Saturday 10am-3pm
(The above illustration is from the GARM Magazine, 1943, a political magazine)
At the Finnish Heritage Museum, we strive to have our members learn about all things Finnish. Many of our members were not familiar with the Moomins or of Tove Janssen, who lived her life as an artist, illustrator, and writer. When we advertised our meeting and topic, we were thrilled to have a couple of “Moomin enthusiasts” stop by and share what they knew about the Moomins before our main speaker. One presented a special illustration he had brought back when visiting his son. This was the Groke, a cold and solitary female character whose body was very round and appeared very ghost-like. Our second unexpected guess and Moomin lover shared her entire set of Moomin books as well as why she loved them. This really got the interest of the members who were unfamiliar with the Moomins. Maybe you’ve seen some of her characters on coffee mugs or noticed one of her books written in another language. Or maybe you have somehow never heard of her. But perhaps you have seen her work on the side of a building in Helsinki and didn’t know it was hers. There are museums, comic strips, amusement parks, and so much more attributed to the Moomins in several countries. There is even an opera written using these fictional characters. It was time for our members to get to know this popular, iconic representative of Finnish art culture.
So who are these Moomins? There is the main family and many, many supporting characters. Some appear in many of the books, some are introduced later. This too is reflective of Tove’s life as throughout their lives together, Tove and Tuulikki would invite visitors (even those they did not know) to stay overnight in their little home on the island. The main family, the Moomins, are characters who began behind the tiled stoves of Finns. The first Moomin could be traced back to the Garm magazine in 1943 and you will note that the characters were a little more sharply drawn in contrast to the recognizable almost white hippopotamus characters of later illustrations. Their snouts morphed into rounded, softer snouts. In 1954, the same year that the first comic strip appeared in England, Moomintroll reached his roundest look in Tove’s illustrations.
Tove was born to two artists and her entire family were artists. She lived a Bohemian lifestyle and in later years was very much isolated on an island doing her work. Her father was a sculptor and her mother a famous stamp illustrator for the post office. All of their influences and characters can be found in her books about the Moomins. Tove Jansson died at the age of 86 in 2001 and she left behind paintings, novels, children’s books, magazine covers, political cartoons, greeting cards, librettos, etc. But the early influence of her Moomin characters ran through all of her work even as she tried to escape it. At one time Tove wrote to a girlfriend that characters take shape “when I was feeling depressed and scared of the bombing and wanted to get away from the gloomy thoughts to something else entirely . . . I crept into an unbelievable world where everything was natural and benign and possible.” Her art and writing gave her an escape from war and the harshness of the world. Throughout her life she explored many roles and for a great part of that life she lived on a remote island off the coast of Finland with her fellow artist and companion, Tuulikki Pietila. Tuulikki is represented in the character “Too-ticky” in Tove’s writing. From the 1950’s until her death, the two lived and worked together on their own island, Klovharu in the Finnish Archipelago.
Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä coming in by boat to Klovharun.(photo).
In 1945 the first book, The Moomins and the Great Flood was published. It was by all accounts not her best book and it left the reader fully of anxiety wandering and looking for Moominpaappa. Its sepia toned illustrations lent a somber air to the story as well. But the second book, Comet in Moominland, launched the beginning of the success of the Moomins. This book was the story of a threat from outer space which considering the year and what was taking place at the time, we would most likely draw the conclusion that this book was written by Tove as she felt about the world around her. All the inhabitants of the valley respond to the catastrophe in their own particular ways. But, like all the Moomin books, there is a happier ending. This is her most successful book and it was turned into a full length movie as well as many other ventures.
To understand the Moomins, you must first meet at least some of the characters. The main characters of course are the main family, and they are trolls that have an incredible similarity to a white hippopotamus. Now you can tell Moominmama from her apron and her purse, Moominpaappa from his top hat, Moomintroll is the only child of Moominmama and Moominpaappa and he is very loyal to all. In the second book, Snufkin appears wearing old green clothes and a brimmed hat. He also plays the harmonica. And then there are the numerous supporting characters: Sniff, Hattifatteners, the Groke, Little My, Mymble, Snork Maiden (Moomintroll’s girlfriend), the Fillyjonks (a species living in the Moomin Valley), The Hemul, Joxter, The Hobgoblin, and so many more. As you can see, we learned how gifted Tove was at naming her characters. For her last story, the Moomins have left Moominvalley and we tune in to Snufkin, our wanderer, who returns in the Spring looking for his friends, the Moomins, only to discover that they have left the valley. Everyone misses these trolls and hopes that they will return. The Moomin books are written in over 40 languages and almost any adult or child can relate to the underlying themes of loneliness, despair, and loss. But for those who have gone or are living through war, the books can be oddly comforting.
In 1954, the London Evening News, the world’s largest newspaper with 20 million readers in over 40 countries, asked Tove to turn her characters into a daily strip. In 1948 the first comic strip ran called Moomintroll and the End of the World. The comic strips ran daily and Tove wrote and illustrated them until May 1, 1957, when she asked her brother Lars to help her. By 1969, 7 years and 10,000 drawings later, Tove stopped writing the Moomins and gave it to Lars. Many of Tove’s characters can be traced to family and friends in characteristics. Moominpaappa is much like her own father as is Moominmamma. During the Moomin period of Tove’s life, many, many children wrote to her with their problems that often echoed those of the characters in the novels. Tove answered every one of the letters written to her. The following is a partial example of a letter written to a young fan in Ireland.
Dear Ruth,
Thank you so much for your nice letter. I’m really glad that you like my trolls. There might be quite a lot of trolls in Ireland, I’ve heard? Here, they’re all hibernating. The whole town is but a huge soft snow drift, a fire is burning in the over the whole day long and the cat is sleeping in my lap.
We’ve had a fine Christmas – the days are short but one knows that the light is returning more and more. Soon, I’ll start waiting for spring. Then, I go on to my island in the Finnish Gulf, a tiny one with no trees or bushes – only rock and wild flowers. And big, beautiful storms. You would love it!
Strange animals wander about, not afraid at all. I’m planning to plant a lot of rose bushes next year. Red ones.
I wish you a very Happy New Year!
Tove Jansson
It is hoped that anyone who reads this will look further into the Moomins and Tove Janssen as her life and her stories are so much more than one article or one presentation could cover. The characters and the scenery, indeed the music from the cartoons, might make you think of such American classics as Winnie the Pooh, and indeed Walt Disney once sought to purchase the rights to the Moomins (Tove rejected this idea). But the deeper meanings of Tove’s writing can be discovered by reading about the author and her family and her life.