Moominfather's wild youth

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Moominvater's wildly moved youth (original title: Moominpappas bravader skrivna av honom själv or Moominpappans memoarer ) is the fourth of the Moomin books by the Finnish-Swedish writer Tove Jansson . It was published in 1950. In contrast to all other Moomin books, the Moomin Father is at the center of the plot, reading from his memoirs .

action

The framework begins with Moominfather catching a cold. Convinced that he will die from it, he begins to write his memoirs. The Moominfather reads each completed chapter to his son Moomin and his friends, the Schnupferich and the Schnüferl. The protagonists of his story are, besides the Moomin father himself, his friend Fredriksson, his nephew, who is called the bullet animal and later becomes the father of the Schnüferl, and Jojoks, who later becomes the father of the Schnupferich.

The Moomin father's story begins with his childhood in an orphanage. Bored and cramped by the strict rules and monotonous everyday life, he flees the orphanage. On the way he meets the inventor Fredriksson, who has just finished his latest invention, a houseboat. They become friends and go on a journey together with Fredriksson's nephew, the bullet animal, and another friend, the Jojoks. They endure adventures and storms until they land in what turns out to be the realm of an eccentric king. There they meet Mymla and her many children. Mymla's youngest and smallest child, little Mü, was born shortly afterwards. The Jojoks in particular is taken with the Mymla, and the Moominfather indicates that she is the mother of the Schnupferich.

The king is enthusiastic about Fredriksson's inventions and hires him as a court inventor. The Moomin father then founds the “Royal Outlaw Colony”, in which he lives together with the jojoks, the bullet animal, Mymla's eldest daughter and a ghost. The bowl animal soon finds a like-minded person in the cuddly toy who shares his passion for collecting buttons, and they get married immediately.

Life in the colony soon becomes too monotonous for Moominfather and he longs for a new adventure. When he is standing on the beach on a stormy night, the Moominmother is washed up by the waves. The Moomin father's memoirs end with the depiction of his heroic rescue of the Moomin mother from the stormy sea.

The Moominfather's story is repeatedly interrupted by the reactions of his listeners. The Schnüferl and the Schnupferich demand more prominent roles for their parents; Moomin criticizes his father's pompous language and wishes for less thoughtful digressions and a concentration on the adventurous events. They also draw the Moominfather's attention to inconsistencies and implausible exaggerations in his story.

When Moominfather has just read the last chapter, there is a knock on the door and Fredriksson, the bullet animal, the cuddly toy, the ghost, Jojoks and Mymla and their children enter. After a reunion party, everyone in Fredriksson's ship, which he has since converted into an airplane, is looking for a new adventure.

characters

The figure circle of the framework story is reduced in this book in favor of the memoir story: It consists only of the Moomin family, the Schnüferl and the Schnupferich. The latter are given their own backstory in this book by introducing their parents. In their character, the bowl animal and the cuddly toy with their childlike, naive nature and their passion for collecting, as well as the yoyoks and the mymla with their lightheartedness and desire for freedom, are similar to their respective offspring.

The Schnüferl then apparently leaves the Moominhaus, because it does not appear in the other novels; however, it plays a role again in stories from the Moomin Valley and the picture book A Dangerous Journey . Mymla's eldest daughter and her younger sister, little Mü, stay with the Moomins and become recurring characters in the following volumes.

subjects

Moominfather's wild youth can be seen as a parody of memoir literature and adventure novels at the same time. In its sometimes pathetic and slightly ancient language, it differs from all other Moomin books. Occasionally the Moominfather incorporates mythological motifs, for example that he was abandoned as a child and that a glorious future was predicted for him based on the stars. In many places the exaggerations are obvious: after the Moominfather reports at the beginning of the book that he was found as a child in a bag and wrapped in newspaper, there is a woven basket in the middle of the book and one lined with velvet at the end of the story Shell. The Moominfather portrays himself as an intrepid hero throughout the book. This self-image in his memoirs contrasts with the storyline, in which he fears he will die of a cold. His portrayal in this book is lovingly ironic without making him look ridiculous.

The subject of the book is often the writing itself. The reading hours give the book a meta-level on which the Moominfather discusses his memoirs with the other characters and has to justify his narrative and his writing style. He also explains his approach to them and explains to his young listeners how to create tension in a story.

Tove Jansson with her previous book, The Moomins. A funny company that had achieved international fame, also deals with fame in this book. The Moominfather hopes to become famous through his memoirs and explains in the foreword that "there is a great temptation to be read all over the Moomin Valley". Later he expresses his wish to be famous to his friends, to which the yoyoks replies that he doesn't think that being famous is fun: “At first maybe, but then you get used to it and in the end it just makes you sick. Like driving a carousel. "

With this book Jansson continued the blurring of the boundaries between children's and adult literature, which was already ascribed to the earlier Moomin books. The protagonist in this book is an adult character looking back on their life, and the parodic elements are more aimed at an adult audience. The fact that different target groups perceive different aspects in the book is made clear by the passages in which the other characters comment on the Moomin father's story: While Moomin wishes his father should concentrate more on the adventure story instead of describing his feelings and thoughts in long digressions , The Moominmother sees the strength of the book in these reflections and remarks that the children are probably still too young to understand. Here Jansson incorporates the discussion about the classification of her books as children's or adult literature, which has been in the media for years.

While working on this book, Jansson and her brother planned to found an artists' colony on the Tonga Islands. She later discarded this plan, but incorporated it into the plot of the book by having the Moominfather set up a seaside colony. A trip in his own houseboat was a dream that Jansson had cherished for a long time and never realized.

Publication history

The book first appeared in 1950 under the title Moominpappas bravader skrivna av honom själv ( Moominfather 's exploits, written down by himself ) and in 1956 in a second, modified version. The third version, fundamentally revised by Jansson, appeared in 1968 under the title Muminpappas memoarer ( Moominfather 's Memoirs ), which Jansson had preferred from the start. By translating the title into German without the addition "written by himself", not only a reference to the parodistic character of the book disappeared, but also a reference to the autobiography of the Renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini , admired by Tove Jansson , whose Swedish title Benvenuto Cellinis liv skildrat av honom själv ( The life of Benvenuto Cellini, described by himself ) read. The book appeared in Germany in 1963. This made it the fourth volume in the series, both in its German version and in the original language. The translation based on Jansson's second version was the first by Dorothea Bjelfvenstam , who had replaced Vivica and Kurt Bandler as translator . Bjelfvenstam translated Jansson's third version again; it was published in Germany in 1973. Like Vivica and Kurt Bandler before, Dorothea Bjelfvenstam was confronted with extensive requests for changes from the publisher. However, with Tove Jansson's help, she was able to prevail and present a translation that is much more faithful to the original than the first translations of the first Moomin volumes. Another translation by Birgitta Kicherer was published in 2002.

Adaptations

The Moomin father's memoir served as the basis for the 10th to 12th episode of the Polish-Austrian stop-motion series The Moomin .

A radio play adaptation under the direction of Heikedine Körting was published on the Europa label .

Web links

Commons : Moominfather's wild youth  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anne E. Duggan, Donald Haase, Helen Callow: Folktales and Fairy Tales. Traditions and Texts From Around the World. Greenwood, Santa Barbara 2016, ISBN 978-1-61069-253-3 , p. 518.
  2. ^ 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. 176-177.
  3. ^ 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. 172-173.
  4. ^ 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. 226-227.
  5. ^ Mareike Jendis: Moomin's miraculous adventures in Germany. To the reception of Tove Janson's Moomin books. (PDF) Dissertation 2001, p. 94.
  6. ^ 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 , p. 163.
  7. ^ History of the Moomin Books on the official website moomin.com
  8. ^ A b 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. 29-30. 237-243.
  9. ^ Mareike Jendis: Moomin's miraculous adventures in Germany. To the reception of Tove Janson's Moomin books. (PDF) Dissertation 2001, p. 89, 137.
  10. ^ Mareike Jendis: Moomin's miraculous adventures in Germany. To the reception of Tove Janson's Moomin books. (PDF) Dissertation 2001, p. 55.
  11. ^ Mareike Jendis: Moomin's miraculous adventures in Germany. To the reception of Tove Janson's Moomin books. (PDF) Dissertation 2001, p. 62.