Moominmamma's dangerous youth

Johanna Sinisalo 2007: Muumimamman vaarallinen nuoruus
Illustrated by Ilkka Ruokola

Moominmamma is my favorite Moomin character. She is the glue that keeps the family together. Moominpappa is an eccentric author, who thinks he is the head of the family, when in reality Moominmamma is the one running the show.

Moomintroll relies on Moominmamma to restore the order even when the comet is approaching and solves any problem that arises.

 Moominmamma’s youth is not discussed in Tove Jansson’s books, but in this comic book Moominmamma tells her family three stories about her youth and how she ends up in the storm only to be rescued by Moominpappa (This rescue is told in the exploits of Moominpappa). Moominmamma does not say which story is true.

Eagle snatches Moominmamma

In the first story Grandma takes Miss Moomin (as Moominmamma was called, when she was young) to the circus and Miss Moomin decides she wants to be a skill rider. Grandma gives her permission to join the circus. Once she is in one of the older riders gets jealousand starts to prank Moominmamma’s horse the Snowflower. Concerned for the safety of her horse, Moominmamma leaves the circus. She arrives in a city on the beach and finds work in Mymble’s tavern and a flat above a fillyjonk. Moominmamma becomes quite good in playing poker. One hemulen falls in love with Moominmamma. His family turns out to be orderly hypocrites as opposed to adventure loving and relaxed moomins. The thought of marrying such uptight, pretentious man distresses Moominmamma and she runs away to the sea and then there is the storm that introduces Moominpappa.

The second storyline follows the same lines, but when Moominmamma and her fiancé the hemulen are collecting seaweed on the shore, they meet pirates, who kidnap Moominmamma. Moominmamma saves Beard Pete with herbal medicine and becomes the ship’s lay surgeon. She also makes them crepes and plays poker with them and then there is the storm.

Moominmammas' sandwitch recipe
from Moomins Cookbook

In the third story Moominmamma lives with her grandmother and as they are wonder
ers they hike to the Lonely Mountains and pop in to an observatory. The professors there enjoy the crepes and offer Moomimamma to work for them. Moominmamma’s job is to clean the telescope, make crepes and play poker. Soon Moominmamma gets bored and leaves the observatory after asking professor permission of course. In the mountains Moominmamma gets snatched by an eagle. The eagle takes her to the sea. Moominmamma sees a boat and bites herself free from the eagle. The boat belongs to hattifatteners and the storm is upon them.

The comic is full of familiar references to Tove Jansson’s stories: Moominpappa rescuing Moominmamma ( Moominpappa’s memoirs) , the Observatory at the Lonely mountains (Comet in Moominland) and the stereotypes of hemulens and fillyjonks. Even the illustrations seem to be fresh versions of Tove Jansson’s comics.

Moomimamma paints a garden

Next I will share my three favorite parts of the Moomin books that describe the personality of Moominmamma.

In the book “Moominpappa at sea” Moominamma follows Moominpappa to the lighthouse island even though she does not want to. Moominmamma gets frustrated on the raw island, where nothing grows. On the island Moominmma takes her memories as her soil. Relying on her memories she paints a garden inside the light house. During this painting process Moominamma’s anxiety prevails and she is more content at living on the island. She thinks that the scenery on the island is even more beautiful than a garden. The illusion of the ease and happiness of Moominvalley no longer haunt her.

Moominmamma hugs King of California.

Her character is also shown in “Finn Family Moomintroll”, when the children find a
Magician’s Hat and Moomintroll jumps into it. He turns into a King of California, which no one will recognize. Moomintroll gets scared, but then Moominmamma looks him in the eye and sees her son. Moomintroll is transformed back to his own self.

Moominmamma shows Ninny her room

The third story is from“Tales from Moominvalley” short story “The Invisible Child”. A little girl named Ninny has been frightened by her previous care taker so badly that she has become invisible. Moominmamma gives her love and affection, the others play with her. Then Moominpappa plans on sneaking up and scaring Moominmamma, but Ninny rushes up behind and shoves Moominpappa into the sea and Ninny becomes visible again.

The Moomins have many philosophical aspects that I was introduced to in Esa Saarinen’s philosophy lecture at Aalto University. In Professor Saarinen’s opinion we have a lot to be learned from the Moomins. First, not everyone has to be supermodels with long legs. Moomins have short legs and they are fine and live a happy life. Second, travelling and adventures are fine, but Moominvalley is the enough. And thirdly like Moominmamma’s philosophy the most important thing is to make sure everyone else are happy. There is also a book about Moomin philosophy at the light of exsistentialism by Jukka Laajarinne (Muumit ja olemisen arvoitus).

 In Tove Jansson’s books Moominamma loves to cook and attend to her garden. To the theme have been published two books: Moomins cook book and Moominvalley Gardening book.

Different shapes of Moomin

Moomins keep their popularity through the year. The charachters themselves look very different from what they used to look in the 1930s, when they first appeared in the swedish Garmin-magazine. Here I have collected some ot the samples of different Moomins. Of course there is the "Strange guest at Moomin house" -book that I have already written about.

Muumien kiehtovaa maailma

(Tove Jansson text, edited by Helen Svensson 2008)
The  first book collects selected extacts from different Moomin books. The book includes the colorful stories of "Who Will Comfort Toffle?" and "What happened then". The book also includes moomin songs, small moomin dictionary  and a map of Moomin Valley.  Very compact book about Moomins.

What the Moomin's looked like in the first book: the great flood.

Moomin comic strip

The extracts are from Magician's hat, Magic Vinter and the great flood.













The first Moomin comic strips were published in "Ny tid" newspaper. Tove started the strip and then her brother Lars Jansson took over.

Who Will Comfort Toffle? -illustrations

The "Who will comfort Toffle?" book has also been made as a diarama that is located at the Tampere City library.

Moomin's as Se-Ma-For piece animation

The island adventure 

(Ann Burnett 1987)

Oddly enough, this book was first written in English. in 1978-1982 a Polish animation studio created a Moomin series. There are four different books or leaflets that have these type of moomins as illustrations.

The series is still shown in the pay tv. The series is called "Muumien maailma".

Othe Moomin characters of the 1980s tv-series

 This style was my first contact with the Moomins and that is the reason, these are also the deares.

Moomin with different colors

Elämää Muumilaaksossa, osa 2

 Based on Tove Jansson's texts, translated into Finnish by Kirsti Mäkinen

In the 1990's the Moomin charachters reach a new hight of popularity with a Japanese animation "Muumilaakson tarinoita". The Moomins had been animated in Japan before and they were hugely popular.

In the 90s the Moomins got different colors: Moomintroll is light blue, Moomin pappa is some shade of lilac, Moomin mamma is yellow and Snorkmaiden is cream color.  I assume they reflect the personalities of the characters.



I hit puberty at that time and I rebeled by not liking the Moomins. I thought they were irritating and everywhere. My 10 years younger brother watched the series, but I couldn't stand them. Since then I have changed my mind. And I guess my mother is relieved that my rebellion reached its peak with the Moomins.

These series can also be seen in the Finnish television at the moment and my boys love it. Especially the Groke. Now in the Finnish languege we do not know the gender of the creature, but it is a she. I hadn't thought about it before I ran into the Swedish version.  Does it matter that the scariest creature of the books is female?

Muumiopas

Sirke Happola 2012

There is a book that collects all possible characters that Tove Jansson created. It has precise information on each character.

The book includes the original characters from Snork to Mymble and it elaborates each character's personality, birth, etymology and appearance.

Picture from Moomin family album.

Muumiperheen albumi

Text by  Katariina Heilala 2013
Illustration by Päivi Arenius

Even thought the 1980's Moomins are my favourite, the newest books about Moomins are fantastic. Their style reminds me about the " Who will comfort Toffle?" -book

The Moomin family album has collection of picture found at the Moomin house. Moomin mamma tells stories about the pictures.

The wild guests at Moomin house.

Täältä tulee Pikku Myy: Villit vieraat
Riina & Sami Kaarla 2011

Another new book about Moomins, where Little My is the main character.

Strange guest at Moominhouse

Jansson, Tove 1980

This was my first contact with the Moomins. The Japanese animation came around in early 1990s and has become more or less the norm of how Moomins are seen. When we read this book, my four-year old son asked why does Stinky look so odd.  I had to remind him that the first Moomin story was written in the 1940s so the characters are interpreted by many people, so they may look a bit odd from time to time.
Maybe it’s because this was the first book I read about the Moomins, it is my favourite Moomin book. It’s the house: the pictures are actual photos taken by Tove Jansson’s brother, Per Olov Jansson. The house was buit by Tove Jansson, Tuulikki Pietilä and Pentti Eistola in 1976-1979.

Today the miniature house can be seen in Tampere Art Museum.

The story is begins, when late at night little My smells something funny and starts to look for the reason. Soon the whole house is up looking for the source.

Moomin house in Moominworld

Moomins are a big thing in Finland. The Moomin wolrd in Naantali is on the list of must see places of many kids. The Japanese are very enthusiastic about Moomins as well,  in Moominworld many Japanese couples have gotten married.