Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We're really thrilled
you're joining us today. Yeah, absolutely thrilled
to be here. So, I want you to picture a very
specific scenario. Have you ever fallen completely
down a Wikipedia rabbit hole researching a fictional
universe? Oh, definitely. More times than I care
to admit. Right. And you realize about, say,
three hours in... that this entirely imaginary
world has more historical depth, more complex
genealogy, and honestly, significantly more intense
drama than most real -world royal dynasties.
It is a very specific, highly addictive kind
of internet rabbit hole. You go in trying to
confirm a minor detail from a comic book you
read 20 years ago, and you come out with a master's
degree in imaginary Scottish history. That is
precisely the journey we are taking you on today.
We are exploring the massive, surprisingly meticulous,
and downright hilarious Wikipedia page for Clan
McDuck. It's a fantastic page. We are tracing
the sprawling fictional lineage of the McDuck
family. A lineage that, according to the official
lore, stretches all the way back to the ancient
city of Sagbad in the year 2050 BC. Which is
just a staggering timeline for a comic book.
I mean, it is an incredible piece of world building.
It really is. And our mission today is to extract
the absolute best nuggets of this massive family
tree. We want to look at how generations of stingy,
temperamental, and wildly adventurous ancestors
paved the way for the modern ducks we know so
well. Because beyond just being a fun, quirky
history, this deep dive provides a genuinely
profound look into the psychological roots of
the world's richest fictional waterfowl. Okay,
let's unpack this. To understand how this massive
family tree even exists in the first place, we
have to look at the real -world architects behind
it. Now, you already know Karl Barks. The absolute
legend. Exactly. He's the legendary comic book
author who introduced this entire mythology back
in a 1948 story. It was called The Old Castle's
Secret. Barks spent decades creating this universe.
But from what I understand, he wasn't exactly
keeping a meticulous spreadsheet of historical
dates when he was... writing these weekly comics
no not at all barks was a storyteller first and
foremost he would drop little hints about ancient
ancestors or random historical events simply
because the immediate plot demanded it right
he needed a ghost or a lost treasure for that
week's issue exactly he wasn't trying to build
a perfectly consistent historical timeline i
mean he did sketch out a rough family tree in
the 1950s but that was just for his own personal
reference just to keep the character relationships
somewhat straight yeah But it was incredibly
loose. So that looseness lasted for decades,
all the way until the 1990s. Then the publishing
house, the Egmont Group, approaches another writer
and artist named Don Rosa. And Don Rosa was a
massive fan of Karl Barks. Right. So they hand
Rosa this incredibly ambitious assignment. They
basically tell him to end decades of narrative
contradictions, create a cohesive family tree,
and write the definitive biography. Which is
a tall order. A huge order. This project ultimately
became the legendary 12 -part comic saga, The
Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. But the methodology
Rosa used to write this, that is what completely
blows my mind. Oh, his methodology is what elevates
this from a simple comic book to an absolute
masterclass in world building. Rosa didn't just
invent a new history out of thin air. No, he
did the research. He meticulously studied all
of Bark's old stories to find what he coined...
Barksian facts. I love that term. Barksian facts.
It's brilliant. Every single time Barks had offhandedly
mentioned a date, a historical event, or a long
-dead ancestor in a comic from, say, the 1950s,
Rosa logged it. He treated those scattered throwaway
jokes as historical primary sources. Like an
archaeologist. He was essentially acting as a
real -world archaeologist, painstakingly weaving
these disparate clues together to make a cohesive,
airtight history. Which brings us to the ancestral
seat of this whole dynasty, where so many of
those Barksian facts take place. Yeah. Castle
McDuck, picture this massive, foreboding... And
this castle, it has seen a tremendous amount
of drama over the centuries. For hundreds of
years, it served as the home of the clan chief.
But... The McDucks didn't stay there forever.
Right. Things took a turn. In 1675, they were
actually run out of the castle entirely. They
completely abandoned their ancestral home. And
why did they leave? Because they were terrified
by the depredations of a monstrous devil dog
roaming the dismal downs. A giant glowing hound
on the moors. But this wasn't actually a supernatural
event, was it? Far from it. It turns out this
was a highly orchestrated plot by their bitter,
centuries -long rivals. Clan Whiskerville. Exactly.
Clan Whiskerville used this fake hound to scare
the McDucks away from the territory. You really
have to appreciate a good, petty, multi -generational
feud. So the McDucks scatter. They move down
into the village of McDooch and eventually into
Glasgow, though they technically retained ownership
of the castle. Yeah, they actually pooled their
meager funds just to pay the taxes on it. That
is dedication. But I really want to look at the
ancestors who lived in that castle before they
were chased out. Because the post -classical
McDucks are fascinating. They are defined by
an extreme frugality that borders on complete
self -sabotage. What's fascinating here is how
these historical anecdotes function within the
larger story. They aren't just one -off jokes.
They establish a genetic legacy. A bloodline
treat. Extreme capitalism, stubbornness and frugality
are quite literally baked into the bloodline.
But Roseanne Barks are constantly showing us
how this obsession with wealth often led directly
to their downfall. Let's talk about Sir Ider
McDuck to illustrate that point, because his
story is hilarious. He was the chief of the Klan
during an Anglo -Saxon invasion in the year 946.
Right. Which is wild because England and Scotland
had literally signed a peace treaty in 945. So
the treaty lasted a year, and now Sir Eider's
castle is under a massive siege. How does he
handle the defense? He handles it terribly. He
actually gets killed during the siege because
his own serfs abandon him. Just walk off the
job. They abandon him for a very specific reason.
Sir Eider completely refused to buy them arrows
to defend the castle wall. He thought arrows
were too expensive. He simply thought they cost
too much. And on top of that, he was only paying
his serfs collectively? 30 copper pieces an hour.
30 copper pieces for an entire army of serfs.
He valued his copper more than his life, and
it cost him the castle. It is such a brilliant
distillation of the character archetype. Then
jump forward a bit, you have Sir Murdoch McDuck
in 1066. The lore says he was the businessman
who actually patented the longbow. A very lucrative
patent in 1066. Exactly. When the Normans invaded
England, he saw a massive business opportunity.
He had the Normans sign a contract so he could
supply them with enough longbows to fight off
the invaders. But he couldn't help himself. He
had to squeeze them. He did. The Normans ultimately
didn't have enough arrows for those longbows
because Sir Murdoch decided to charge extra for
the ammunition. He left his own clients completely
under -equipped just to squeeze a few more coins
out of them. We should at least give Sir Murdoch
credit for one major historical contribution,
though. He's the ancestor who decided to modernize
the family name from McDooch to the much punchier
McDuck. Which stuck forever. Right. But wait,
if they were so obsessed with hoarding wealth,
how did they ever lose their fortune? Because
weren't they one of the richest clans in Scotland
at one point? They were. Absolutely. Until Sir
Roast McDuck came along. Sir Roast. In 1189,
Clan McDuck was incredibly wealthy. But Sir Roast
made a catastrophic financial decision. He offered
a massive portion of the clan's accumulated wealth
to King William the Lion of Scotland to help
pay tribute to Richard I of England. Wow. This
single act of patriotic generosity basically
bankrupted the clan for generations. Just wiped
them out. And his story doesn't end there, does
it? No, it gets much darker. Sir Roast was a
massive glutton. After ruining the clan financially,
he maintained his massive appetite. In 1205,
he raided the king's pantry and literally ate
himself to death. What a way to go. If you visit
Castle McDuck in the comics, his memorial suit
of armor is permanently holding a knife and fork
in its hands. Here's where it gets really interesting.
Because the source material doesn't just stick
to military blunders and gluttony. It gets deeply
weird and highly eccentric. Let's talk about
Sir Donald McDuck, better known as Black Donald.
Black Donald is a phenomenal character. He earned
that nickname because he possessed an incredibly
foul, uncontrollable temper. A temper we definitely
see later in the family line. Exactly. And according
to the lore, in the year 1440, Black Donald invented
the hammer throw, the caber toss, and the game
of golf. He invented golf. which sounds like
a proud Scottish legacy, except his famous temper
made it a total disaster. Oh, an absolute disaster.
He was so notoriously angry on the golf course
that James II of Scotland actually had to outlaw
the sport entirely. His rage literally changed
national law. And speaking of bizarre legacies,
we absolutely have to talk about Sir Quackley
McDuck in 1057. King Macbeth, yes. That Macbeth
offered Sir Quackley a massive treasure chest
in exchange for his clan's support in a war for
the throne. Quackley agrees to the terms, he
takes the treasure, but he becomes so intensely,
incredibly paranoid about protecting this new
wealth that he accidentally traps himself inside
the castle walls with it. He builds a wall around
himself. He literally walls himself in and dies
there. But death doesn't stop him. He becomes
a ghost, and he plays a massive role much later
in the timeline. Jump forward to 1877 and Sir
Quackley's ghost actively saves a young member
of the clan from the rival Whiskervilles. Right,
he intervenes. And without revealing who he actually
is, this ghost suggests that the young duck traveled
to America to make his fortune, which acts as
the direct catalyst for the entire modern era
of the story. It's the spark that starts the
whole American journey. Quackley even tries to
intervene again in 1885, but he bungles it and
accidentally brings about a temporary death for
his descendant. I love that sequence. There is
this beautifully surreal scene where the protagonist
is temporarily in heaven and Quackley is getting
fiercely reprimanded by all the other deceased
McDuck relatives for interfering in earthly events.
The bureaucracy of cartoon duck heaven is a wonderful
detail. It's so creative. It's so good. But before
we completely leave the ancient history behind
and head to America, we have to cover Hugh Seafoam
McDuck. because his story establishes so much
of the modern psychology of the family. Captain
Seafoam is a very pivotal figure. By 1727, the
clan had long been driven from dismal downs,
so Seafoam settles in Glasgow and turns his attention
to the sea. He becomes a highly successful merchant
and acquires his own magnificent ship. The Golden
Goose. The Golden Goose. He is incredibly successful
until 1753. That's when he signs a fateful contract
with a merchant who is literally named Swindle
McSue. You'd think the name would be a red flag.
You would think. Seafoam is contracted to deliver
a cargo of horseradish to Jamaica. But Swindle
McSue actively sabotages the Golden Goose. The
ship sinks to the bottom of the ocean. When Sifon
manages to drag himself back to Scotland, he
discovers the horrifying truth about the contract
he signed. A fine print. The fine print gets
him. Because the horseradish shipment wasn't
completed, a clause in the contract dictated
that Seafoam had to forfeit all of his worldly
possessions to McSue. Everything. Seafoam lost
absolutely everything he had built. He escaped
with only the clothes on his back, a silver pocket
watch, and the golden dentures in his mouth.
That is just devastating. It is devastating,
but think about the thematic weight of that specific
detail. Think about the struggles we see with
the modern characters in this universe. You have
an intense generational paranoia about getting
swindled by fine print. Right. You have the uncontrollable
anger issues of Black Donald. You have the self
-sabotaging obsession with treasure of Sir Quackley.
The creators are explicitly showing the reader
that the modern duck's famous rage and greed
aren't just quirky personality traits. They are
deep historical generational curses. Exactly.
Curses that they have to actively fight against.
Which perfectly transitions us into the 19th
century and the immediate family tree. We start
with the paternal grandfather, Dirty Dingus McDuck.
Dirty Dingus. Dingus worked his life as a coal
miner and married Molly Mallard. Fun piece of
trivia for you, listener. Her maiden name is
the exact same as the title character of the
cartoon Darkwing Duck. A nice little Easter egg.
Dingus and Molly have three sons, Jake, Fergus,
and Angus. Let's talk about Angus for a second,
because his life reads like a massive Pulp Fiction
adventure novel. Oh, Angus Pothole McDuck is
larger than life. He migrates to the United States
in the late 1840s. By 1850, he's working as a
cabin boy on a Mississippi riverboat called the
Drennan White. Which sinks. The boat tragically
sinks, and Angus is the sole survivor. But that
doesn't stop him. He keeps working the riverboats
and eventually gets his own vessel, the Cotton
Queen. Fast forward to the era just after the
Civil War. Angus and a fierce rival named Porker
Hog co -own a massive bankrupt southern plantation
called Corn Pone Gables. Porker Hog. They completely
despise each other and cannot settle their differences
on how to run it. So in 1870, they decide to
settle the dispute the only way two stubborn
riverboat captains know how. A massive, high
-stakes riverboat race. Winner takes the plantation.
And the result of this epic race is that both
men push their boilers so intensely that both
of their riverboats sink. Both of them. It is
a complete disaster. A total loss. So Angus pivots.
He spends the next 10 years working as a professional
card player on the river. He eventually wins
another riverboat, the Dilley Dollar, in a high
-stakes poker game. He even hires a young inventor
named Ratchet Gearloose as his crew before finally
retiring to New Orleans in 1882. And his retirement
is just as wild as his career. He becomes a writer.
A very successful one. He pens a series of highly
exaggerated, incredibly popular dime novels about
his life called The Master of Mississippi. He
becomes a minor celebrity and even ends up performing
in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. The lore actually
places him riding out with Buffalo Bill, P .T.
Barnum, Annie Oakley, and Geronimo to stop the
Dalton gang from stealing the show's box office
money. It is pure, unadulterated pulp fiction
excellence. It really is. But as fun as Angus
is, we really need to shift our focus to his
brother, Fergus McDuck, and his wife, Downey
O'Drake, because this is where the emotional
core of this entire mythology really lives. Fergus
was born in 1835. Unlike his globetrotting brother,
Fergus spent almost his entire life as a remarkably
hardworking mill worker back in Glasgow. A very
different life. Very different. Downey, a devoted
mother of Irish origin born in 1840, worked alongside
him. They raised their family in relative poverty,
working grueling hours just to survive. So what
does this all mean? We have a cartoon duck universe.
famous for a character who literally swims in
a giant vault of gold coins. But the source material
grounds him with this incredibly poignant, working
-class backstory. If we connect this to the bigger
picture, the psychology of Fergus' parenting
is astonishingly deep for what is ostensibly
a children's comic book. It really takes you
by surprise. There are two massive reveals in
Donros' lore regarding Fergus that recontextualize
everything. First, consider the famous number
one dime. The very first dime ever earned by
Shining Shoes. Kept on a velvet pillow representing
the start of a massive fortune. Everyone knows
the number one dime. It's totally iconic. It
is. But Rosa reveals that Fergus actually supplied
that dime. Wait, really? Yes. Fergus secretly
approached a ditch digger named Bert and gave
him an American dime. He specifically instructed
Bert to use it to pay his son for shining his
shoes. Because an American dime would be useless
in Glasgow. Exactly. Fergus was a poor mill worker.
He couldn't afford to give his son a proper inheritance
or a financial head start, so he orchestrated
this elaborate moment to give him a much more
valuable gift, the lesson of self -reliance.
Wow. He wanted his son to experience the harsh
reality of labor and the intrinsic value of hard
work. It gives me chills to think about the narrative
weight of that. And the second reveal about Fergus
is even more staggering. We talked earlier about
Sir Quackley and the Macbeth treasure. Well,
it turns out there was another treasure. Sir
Simon Macduck, back in the 1400s, had been the
treasurer for the Knights Templar, and he hid
their massive treasure deep beneath Castle Macduck.
And Fergus knew exactly where this treasure was
hidden. He had the key to generational wealth
sitting right beneath his feet. But he actively
chose to hide this fact from his family. He allowed
his son to leave Scotland, travel to the brutal
conditions of the Klondike, and painstakingly
build his fortune from absolute scratch over
decades. He let him do it the hard way. Why would
a father who lived in poverty do that? Because
of a profound understanding of legacy. Years
later, a letter from Fergus is discovered explaining
his actions. Fergus knew deep down that his son
would feel infinitely more fulfilled and become
a much stronger person by building his own fortune
rather than simply inheriting one. Completely
disguised as a story about cartoon ducks hunting
for gold. It absolutely elevates the entire medium.
Now, as we move into the 20th century, we absolutely
cannot talk about Clan McDuck without talking
about the women who actually kept the empire
running. They are crucial to the story. While
the men were off prospecting or fighting over
riverboats, the women were the logistical backbone.
We have to talk about the younger sisters, Matilda
and Hortense. Yes. From 1902 to 1930, while their
brother was off traveling the globe, expanding
his financial empire in exotic locations, Matilda
and Hortense were the ones actually stationed
back in Calisota. They were managing the day
-to -day operations of the empire. from Duckburg.
They are deeply fascinating characters in their
own right. Matilda has a very calm, level -headed
demeanor, which provides a stark, necessary contrast
to the chaotic energy of the rest of the family.
We balance them out. But Hortense is a force
of nature. Hortense is an absolute legend. She
is, notably, Donald Duck's mother, and she is
a complete spitfire. The lore states that her
first spoken words were literally, Bye, Scroogie.
Before that, she communicated entirely by just
yelling, Just a ball of rage from day one. And
her fierce reputation started early. By the time
she is six years old, her older brother is working
as a cowboy for a man named Murdo McKenzie. He
is tasked with riding a highly dangerous, violent
mare that had already violently disposed of five
other cowboys. The horse's name was Widowmaker.
He manages to tame the horse and promptly renames
it Hortense in honor of his remarkably spirited
six -year -old sister. A tribute which Hortense
found deeply unflattering and infuriating. I
would too. And her temper only escalates from
there. When she is just nine years old, the rival
Clan Whiskerville makes another attempt to plunder
Castle McDuck. Little nine -year -old Hortense
steps in and proves significantly more effective
at fighting off these grown, hardened Scottish
Highlanders than her adult relatives, Fergus
and Jake. The Whiskervilles were literally terrified
of a nine -year -old duck. But her defining moment
in the lore has to be the incident in 1902. Oh,
absolutely. She is stationed at Kilmotter Hill.
The U .S. military is attempting to intervene
in a local dispute. Or Tence, armed with absolutely
nothing but a standard household broom and her
notoriously terrifying temper, single -handedly
chases off the entire United States military
apparatus. Including the current president, Theodore
Roosevelt. The visual of Teddy Roosevelt, the
hero of San Juan Hill, retreating from a duck
with a broom is incredible. And just to add to
her mystique, a recent 2024 comic revealed she
was also an adventurer and scientist who studied
apes in Africa before mysteriously disappearing.
However, her story within the family dynamic
takes a very tragic turn. It does. In 1930, after
she and Matilda had been running the empire for
almost three decades, there is a massive relationship
-ending fight. A severe conflict regarding family
loyalty and greed permanently severs the ties
between the siblings. A real breaking point.
Hortense and Matilda pack their bags and leave
Duckburg completely estranged from their brother.
It is a genuinely heartbreaking turn for a family
that had survived so much together. And it brings
up a really interesting technicality for you,
the listener, regarding the family tree. Hortense
eventually met and married a man named Quackmore
Duck. Which is the union that connects the Scottish
McDucks to the American Duck family. Resulting
in the twins, Donald and Della Duck. Because
Hortense took the surname Duck and Matilda also
changed her name after her own marriage, the
protagonist we've been following is technically
considered the last McDuck. He is the only male
left carrying the surname. It adds this tremendous
layer of melancholy to his character. He achieves
his goal. He gets all the money in the world.
But in doing so, he alienated the very sisters
who helped him build the empire. And he stands
as the isolated endpoint of this massive ancient
family line stretching back to 2050. DBC. It
really is a sweeping epic. We have journeyed
all the way from the ancient city of Sagbad through
the misty moors of Scotland with knights who
valued copper over their own lives to the steamboats
of the Mississippi River all the way to a giant
money bin in Duckburg. We've uncovered how generations
of eccentric greedy, and fiercely independent
ancestors created this incredibly rich mythology.
It's a testament to the creators. It proves that
if a creator puts enough care, research, and
passion into their work, even a cartoon family
tree can contain genuine moving lessons about
the necessity of self -reliance, the isolating
dangers of hoarding wealth, and the incredibly
messy complexities of family. This raises an
important question, though, something I want
you, the listener, to really mull over. Okay,
let's hear it. When Don Rosa undertook this massive,
years -long project to write The Life and Times
of Scrooge McDuck, he put a very specific disclaimer
right in his introduction. He explicitly stated
that his work was not the official version of
the character's history. He admitted it wasn't
canon. He said there was no reason why he or
anyone else should expect future writers to adhere
to his specific vision. It was never intended
by the publisher to be absolute canon. It was
simply his own personal, highly researched telling
of the character's life. But the fans didn't
care about the disclaimer. They universally embraced
it as the absolute truth. Precisely. Because
Rosa respected the scattered, messy source material
so deeply, and because he did the grueling, meticulous
work of making narrative sense out of decades
of Barxian contradictions, the fans elevated
his personal passion project to gospel truth.
It became the canon. So I want to leave you pondering
this. What does it say about the fundamental
nature of storytelling and our modern obsession
with canon when a creator's entirely unofficial
personal project becomes the undeniable reality
for millions of readers worldwide simply because
it makes the chaos make sense? That is a phenomenal
thought to end on. Thank you so much for joining
us on this deep dive. Keep falling down those
Wikipedia rabbit holes. Keep asking questions
about the stories you love. And we will see you
next time.