Moomins
White, round trolls from Moominvalley created by Tove Jansson.
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The Moomins are white, round fairy-tale characters resembling hippopotamuses, created by Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson.[1] They are the central family in a series of novels, short stories, picture books, and a comic strip originally published in Swedish by the Finnish publisher Schildts.[1]
Key facts and history
The uncle told young Jansson that "cold moomintrolls" lived in his pantry to deter her from stealing food.[2] In a 1973 letter, Jansson wrote that she created the word "moomintroll" to express softness, using the consonant sound of m.[3] The first two Moomin books, The Moomins and the Great Flood and Comet in Moominland, were published in 1945 and 1946.[4] These early books deal with natural disasters and were influenced by the upheavals of war and Jansson's depression.[4]
Lars Jansson took over the strip completely until production ceased in 1975.[5] The Ny Tid newspaper's children's section first published Moomin comic strips in 1947.[5] English-speaking audiences first encountered these strips in 1954 through the London paper The Evening News.[5] Tove Jansson was the sole creator of the strips until 1959; from then until 1961, her brother Lars Jansson collaborated on them.[5]
What the cited sources add
The New Statesman article notes that a decade after the Moomin debut in 1945, Scandinavian homes had Moomin-themed aprons, curtains, wallpaper, and crockery.[6] The same source states that The Moomins and the Great Flood was written during the Winter War of 1939.[6] That article describes the game as a "wholesome and musical puzzle adventure" where Snufkin preserves nature against a Park Keeper.[7] The same source notes that Moomin's Tale was released for Game Boy Color in 1999, featuring six stories from Moomintroll's perspective.[7]
The GamesRadar+ article states that Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley was announced on November 3, and is being developed by the Oslo, Norway-based indie studio Hyper Games.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Moomins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Mumin | Schildts Förlags Ab", Schildts.asiakkaat.sigmatic.fi (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Moomins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bruun, "HBL-serie del 3: Mumintrollet fanns i morbrors kök", Hufvudstadsbladet, 15 January 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Moomins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ariste, Paul. 1975l "Uusi sõeliseid." In Sõnasõel 3, p. 11. Tartu: Tartu Riiklik Ülikool. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Moomins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ahola, "Jansson, Tove (1914–2001)", Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2008; Bosworth, "Tove Jansson: Love, war and the Moomins", BBC News, 2014-03-13; Wilson, "The dark side of the Moomins", New Statesman, 9 April 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Moomins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Marten, Peter. & Panzar, Katja (ed.). Starting a Great Adventure. Blue Wings Magazine. Nov. 2007.; Wilson, "The dark side of the Moomins", New Statesman, 9 April 2025; "När Mumin Erövrade Världen", Ny Tid, 1 December 2000; "D+Q to publish 'Moomin: the complete Tove Jasson comic strip'", Drawn & Quarterly, 19 January 2006; Wilson, "The dark side of the Moomins", New Statesman, 9 April 2025; Räihä, "Tove Jansson, The Moomin Business and Finnish Children", University of Tampere, Autumn 2005 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wilson, "The dark side of the Moomins", New Statesman, 9 April 2025. facts only, no text reused. newstatesman.com
- Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a new puzzler starring the Moomins - GamesRadar+. facts only, no text reused. gamesradar.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Moomins (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Moomins (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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