Donner and Morris

Donner and Morris

This is the story about Donner. His original name was Dunder, which means thunder in the Dutch language. In 1837, Charles Hoffman changed his name from Dunder, to Donder and in 1844, Clement Moore published the poem using the name Donder. However, in 1939, Robert May wrote the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and in 1949, his brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, created the song, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer that Gene Autry recorded and sold 40 million copies. In it he changed the name from Donder to Donner. That did make some sense linguistically since Donner is the German word for thunder. You may read all about this at www.snopes2.com.

With that background, let’s hear Donner’s story.

It was near Christmas, when the reindeer would fly off into Christmas Eve night delivering presents to children all over the world. In preparation, Donner would run and jump, trying to fly, but he knew that he would not fly until the magic harnesses and bells were attached to him and the others. Rudolph was prancing around as if he were more special than the others.

Suddenly, Donner heard the plaintive cry of a reindeer. He had heard it before near Christmas time, but was always so excited and busy he had not really noticed it. He realized this was the same cry he heard each year. He cocked his head to one side and listened more carefully than ever before. There it was weak, but distinctly crying for someone to come rescue him.

Donner ran to other reindeer and asked if they heard the cries. They shook their heads, and Donner told them to be quiet and listen carefully. They, like Donner, strained to hear the cries and one by one they nodded their head. They had heard it.

“Who is it?” asked Cupid.

“I don’t know,” answered Donner. “I thought you might know.”

“Does anyone know?” asked Blitzen, and all around they shook their heads.

“Let’s go ask Santa,” said Dancer, “he knows everything.”

Off they all went to see Santa. When they arrived, he was busy with last minute details. His elves were working overtime making the toys and other goodies needed to fill the stockings around the world.

“Santa,” Dancer called, “Oh, Santa, come over here, we have a question.”

“Ho Ho Ho, boys,” said Santa, his belly shaking up and down, “Are you ready? It’s only three days till we leave on our yearly flight.”

“Oh yes, Santa,” said Dasher, “We're ready, but we have a question.”

“OK, I’m always ready to answer questions,” said Santa, “Wondering how many miles we’ll travel?”

“No, Santa,” said, Vixen, “You ask him, Donner.”

“This sounds serious,” said Santa, his smile gone from his round face, “What’s the problem, boys? Spit it out.”

“Well, Santa,” Donner began, “I’ve heard it before, but tonight I listened carefully and I, I mean we, heard the cries of a reindeer out there in the cold. We wondered who is it?”

“Oh, boys,” Santa said, slapping them on the back playfully, “Don’t worry about that. He’s OK, just a little lonely.”

“Then you know who he is,” said Comet. “Tell us who it is.”

“Well, boys, uh, where’s Rudolph, he don’t seem to be worried about who it is.” Santa said.

“Oh, Santa, Rudolph’s always in a world of his own,” said Donner. “Brag on his red nose, slap him on the back occasionally, and put him in the lead, and he won’t worry about anything. Who is he?”

“Well, I can see you boys are going to bug me to death if I don’t tell you,” said Santa starting the story. “His name is Morris, Morris the Reindeer. He was a strong, powerful flyer, but he had one problem. He was narcoleptic. Yep, just drop off to sleep no matter what he was doing. I didn’t know that and made him my lead reindeer. All this happened before you boys or Rudolph came along. Your daddies were my reindeer then. I will never forget that fateful night.”

“His mother was always pushing Morris to show off his strength and to hide his narcolepsy and some of your daddies were getting older and I needed a strong flyer to supplement them. Momma, Mrs. Claus, suggested I put Morris at the lead and I thought, what a wonderful idea. I immediately went to Morris’s mother and told her about my plans. You would have thought I had given her a million dollars.”

“Well, we left that fateful night and he did well till somewhere over south Chicago. In full flight he went dead asleep. Dropped like a rock right out of formation and fell 10-15 feet before the reigns stopped his fall. Jerked all eight of the other reindeer up into real close formation and I was holding on to the reigns tight cause we were flying over a major city. His fall jerked the reigns and it snatched me right out over the front of the sleigh onto the backs of a startled Dancer and Prancer.“

”All the other reindeer started hollering at Morris, trying to wake him, but he was sound asleep, just a swinging to and fro on those reigns under the other reindeer. It was a bad time for this to happen, cause when he fell, it caused the sleigh to dip in a downward path and I knew we were in serious trouble.“

”It seems there was this poor devil, John Leroy Brown, late as usual, putting up his outside lights on his housetop. He must have had a thousand feet of electric wire and lights, when our sleigh, loaded with toys, came roaring over his house. Morris, hanging under the other reindeer, struck him just as he was bending over to gather up these wires in both hand.”

”At this point, things get a little hazy, because we’re not exactly sure what happened or in what sequence. But as Morris hit Mr. Brown, he was propelled over his chimney and caught his belt on the tip of a rather tall TV antenna. The antenna began to bend and twist and acting like a catapult, it threw Mr. Brown over three houses where he struck an electric utility pole. All those Christmas lights and wires he had in his hands wrapped around him and the pole tying him to it. But one end of the wire managed to hang in Morris’ harness which pulled the pole down blacking out all of south Chicago, the northern part of Indiana and the western side of Michigan along the shores of Lake Michigan.”

”That was terrible, but what was worse was the one wire that hung in Morris’ harness. It caused my sleigh with all those toys to be pulled down and crashed through the upstairs window of the Rabbi Goldstein’s house. What a sticky diplomatic situation that turned out to be. There were Christmas presents all over the Rabbi’s house. His children, though, proclaimed this a miracle greater than the parting of the Redd Sea. He had to explain to his children these were Christmas presents and not for them. And how could I ask the Rabbi to help get all those presents back into the sleigh?”

”I had to put Morris out to pasture. Boys, I had no choice.”

“Santa,” Donner said, “We want Morris to help us pull the sleigh this year.”

“Boys,” Santa pleaded, “You don’t know what you’re asking. We just can’t take the chance.”

“Santa,” Donner said resolutely, “Our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers have been pulling your sleigh for eons, and if Morris doesn’t pull the sleigh, we won’t either!”

“Boys,” Santa pleaded again, “Please don’t do this. He’s OK, it’s not that bad for him.”

“Santa,” said Donner, “We have heard his cries and a reindeer cannot express his true sadness and hopelessness in your language. Only in the reindeer language do we hear his pain and suffering. You have always told us that once a reindeer pulls your sleigh, he becomes a different reindeer. He becomes special, unique and beloved by children of every age and nationality. Morris pulled your sleigh, helping our fathers deliver presents to the boys and girls and Morris is a special reindeer. He can never be just a part of the herd, but of the special group called Santa’s Reindeer. He will pull the sleigh or there won’t be Christmas for boys and girls this year,” he said with a note of finality.

Santa sighed and said, “You’re right, Donner. He is special and should not have been put away. I will bring him back to the corral. He can associate with you guys, but I’m afraid of what might happen if he pulls the sleigh. Besides, he is old now.”

“All the more reason for him to fly with us this year,” said Prancer. “It may be the last chance.”

When Morris returned to the corral to join the others, there were clacking of hooves and jumping around in celebration of his return. Three days later on Christmas Eve night, while little boys and girls snuggled into their bed having difficulty going to sleep, Santa’s sleigh took off from his North Pole compound. Rudolph was leading the flight and eight other reindeer, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, Dancer and Dasher, Prancer and Vixen, all in their traditional positions. And behind the last two pair, just in front of Santa was Morris flying with the others. And just in case, a net hung under him.

And that’s the story of how Donner, old thunder himself, stirred up a storm to get Morris returned to Santa’s reindeer team.