{"id":6685,"date":"2018-12-24T13:09:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T13:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.utalk.com\/news\/?p=6685"},"modified":"2021-12-20T11:55:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T11:55:16","slug":"donner-and-blitzen-the-real-story-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/donner-and-blitzen-the-real-story-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Donner and Blitzen: The Real Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2121\" height=\"1414\" src=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/GettyImages-1058936588.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7705\" srcset=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/GettyImages-1058936588.jpg 2121w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/GettyImages-1058936588-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/GettyImages-1058936588-700x467.jpg 700w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/GettyImages-1058936588-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/GettyImages-1058936588-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/GettyImages-1058936588-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/GettyImages-1058936588-120x80.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2121px) 100vw, 2121px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<style>\n\n.info {\nbackground-color: #300d62;\ntext-align: center;\ncolor: #ffffff;\npadding: 1%;\nborder-radius: 10px;\nwidth: 80%;\nmargin-left: auto;\nmargin-right: auto;\nmargin-top: 5%;\nmargin-bottom: 5%;\nbox-shadow: 0 4px 8px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.2), 0 6px 20px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.19);\n}\n\n<\/style>\n\n\n\n<p>All the reindeer may have laughed and called Rudolph names, but what about the strange names of Donner and Blitzen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Donner and Blitzen, together with Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, and Cupid, were all named by American writer Clement Clarke Moore in his 1823 poem, &#8216;The Night Before Christmas&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the poet originally gave Donner and Blitzen their Dutch equivalent monikers of Dunder and Blixem, which were a popular form of mild swearing in 18th and 19th century New York \u2013 equivalent to &#8216;gosh darn&#8217;!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"padding: 1em 0em 1em 0em;\"><h2>Why Dutch? <\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, the poem was set in New York and, until 1664, New York had been a Dutch settlement called New Amsterdam and the language was still widely spoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moore later changed the names to the current German ones \u2013 Donner and Blitzen \u2013 possibly because they rhymed better with Comet and Vixen.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the big question which has perplexed many English-speakers for generations is\u200a \u2013 what do they mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wisely, the poet named two of Santa\u2019s reindeer after the fastest, most powerful things to flash across the night sky; Donner\/Dunder means thunder and Blitzen\/Blixem means lightning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"padding: 1em 0em 1em 0em;\"><h2>What about Rudolph?<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Most interestingly of all, the reindeer\u2019s name which went down in history nearly wasn\u2019t Rudolph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in 1939 Robert L May, a\nUS department store copywriter, was asked by his employer to write a cheery\nChristmas story, featuring an animal, to give away to customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So May, who already knew about Santa\u2019s eight-strong team of reindeer\nfrom the Clement Clarke Moore poem, \u2018The Night Before Christmas\u2019, decided to\nadd a ninth deer to the tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He even began his story with an echo of Clement Clarke Moore\u2019s opening\nwords saying \u2018Twas the day\nbefore Christmas\u2026\u2019 instead of \u2018Twas the night before Christmas\u2026\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But what name would he choose to add to those of Donner and Blitzen,\ntogether with Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, and Cupid? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He knew it had to begin with\nthe letter \u2018R\u2019 to go with \u2018red-nosed\u2019 and \u2018reindeer\u2019 but the field was still\nwide open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To focus his mind, he wrote\nout a list of ten possible candidates: Rodney, Roddy, Roderick, Rudolph, Rudy,\nRollo, Roland, Reggy, Reginald and Romeo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And this original list, which\nhe later donated for safekeeping to his former university Dartmouth College in\nNew Hampshire, shows that he circled just two of these names, Rudolph and\nReginald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, despite the name not\nbeing circled, Dartmouth College reports that May was originally going to go\nwith the name \u2018Rollo\u2019 before changing it to \u2018Rudolph\u2019 and getting it approved\nby his bosses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a 1963 interview, May\nexplained that he decided Rollo sounded \u2018too happy for a reindeer with an\nunhappy problem\u2019 and Reginald \u2018seemed too sophisticated\u2019 but Rudolph \u2018rolled\noff the tongue nicely\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also said that he thought up\nthe idea of giving Rudolph a glowing red nose after staring out of his Chicago\noffice window at the fog from Lake Michigan. The fog, he thought, would make\nnavigation difficult for Santa Claus and so he had the light bulb moment of\ngiving Rudolph his famous nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plot was settled and years later it would inspire the\nbestselling song about Rudolph who Santa approached one foggy Christmas eve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" src=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-638198186-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7991\" srcset=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-638198186-700x467.jpg 700w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-638198186-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-638198186-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-638198186-120x80.jpg 120w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-638198186.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>But, ironically, when May first came up with the idea for the\nstoryline in 1939, it wasn\u2019t initially met with universal acclaim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His employer, the US retail and\ncatalogue company Montgomery Ward, consulted the opinion of a focus group who\nwarned that a red nose had connotations of alcoholism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, according to May himself, his boss said, \u2018Can\u2019t you come up with anything better?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite these setbacks, May managed to convince his employer to back the idea and with the help of one of the company\u2019s illustrators made the first draft of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That Chrismas in 1939, the retailer, which had branches across the US, gave away more than two million free copies of the booklet, which was a roaring success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So successful in fact that, after\nwartime restrictions on paper came to an end, another 3.6 million copies were\ndistributed to Montgomery Ward shoppers in 1946.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But May\u2019s copywriting success was\ncoupled with sadness. In 1939, at the same time as writing the Rudolph the\nRed-Nosed Reindeer story, his wife Evelyn lost her battle with cancer and left\nhim a single parent to their then five-year-old daughter Barbara. He was also\nleft with debts from Evelyn\u2019s hospital bills which he was still struggling to\npay off many years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an act of compassion, the\nbosses of Montgomery Ward gave him the copyright to the story in 1947 and his\nfortunes were turned around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following year he benefited financially from both audio and printed versions of the story. While in 1948, at May\u2019s request, his brother-in-law Johnny Marks wrote the words and music to the famous song \u2018Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\u2019. The song, which was released in 1949 and recorded by Gene Autry (nicknamed The Singing Cowboy) became Christmas number one in the US.&nbsp; It also gave worldwide recognition to a reindeer with a very shiny nose and led to a spin-off of Rudolph-related products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May, who before his death in 1976\nworked full-time on Rudolph-related business, remarked that the story was\nmodelled both on \u2018The Ugly Duckling\u2019 tale and on his own experiences of being a\nshy, small boy who \u2018had known what it was like to be an underdog\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also said that the tale was a \u2018story of acceptance\u2019 which showed that \u2018tolerance\nand perseverance can overcome adversity\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s\na message that\u2019s chimed with children and adults worldwide ever since and, as the song says, Rudolph\u2019s name\nwill go down in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sweetly, the inscription on May\u2019s gravestone in River Grove, Illinois reads \u2018Robert L May, Father of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"padding: 1em 0em 1em 0em;\"><h2>Where does the word &#8216;reindeer&#8217; come from?<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote info\"><p>The origin of the word &#8216;reindeer&#8217; comes from the Old Norse &#8216;hreinn,&#8217; for &#8220;reindeer.&#8221; The word can also be traced back to the Germanic verb &#8220;rennen&#8221;, meaning &#8220;to run&#8221;. Fittingly, reindeer can run up to 50 miles (80 km) per hour and travel more than 3,000 miles each year! <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking for some Christmas gifts for the language lover in your life? <a href=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/10-gifts-to-buy-the-language-lover-in-your-life\/\">We&#8217;ve got a great list for you!<\/a> Or maybe you want to learn how to say &#8216;Father Christmas&#8217; in over 100 languages? <a href=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/how-to-say-father-christmas-in-over-100-languages\/\">Check that out here, too!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All the reindeer may have laughed and called Rudolph names, but what about the strange names of Donner and Blitzen? Donner and Blitzen, together with Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, and Cupid, were all named by American writer Clement Clarke Moore in his 1823 poem, &#8216;The Night Before Christmas&#8217;. And the poet originally gave Donner &#8230; <a title=\"Donner and Blitzen: The Real Story\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/donner-and-blitzen-the-real-story-2\/\" aria-label=\"More on Donner and Blitzen: The Real Story\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[457,48,243,1658],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8472,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685\/revisions\/8472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}