Among the several online comics I read on a regular basis is the Saturday Bulletin. It’s a great comic that takes an old-timey picture and reinterprets the content. So today’s comic is of Santa tromping off over a hill in the snow, saying “mmm… venison.” Blitzen isn’t feeling so good about it.
The thing that struck me was that it referred to the reindeer “Donner” as “Donder”. Donner is the German word for thunder and Blitzen is lightning. I knew this from my time learning German so it made complete sense and seeing “Donder” struck me as a mistake. I have heard children say “Donder” before, so I thought this was a production mistake bleeding over into adulthood. Lo and behold, Donder is the older version of Donner’s name (Donder being an older spelling of the German word). Originally the pair of reindeer were the Dutch forms Dunder and Bliksem. Check out the Wikipedia entry and the Donder home page, an amusing campaign to restore the name of Donder.
Jason,
Thanks loads for stopping by the site, and for being a regular visitor. Thanks for your compliments. We’ve assumed that our audience is intelligent, but we didn’t know how right we were. Your recognition of “Donder” instead of “Donner” was astute. Not many people catch it. But the Master’s program at Carnagie Mellon University definitely puts you in the top percentile of the “thinky” group.
In case you want to know, I chose the older “Donder” because using “Donner” was too obvious a reference to the incident. The extra bit of thought required made the gag funnier I think. Also “Donder” has a more staccato cadence. Also, now that I hear it, “staccato” is very staccato, and cadence makes me want to march up and down the hallway rhythmically chanting the word “cadence”. I think perhaps it’s time for my meds. . .
Thanks again for coming by. We’re glad we you like our stuff.
Jerry