You thought someone would have piped up and told us, right?
Somewhere along the line, someone could have just spoken up and told us silly British fools we were pronouncing Roald Dahl’s name wrong, surely?
The author, who was born in Wales to Norwegian parents, is beloved among British children going back generations for his wonderful and spell-binding tales.
His beautiful mind and imagination gave the world books like The Twits, The BFG and Matilda.
Our childhood selves were enchanted by the magic of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the brilliance of Danny the Champion of the World.
@roald_dahl because our 3 year old son loves a good book before bed we got him the best.👌 pic.twitter.com/3xqUEjVQyf
— Nizzy 🏴🏴 (@Nizzyk99) November 7, 2016
Even his autobiographical books Boy and Going Solo about his adventures growing up in public school, working out in Africa and then going on to be a fighter pilot in the RAF during the war were equally captivating.
But we still couldn’t get his fucking name right.
While most Norwegian folk (and some hardcore Dahl fans) will already know, it’s not pronounced ‘Rolled’ like we’ve all probably been saying.
Metro spotted a video dating back to 1961 where the author is introduced with the correct pronunciation…and to our amazement you actually say it ‘Roo-ahl’.
Dahl, whose parents emigrated to Wales before he was born, named him after the great Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen.
He remains one of the greatest British authors of modern times having sold 250 million books worldwide.
Personally though we still think ‘Rolled Dahl’ has a nicer ring to it.
