"The Golden Fleecing" is a

Scrooge McDuck Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bil ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

story from 1955, written and drawn by

Carl Barks Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck ...

. It's about Scrooge who wants the

Golden Fleece In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece ( el, Χρυσόμαλλον δέρας, ''Chrysómallon déras'') is the fleece of the golden-woolled,, ''Khrusómallos''. winged ram, Chrysomallos, that rescued Phrixus and brought him to Colchis, where P ...

to make a jacket.

Plot

Seeing a catalog in men's fashion, Scrooge reflects that a man of his wealth should wear better quality clothes than what he often wears, or as he said "an old

broadcloth Broadcloth is a dense, plain woven cloth, historically made of wool. The defining characteristic of broadcloth is not its finished width but the fact that it was woven much wider (typically 50 to 75% wider than its finished width) and then hea ...

I found at a

rummage sale A jumble sale (UK), bring and buy sale (Australia) or rummage sale (U.S and Canada) is an event at which second hand goods are sold, usually by an institution such as a local Boys' Brigade Company, Scout group, Girlguiding group or church, ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in 1902". Scrooge feels that he should wear a

coat A coat typically is an outer garment for the upper body as worn by either gender for warmth or fashion. Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front and closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, a ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

and provides gold bars. However, his

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

warns that the coat would be crinkly, as it would be the same as converting

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

tinfoil Tin foil, also spelled tinfoil, is a thin foil made of tin. Tin foil was superseded after World War II by cheaper and more durable aluminium foil, which is still referred to as "tin foil" in many regions (an example of a misnomer). History Fo ...

. The tailor says there is no feasible way to make a gold coat unless somehow the

exists. Scrooge decides to give up, realizing that not even his money can buy everything, until he meets a man called Ali Eikral who is from the country of Seikral.

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

, who has never heard of Seikral, is suspicious of the Eikral's intentions, so he asks his grandnephews to look up the name Seikral in the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook. It mentions

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...

and the

Argonauts The Argonauts (; Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, '' Argo'', ...

. The nephews figure out that "Seikral" is "Larkies" spelled backwards and Larkies are creatures who are half women, half birds and that the true name of their country is

Colchis In Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia (country), Georgia. Its population, the Colchians a ...

, where

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...

fled when her relationship with Jason failed, taking the Golden Fleece with her and putting it a

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...

of halls to be guarded by a " Sleepless Dragon". Donald and the nephews are about to warn Scrooge that he is walking into a trap set by Larkies. Donald is also suspicious, and warns Scrooge as well when Scrooge is aboard a boat paying the disguised man five gold bars for his passage to

. Just then, the "Eikrals" throw the gold bars overboard and reveal themselves as Larkies, capturing both Scrooge and Donald as Huey, Dewey, and Louie come to the rescue too late. However, the nephews see the Larkies' discarded gold bars in shallow water, then retrieve them to plan a rescue mission by buying their own weapons and hiring the services of a

helicopter pilot A helicopter pilot manipulates the helicopter flight controls to achieve and maintain controlled aerodynamic flight. Changes to the aircraft flight control system transmit mechanically to the rotor, producing aerodynamic effects on the rotor bla ...

to fly them to Colchis. The reason for the Larkies' kidnapping was that their queen has died, and they were on a mission to abduct the world's richest man (believing he is also the best

gourmand A gourmand is a person who takes great pleasure and interest in consuming good food and drink. ''Gourmand'' originally referred to a person who was "a glutton for food and drink", a person who eats and drinks excessively; this usage is now rare. ...

) to judge in their cooking contest, the winner of which will become the new queen. One of the Larkies named Agnes agrees to help Scrooge and Donald escape if Scrooge says that her recipe is the best. To Scrooge's chagrin, it happened to be

parsnip The parsnip (''Pastinaca sativa'') is a root vegetable closely related to carrot and parsley, all belonging to the flowering plant family Apiaceae. It is a biennial plant usually grown as an annual. Its long taproot has cream-colored skin an ...

pudding, and Scrooge hates parsnips more than any other food. Later, while her sisters are sulking, the new queen Agnes lets Scrooge and Donald go but regrets it, so she later tricks them into yelling the word "Seikral" to find the way into the labyrinth. However, the maze of halls has a unique effect that will reverse the sound, so "Larkies" is shouted back. The Larkies find out that they escaped and bombard them near to the point of submission. However, the nephews arrive and drive away the Larkies with traps such as

mice A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

. Eventually, Scrooge and Donald reunite with the nephews and they find the Golden Fleece and defeat the Sleepless Dragon by covering its eyes with the Golden Fleece then sing a

lullaby A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowled ...

. Scrooge rejoices that he will now have the world's most fashionable coat, gold cloth with

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

buttons. One month later, they are back in Duckburg where the tailor has now finished Scrooge's coat. Donald and the nephews marvel at Scrooge's sparkling coat, however he retrieves his old broadcloth he discarded, remarking "this glittering

mackintosh The Mackintosh or raincoat (abbreviated as mac) is a form of waterproof raincoat, first sold in 1824, made of rubberised fabric. The Mackintosh is named after its Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh, although many writers added a letter ''k' ...

is the coldest contraption I ever had on my back!"

Miscellaneous

The moral of the story is to be happy with what you have if it makes you feel comfortable. This story was later adapted into a

DuckTales ''DuckTales'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel on September 18, 1987 and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four seas ...

animated television episode. Donald was replaced with

Launchpad McQuack This article includes a list of characters from the Disney ''DuckTales'' animated franchise, including the original 1987 series and the 2017 reboot series, as well as one theatrical movie and a variety of additional spin-off media merchandise, ...

and

Ludwig von Drake Professor Ludwig Von Drake is a cartoon character created in 1961 by The Walt Disney Company. He is the paternal uncle of Donald Duck. He was first introduced as the presenter (and singer of " The Spectrum Song") in the cartoon ''An Adventure in ...

was added. Also, in the DuckTales version, Scrooge doesn't keep the Golden Fleece but leaves it in Colchis. This story was originally printed in Uncle Scrooge #12 then reprinted in Gladstone Comic Album #19 and Uncle Scrooge Adventures #28 and then Carl Barks' Greatest DuckTales Stories #2.

External links

*
''The Golden Fleecing''
in Carl Barks guidebook {{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Fleecing, The Disney comics stories Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks 1955 in comics Classical mythology in comics Cultural depictions of Harpies Works based on the Argonautica

Plot

Miscellaneous

See also

External links