Asterix and the cauldron

The Asterix stories by Goscinny and Uderzo tended to follow two major directions, either Asterix and Obelix travelled to a foreign land and mercilessly took the piss out of modern national stereotypes, or stayed in Gaul and took the piss out of France instead. This is one of the latter.

A rival Gaulish chief tasks our indomitable Gaulish heroes with protecting the other tribe's money from the Roman tax collectors, the money kept in a cauldron. But while the two tribes have a feast disaster strikes, thieves steal the money and Asterix accepts the blame and vows to restore the money to save the village from disgrace (with Obelix's help of course).

Unfortunately, filling the cauldron with money proves to be more difficult than taking on a Roman legion. Asterix and Obelix fail to raise the money through trade, employment, fighting and even crime! However, finally our heroes manage to fill the cauldron but there is an unexpected twist...

Although not one of the very best volumes, this is still a very good entry in the Asterix series. The story is maybe a bit bitty but when those bits are good they are very good. The book has some excellent satire and word play.