in mystery.

(Via The Book Bench)


Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


1 Comment for R.I.P. Palle Huld, the Real-Life Tintin

John M. Edwards 01.06.11 | 11:10 AM ET

Hi World Hum:

Here is some Tintin trivia:

1. Tintin Au Congo, Hergés first Tintin epic, is banned in the U.S. (because of its lurid artistic depiction of black Africans)—but is widely available in France, parts of Africa, and elsewhere.

2. In Germany, Tintin is known, with typical Teutonic economy, as “Tim.”

3. To join Manhattan’s elite “Tintin Club,” inductees must repeat three times “Tintin is a god to me!”

John M. Edwards

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