Acceptable trolls

#MoominWeek @ Potpourri2015.wordpress.com and Calmgrove.wordpress.com

A periodic reminder that Mallika and I are co-hosting a one-off #MoominWeek the last seven days of August, an excuse – if one is needed – to read, watch, write and wallow in all things Moomin!

This particular week can also be regarded as an adjunct to Paula’s ongoing #ToveTrove meme celebrating the life and work of Tove Jansson, and as a tribute to Paula and her partner who are themselves getting married in September.

As well as the nine canonical books in the Moomin series, five picture books and a comic strip were issued between 1945 and 1993, and there have been animations based on the Moomin characters – and even theme parks!

Tove Jansson’s Moomins: #MoominWeek #ToveTrove

Tove’s Småtrollen (‘the small trolls’) were introduced in Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (later translated as ‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’), completed during the war eighty years ago although not published till after peace was declared in 1945.

To place her Småtrollen in context, Swedish Bergatrollet means ‘the Mountain Troll’, while Dovregubben (‘the old man of the mountains’) is the troll king in Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, named after the Dovrefjell mountain range in central Norway.¹

‘Peer Gynt before the King of the Trolls’ by Arthur Rackham.

However the only thing Jansson’s Småtrollen share with how Nordic trolls are generally portrayed is the protuberant nose: mountain trolls are typically seen as giants, much like the ones in Tolkien’s The Hobbit or the troll who lives under the bridge in the Norwegian tale The Three Billy Goats Gruff (and also in Neil Gaiman’s short story ‘Troll Bridge’). Unlike the giants, ogres, and other mischievous beings that one usually associates with Nordic trolls, Jansson’s trolls are more like the secretive household spirits that keep themselves warm behind the stoves in Scandinavian homes.

Although diminutive, they weren’t cousins of the trows who appear in the folklore of the Orkneys and Shetlands, who were (are?) mischievous or malignant fairies, elves or spirits associated with the island settlements. The Moomins’ ‘marshmallow hippo’ appearances were in fact based on Jansson’s troll signature for Garm, a Swedish satirical journal.

Tove Jansson’s troll signature

If you’ve never become acquainted with – or been tempted to encounter – the Moomins and all the beings associated with them don’t do as I did and delay an encounter; I regret I didn’t conquer my prejudices until relatively recently, only to discover there was more deep stuff about them than I’d ever imagined!

Want to know about the Moomins? This official site introduces the “small trolls” or mumintrollen to English speakers: https://www.moomin.com/en/about/. These are the acceptable trolls one can engage with on the internet, yay!

Meanwhile, https://tovejansson.com/ gives the background to the author’s inspirations.

‘Family’ (1942) by Tove Jansson: Tove and her two brothers are flanked by her parents

You can find out more about Tove Trove here on Paula’s blog: https://bookjotter.com/2019/07/29/tove-trove-reading-the-books-of-tove-jansson/

Better still, share your thoughts online on Jansson as well as the Moomin stories using the tag #ToveTrove.

Tove Trove: Reading Tove Jansson. https://bookjotter.com/2019/07/29/tove-trove-reading-the-books-of-tove-jansson/

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¹ Is it then troll or trollet? I understand that in Norwegian the word troll is a neuter noun. So when using the indefinite singular it’s et troll, ‘a troll’; the definite singular form is therefore trollet, ‘the troll’. The indefinite plural form is troll (‘trolls’), and the definite plural form trolla (‘the trolls’). Maybe a Norwegian speaker could correct me if I have this wrong!