Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Santa's Little Helpers

Christmas Eve, time to honor those little elves that help Santa deliver all the presents:

"Now Dasher!



now, Dancer!
now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet!

On, Cupid!
on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
. . .
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup."

3 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I just cut and pasted from a version "The night before Christmas" on the web, but the point is debatable:

      "In An American Anthology, 1787–1900, editor Edmund Clarence Stedman reprinted the Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of "Donder and Blitzen" he adopted, rather than the earlier Dutch version from 1823, "Dunder and Blixem." Both phrases translate as "Thunder and Lightning" in English, though the German word for thunder is "Donner", and the words in modern Dutch would be "Donder en Bliksem." "

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