FROM THE ARCHIVES: BUT WHERE'D THE MCDUCK PART COME FROM?:

Real Scrooge 'was Dutch gravedigger' (Richard Alleyne, 24/12/2007, Daily Telegraph)

He is synonymous with the traditional image of the Victorian English Christmas but Ebenezer Scrooge may have his roots much further afield.

According to Sjef de Jong, a Dutch academic, the Charles Dickens character may have been inspired by the real life of Gabriel de Graaf, a 19th century gravedigger who lived in Holland.

De Graaf, a drunken curmudgeon obsessed with money, was said to have disappeared one Christmas Eve, only to emerge years later as a reformed character.

[originally posted: 12/25/07]