DCML Digest Issue 27

[donrosa@iglou.com]

> From: ZeldasTriforce at aol.com
> To Don Rosa: 
> (Possible spoilers for those who haven't read Kalevala yet). Is the old
> timer 
> the Ducks meet actually Vainamoinen? Or is he a guy who knows a ton
> about the 
> ancient legends?

I was trying to be subtle. Too subtle apparently?
Yes, that was Vainamoinen. Didn't you notice anything odd about the 
stone wall around his home? There was no gate. No exit. He was 
imprisoned there and had been perhaps since he was last released in the 
days of yore. Only the playing of his Harp released him and he appeared 
on the bronze boat.

> It seems like he's a counterpart of the frozen Louhi
> (She's 
> frozen/He's a 'normal' human. Later they both become like they once
> were).  

I don't follow you. How is Louhi more of a normal human than either 
Vainemoinen version? They are all normal-looking in the sense that they 
have no supernatural physical features other than fierce expressions and 
wild hair. I wasn't aware that Louhi changed her appearance in the story 
as did the Old Man somehwat when he appears as Vainemoinen.
You say you thought the Old Man represented Louhi? But I clearly show 
Louhi begging on the streets of Helsinki at the same time $crooge is 
meeting the Old Man out in the country. And Louhi is plainly evil while 
the Old Man is clearly a good guy. Eh?

> When the harps are played, is the musical notation from actual Finnish 
> folksongs? 

No, it's Sebelius' FINLANDIA.

> By the way, "Donald Duck laughs in the face of Death. Didn't you know?"
> is my favorite line of the story.

Mine, too.
By the way, this message comes to you from high atop the Gothia Towers 
Hotel in Gothenburg/Goteborg, Sweden, where I am attending the Goteborg 
Book Fair, the biggest book fair in Scandinavia and one of the biggest 
besides the incredibly vast Frankfurt fair.
I'm here to sign copies of the first Rosa HALL OF FAME volume. They tell 
me that yesterday I broke the Fair's 20 year record for the number of 
people getting books signed at one signing session by about an extra 
50%. So they said. You Americans will never conceive of how MUCH 
Europeans love Donald Duck!!!!!!!!
I just had dinner with the Swedish Donaldists! (Thanks!!!)