I went to the Finnish supermarket the other day and found the Oddly Good Moomin-soygurts! I got the lemon flavour this time and it was good. I’ll try the other ones next time!
I went to the Finnish supermarket the other day and found the Oddly Good Moomin-soygurts! I got the lemon flavour this time and it was good. I’ll try the other ones next time!
I went to the opening of the new Moomin-shop in Malmö today! The first 20-or-so customers through the door recieved this lovely tote bag and in the tote bag was this key chain! It was really nice of them!
I got napkins for a lady who can’t make it to Malmö at the moment. And for myself I got a small Moomin-charm that I’m going to put on a necklace, tea and a Fillyjonk fridge magnet. I’m saving money at the moment but there were so many things I wanted to buy!
If anyone were there saw a girl with a rainbow sweater and pink kånken - that was me!
My parents and I went on a camping trip through Finland around Midsummer-weekend and because I’m a huge Moomin-fan and my mum also likes the Moomins quite a lot, we decided to spend a day at Moominworld in Nådendal. We weren’t exactly the target demographic for this place as we were three adults, but we still had a great time.
It was amazing seeing Moominhouse with my own eyes and going inside. Both the building and its inhabitants are very similar to the home I’ve dreamed about for so long and then finally found last year! A lot of nature from before the park was built is preserved and there were wooden pathways going through the forest to different locations (YAY for both accessibility and preserving nature). One of my favourites were the little meadow with hammocks and egg chairs! We also made the obligatory stop at the gift shop and I sent a Moomin-postcard to my dear friend!
I took pictures with both Snufkin and Mrs. Fillyjonk - two characters who mean a lot to me for different reasons. But I also said a quick hi or waved to a lot of the other characters!
I took some more pictures, but this is the only one I feel comfortable sharing here.
Watching Moominvalley 2019 with my friends who haven’t seen the show before and we’ve reached the episode where Moomin falls in love with the seahorses
Re-reading the books for the 100th time probably and thinking to myself “haha that’s something my friend would do/say” when Snufkin does/says something and then “haha that’s something I would do/say” when Moomin does/says something and now I’m so grateful for our friendship!
Recently I found a TikTok that compared Lucio Corsi with Snufkin. I didn't see the resemblance at first, but then I remembered that in an old interview of his, he explained that he wrote a poet about how weird it was that in Milan the parks are locked at night, and that's the most Snufkin thing I have ever heard.
The Swedish National Broadcaster (SVT) has published an article about queer themes in Tove Janssons literary works. I have done my best to translate the article (with some help from Google Translate) into English as well as summarising the accompanying video while simultaneously wondering how I passed my IELTS. I hope you will enjoy this!
Tove Jansson levde i relationer med både män och kvinnor under en tid då homosexualitet var förbjudet enligt finsk lag. Idag ser litteraturv
“Butches and Bromance” – This is how queer themes are shown in Tove Jansson’s works
Tove Jansson was in relationships with both men and women during a time when homosexuality was prohibited by Finnish law. Today, literary scholars see several queer undertones in Tove Jansson’s works.
"You could say that Tove Janssons texts, and especially the Moomin-books, are filled with queerness. This occurs at a structural level, how the whole Moomin-family is constituted. You can be a bit unconventional there", says Mia Österlund, professor of literary science at Åbo academy.
"It is what appears to be a nuclear family, but they are so open. All the characters that appear are welcome."
The queer interpretations came late
According to Österlund, Queer interpretations of Janssons works were made surprisingly late.
"It wasn’t until ten years ago, when Tove Janssons 100th birthday was celebrated, that people started talking about this a bit more openly. But I believe that people within the queer community saw these themes long before the general public did."
The dog who didn’t like other dogs
As an example, Österlund highlights a joint panel discussion with Mark Levengood.
"Levengood said that he had found a message in a comic by Jansson about a dog whose problem was that he doesn’t like other dogs, but cats."
Today’s research highlights queer undertones
According to Österlund, research today can reveal queer undertones and motifs in art that couldn’t always be shown openly at the time the works were published.
"You could say that Tove Janssons works as a whole play with this – showing and hiding these undertones. Now she has grown into an overshadowing queer icon who appears everywhere in Finnish society, along with Tom of Finland."
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In the video, Mia österlund initially talks about the book Who will comfort Toffle, and how Tove Jansson initially had planned to make Toffle a girl but had to change their gender in the end to make the story aout a boy and a girl falling in love. She also mentions how Toffle wears heels and has a handbag with a rose which are often seen as feminine things. Then Österlund then briefly mentions how hemulens wear dresses and the “bromance” between Moomin and Snufkin. She moves on to talk about how Moominland Midwinter can be interpreted as a lesbian coming-out story and describes Too-Ticky as a “butch”. Lastly, she says that Snorkmaiden might be more queer than we think.
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This article was written by Mikko Mäkitalo for Sveriges Television (SVT). The article was published on 15 April 2025 on SVT's news website (svt.se). I, @mymoominblog, have only translated the atricle and summarised the accompanying video.
Two years ago today, I opened a Moomin-book for the first time. Which then changed my life in the best ways possible. I probably wouldn’t have been where I am today or met wonderful people I’ve met here if it wasn’t for Moomins.
I had a brainfart and forgot the English word for äppleskrutt so I asked Google translate before I remembered the correct translation is apple core. Which wasn't even an option for whatever reason.
But Malic Snufkin still confuses me... How? ...It makes no sense... What does Snufkin have to do with apple cores?
We had a Finnish guest teacher today and my regular teacher asked him what my name would be in Finnish. I have a very old-English name starting with the Mi-sound, and apparently hard for Finnish-speakers to pronounce. The guest teacher (not knowing about my Moomin-obsession) said: “I would probably just call you Myy, like Pikku Myy”.
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