Moomin's long journey

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moomins long journey (original title: Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen ) is the first book by the Finnish-Swedish writer Tove Jansson about the troll creatures she invented, the Moomins . It appeared in 1945. The German translation did not appear until 1992, over 20 years after all the other eight volumes. Since Jansson did not want to see the book circulated later and most of the main plot locations and characters will not be introduced until the next book, it is often not part of the Moomin series. In a sense, it is a forerunner of the later Moomin series, which begins with the next book Comet in Moomin Valley and is understandable even without this prehistory.

action

Moomin is out with his mother. You meet a small animal (later called Schnüferl) and take it with you. They fight their way through forests and swamps and make various acquaintances. The Moomin mother tells of the Moomin father who went on a journey of discovery and never came back. She has given up hope of finding him again. You keep hiking and get caught in a heavy rain that causes severe flooding. They find Moominfather among the many animals that were able to get to safety. You can save him and he will tell them about the house he built for the family and which he will soon bring them to. Now it has been swept away by the flood. The reunited family continues hiking and after a while comes to a beautiful valley. There, to their surprise, they see the house that their father described - the flood has washed it there. You decide to stay there.

characters

This book introduces the core family of Moomin - Moominmother, Moominfather, and Moomin. Besides the nameless Hatifnatten, the only other recurring figure is the small animal that stays with the Moomins and is called Schnüferl or Sniff in later books, depending on the translation. This makes the book - which is by far the shortest - the introduction to the other books, so to speak. All other recurring characters will only gradually be introduced starting with the second book, Comet im Mumintal .

subjects

Tove Jansson began making history in 1939, during the Winter War . At first it was intended as an escapist fairy tale, which, with its motifs of childhood and security and its happy ending, should serve as a counterbalance to the war. When she finished the book in the last year of World War II , war experiences also flowed into the book and shaped the threatening mood of the book. The refugees who lost their homes as a result of the disaster and the torn Moomin family reflect the situation of many people in 1945. In this respect, too, Moomin's long journey is a kind of forerunner of the following book, Comet in Moomin Valley , in which a journey and the escape from a catastrophe also play a central role.

The book also sets standards for the Moomins' dealings with nature. Although they are repeatedly threatened by natural disasters, a life in nature is desirable for the Moomins. On their journey they meet a playful inventor who can be seen as the forerunner of Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . In the world that he created and closed off from the outside world, all plants, rivers and lakes consist of sweets. The Moomins like the sugar world for a while, but they get stomach aches, miss the daylight and finally forego the unhealthy artificiality in favor of life in real nature.

Publication history

In 1944 Jansson's friend Atos Wirtanen suggested that she process the story she had begun in 1939 into a children's book and submit it to a publisher. Jansson created almost 50 illustrations for this, including watercolors and drawings in black and white. The book was first published in 1945 in a simple design by the Swedish-language publishing house Söderström in Helsinki and at the same time by the Hasselgren publishing house in Sweden. As the title was Småtrollen och stora the översvämningen ( The little trolls and the great flood selected), as invented by Jansson term "Moomin" appeared for the marketing of the book to unknown.

Moomin's long journey was not initially a great commercial success. In 1956, after Jansson became internationally famous through her later books and comics, her Swedish publisher suggested that she reprint Moomin's Long Journey and Comet in Moomin Valley . Jansson was no longer convinced of the quality of her first two books and began to revise them. While Komet im Moumintal appeared shortly thereafter in a new version, Jansson never completed the revision of Moomin's long journey and for a long time forbade an unchanged new edition.

Moomin's long journey was initially not translated into other languages either. In Germany it was first published in 1992 in a translation by Birgitta Kicherer . It is the only Moomin book that was translated by Birgitta Kicherer in its first version. From 2001 onwards, Kicherer also translated all other volumes in the Moomin series again. In 2005 Moomin's long journey appeared in a double edition together with Komet im Moumintal under the title Willkommen im Moumintal . A reading of both books by Barbara Auer was published by Hörverlag .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the Moomin Books on the official website moomin.com, accessed January 6, 2017.
  2. ↑ Moomin's long journey on the Moomin Research website, accessed on January 6, 2017.
  3. ↑ Agneta Rehal-Johansson: Tove Jansson. The Trickster Children's Author. In: Catherine Mary McLoughlin, Malin Lidström Brock (eds.): Tove Jansson Rediscovered. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle 2007, ISBN 978-1-8471-8269-2 , pp. 15-16.
  4. ^ A b Tuula Karjalainen: Tove Jansson. The biography. From the Finnish by Anke Michler-Janhunen and Regine Pirschel. Urachhaus, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-8251-7900-7 , pp. 151–155. 160-163.
  5. ↑ Layla AbdelRahim: Children's Literature, domestication, and Social Foundation. Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness. Routledge, New York 2014, ISBN 978-0-4156-6110-2 , p. 39.
  6. ^ Boel Westin: Tove Jansson. Life, Art, Words. The Authorized Biography. From the Swedish of Silvester Mazzarella. Sort Of, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-908745-45-3 , p. 175.
  7. ^ Boel Westin: Tove Jansson. Life, Art, Words. The Authorized Biography. From the Swedish of Silvester Mazzarella. Sort Of, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-908745-45-3 , pp. 295-297.