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|in = ''[[Uncle Scrooge and the Golden River|Uncle Scrooge<br>and the Golden River]]''
|index = <small>'''''[[:Category:King_of_the_Golden_River_stories|King of the Golden River stories]]'''''</small>
}}The '''King of the Golden River''' is a magically powerful [[gnome]] of disputed existence.
==Description==
The King of the Golden River is, according to [[The King of the Golden River|the eponymous fairy story]], a powerful [[gnome]] who rules over the [[Golden River]], rewarding the unselfish by allowing them access to the River's titular golden boon.
In 1958, [[Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck]] and their [[Donald Duck|uncle Donald]] impersonated the King, believing him to be fictitious, to teach [[Scrooge McDuck]] a lesson about selfishness, having figured that the "trick" to controlling the flow of gold was nothing magical, but simply a matter of whether or not some hot springs were connected to the main riverbed. However, in the course of this adventure, one account states that one of the children briefly caught a glimpse of a gnome identical to the way Scrooge had imagined the King…
Seemingly coincidentally, the Meso-American King [[Dondorado]] was nicknamed "the King of the Golden River" in his lifetime, and his cursed ghost was encountered by the Ducks in circumstances very like those of the ''King of the Golden River'' folktale, complete with magical treasure-granting waters which must be given to thirsty travelers as a proof of virtue.
==Behind the scenes==
As a fiction, the King of the Golden River is mentioned in the 1958 [[Carl Barks]] story ''[[Uncle Scrooge and the Golden River]]''. The story remains ambiguous over whether the gnome really existed, but a [https://inducks.org/story.php?c=FC+PM++336D 2009 illustration] by [[Don Rosa]] seems to confirm that he did.
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