Mind. Blown.
Because iPads and the like didn't exist twenty years ago, you probably grew up reading much-loved books by Roald Dahl. From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to The Twits, The BFG to George's Marvellous Medicine, the man was an absolute genius when it came to writing gripping children's novels.
Many of his greatest works have also been turned into live-action movies over the years, including Matilda and The Witches, and some are now West End musicals too.
And as well as being one of the world's most famous children's authors, Dahl was also a screenwriter, a poet and wrote short stories as well as novels. It's safe to say that he was a man of very many great talents.
However, it has recently been brought to our attention that we might have been going through life pronouncing his name completely and utterly wrong. It turns out that it's not actually pronounced 'Rolled', as many of us might think, but that it's in fact 'Roo-al'. Um, what?
Watch the first 10 seconds of the below clip of a 1961 episode of Dahl's spooky sci-fi show, Way Out, and hear the correct pronunciation for yourself. You won't believe your ears.
Roald Dahl's parents were Norwegian, and so 'Roo-al' is the correct Norwegian pronunciation of his name. The author was in fact named after Roald Amundsen, who was a Norwegian polar explorer and someone that his father greatly admired.
While the well-educated of you might have already known that this was the correct pronunciation of Dahl's first name, we're pretty sure you've been going around calling him 'Rolled' Dahl this whole time, blissfully unaware of how wrong you were. We won't be making that mistake again, though.
Well, our minds have been well and truly boggled by this news. You learn something new every day, right?
