, Columnist
On, Comet! On, Cupid! Wait, Who Are Dunder and Blixem?
Two tiny reindeer swoop into the debate about who wrote “A Visit From St. Nicholas.”
Dunder and Blixem?
Photographer: Transcendental Graphics/Archive PhotosA poem appeared anonymously 201 years ago this month in a newspaper in Troy, New York, telling of a jolly St. Nicholas with twinkling eyes, dimpled cheeks and a jelly-like belly, who transported gifts in a sleigh drawn by reindeer named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem.
All of that probably sounds familiar, except those last two names. Aren’t they supposed to be Donner and Blitzen?