Тайна Единорога: Приключения Тинтина

Comic album by Belgian cartoonist Hergé
the comic book volume

The Secret of the Unicorn is the eleventh volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The story was serialised daily in Le Soir, Belgium's leading francophone newspaper, from June 1942 to January 1943 amidst the Nazi German occupation of Belgium during World War II. The story revolves around young reporter Tintin, his dog Snowy, and his friend Captain Haddock, who discover a riddle left by Haddock's ancestor, the 17th century Sir Francis Haddock, which could lead them to the hidden treasure of the pirate Red Rackham. To unravel the riddle, Tintin and Haddock must obtain three identical models of Sir Francis's ship, the Unicorn, but they discover that criminals are also after these model ships and are willing to kill in order to obtain them. The Secret of the Unicorn was a commercial success and was published in book form by Casterman shortly after its conclusion. Hergé concluded the arc begun in this story with Red Rackham's Treasure, while the series itself became a defining part of the Franco Belgian comics tradition. The Secret of the Unicorn remained Hergé's favourite of his own works until creating Tintin in Tibet (1960). The story was adapted for the 1957 Belvision animated series Hergé's Adventures of Tintin, the 1991 Ellipse/Nelvana animated series The Adventures of Tintin, the 1992 3 BBC Radio 5 dramatisation of the Adventures, the feature film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011) directed by Steven Spielberg, and the film's tie in video game.

While browsing on the Brussels Voddenmarkt/Marché aux puces at the Vossenplein in the Marollen, Tintin purchases an antique model ship which he intends to give to his friend, Captain Haddock. Two strangers, model ship collector Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine and antique scout Barnaby, independently try and fail to persuade Tintin to sell the model to them. Tintin also meets detectives Thomson and Thompson on a secret mission looking out for a pickpocket; however, both their wallets are repeatedly stolen throughout the story. At Tintin's flat, Snowy accidentally knocks the model over and breaks its mainmast. Having shown the ship to Haddock, Tintin discovers that the ship is named the Unicorn, after a ship commanded by Haddock's own ancestor. While Tintin is out, the ship is stolen from his apartment; in the following investigation, he discovers that Sakharine owns an identical model, also named the Unicorn. At home, Tintin discovers a miniature scroll, and realises that it must have been hidden inside the mast of the model. Written on the parchment is a riddle: "Three brothers joined. Three Unicorns in company sailing in the noonday sunne will speak. For 'tis from the light that light will dawn, and then shines forth the Eagle's cross". Captain Haddock vividly recounts the tale of the Unicorn, a 17th century warship captained by his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, but seized by a pirate band led by Red Rackham. In a retold flashback, it is shown how Francis' ship is attacked by Red Rackham and his crew. At first the pirates raise the black Jolly Roger, indicating that quarter (safe conduct) is offered in exchange for peaceful surrender, but when Francis refuses to strike his flag and bombards the pirates with cannon fire, the pirates instead "hoists fresh colors" and raise the "red pennant" (a bloody flag, ), signaling no quarter (no mercy, no prisoners), after which they board Francis' ship and massacre his crew. The only one of his crew to survive the boarding, Sir Francis killed Red Rackham in single combat and scuttled the Unicorn; he later built three models, which he left to his sons. Tintin deduces that each of the models contains a scroll, which united lead to the location of Red Rackham's treasure. Tintin and Haddock try to get the three scrolls but they are out of luck: Tintin's wallet (with the first scroll) is stolen, while Sakharine is found drugged, and the scroll inside his own Unicorn missing. Meanwhile, Barnaby requests a meeting with Tintin, but is gunned down on Tintin's doorstep before he can speak, and points to sparrows as a cryptic clue to the identity of his assailant before falling unconscious. A few days later, Tintin is kidnapped by the perpetrators of the shooting: the Bird brothers, two unscrupulous antique dealers who own the third model of the Unicorn. They are behind the theft of Tintin's model and have also stolen Sakharine's parchment, knowing that only by possessing all three parchments can the location of Red Rackham's treasure be found. Tintin escapes from the cellars of the Bird brothers' country estate, Marlinspike Hall, while the Captain arrives with Thomson and Thompson to arrest them. It is revealed that the Bird Brothers have only one of the parchments, as two were lost when their wallet was stolen. It is also revealed that Barnaby survived and has made a full recovery, much to Max Bird's enragement. The Bird brothers are arrested. Tintin and Thomson and Thompson track down the pickpocket, Aristides Silk, a kleptomaniac who has a penchant for collecting wallets, and obtain the Bird Brothers' wallet, containing the missing two parchments. By combining the three parchments and holding them to light, Tintin and Haddock discover the coordinates (20°37'42.0" N 70°52'15.0" W, 82 km north of the Dominican Republic) of the lost treasure and plan an expedition to find it.

In 1957, the animation company Belvision Studios produced Hergé's Adventures of Tintin, a series of daily five minute colour adaptations based upon Hergé's original comics. The Secret of the Unicorn was the fourth to be adapted in the second animated series; it was directed by Ray Goossens and written by Greg, a well known cartoonist who was to become editor in chief of Tintin magazine. In 1991, a collaboration between the French studio Ellipse and the Canadian animation company Nelvana adapted 21 of the stories into a series of episodes. The Secret of the Unicorn was the ninth story of The Adventures of Tintin to be produced and was divided into two thirty minute episodes. Directed by Stéphane Bernasconi, the series has been praised for being "generally faithful" to the original comics, to the extent that the animation was directly adopted from Hergé's original panels. A 2011 motion capture feature film directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson was released in most of the world October–November 2011, under the title The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, and in the US on 21 December, where it was simply titled The Adventures of Tintin. The film is partially based on The Secret of the Unicorn, combined with elements of Red Rackham's Treasure and The Crab with the Golden Claws. A video game tie in to the movie was released October 2011.