MelissaA
Brenton
Shilpa Karhik
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On Dunder and Blixem!?!
December 12th 2006 00:15
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
Now, dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
That’s how the story goes right?
Actually - No!
The original was more like this:
"Now Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On Dunder and Blixem!"
How many of you are now scratching your heads and saying, “No, that can’t be right! Can it?”
This is something that has had me scratching my head for a day or 2 now.
It started off when one of my kids brought home some work from school. It was a puzzle involving the names of Santa’s reindeer which were printed at the bottom. I took one look and said – “Oh look, they’ve spelled Donner incorrectly!” There at the bottom of the page was “Donder”.
Who on earth was Donder! Must be a typo – heaven only knows I make a fair number of those myself.
So that I though was the end of it, but after bringing it up with friends on mine on Sunday afternoon, my friend immediately jumped to poor old Donder’s defence. “No, that’s actually the right way of spelling it!” she says as she disappears into the house only to return with a book that sure enough has the spelling of ‘Donder’ in it, and the books claim to fame is that it is the original version of “The Night Before Christmas” written by Clement C. Moore and titled as "A Visit from Saint Nicholas."
Myself, still somewhat sceptical, thought “hang on a second, what is this all about” and so I have set off in my quest to find the answer. After all the idea of Donder, the Dunderheaded reindeer certainly didn’t appeal to me, and who knows, maybe I could get a blog out of it.
Though I certainly wasn't expecting it to be this long. So Deb, I blame you for making me write out this darned post! Without your book I never would have gotten to the truth of the matter! ; )
My search for this truth led me to even more controversy. So bear with me won't you! The truth is out there.......somewhere........
It turns out that whereas Clement Clarke Moore did prepare "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" for publication in 1844, an earlier version had already been run in New York's Troy Sentinel newspaper on the 23rd of December 1823, also titled "A Visit from Saint Nicholas".
As the poem had been anonymously submitted no-one was really sure who had penned it, and so it was reproduced over the next 13 years in various publications.
Eventually word had gotten around that Clement C. Moore, a Bible professor at New York's General Theological Seminary had written it, and this was printed in the paper in 1836. The notion cemented when he included it in a volume of his own poetry in 1844.
However, rumours have long persisted that it was not actually written by Moore, but instead a New Yorker of Dutch descent named Henry Livingston.
Regardless of who wrote it, Nordic elements were definitely introduced into the story. The original names of the reindeer did include "Dunder and Blixem” as they were actually the Dutch words for "thunder" and "lightning”. These are the names that appeared in the original 1823 publication of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas"
Then in 1837, a publisher named Charles Hoffman printed a version of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" and changed 'Blixem' to 'Blixen' to make it better rhyme with 'Vixen'. He also amended 'Dunder' to 'Donder' , the theory being to make it more English sounding
Clement C. Moore himself then renamed one of his reindeer as 'Blitzen' and then took on Hoffman’s change of 'Dunder' to 'Donder' for his 1844 book of verse. This version of course was the most widely published version and for generations of children, this is how the reindeer were known.
One reason that that Moore is thought to not be the author while Henry Livingston is, comes from the fact that Moore would have thought the original reindeer names of 'Dunder' and 'Blixem' were too weird because he knew German but not Dutch, and he therefore changed them to 'Donder' and 'Blitzen' – either that or just didn’t care when somebody else did it for him.
But with 'blitzen' being the German word for ‘lightning', and 'donner' the German word for 'thunder, why didn’t he change that too and make it more compatible?
As for ‘Donder’ transforming yet again to “Donner”, In 1949 Johnny Marks turned the story of Rudolph into a song and included the reindeer as ‘Donner’. This was the first time the word “Donner” became well known as one of Santa’s reindeer, although it had been used on and off beforehand - including in The New York Times since 1906. It is possible that it was due to either mispronunciation of the word, or that it was simply far easier to say without the letter ‘d’ in the middle.
So there you have it! Santa’s 2 reindeer were originally Dunder and Blixem!
Who could have ever believed that 2 fictional reindeer could cause so much trouble!
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Comment by Adele
Lost Fanatic
Day Break TV
Comment by pegasus
Poker Addict
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
Pegasus, I actually thought the cool part was finding out that their names were meant to be 'Thunder' & 'Lightning'.
They started off that way but in Dutch, and now ironically enough are still that way, but in German.
Comment by Andrea
V8 Supercar Pitstop
That's what I like about it, the thunder and lightening connection. It fits in nicely, I think, with the whole Santa / St Nick philosophy.
I'll tell you what, though, my daughter will never believe you!
A.H.
Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
Troublesome little reindeers!
Also, love the Donder the Dunderheaded Reindeer line. Very funny!
KylieW
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
I was even trying to find a good reference in the book that my friend Deb showed me to see how on earth it was valid. I honestly didn't believe her. I think she thought that was pretty funny though, but she did admit to me that she'd only found out herself recently.
I just asked Miss 5 her opinion - her response:
"But I want to call them Donner and Blitzen, not Dunder and Nixon!" PMSL!
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
"Was Donner a Dunderheaded Reindeer?"
But I modified it just before I posted it. Which do you think would have been the better title?
Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
I can't wait until my 10 year-old gets home from school today to read her this stuff... she is just at that transitional stage of finding out *questioning* the whol Santa myth... a horrid thing to lie to children in the first place... however, we have always promoted the St Nicolas aspect and she'll be uplifted by your findings... as was I *errgm, lol*
Someone said that Santa's red suit was made up by Coca-Cola, way back when, and it makes sense that you'd have a Dunder(head) and Blixem if you were drinking the original recipe during the rooaaaarrring 20's...
Ho Ho Ho ....Merry Christmas... away... uh,... all of you! *lol*
Comment by Andrea
V8 Supercar Pitstop
I reckon my daughter will just shrug her shoulders and tell me politely but firmly, "mum, you're wrong."
And that will be the end of the story.
How can I compete with a seven year old?
A.H.
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
The story of Rudolph however is another matter, he was invented to improve sales for a large department store.....actually, I think I might get into that one in a bit more detail and do a post on that one too while I'm at it.
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
I'll try it out on my 7 year old tonight and see what eventuates. ; )
Comment by Adrienne
Comment by Andrea
V8 Supercar Pitstop
You're on, I 'll check with my daughter later. Although I reckon the name Dunder actually originated here in Australia. It's short for Down Under and over time it dropped the apostrophy so:
Down Under became D'Under which eventually became Dunder.
What do you think?
A.H.
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
Andrea, apart from my 7 year old not believing that I wrote this out - she actually just told me that she thought a man wrote it -believe you me, we're currently having a heated debate over this one! She apparently liked the story enough to sit down and read every word of it aloud.
Her friend, whom I also had to pick up this afternoon, told me that she'd heard Donner referred to as Donder before, so it didn't entirely surprise her, although she wanted to check that Comet was still OK namewise.
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Interesting post, Mel. Nice detective work.
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
Maybe we should have a word count-off.....on second thoughts, you'd probably still win. ; )
Comment by Ash
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
Did you know that in Afrikaans if you blixem someone it means you hit them or if you get blixemed you get beaten up? Santa was quite a fiesty fellow back then!
Ash
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
Comment by Anonymous
But now I am enlightened - thanks Melissa
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
I imagine telling your mother ought to be fun!
The kids are totally confused now and keep coming up with differet combinations everytime they start to go through the reindeer's names, as you may have guessed by Miss 5 calling 'Blitzen' 'Nixon'. They've become somewhat tongue-tied! ; )
Comment by Andrea
V8 Supercar Pitstop
There you go! What did I tell you ... you can't argue with a child!
A.H.
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
We had a big fight in the house the other morning with our 7 year old awhen we told her she couldn't have any Weetbix because we'd run out.
She just sat there saying, "But I want Weetbix for breakfast" expecting a new box to appear as if by magic.
She just couldn't deal with the fact that we were correct and kept telling us so, while waiting for the invisible Weetbix to materialise.
Mind you, she did apologise for it that afternoon, after I had made a special trip that day just for Weetbix. That's the first time she's apologised like that on her own, no prompting required. Let's hope it's not the last. ; )
Comment by HowD
This morning I was watching a silent film from 1905 on TV. THe fim was a version of this story, with occassional verses of the poem printed with the film. In this version the name Dunder was used. Crazy
Comment by Anonymous
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dunder is the yeast-rich foam leftovers from one batch of rum that is used to start the yeast culture of a second batch. It is the traditional yeast source in Jamaican Rum. Similar in process to sour mash in Bourbon whiskey, it is a crucial step in achieving an authentic rum flavor.
This drink-related article is a stub.
(Just found this a little funny)
Every time I hear on dash and on and on, I always say very loudly Donder. However, I never heard about blixem. I do like the tie in of thunder and lightening.
Thank you for sharing this fun fact my family will love to hear this interesting trivia.
~M
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts