Jake McDuck

Fluks, H.W. H.W.Fluks at kpn.com
Tue Sep 4 18:13:28 CEST 2001


Michiel:

Welcome! Dutchmen are quite rare here, and you're even from my birth town
Groningen.

You wrote:

> Annoying detail: In Dutch translations, Matilda McDuck is named 
> Dora Duck, which is also the name of our Dutch Grandma Duck.  
> Especially in those Lo$ episodes wherein it's not made clear that 
> Hortense is the one to become Donald's mother, it might occur to 
> Dutch readers that Grandma Duck is Scrooge's sister.

In Dutch tradition, Scrooge has always been the brother of Grandma. When
they translated the first Lo$ where Matilda appears, they named her Doortje
(nickname for Dora), knowing that she would be Donald's mother (so she *had*
to be Grandma, in the Dutch view).

Later, when the Lo$ chapter with both Grandma and Matilda appeared (and when
Don's family tree was used), they had a problem! 
So they decided that Matilda would still be Doortje, while Grandma would be
Dora. Actually the same name in two variations, but it's not unusual to have
2 similar names in one family.

Recently, I saw in the Weekly that they have returned to their original
view: Grandma Duck is the sister of Scrooge.
I have grown up with that view, so I still feel a bit uneasy in stories
where Grandma is one generation older than Scrooge.

> I'm fond of pondering about 
> annoying little details to be discovered in Duck stories, for 
> instance 
> such stupid facts about Donald's family as mentioned above.

That's what we all do here, constantly! 8-)

--Harry.
Harry Fluks, Leidschendam, Nederland



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