Timeline and dates *of* Scrooge's trophies

M.J. Prior M.J.Prior at student.rug.nl
Mon Nov 17 17:09:24 CET 2003


Larry Giver:
> I didn't recall seeing any dates on trophies on display...

Olaf Solstrand:
> I think what Michiel meant here, was...

Olaf is right. I meant 'dates of the stories in which 
Scrooge found those trophies'.

Michiel Prior:
> Thus "A Letter from Home" takes place in or 
> after late 1956.

Assuming that "Genghis Khan", "Xanadu" and "Crusader 
Kings" all take place in 1956, "A Letter from Home" can't 
take place before 1957, because "Crusader Kings" takes 
place in December (1956?) and January (1957?). 

Note that I only started this timeline reasoning in trying 
to fix a date for Ludwig and Matilda's marriage. For me, 
'between 1957 and 1961' is close enough, but this theory 
needn't necessarily be a valid one and one could still 
argue for earlier dates. Not that there's very much point 
in trying to fix a date for their marriage in the first 
place. 

Katie Sullivan:
> I just assumed that [Matilda] was still too mad at 
> Scrooge to come to the jubilee, while Ludvig was more 
> forgiving and came for the nephews' sake, if nothing else.

Or let's suppose Ludwig was already a friend or personal 
advisor to Scrooge in 1952 [like Gyro] and that Scrooge 
introduced them to each other after "A Letter from Home".
[I don't think I like this theory, because Ludwig didn't 
arrive in Duckburg before 1961 and certainly couldn't have 
been a *regular* personal advisor to Scrooge before that.]

Mats Rune Gullikstad:
> It would have been fun making a sort of timeline for Carl > Barks' and Don Rosa's duck stories!
> I think I'm going to make one (at least try), but I need > some help. So if anybody has got ideas or tips, I'll be  > happy!

That's going to be tough, Mats. I think one needs a lot of 
patience and persistence to complete such a difficult 
task. Oh wait... you're the one who's working on that 
*awesome* Money Bin model, isn't it? I guess that's 
allright, then. ;)

Some ideas and tips:

"The Son of the Sun" takes place after "The Treasury of 
Croesus" because Scrooge's trophies in "Sun" include some 
coins from Croesus' treasury.

There's a date on the newspaper at the end of "The Sharpie 
of the Culebra Cut". The 'framestory' for "Culebra" takes 
place after "Back to the Klondike" because Donald teases 
Scrooge about Goldie.

You need to 'stretch' the dates for the first appearances 
of Magica and Flintheart, because both turn up in "A 
Little Something Special" which is supposed to take place 
in 1952.

"Gyro's 1st Invention" takes place after "Statuesque 
Spendthrifts" and "A Christmas for Shacktown" and before 
Gyro's first appearance. Don Rosa wrote us that this is 
not 'in tune' with the 'original date' for "Statues", so 
you'll need to figure that out. 

I think that even if it's possible to place each story 
before or after another without meeting any incongruities, 
you will have a hard time by trying to assign dates to 
each story, because the nephews hardly grow any older, so 
all stories take place within 5-10 years or so. My 
solution would be to ignore this and work with the dates 
of publication of Barks' stories. 

And honestly, even though my mails may suggest otherwise, 
I think this whole timeline thing shouldn't be taken very 
seriously. It may work to connect and arrange about seven 
stories, but I'm afraid it won't work for the whole canon.

I mean... er, well, I feel I've said too much already.

Greetings,

Michiel Prior.


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