Moomin

I was at a tragically-hip housewares store in Berkeley (the sister store is on Filmore in SF if that gives you an idea) and they were playing “Moomin” on the TV.

Originally called “Moomintroll”, Moomin/Mumin is a Finnish children’s book series made into a Japanese cartoon and then dubbed into English, with Hawaiian music. The kids’ books were written by Tove Jansson in Swedish.

Now I have this urge to grab every Mumin episode ever!

While researching this, I have found out there is more than just the series I saw… there is a Polish-produced cartoon as well.

My friend Sam insisted the character “Snufkin” was a metaphor for a travelling god character, like Odin or the angels in Sodom. This seems to be a popular character in children’s cartoons… the Dungeon Master in Dungeons & Dragons, or the scruffy “Weather” in Adventures of the Little Koala.

My favorites were the “Hattifatteners,” which in Japanese are called nyoro nyoro.

• Moomin Character Guide


• Oy Moomin Characters Ltd
• Moominworld
• Muumi’s Dreamworld
• Moomin on Wikipedia