| Home Table Of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
| The
"Official" alt.fan.pooh Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
Chapter 3: In Which More Background Information is
Presented
3.1 Was Christopher Robin real?
The character of Christopher Robin is based on a real person.
Christopher Robin Milne was the son of A.A. Milne. He was born on August 21, 1920, and
died April 20, 1996.
3.2 Was Pooh real?
Yes. Most of the characters in the stories are based off of stuffed toys that Christopher
Milne had in his nursery. Pooh was a gift for Christopher's first birthday, Eeyore was a
Christmas present, and Piglet was a gift from a neighbor. A.A. and Daphne Milne purchased
Kanga, Roo, and Tigger for the purpose of including them in the stories. Rabbit and Owl
were not stuffed toys, but were based on real animals found in the nearby Ashdown Forest.
3.3 Why the name Winnie-the-Pooh?
The teddy bear that Christopher Milne received for his first birthday was originally named
Edward Bear. (In England, Teddy is a common nickname for Edward, and A.A. and Daphne both
felt that the teddy bear was a serious sort and would use his proper name.) Christopher
changed the name of the bear to Winnie-the-Pooh. The Winnie part of the name was likely
based on an American black bear by the name of Winnie that was at the London Zoo. A
Canadian soldier, Lt. Harry Colebourn, had purchased the bear as a cub before going to
England during World War I, and brought the bear with him as a mascot for his unit. In
honor of his hometown, Winnipeg, Lt. Colebourn named the bear Winnie. When his unit was
called to France for action, Lt. Colebourn left Winnie with the London Zoo. Winnie was
Christopher Milne's favorite at the zoo, and he was often allowed to enter the cage and
play with the bear.
For more information about Winnie, visit
http://www.electrontrap.org/jmilne/Pooh/winnie.html
http://www.just-pooh.com/history.html
Pooh was originally a name attributed to a swan, as can be seen from a poem from WWWVY.
Apparently, the swan never came when called to, and the Milne family often ended up saying
"Pooh" to it. The name stuck. So it's possible that Pooh got his name from that
swan.
However, Milne offers a second explanation in the first chapter of WtP. Pooh has tried to
conceal himself as a cloud, in order to sneak some hunny from some bees. In order to do
this, he rolled in some mud (he was trying to appear as a dark rain cloud) and flew into
the air with a balloon. Unfortunately for Pooh, the mud dried...
'But his arms were so stiff from holding on to the string of the balloon all that time
that they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a fly came and
settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think--but I am not sure--that that is
why he was always called Pooh.'
Winnie is typically a female name, and Pooh is obviously a boy, but Christopher apparently
solved this problem with his own sort of solution. A.A. Milne writes of it in the first
chapter of WtP.
'When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are
going to say, "But I thought he was a boy?"
"So did I," said Christopher Robin.
"Then you can't call him Winnie?"
"I don't."
"But you said---"
"He's Winnie-ther-Pooh. Don't you know what 'ther' means?"
"Ah, yes, now I do," I said quickly; and I hope you do too, because it is all
the explanation you are going to get."
3.4 Can you explain all the names Pooh has had?
In order to clear up any confusion over names, here's a list of the various
"Poohish" names that might pop up in the stories.
Edward Bear
The original name of the teddy bear given to Christopher Milne at his first birthday. It
is thought that he was made at the factory of J.K. Farnell , who made bears exclusively
for Harrod's in the 1920's.
Winnie-the-Pooh
The name Christopher Robin bestowed upon Edward Bear when he said "he would like an
exciting name all to himself" (WtP)
Winnie-ther-Pooh
The name, corrected by Christopher Robin so as to remove suspicion that Edward had been
given a girl's name. "ther" is not explained.
(WtP)
Winnie
An army veterinarian named Lt. Harry Colebourn bought a female black bear cub from a
hunter on the platform of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Station in White River, Ontario,
Canada on August 24, 1914 for $20 while en route to Valcartier, Quebec. The hunter had
killed the cub's mother. Colebourn took the bear, which he named Winnie (after his home
town of Winnipeg, Manitoba (though he was born in Birmingham)) overseas to England, where
she became the mascot of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade, to which Colebourn was
attached, most especially the Princess Patricia's Regiment.When he was posted to France in
December, he left the bear with the London Zoo where it was a favorite attraction of A.A.
Milne & Christopher. Colebourn, who visited Winnie when his leave permitted, met Alan
at the Zoo and related her story to the author. Winnie survived until 1934.
Pooh
Originally the name of a swan that lived on the lake at Decoy, a thatched cottage near
Angmering in Sussex, a vacation spot of the Milnes when Christopher was small. Also the
sound Pooh allegedly makes in the aftermath of the bees incident, when "his arms were
so stiff...that they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a
fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off" (WtP).
Also short for Winnie-the(r)-Pooh.
Mr. Sanders
The name Pooh lives under. (WtP)
Sir Pooh de Bear
The name Christopher Robin bestows upon Pooh at the end of the stories. (HaPC)
Henry Pootel
The name actually bestowed upon Piglet by Christopher Robin, when he and Kanga
deliberately mistake Piglet for "some relation of Pooh's" (WtP)
3.5 Who is Sanders? Was he real?
'Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday, Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a
forest all by himself under the name of Sanders.
("What does 'under the name' mean?" asked Christopher Robin.
"It means he had the name over the door in gold letters, and lived under it."
"Winnie-the-Pooh wasn't quite sure," said Christopher Robin.
"Now I am," said a growly voice.
"Then I will go on," said I.)
No one really knows who Sanders was. The best guess is that Milne used something he found
in the woods near his Cotchford Farm home and incorporated it into the stories. In this
case, a sign with the name Sanders was found on a tree, and it was decided that that was
the tree in which Pooh lived.
3.6 When is Pooh's birthday?
The most common answer to this question is October 14. This is based on the fact that WtP
was first published by Methuen on October 14, 1926. This is generally accepted to be the
"official" birthday for Pooh.
However, a few things complicate that date. Pooh, or Edward Bear at the time, was a gift
to Christopher Milne for his first birthday. That would mean that Pooh was received on
August 21, 1921. This particular date is supported in the Pooh stories themselves. In the
last chapter of HaPC, Pooh asks Christopher Robin how old he'll be when CR is 100, and CR
replies with 99.
So you've got two dates right there. But there's even more to confuse the issue. The
argument for October 14 is that it was the first day Pooh was published. But that's not
quite true. The first chapter of WtP was published in the Dec. 24, 1925, edition of the
London Evening News. And what would become the sixth chapter of WtP, "In Which Eeyore
has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents", appeared in the August 1926 edition of Royal
Magazine. And even before these, Edward Bear appeared in WWWVY.
Fans tend to either go with the Oct. 14, or Aug. 21 dates. It all depends on whether you
want to celebrate the day Pooh was introduced to the world in WtP, or the day Christopher
Milne opened his gifts and received his first teddy bear.
3.7 What is Poohsticks?
First appearing in chapter 6 of HaPC, Poohsticks is the ultimate in games, and was
invented by our very own Winnie the Pooh. All you need is a stream, a bridge (optional,
but very nice), and some sticks or fir cones. You drop the sticks off one side of the
bridge (usually the upstream side), then rush over to the other side to see whose stick
appears first. Occasionally a player may be bounced into the water by another player. In
such an instance, it's usually best to just spin around in an eddy for awhile and make the
best of the situation.
For those of you who don't have a stream handy, you could try your luck at Virtual Pooh
Sticks. Graham Simms has created an electronic version of the game, in which ten players
compete to see whose electronic message arrives at a destination first. If you're
interested in finding out more about that, visit the Virtual Pooh Sticks web page.
http://www.poohsticks.com/
3.8 Where do the stories take place?
The stories take place in the Forest and the Hundred Acre Wood.
These places are based on real areas near the area where Milne lived: Ashdown Forest, and
the Five Hundred Acre Wood. Many of the places found in the books correspond to real
places in Ashdown Forest and the Five Hundred Acre Wood. There really is a Sandy Pit, like
the one where Roo played, Poohsticks Bridge, and the Enchanted Place at the top of the
Forest. (Although it's called Gill's Lap, not Galleon's
Lap.) These locations are near the town of Hartfield, in East Sussex, England.
3.9 Where can I make a Pooh pilgrimage?
First and foremost, East Sussex, England. Specifically around the Hartfield area. The
Milnes lived at Cotchford Farm, a few miles south of Hartfield, and the stories take place
in the Ashdown Forest area. For more information about this area, contact The Conservators
of Ashdown Forest. They should be able to provide more detailed information.
The Conservators of Ashdown Forest
The Ashdown Forest Centre
Wych Cross
Forest Row
East Sussex RH18 5JP
Telephone: 01342 823583
Calling from outside England? Replace the first 0 with 011 44.
If you're in Hartfield, a good place to stop is at a store called Pooh Corner. They can
provide you with maps of the area, as well as a large selection of Pooh merchandise.
Pooh Corner
High Street
Hartfield, East Sussex TN7 4AE
England
Telephone: 01892 770453
Fax: 01982 770872
Email: shop@poohcorner.net
WWW: http://www.poohcorner.net/
Calling from outside England? Replace the first 0 with 011 44.
Once in the area, you'll want to make a visit to Ashdown Forest, maybe play a quick game
of Poohsticks at Poohsticks Bridge, hike on up to Gill's Lap, or visit Cotchford Farm.
The original manuscripts of Pooh stories can be seen in the Wren Library in Trinity
College Cambridge, UK.
The Victoria and Albert Museum holds the original sketches for WtP and HaPC. Visitors can
request to see the sketches in the Print Room there. A collection of
Shepard cartoons for
Punch can be found at the University of Kent, and the Imperial War Museum contains some
paintings he did while he was a gunner from 1916 to 1919.
The original stuffed toys (minus Roo, who has been lost) may be found today in the Central
Children's Room of the Donnell Library Center, a branch of the New York Public Library.
White River, Ontario, Canada, likes to consider itself the home of the original Winnie.
Lt. Harry Colebourn purchased the bear while still in Canada took it over to England when
his regiment was called to war in Europe. It was this bear that Christopher Milne used to
play with at the zoo, and later renamed his teddy bear in honor or.
In recent years, the town of White River has held festivals in honor of the bear that
started it all. (See Question 5.4 for information.)
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