Bachmann: The name you put on the new ON30 North Pole & Southern freight set engine is wrong. Donder is the CORRECT name, NOT Donner. Because Gene Autry sang it wrong, you got it wrong. It's too bad someone didn't research it first. Other train makers have gotten it right. Check out the Donder home page at donder.com. Wayne
The poem, 'Twas the Night before Christmas," by Clement Moore is almost two hundred years old. As a linguist, I can tell you that languages are very dynamic things and they always change over time. The German word for thunder is rendered TODAY as Donner. According to Wikipedia, the original 1823 version of the poem used the Dutch words, Dundar and Blixem (Thunder and Lightning). The poem was published again in 1844 in an anthology of American poetry and the names were given in contemporary German as Dondar and Blitzen. Since the mid-20th century, Donner and Blitzen have been used pretty much universally in both printed versions of the poem and in the Rudolph song. Lacking original documents, it may be that too much time has passed and too many folks have had their hands on the words to know for certain which version is correct.
Since the North Pole and Southern is as fictitious as the reindeer, this whole question seems moot to me, but I guess if you want to be "prototypically correct," you need to go back to the original 1823 Dundar. But whether you prefer Dundar, Dondar or Donner, decal alphabet sets are inexpensive, or it's super easy to make your own decals using decal paper and your printer.
OldTimer
my dad and grandfather used to take me to horseshoe curve when i was very young. i thought the reindeer was named gallitzen for many years, and wondered why they named him after a tunnel......
Check out SNOPES, also.
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/donner.asp (http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/donner.asp)
or ABOUT.com
http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth05.htm (http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth05.htm)
or NOVAREINNA
http://www.novareinna.com/festive/deer.html (http://www.novareinna.com/festive/deer.html)
or the DONDER page
http://www.donder.com/ (http://www.donder.com/)
There are a number of sites that cover the Donder/Donner question.
I learned it as Donner and I ain't changing. ;D
Cabooses...Cabeese...
Dear Steamer,
Using your reference, it should be Dunder. You arbitrarily chose the middle iteration; we chose the more recent one.
We'll stick with Donner.
Have fun!
the Bach-man