Getafix  

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Getafix is the village druid. In appearance, he is tall with a long white beard, hooked nose, white robe, red cloak. He is usually seen in possession of a small golden sickle. While his age is never stated, in the story of Asterix's birth (in which all but the oldest villagers are seen as small children), he appears unchanged. In Asterix and the Big Fight, the druid Psychoanalytix (who appears quite old) refers to him as his elder and teacher. In Asterix and Obelix's Birthday: The Golden Book, as a gag, Getafix at 50 years older appears to be frail and old, while in the other books, he appeared healthy.

Although known for his strength-enhancing magic potion, he has many other magical and medicinal potions at his disposal, including a potion to make hair grow quickly, a potion to counteract poison, one that neutralizes a drug that would kill in a matter of days, and a potion that restores a person to full health after injury (although this potion also causes the person who takes it to lose their recent memories while also interacting badly with the magic potion). Aside from making the potion, he also acts as the village doctor and occasional teacher. Asterix (and most other villagers) will consult him whenever anything strange occurs. He does not engage normally himself in combat, whereas most of the villagers enjoy a good punch-up (even with each other). One exception is one of the stories explaining Gaulish women, using Mrs. Geriatrix as an example, in which he involves himself in a fight sparked by Impedimenta. The final cut is shown with all the male villagers and two females, Impedimenta and Bacteria included, with Getafix running to stop the fight, with a piece of fish flying towards him. His most notable brawl is when, masquerading as a cook in The Great Divide, he makes and partakes of the magic potion (passing it off as soup) to free the enslaved men from the divided village, captured by the Romans — and doing a test run on the slaves who were present — and then starts distributing slaps with obvious enjoyment.

As the only individual able to produce the "magic potion" upon which the villagers rely for their strength, he is the focus of many stories, ranging from the Romans attempting to put him out of commission in some manner to requesting that Asterix and Obelix help him find some missing ingredient, and the conscience of the village. On a few occasions, he has refused to make the potion when the villagers become too selfish, including in Asterix and Caesar's Gift, where he refused to provide the potion for anyone while the village was divided by an upcoming vote for a new chief, only to provide them with it once again when Vitalstatistix asked Getafix to provide the potion for Orthopedix, the man he had been running against for chief. He has also occasionally been taken prisoner by hostile forces to get access to the potion, only to be freed again thanks to Asterix and Obelix. The full recipe of the magic potion itself has never been revealed, but known ingredients are mistletoe (which must be cut with a golden sickle [Asterix and the Golden Sickle]), a whole lobster (an optional ingredient that improves the flavour), fresh fish, salt, and petroleum (called rock oil in the book), which is later replaced by beetroot juice. Replenishing the stores of ingredients for the magic potion has led to some adventures for Asterix and Obelix, including Asterix and the Great Crossing and Asterix and the Black Gold.

Getafix is very similar to many wise old men who act as mentors and father-figures to the heroes, such as Merlin or Gandalf. In the earlier books however, Getafix came across more as just a friend of the protagonists rather than a wise old counselor. He was also, from the very beginning, shown as a figure of fun and had a wonderful sense of humour: in Asterix the Gaul, he keeps cutting his finger while using his sickle and roars with uncontrollable laughter at Asterix's teasing of the Roman Centurion; in Asterix and the Big Fight, he was shown as going literally crazy; and he's not above making the occasional bad pun (such as in Asterix and the Great Divide, when one of the village's frequent "stale fish" fights prompts him to observe that the villagers may soon discover nuclear "fish-ion").

  • French: Panoramix (From Hellenic/Greek Πανόραμα/Panorama which means wide view, Πανοραμίξ/Panoramix or "he who sees everything"). This name is used in most European translations, including Bulgarian, Dutch, Italian, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, Slovene, Serbian, Spanish, Indonesian, Czech, Slovak, Greek, Asturian and Romanian.
  • In English, the name is a pun on "getting a fix" — obtaining a dose of a recreational drug, and a reference to the magic potion he produces; the phrase can also mean to perceive or to get a solid sense of something. In the short-lived American version of the series, he was called Magigimmix ("magic gimmicks"). He was called Readymix (the name of a British cement firm) in newspaper comics during the 1970s, as Getafix was considered inappropriate for children. In the English version of the Asterix the Gaul film, he is referred to by his original French name of Panoramix and in the American dub of the Asterix and the Big Fight film he is called Vitamix.
  • In German, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, he is known as Miraculix, from Latin miraculum (miracle).
  • In Serbian, he is known as Аспириникс (Aspiriniks), from the drug Aspirin. Also in certain translations is known as Панорамикс (Panoramiks).
  • In Croatian, he is known as Čudomiks, from Template:Lang ("miracle") and Template:Lang ("mix"). In the newest translation it is Faktorix.
  • In Finnish, he is Akvavitix, from "akvavit", a Scandinavian distilled beverage (derived from Aqua vitae).
  • In West Frisian, his name is Crudemix, "Cruden" being herbs and spices, his name thus means "Spice mix".
  • In Esperanto, he is Miraklomiks, from Template:Lang ("miracle") and Template:Lang ("mix")
  • In Hindi, he is हकीम वैधिक्स (Hakeem Vaidhix), Hindi for a "village doctor".
  • In Hungarian, he is Magicoturmix, which is a composition of "magic" and "shake", thus meaning "Shake of Magic". Actually, this is a reference to the potion he is brewing, which gives the villagers their wondrous superhuman strength.
  • In Bengali, he is Etashetamix (এটাসেটামিক্স), meaning "mix this and that".
  • In Icelandic, he is Sjóðríkur, roughly meaning "one who boils". In comparison, Asterix is Ástríkur, "one who loves".
  • In Hebrew, אשפיקס (Ashafix), meaning "master of the craft".
  • In Welsh, he is Crycymalix, a pun on the phrase Template:Lang, which means "arthritis" or "rheumatism", referring to his old age.
  • In Sinhala — Template:Lang (Template:Transl) which means a "druid" or "witch".
  • In Malaysia, the English version that was released in the newspapers, he was "Medix" due to the strict laws in the country against drug abuse.
  • In Russian, he is Починикс (Pochinix), meaning "he who repairs things". The name was translated from the English version, not the French, but the pun about "getting a fix" was lost in translation. However, the druid is named "Панорамикс" ("Panoramix") in all live-action films and Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods.
  • In Scots, he is named Kensawthetrix, meaning "knows all the tricks".
  • In Turkish, he is named Büyüfiks, from "büyü" the Turkish word for "magic".




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Getafix" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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