Tove Jansson is the creator of The Moomins, Finland's most international trolls. Her Moomintroll books, a classical reading for Scandinavian children, have already been translated into more than 30 languages

The Moominvalley

Deep in the forests of Finland live the Moomins, a family of small, white and furry trolls who like sunshine and sleep right through the winter. They are Moominmamma, Moominpappa, Moomintroll and their friends, and they all live happy in Moomin valley. Moomin valley is a rural and peaceful world, that can at times be also strange and misterious.

Those are the Moomins, the masterpiece creation of Finnish illustrator and novelist Tove Jansson. A popular reading in children's literature since the late 1940's, the Moomins also appeal to adults for the sophisticated sense of humour of their anarchic and opposed personalities.

It has been over half a century since the Moomins first saw the daylight and the Finnish trolls are still a children' favourite in Scandinavia and in other parts of the world. Several Moomin TV cartoons have been produced in Japan, where the popularity of the Finn-trolls is enormous, and other Moomin productions have been played in theatre, in opera and even on the radio. There is a huge merchandising industry set up around the Moomins, specially in their homeland Finland, which caters well for the most demanding Moomin-fan -with the Moomin museum in Tampere and the Moomin World in Naantali, one of the most visited tourist attractions in Finland.


Tove Jansson - Biography

Tove Jansson was born in 1914 and grew up in Helsinki in a bohemian family of artists. The Janssons used to live in the capital during the winter and then would leave the city to spend the summer on a small island near Porvoo. Tove's childhood would influence her life greatly: she adopted her parents' artistic creativity, lifestyle and tolerance, and the island's nature provided inspiration for the Moomin stories.

Tove soon wanted to be an artist herself, and so she did at the age of fifteen: young Jansson moved to Stockholm in 1930 to study painting and drawing at the Konstfack, and followed with drawing studies in 1933 at the Helsinki Art Society and in 1938 at the Ecole des Beaux Arts of Paris. During this time, Jansson travelled around Germany, France and Italy, and participated in several exhibitions in Finland and abroad. Her works received critical acclaim and by the late 1930's Jansson was considered to be among the best young artists in Finland.

Tove Jansson's famous Moomin character went public for first time as an anti-Hitler cartoon, just before World War 2. But it was after the end of the war, in 1945, that the Moomin family appeared together in Jansson's first Moomin book "Småtrollen och den Stora Översvämningen" (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood). Later on, in 1948, her third Moomin book "Trollkarlens Hatt" (Finn Family Moomintroll) gave her international recognition as a children's author. The success of Janssons' white trolls was on the rise, and in 1953 her Moomins were published for first time as a comic strip in a newspaper, England's Evening News. Soon after, the Moomins would be appearing in other newspapers in 40 countries and in 60 different languages.

Tove Jansson is mainly known for her famous Moomintrolls, but she was also an artist who painted and wrote adult fiction and short stories. She painted frescoes and murals for a number of public institutions in Finland, such us the Hamina city hall or the Aurora Children's Hospital in Helsinki. She also illustrated some works and translated editions of other writers like Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" or J.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit".

Tove Jansson kept writing Moomin stories until 1959, after which her second brother Lars Jansson and other writers continued writing new adventures for the white trolls. During all those years the Moomins were getting more and more popular around the world, and in some places like Japan, the Moomintrolls became a total craze with millions of comic books sold and several animated tv series produced.

Despite all this success, Tove Jansson kept a relatively low profile enjoying life with her life-long companion Tuulikki Pietilä. Tove Jansson passed away the 27th June 2001. Her long career as an artist has received recognition through, among others, the Nils Holgersson plaquette in 1953, the H.C. Andersen medal in 1966, the Swedish Academy prize in 1972, the Pro Finlandia medal in 1976, the Finnish State prize for literature in 1963, 1971 and 1982, and the honorary title of professor at the Åbo Akademi University in 1995.


The Moomin Family

The Moomin family are Moominmamma, Moominpappa and Moomintroll. They all live in their Moominhouse in Moominvalley. The Moominvalley is the natural, idyllic centre of the Moomin adventures.

Moominmamma is just the wonderfully perfect mother. She is sweet, wise, never gets angry, cooks delicious food, and keeps the family together and happy.

Moominpappa is an emotional, restless father who once escaped from the orphanage looking for adventure. One day, he met Moominmamma and decided to settle down and have a family.

Moomintroll is their cheerful and generous son. He has many friends who live with him in the Moominhouse. Moomintroll's friends are Snork and his sister Snorkmaiden, the vagabond Snufkin, and many other strange characters who appear in the Moomin valley from time to time.


Tove Jansson's life and the Moomins

Tove Jansson's famous creation, the Moomins, are in many ways a self-portait of the artist, her life and her world. She often used the Moomins to depict herself and her companion Tuulikki Pietilä, like in the characters "Moomintroll", "Little My" and "Too-Ticky". The Moomin family themselves were inspired by her very own family -the Janssons lived close to nature, were bohemians and tolerant towards other people's lifestyles.

Tove Janson was a Swedo-Finn, part of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. She grew up aware that people are different and that differences have to be respected. In Moominvalley there are many different creatures, and even within the Moomin family, everyone has a different personality. Yet, hers is a world ruled by tolerance and Jansson wanted to live in a world based on those values.

The Moomins look like fatty, furry trolls, but they are like humans in their way of thinking, talking and behaving. Every character have their own personality and way of expressing themselves. With the Moomin valley, Tove Jansson has actually created her ideal human world, where peaceful existence is demonstrated through everyday's life, a reflection of the peaceful Nordic idealism also expressed by many of her fellow Scandinavian writers.

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