The Olympic Intro Translation

Jon Cato Lorentzen jonlo at ifi.uio.no
Thu Feb 17 13:44:48 CET 1994


OK. Sorry for this long (and probably boring) posting, but Don and everyone
who is interested can feel free to read it. This is a translation of the
intro page in the Norwegian release of Don Rosa's From Duckburg to Lille-
hammer story. The essay has been translated by yours truly, and the views
and statements made here are not made by me.

By the way: The Olympic story was also reviewed in the Norwegian newspaper
Arbeiderbladet. Almost half a page was spent on this, with a Rosa-drawing
of a wounded Donald waving a norwegian flag, and a smaller picture
of the front page. The story was reviewed by Dag K. Hotvedt, and got
four stars out of six. His main complaints were that the story was far to
short, and that Don Rosa's drawings were not up to his usual standards.


Anyway, here comes the Translation of the intro page from Norwegian
Donald Duck & Co.:

HEADLINE: DONALD - A REAL SPORTSMAN 

There are few with less sense of fair play than Donald Duck. In all of life's
situations he tries to take the short cut, not only on the sports arena. For
his defense we can always say that the competition is pretty unfair. Cousin
Gladstone is always there, ready to let his less lucky cousin taste the bitter
berries of defeat. Unfortunately for Donald it seems that he can't get to the
top, even with Gyro Gearlooses help. That is, he gets to the top - of a tree,
or he gets very hot upstairs when his cheating is revealed, but we never see
him in the victory spot, unless there has been some sort of mistake.

Don Rosa let himself inspire by classic stories when he sat down to make the
story about Donald and the Olympic Games at Lillehammer. The rivalry between
Donald and Gladstone is always there, wether they fight over Dolly, who
is Scrooges favourite nephew or an olympic prize. But as usual Gladstone
is not driven by sporting goals, but other and more greedy wishes.

Picture 1:
An angry Gladstone marching up a snow-covered hill with some skates on his 
back. Though Bubble: (Phooey. I don't care about the honour, I only wanted 
the 100 kroners). Text Below: In this Barks story from nr.4/1966 the two
cousins compete in a combined skating and fishing contest. Gladstone shows
the same bad sportsmanship here as in the Lillehammer story.

Picture 2:
Donald's feet with skates on, speeding forward. Beneath the ice we can see
a magnetic robot-fish going in the same direction. Narrator Text: But the 
secret behind Donalds success is under the ice, and is very skillfully 
controlled by his nephew, Lewey. Text Below: In nr.48/1984 Donald also looses
control over his skates due to magnetism. In this story he is to blame for his
problems, as he tries to cheat. In the Rosa-story he is only the victiom of 
unlucky circiumstances.

Picture 3:
Donald stands on skis with loads of slalom flags in his arms. People stand 
about laughing. Speech bubble from angry man: You misunderstood - The flags 
should not be *gathered*. Text below picture: Donald has tried himself on
skis before, such as in nr.1/1959. The result was the same as this time.
He collects the flags instead of avoiding them. Not a technique we can
recommend on Lillehammer.

Picture 4:
Donald speeding over the edge of a ski jump. His skis enter two leather straps
that are connected to some poles. Thought Bubble: I will be world champion
one day. Text Below picture: Donald has tried ski jumping both free willing 
and not. The result is always the same: Total catastrophe. In this strip from
nr.5/1956 he has promised the boys that he will never be angry anymore. The
boys of course do everything to annoy him when he practices the jumps.


Text Below Pictures:
But in Don Rosas story Donald and Gladstone compete in an event we have not
seen them in before, bobsleighing. How *that* ends you'll have to read for
yourself. If you study the story closely, you can find a small gag from when
Donald and the boys visited Norway last. That time Carl Barks sent them there.

-- Translation ends --

Jon C. Lorentzen




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