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Nitpick Description


Submitted by Nitpicker : Anonymous
Movie : Santa Clause, The - 1994
Nitpick Category : Quotations
Approximate time of Nitpick : near the middle
Summary : Reindeer misnamed (Refuted)
Detail : Santa mistakenly calls one of his reindeer Donner. His name should be DONDER. The reindeer were named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen by Clement Clarke Moore in his well-known poem The Night Before Christmas.

Comment By :

 Kayla

Summary:

 You are correct

Detail :

The "Can you read" guy was an idiot. Clement Moore was not a pseudonym for the German-speaking poet. He was a guy who stole the credit for A Visit From St. Nicholas. Though still somewhat disputed, it is generally now known that Major Henry Livingstone Jr. was actually the author of the poem. And in the first publication of the poem in the Troy Sentinel in 1823 the last two names of the reindeer were Dunder and Blixem. In the McClure Almanac for 1825, Blixem was changed to Blixen. In 1837, the frist time Moore "allowed" his named to be used in conjunction with the story, in the New York Book of Poetry, the names are printed as Donder and Blixen. In 1844, 21 years after the original publication, Moore published the story in his own book of poems and makes the last two manes Donder and Blitzen. While you are right that Donner and Blitzen mean thunder and lightning in German, you missed the fact that Donder in Dutch (which is after all where the whole St. Nicholas, or Sinterklass legend comes from,) also means thunder. The first known, actually published, version of the reindeer being named Donner was in 1949, more than a century after Moore's own version came out. It was done by the brother-in-law of the guy from Montgomery Ward's who came up with Rudolph. In 1939 May, an employee at Mongomery Ward's was asked to write a Christmas story to give away as a promotional gimmick. In 1947, May given the copyright to Rudolph by Montgomery Ward's and had a nine-minute cartoon in theaters in 1948. Then his brother-in-law wrote the lyrics and music to the song we know today and Gene Autry recorded it in 1949. So, before asking a nitpicker whether or not he can read, one might want to check his own facts first, or risk looking like an idiot. Just because one song with a misprint becomes popular, it doesn't wipe out 126 years of history.


Other Comments

 

Can you read?

Posted At : 01/22/2008

Reindeer #7

Posted At : 01/22/2008