Special Stuff – Wednesday: Moomins
Our house is full of Moomin paraphenalia… how could it not be? The Moomins and all things Tove Jansson have been a life-long love for me and now my girls. I grew up in a Moomin kind of family in a Moomin kind of house and now I even have my own Mimble and My as daughters… I will tell you a secret; if you love the Moomins and you meet another Moomin fan (a guenuine one, mind you) you can be sure that they are a pretty nifty kind of person, and most likely worth making friends with.
A handful of my kind friends know & understand my passion and indulge it with gifts of figurines and books, mugs and fabric (oh so good!), stamps and inflatable snufkins… but my most special piece is the little framed drawing that Amelia did when she was three or so of Mimble, Snufkin, Moomintroll and Little My. It sits in the kitchen just near the stove and is quite often splattered with spaghetti sauce but I like to look at it often.
** By the way, if you happen to have a copy of The Dangerous Journey:
– in very good to excellent condition, pref. in English, please let me know if you would be willing to work out some kind of trade for it, (loobylu rabbit? Kokeshi? print? illustration?) because you would make me very happy ***
Well, I have never, ever heard of The Dangerous Journey before. Life is always worth being alive for while such things turn up in it.My favourite is Moominpappa at Sea. So melancholy and Little My is even more than usually ruthless. Love the fabric, too.
Well.. one more thing I didn’t know about and now wish I had.Love the moomins:)
Hi, Loobylu,I am going to make a post about Junibacken (a Swedish children’s literature museum in Stockholm, Sweden,) real soon. You would love the great Moomin mobile they have there! Beth
http://www.acornpie.blogspot.com
I have the dangerous journey in norwegian but I love it too and won’t trade it 🙂 I’ll keep an eye out if you want me too, though. In Norwegian it’s called Hvem skal trste Knttet. As a child I didn’t like it because I couldn’t read the handwritten text…
I’ve actually been wanting to buy some Moomin books for my daughter, but am not sure where to start. What would be a good one for 3 year old who hasn’t heard of them before?
For some reason, I spurned the Moomins in my youth…I can definitely recollect being in the library and giving the whole “Jansson” section a wide birth…I have no idea why…as an adult, I adore her work. Maybe the book covers at the time didn’t appeal…I have always been guilty of judging a book that way (blush)
Before we got married, my husband gave me Die Mumins box set for Christmas and it’s one of the best presents I’ve ever received. It is really charming felty stop motion animation Moomins. I think you can see the full episodes on this website: http://www.fuzzyfeltmoomins.co.uk/video.html
Oooh yes, we have the Die Mumins box set. It’s so perfect.
That illustrative style has got my attention. I must learn more about Moomin.
in my experience that is absolutely true what you say about Moomin fans!
a moomin book i don’t know about? oh be still my heart…and i must check out the fuzzyfeltmoomins site! yay!
Hi Loobylu!I grew up with the Moomin trolls, practically all children in Finland do and when we lived overseas for a few years our cousins taped episodes of the animation for us. I reread the books every now and then and magically it feels like the books change with you. Not in a bad way, but in a very good way. The books make my heart sing!
There is a childrens’ bookshop in Carlton called The Little Book Room on Nicholson Street. I know one of the lovely girls that work there and she loves the Moomins as well. I’m sure she would be able to order it in. They have quite a few of the books in their shop. She recommends them to everyone so they sell out pretty fast.
Martta
SO jealous of the Moomin fabric.I keep saying one of these days I am going to copy out my favorite Moomin characters onto the edges of pillowcases and embroider them so I have Moomin pillowcases, but I never seem to get around to it.
I even tracked down a Japanese embroidery book that had patterns (but was disappointed to find they lacked a fillyjonk, which is my favorite of the Moomin characters).
And of course I agree with you on what you say about Moomin fans 😉
Don’t hate me but i scored a copy of the dangerous journey in an op-shop a wee while ago, so if i find another one it’s yours! Will keep my thrifty eyes peeled!
Gah! I’m sorry but for me it looks horrible to see the names and titles in another language than the original, it just looks wrong. 😉 I have all the books in the original series (don’t even get me started about the japanese stuff…) and I LOVE them! They were actually written in swedish in case you didn’t know, most seem to think they were written in finnish. If you’re interested and didn’t know, the figures your daughter drew are really called Mymlan, Snusmumriken, Mumintrollet and Lilla My.The books are just fantastic, both me and my husband loves them and I hope our son will too. It’s fun to see who you’re alike in there.
I wonder why I have never heard of the Moomins before? I grew up in the 70s, were the books popular then?Anyway its nice to discover something new! must look out for the books 🙂
I never knew the Moomins until I got some fancy mugs from my aunt.I think these are pretty popular in Finland.http://en.moominvalleyshop.com/category/9/mugs
Hiya!I love the Moomins too! Snufkin is my favourite though, he’s so cute and cool, especially for a tramp. 😀 I read the books when I was little and the fact that my partner also loves the Moomins was a deciding factor. It’s nice to see all the new merchandise, shame it’s after Tove has passed away, and I understand that the illustrations used for the new merchandise (mugs, mobiles, cushions etc etc) are actually copies of her illustrations? Although still very lovely. I too would love to just SEE the Dangerous Journey, its always advertised for ridiculous prices. I’m waiting for them to re-publish it like they did with Who Will Comfort Toffle and Moomin Mymble and Little My.
Please may I ask, where did you get that lovely fabric from? I would love to get some too! It would be lovely to make a patchwork quilt with, and combine with embroidered illustrations copied from the books.
Best wishesJoey x
I would be