I'd guess that many, maybe most, readers won't even have heard of the Moomins, a phenomenon in Finland to rival Mickey Mouse in the States or Hello Kitty in Japan. Then again, they're huge in Japan, two of the three Moomin theme parks being located in that country. There have been a lot of adaptations over the years, in West Germany, Japan, Sweden, the Soviet Union, Poland, France and Armenia, with the most recent animation featuring voices like Taron Egerton, Warwick Davis and Kate Winslet; 'Moominvalley' ran for four seasons from 2019 to 2024. An American animated feature was announced last October.

Given this international attention, I should point out that the author is Finnish but the nine books in the series were originally published in Swedish and I'm reading a translation  into English, even if the odd use of "waste-paper basket" instead of "bin" suggests that Elizabeth Portch, a friend of Jansson's who did the translation, may have been American. The original Swedish title translates to 'The Wizard's Hat' and the original American edition was called 'The Happy Moomins', but the traditional English title is 'Finn Family Moomintroll', which is what's on my copy.

It's actually the third book in the series, published in 1948 when the Moomins had already become a huge success in Scandinavia. The first was 1945's 'The Moomins and the Great Flood', though it's often seen as a sort of prelude, given that some of the primary characters don't show up until the second volume, 'Comet in Moominland', a year later. I haven't read either, not least because the former wasn't translated into English until 2005, so I can't comment on that, but it feels glorious to reacquaint myself with the Moomins. While book three seems like an odd choice to begin with, it does mostly work as a standalone, even if there's no introduction to bizarre characters and the occasional comment here and there clearly requires background we don't have.

And these are bizarre characters! The Moomins are vaguely hippopotamus-shaped but they walk on their hind legs like people and, as we find as this book begins, hibernate for the winter. Snow's come so everyone eats pine needles and goes to sleep until the first cuckoo announces Spring. Is it viable for me to do the same with the Arizona summer? The core location is a simple family home, that family being Moominmamma and Moominpappa and their son Moomintroll. However, they are incredibly welcoming, so anyone who happens to wander in is likely to get a room of their own and become a character in ongoing stories.

Moomintroll's best friend Snufkin, who looks like an eight-year-old human spy, is the first awake in this particular Spring. They wake up Sniff, who looks like an anthropomorphic mouse and head out on an adventure, climbing a mountain and making a cairn to mark that they were there first. But, instead they find a hat. The Hemelen looks like a Moomin but wears a dress he inherited from his aunt, even though he's not female, and Jansson comments on that with a wonderful footnote. "It seems strange, but there you are." I like that. Later, we'll meet the philosophical Muskrat, who's, well, a muskrat, and Moomintroll's kinda-sorta girlfriend, the Snork Maiden. Snorks and Moomins aren't the same, but they look like they are and are clearly compatible.

This book, of course, is all about the hat, as the original Swedish title suggests. Jansson gives us a dose of foreshadowing here, explaining that it's the Hobgoblin's Hat, which the characters don't know, and that would soon cast a spell on the Valley of the Moomins. We soon see how, because it doesn't fit Moominpappa so is left on the floor to be the household's new bin. However, when an eggshell has sat in it for a little while, it turns into five small clouds. Now, that's cool, because the clouds can be ridden and that means fun, which is very much the point of these adventures.

The darker side of that manifests when Moomintroll hides under the hat and it changes him into a completely different person that nobody recognises. They catch an ant-lion to put in the hat as an experiment and it turns into a flood. What's more, the 'Dictionary of Outlandish Words' they put on top of the hat is contaminated and outlandish words climb out of it and onto the ceiling. That's a heck of a design idea! I think I'd get more out of this on the interior design front than a random TV show that supposedly has good taste. After this, Moominpappa and Moominmamma throw the hat into the river, but Moomintroll rescues it and on we go.

The young 'uns have adventures here that seem relatively traditional, if coloured with patented Moomin charm. For instance, they find a boat that they christen the Adventure and promptly live up to its name. At one point, they sail off to the island of the Hattifatteners, tiny creatures who love to have meetings, even though they can't speak or hear and have pretty bad eyesight too. At another, they go fishing, landing a huge fish called a mameluke that they struggle to get ashore. Even counting the storm, this isn't particularly unusual.

However, the adventures that touched me most were quieter ones. They escape the heat of July in memorable fashion and with complete parental control. Go and live in a cave for a few days, say Moomintroll's parents, so they do. Swim. Laze. Get out of the heat. I'm definitely up for that! Any caves around here with conveniently adjacent lakes? The ever formal Hemulen tends to stay in to take care of things like his stamp collection, even if he's unhappy at finishing it, because now he's just an owner. The Muskrat simply likes sitting around thinking. Peace and quiet is a good thing.

The Hobgoblin's Hat spices up many of these adventures, but eventually, as a year comes around, that plot strand has to find a logical conclusion and it's a fun one, courtesy of Thingumy and Bob, a couple of mice who show up because they fell smood and, yes indeed, speak only in spoonerisms. I like that. They're welcomed, of course, just like everybody else, but have a bad habit of borrowing things they don't think anybody needs, which is why the entire valley turns out in a grand search for Moominmamma's handbag. They have a secret that helps to wrap up the hat story, with some assistance from the Groke and the Hobgoblin himself.

There's so much in books about the Moomins to enjoy that I don't know where to start, but maybe my favourite aspects are how loose and unpredictable they are and how everything happens with absolutely no judgement. I love how Moominmamma opens her front door to find two mice with a suitcase and immediately asks Moominpappa to set up a couple of new beds for them. I love how the first result of something weird happening just prompts fun play instead of mass panic. Even a visit from the Hobgoblin doesn't seem like a calamity. There's more emotion when Snufkin thinks it's time to wander off for the winter. But hey, he'll be back with Spring.

I'd normally follow this up with a run through the series, but I only have this one book. Eight of the nine 'Moomins' books were translated into English by the time I was born, while the true original, 'The Moomins and the Great Flood' took until 2005, being translated for the sixtieth anniversary of the series. Unfortunately, they don't show up often in the wild in the States, but I'll make sure to keep my eyes open for them. ~~ Hal C F Astell