“It was the winter of war, in 1939. One’s work stood still; it felt completely pointless to try to create pictures.
Perhaps it was understandable that I suddenly felt an urge to write down something that was to begin with “Once upon a time.”
What followed had to be a fairytale – that was inevitable – but I excused myself with avoiding princes, princesses and small children and chose instead my angry signature character from the cartoons, and called him the Moomintroll.
The half-written story was forgotten until 1945. Then a friend pointed out that it could become a children’s book; just finish it and illustrate it; maybe they will want it.
Anyhow, here was my very first happy ending!” - Tove Jansson
~~~
It must have been late in the afternoon one day at the end of August when Moomintroll and his mother arrived at the deepest part of the great forest. It was completely quiet, and so dim between the trees that it was as though twilight had already fallen.
They were out searching for a snug, warm place where they could build a house to crawl into when winter came. Moomins cannot stand the cold at all, so the house would have to be ready by October at the latest.
80 years ago, in 1945, during the last months of World War II, was published the first book about the family of Moomins by Tove Jansson – “The Moomins and the Great Flood” (Swedish: “Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen”, literally “The Little Trolls and the Great Flood”).
Small tribute to the book, drawn in style informed by early look of characters.
Keep in mind the design evolution of the characters is not this clean, neat and consistent, not even within the same work! This gif is a simplistic generalized evolution with the frames “Småtrollen 1945 (1)” and “1954-1956” (taken from the 2rd arc of the Muminserien comic strip Muminfamiljen / Moomin and Family Life) are based on real images.
I know this post is late but I'm busy with everything else.
I honestly don’t know how to greet mother’s day in neither Swedish and Finnish as it’s more personal like only doing it to one’s own mother.
This is the Finnish mothers' day Äitienpäiä post where I decided to be about Muminmamman, "the mother" or "Mumintrollets mamma" as the text themselves often calls her more often. The Swedish mothers' day post at the end of the May will be something much more unexpected and surprising...
I really want to make a literary analysis of Muminmamman's characterizations however I don't have much time. Muminmamman has been a favorite amongst scholarships (especially amongst Feminist sociology fields alongside Lilla My, Filifjonkan and Tooticki) and there are plenty of academic papers specializing in literary analysis of her (some even claim she’s the matriarch of the valley!). However I would rather do my own thing than just relying on other people’s interpretations with few older historical exceptions (with cautious criticism of course) which takes more time.
My general information about Muminmamman
One of my favorite scene of Muminmamman in the comic strips getting grumpy from being shrunk by Martian technology and bites Filifjonkan's children! Best way to start mothers' day with! Also shrunken down Muminmamman angrily peaking out from her bag is adorable.
Muminmamman is very well-rounded multi-dimensional character when Tove Jansson writes her in the books and comic strips.
By default she can be very welcoming, hospitable, gentle, comforting and nurturing. She barely strict, proper and pedantic so she can be bumbling and sloppy at times but she seems rather content when things works decently and often tolerant if people are having weird habits and attitude. She do often tries to suppress her own discomfort, hesitations and doubts over many things while trying to stay optimistic and positive with thinking for the best outcome most of the time (although not always).
However she can still be stressed, frustrated and burned out where she can be rather spicy, hot-tempered, easily irritated and unintentionally rude without apologies. She's normally very active, assertive, concentrated, confident and resilient when it comes to danger and tries to make the best out of situations. She often do risks her own life to save people in distress.
Like most people in the valley, she values and enjoy solitude on her own. Akin to Snusmumriken, her solitude rarely becomes loneness. Although in the 8th book Pappan och havet 1965 she sometimes becomes very lonely while still seeking solitude (very much like Mumintrollet and Filifjonkan).
Muminmamman very much enjoy adventures and trips with friends and family as well as throwing social events, parties and play. She can be artistic and creative with painting such as when she paints Mumindalen and other things she misses around the lighthouse as cooping mechanism for feeling misplaced and melancholic in the 8th book.
Tove Jansson’s own description of Muminmamman
Muminmamman peacefully sleeping on the warm sand at Hattifnattarna's secret island in the 3rd book Trollkarlens hatt 1948
Original Swedish:
“Muminmamman är en person som man kan lita på. Hon vet familjens hemligheter men kan behålla dem. Och hon tar det lugnt ifall man kommer för sent till maten. Mumindalen välkomnar många gäster, somliga stannar kvar. Mamman frågar genast när de har sin födelsedag; det är ju viktigt för på födelsedag får man besämma [sic] efterrätten själv. Nästan allihop vill ha glass. Och det är kanske inte så underligt?”
My English translation:
“Muminmamman is a person one could trust. She knows the family’s secrets but can keep them. And she takes it easy/calmly in case one comes too late to dinner/food. Mumindalen welcomes many guests, some stay. The mother asks immediately when they have their birthday; it’s you know important since on birthday one can decide dessert oneself. Almost everyone wants ice cream. And that’s maybe not so strange?”
I don’t know if Tove originally had misspelled or Emma Klingenberg accidentally misspelled.
Unlike everyone else, Tove doesn't mention the various complex flawed aspects of Muminmamman as shown above.
This description by Tove Jansson I have taken is from Emma Klingenberg’s Detta är min målarsång 2025. According to Emma Klingenberg, Tove uses these descriptions to instruct collaborators to better understand how these characters basically function in general. There are various versions of these descriptions but most of them are about the same.
You notice that Muminmamman’s description, just like absolutely everyone else, never mentions any named character. Not even family members are tying themselves to each other in descriptions despite family (alongside the rare platonic-type friendship) are the most explicitly mentioned relationships in the mainline literature. The only character who names another character in descriptions is Snusmumriken who almost always starts with “Snusmumriken, Mumintrollets vän,” (can also been seen in Tove’s own synopsis of the opera), very much reflect how Tove Jansson specialize platonic friendship in her literature as the only exception from her usual show-don’t-tell style for non-family relationship (even romance) where there’s linguistically heavy constant emphasis in friendship (very much like how Tove dedicated to her own best friends Eva Konikoff and Maya Vanni in letters).
Muminmamman’s Design History
The very last scene of Kometjakten 1946 on the last page not existing in its revisited version Kometen kommer 1968 where Mumintrollet gifting the largest pearl to Muminmamman he fished up at the start after gifting all his pearl collection to Snorkfröken [Snorkmaiden].
Since the start in the 40s to early-50s, Muminmamman and Muminpappan looked identical with the only differentiation was that Muminmamman almost always have her famous handy handbag majority of the time. Even back then male and female characters don’t have much typically visible stereotypically dimorphism in by themselves such as the tiresome trope that females must universally have eyelashes/make-up as if being their biological anatomy while males allow to be neutral. There was not even much size/shape differences like making the females smaller or slimmer either.
The diorama dolls by Tuulikki Pietilä does have dimorphism between Mumintrollet & Snorkfröken and Muminpappan & Muminmamman when being together where the females are being shorter and slimmer than their male counterparts although still very much inconsistent where there are scenes of Muminpappan being much tinier than Muminmamman. Tove Jansson noted at a 80s marketing journal to the dioramas that Muminmamman can't physically enter the lantern room of the lighthouse diorama for being too fat, so seemingly she's larger than Muminpappan there.
Muminmamman's Apron
The 8th comic strip arc Mumin börjar ett nytt liv / Moomin Begins a New Life 1956 of angry Muminmamman getting briefly tired of her old family life to live free time off alone by herself in the middle of a cult conflict!
Despite Tove Jansson did change most images of the characters’ designs in revisited versions to get more aligned to their recent designs, she still chooses to leave out Muminpappan’s signature top hat (except the new cover art of the 4th book Muminpappans memoarer) and Muminmamman’s signature striped apron. Anyway, around the early years they very few times wore some clothing to differentiate them two. Only once did Muminmamman wear a striped apron in Kometjakten (removed in Kometen kommer ironically enough) and once in Farlig midsommar. The 2st comic strip arc Muminfamiljen / Moomin and family life 1955, Muminpappan’s famous top hat and Muminmamman’s famous apron are getting standardized (although Muminpappan already wore a top hat throughout the 5th book Farlig midsommar 1954). According to the official Moomin website (seen HERE), the publisher Charles Sutton at Associated Newspapers requested Tove Jansson to have Muminmamman an apron to distinguish herself from the rest of the Mumin family. Likely I think Sutton noticed the earlier images of Muminmamman wearing an apron a few times and suggests she could always wear it to make her more distinct rather than just the idea being random or for stereotypical reasons.
However the color of Muminmamman’s striped apron is never mentioned in neither the book nor the comic strips themselves (her apron is still very rarely mentioned in the books when I was using the search engine). Most of the merch however around that time already commonly colorized her apron white and red stripes which carries over in colorized audio-visual adaptations. Ironically enough despite her very few first depictions of wearing an apron were already striped, her first appearance with the apron in a consistent standardized form in the 6th book Trollvinter 1957 lacks any patterns and continues being like that in the rest of the book series. Likewise for the comic strips, the stripes of Muminmamman’s apron suddenly disappeared in the 11th arc Mumin och marsmänniskorna / Moomin and the Martians 1957 and gone since that. In the picture book Den farliga resan 1977, Muminmamman’s dress is striped however was purely white without the red stripes. Otherwise her apron was much commonly having the red stripes elsewhere. Lars Jansson’s style-guide for the 90s anime wrote that Muminmamman’s apron must be either purely white or white with red stripes as seen on the image below.
Some merch and prints like colorized versions of the comic strips sometimes include other colors like Muminmamman wearing purely red aprons. Some also have bizarre colorations like the eyes of Mumintrollet having his whole eyes blue (including the sclera) in some 80s print of the comic trips does (such as the children's magazine editions I own) likely because later depictions have him blue irises however the comic strips have a simplified black irises/pupils so the later editors colored in the whole eyes instead. I'm really not sure if the Jansson siblings were involved with these miscolorations but they do have strict design guides like the one above.
Generalized Design History
Lars Jansson’s style-guide for the 90s anime as seen from Skatter från Mumindalen 2024. I know the page was bent and poorly taken but I will take a better photo next local library visit.
Skatter från Mumindalen 2024 describe Mumintrollet’s parents became more “childlike” in revisited versions however I think they just became more abstract, stylized, rounder and minimalistic in general as well as making their age gap with their son appear more noticeable closer by making each family member more similar to each other (such as the proportion). Although looking at the original illustrations from Kometjakten, they had always looked rather similar to each other except more size differences.
I think Mumintrollet might have originally meant to be a literal child in the first two books consider the larger size difference however even in Kometjakten was already treated as an older youth like elsewhere (such as drinking wine at parties casually).
Most of their final base design started to form in the 3rd book Trollkarlens hatt where Mumintrollet and his parents started to get less different from each other. Their mouths however got de-emphasized, shrunk and fused with their enormous noses while their exaggerated noses merged with their jawlines which is a very common cartoon stylization technique for many humanoids (they are just often mistaken as animals due to the pointed ears and tails however that makes them more like kemonomimis of the cartoon caricature world). Their tiny mouths are normally not visible except very few instances (often during specific strong expressions or certain angles underneath or the side of their huge noses). Now they very often can't rely on their mouths to express most emotions such as happiness so their eyes, eyebrows and body language must do the heavy lifting.
Many of John Bauer’s fairy-tale trolls (not considered traditional folkloric trolls by institutions since trolls in actual Swedish-speaking folkloric trolls are more often "less dramatic" of almost visually identical to humans except few “off” features akin to Snusmumriken) also have this stylization feature where their humanoid noses just happens to just look like animal snouts or beaks at first glance. John Bauer was one of various works that Tove Jansson credits inspiring her own works even if the typically literary monstrous fairy-tale troll imagery themselves didn’t absorb into her trolls. Instead she relied on the vast diversity of the actual Swedish-speaking folkloric memories of trolls being a spectrum of behaviors, alignments, lifestyles and appearances (more specifically various variants of the common troll type of Småtroll, tiny trolls, which the 1st book is named after, even if the art style is abstract and individual folk groups themselves are her own).
At the time Tove Jansson grew up, Nordic oral tradition was still very much alive independently from mainstream media such as literature. Tove Jansson had various interests and knowledge in many things which include Nordic culture, folklore and art history. Förfadern [the Ancestor] and the “common troll” description mentioned at the English-exclusive bonus material of Muminmamman’s written letter are very clearly based on the distinct Finnish Peikko (which is odd since that’s not the ones English-readers are familiar with). While nowadays Peikko is just a generic term for troll in Finnish, visual depiction of Peikko in early-1900s in Finland can be something highly abstract, stylized and even bizarre that it’s difficult to know what they are supposed to be, akin to Tove Jansson’s abstract troll designs. You can look a little bit more about the troll designs at my 80th anniversary post HERE.
Size Relation to Age
Two separated panels from the 2nd comic strip arc Muminfamiljen / Moomin and Family Life 1955 showcasing the common design trope of size visually signaling the age of young adults, middle-aged adults and elderly adults. This can also be individual size variations amongst adult characters seen in various folk groups in Mumin.
The books does refer Mumintrollet and his peers as “ungdomar” (youths as in teens and young adults) and explicitly young adults in the Muminserien comic strips and Mumindalen 2019-2025 while only very few characters (Mumintrollet’s parents and elders but never narration) allow them to call them children affectionately few times (but never literally) however they are basically treated the same as any non-elderly adults where their age are not significant, playfulness is a cultural communal aspect in Mumindalen (even Filifjonkan and Mumintrollet's parents play alone without the youths!) and everyone regardless of age share various unique sets of childlike and adult aspects. Actual children and elders however are rare and more constantly defined by their age groups. Other adaptations like the 90s anime have heavily distorted how age functions in the original works (especially the awful casting of the Jap/Eng dub). More about how age groups are treated in future posts.
Mumintrollet being slightly shorter than his parents is a typical classic visual trope of technically physically grown characters still being shorter than older grown characters with elders sometimes being even the largest. You can notice the same with Moster Jenni [Aunt Jane] being slightly bigger than both of Mumintrollet’s parents. You can see such trope with Spongebob and his parents, Remy from Ratatouille and his brother Emile with their father Django. All these examples of young adult youths shorter than their parents to visualize being their offspring which doesn't mean they are literally children.
Mumintrollet might also just be a naturally short than average individual as various adult individuals of the same folk group such as Hemuls and Mymlor [Mymbles] have wildly different size variations.
Mumintrollet seems to be the only one of his generation to still live with his own parents. In most renditions it seems like it’s for out of habit, preferences and loneliness. In Muminserien comic strips, Mumintrollet used to live alone in two houses but was overwhelmed with responsibilities. Mumindalen 2019-2025 Mumintrollet did have brief anxieties of his parents expecting him to move out soon which they reassure he can move out wherever he feels ready for. Comic strips have additional reasons that implies a housing crisis as he used to live alone there before losing both his two homes. Rather relevant with today's real life struggles with youths.
Mumintrollet living with his parents most of the time might reflect Tove Jansson's strong lifelong close bond with her own family when the social expectation thinks adults should move on from their families to form their own.
In the books, Mumintrollet does often look up or seek reassurance with his parents which likely reflects his insecurities. Other adult characters do shows some kind of dependencies or fondness with older family members such as various Hemuls with their maternal aunts.
Muminmamman’s backstory and family
In the 1st book Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen 1945, Muminmamman grew up in human's tiled stoves like this.
Keep in mind that Mumin, even between the books themselves, doesn't have any fixed consistent “canon/lore” but instead more like independent stories. We don’t know much about Muminmamman’s complete backstory and family history just like most of the characters.
In the first Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen 1945, full of discontinued early installment weirdness, Mumimmamman told that she and the other Mumintrolls used to live behind the human’s tiled stoves amongst the house trolls which was loosely referred in Kometjakten 1946 (but removed such connection to the revisited Kometen kommer 1968). Due to the real life recent decline of tiled stoves at homes at the time and replaced with radiators that Mumintrollen dislikes, they have to be forced to live elsewhere. You can find a glimpse of it at the 80th anniversary post HERE. Keep in mind this backstory will never reappear again but instead their ancestors like Förfadern (either 1000 years old in Trollvinter or 300 years old in Sent i november) used to dwell in tiled stoves.
Many adaptations such as Mumintrollet 1969 also depict Muminhuset as being many centuries old and inherent through generations rather than newly built by Muminpappan (for Mumintrollet 1969, it’s a satirical analogy of 60s Swedish governmental conflicts with minorities). Muminpappan’s orphan backstory is also inconsistent as his parents or family is sometimes mentioned (such as Mumintrollet 1969 mentions Muminpappan’s paternal grandfather although you could interpret he later found his biological family at some point).
In the Muminserien comic strips in Swedish, it’s implied that Moster Jenni [Aunt Jane] is from Muminmamman’s side considering she’s referred to as “moster” [maternal aunt] (although everyone called her that). In the 90s anime she’s changed into “Faster Jenni” (“faster” means paternal aunt) which made her being from Muminpappan’s side for the plot about him inheriting her wealth (with Muminpappan there being bizarrely scared of money when he’s originally highly materialistic opportunist and would really love that inheritance cash just to immediately waste on impractical expensive stuff like tons of cigars, and was only lying that he was scared of money for accidentally stole her cash in the 2nd comic strip arc just to not anger her). Again that made it contradicting when the 90s anime did have episodes adapting the revisited version of Muminpappans memoarer where he's an orphan unless he's... let's not think too deep with implications, it's very likely an oversight for plot convenience for the anime (the best fanwank interpretation would be he was simply just lost and later).
At the 7th anthology book Det osynliga barnet [The Invisible Child] with the short story of the same name, Muminmamman uses her maternal grandmother’s traditional medicines to cure invisibilities. This detail was brought up again in the satirical live action show Mumintrollet 1969 when she tries to heal the King from his bite from Förfadern [the Ancestor] (when he tried to discuss about institutionalize the little old fluffy cranky man to an elderly home with him) which instead backfires with multiple wacky curses like floating and invisibility (which includes the whole Mumin household pinning him in the floor just to prevent from floating with Filifjonkan passing by with priceless silent reaction as it looks like they just assaulted a monarch without context and then later chained him at the prison).
Muminmamman’s parents were mentioned briefly at the 9th book Pappan och havet where Muminpappan searches for the key for the lighthouse and tries to remember what his parents-in-laws did when searching for lost things. Both of them were noted for being really forgetful and bumbling ironically enough.
Muminpappan's memoirs in Muminpappans memoarer/bravader 1950 ends right with Muminmamman and Muminpappan first met where she was washed ashore at Muminpappan's colony. However what happens next and her backstory before this is intentionally unclear. Although I think why the book ends with Muminmamman instead of continue exploring her youths, backstory or introduce her earlier is maybe due to naming complications as I will explain later. It could also be that the book was meant to explore and satirizing performative "masculinity" as well as time/length constraints. However throughout the series and adaptations they two will rather frequently mention their youths that hints they had frequently went on wild adventures together before settling down for family formation.
There's a scrapped early-60s musical pilot scrip for a stop-motion movie with Vivica Bandler as the director, about Mumintrollet's full backstory mentioned in Emma Klingenberg's Detta är min målarsång where it's like a blend between Muminpappans memoarer/bravader and the 2nd comic strip arc Muminfamiljen / Moomin and Family Life. Snusmumriken [Snufkin] is the narrator explaining how Mumintrollet became lost as a baby and later reunited with his family. Muminmamman made a bark boat for him as a baby but the boat accidentally floated away so Mumintrollet became lost. More about this manuscript in future post.
The swamp scene of Muminmamman rescuing Mumintrollet while Sniff watches. The text itself however wasn't this dramatically but Mumintrollet just sinking his foot into the mud while walking near Muminmamman that made her put him on a water lily pad.
What’s Muminmamman’s “Real” Name?
Muminmamman’s full proper name is just Muminmamman (sometimes spelled Mumin-mamman in certain sources) since she’s the matriarch of the Mumin household (and houseowner of Muminhuset and maybe landowner of Mumindalen), just like Muminpappan is the patriarch of the household.
The most common ways to adressing Muminmamman in the original books
In the books themselves majority of the time Muminmamman is far more commonly just called “mamman” [the mother] (notice the “n” suffix) by both dialogue and narration. She’s also very commonly known as just “Mumintrollets mamma” [Mumintrollet’s mother], “hans/sin mamma” [his mother] or “trollets mamma” [the troll’s mother] (apparently Mumintrollet’s actual shorten nickname is “trollet” [the troll] in the books based on the usual suffix nickname pattern like “Mumrik” for “Snusmumriken” instead of “Mumin” like elsewhere despite most characters are technically a form of troll. Sentences like “mamman och trollet” just means “Muminmamman och Mumintrollet” even if it literally means “the mother and the troll”). In the books her full name is incredibly rarely mentioned. All these patterns are also the same for Muminpappan. Although, “Mumintrollets mamma” seems to also be her alternative full proper title at certain formal contexts. Such as the forewords of 4th book Muminpappans memoarer, Muminpappan starts with addressing himself as “Mumintrollets pappa” [father of Mumintrollet] rather than Muminpappan (that his memoirs themselves are even named after). There's a possible interpretation that Tove uses the trope of everything centered around the protagonist.
Mumintrollet is the only one just calling her directly “mamma” [mom/mother] (without the “n” at the end that’s like “the” in English as will explained below) because she’s his mother just like him calling Muminpappan “pappa” for being his father.
Other languages like Finnish do the same with Mumintrollet calling his parents “isä” [dad/father] and “äiti” [mom/mother].
During dialogue with Mumintrollet, Muminmamman and Muminpappan are understandably mostly called “din mamma/pappa” [your mother/father] or just sometimes “mamma/pappa” by other characters which is just common way to speak directly to someone about the person’s parents. Although this seems to be more commonly by Muminmamman and Muminmamman referring to each other when speaking to Mumintrollet.
Outside the books, Mumintrollet’s parents’ full names are more likely to be used but the other ways to refer to them from the books are often left out.
I notice in some non-Swedish language adaptations Muminmamman and Muminpappan are always used their full names at all times, even by Mumintrollet (this is also seen in the Swedish translation of new Japanese/Norwegian Moomintroll game 2026). Some languages such as Japanese they are often nicknamed as just “パパ“ [”Papa”] and “ママ” [“Mama”] by everyone regardless of context which is just weird to me. Although Dutch also seems to do this as well.
The 1st book Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen 1945 uses different more simplified language use more similar to a typical fairy-tale rather than Tove Jansson’s more distinct poetic writing and specific vocabulary (which started in the next book Kometjakten 1946). The names Muminmamman and Muminpappan were never used. Mumintrollet’s name was also in lower case “mumintrollet” (this is sometimes used in outside materials like written Swedish-language interview articles) which means his name would actually be translated as “the Mumintroll” in English here. Capital letters are used much more sparely in Swedish but almost never used for someone’s kind such as ethnicity, nationality or language.
Also, Tove Jansson was one of various people starting to transition into the du-reform early (where what was considered “informal” becomes “formal” and the Swedish language becomes much looser) which was said to be properly established by 3th July 1967. She and her works often default to addressing people with the “du” (singular “you" which was considered informal in the past unless used for people you knew well) with “ni” (nowadays used as the plural “you” which was the default but nowadays not recommended to use singular anymore of most context) being secondary as singular for certain social groups (like elders, proper people and certain people of higher status). Although I saw older transcripts of folk memories from the 1800s amongst Swedish-speakers in both Finland and Sweden, rural people already commonly spoke like that. Tove Jansson rarely uses the older “far/fader” and “mor/moder” for referring to other people’s father and mother but often instead defaults in “pappa” and “mamma” just like today. Småtrollen 1945 shows early du-form transition where “ni” is used first but very quickly turns into “du” for certain characters such as Tulippa’s introduction meanwhile pappa/mamma is the default words for parents. This ni/du speech was quickly discontinued in the very next books where “du” became the default at all times (alongside Tove Jansson’s very distinct vocabulary is getting more established).
First arrival to the stone island in Pappan och havet 1965
Speculations of Other Possible Names/Titles
It’s unlikely Muminmamman was born with that name just like when Muminpappan wasn’t born with his current name. Although in Sweden and Norway you can name newborn baby girls the really strange name “Lillemor” which means “little mother” (might have started as an affectionate nickname and it was newer than it sounds like starting from early 1900s) long before they even can become mothers or never became one (although might refer to caring or nurturing parentlike nature to others like younger children or dolls rather than just future mothers. Although as explained beloved, motherhood might also refer to authority, matriarchy, leadership and ownership rather than being a literal parent to a child just like fatherhood).
If that wasn’t her birth name then we never get to know what name Muminmamman previously might have had before that title. Muminpappan and Muminmamman do tell a lot about what they did as youths however in Muminpappans bravader/memoarer ends with Muminpappan rescuing Muminmamman without much dialogue. She was simply noted as “ett litet kvinnlig Mumintroll” [a small female Mumintroll]. Apparently the second only time “kvinnlig” [female/womanly] was used in the entire book series (however “manlig” [male/manly] does appear mostly in critical/satirical/ironic way but still also very rare) which also entirely avoids the common gender terms “kvinna” [woman/female], “pojke” [boy], “flicka” [girl] and “man/män” [man/male/men] (as noun). Muminpappan noted that Muminmamman is small as youth when most illustrations show them being the same size or sometimes even slightly larger than him. Or maybe she was slightly younger than him by that point before reaching his size (few diorama dolls do depict Muminmamman and Snorkfröken shorter than their male counterparts sometimes however few times they are depicted larger than them).
Previously Muminmamman might have been named something else like Fru Mumin(troll) [Lady/Mrs. Mumintroll] (still sometimes called that in Muminserien, the comic strips) once married or became property owner or reached certain age (keep in mind that “fru” does not necessarily mean married woman just like the standard German word for woman “frau” although nowadays it mostly just means wife in Swedish even if society got more feminist ironically enough. That also explains why “jungfru” [maiden] has the suffix “-fru” since it literally just means “young lady”, NOT “young wife”).
Although she might have be named “Muminmamma” already once married or just became property owner since “husfru” (literally translated as “house lady/wife” however should NOT be confused with “hemmafru” which does mean the same as housewife in English), “matmor” (literally means “food mother”, also means female pet owner) and “husmor” (literally means “house mother”, and just like “husfru” is the female counterpart of the male title “husfar” which literally means “house father”) all means the female owner/ruler over a property regardless of parental/marital statuses. Parental titles without referring to actual biological parenting is metaphorical for responsible authority over something such as the title Pope derived from “papa” (like Le Grand Schtroumpf’s English name Papa Smurf).
While young/unmarried she might theoretically have been called “Muminfröken” (literally means [The Mumin maiden/Miss]) akin to Snorkfröken (literally means [The Snork Maiden/Miss]) although Snorkfröken got later recognized as a Mumintroll (with distinct personal name which does make sense when “snork” is a real word meaning something like arrogance so her name literally means “the arrogant maiden/miss”) or ambiguous rather than a Snork (seemingly Snorks as distinct folk group depiction was just isolated independent story instances). This wild speculation of mine of Muminmamman’s possible maiden name is also never confirmed and should be really cautious (more like a slight possibility but I personally think is unlikely).
There’s another possibility Muminmamman was just known as “Mumintrollet” while young, the default name of her folk group, just like Muminpappan did in his youth. That’s just common naming convention to be named after one’s kind that would be very confusing if multiple characters with the same name were in the same scene in an individualistic way which rarely happens. Often such characters are named after their professions, role, family associations or physical characteristics if they appeared together (that might be situationally temporary such as “den lilla hemulen” [the little hemul] was named that to distinguish from her cousin police chief in the 5th book Farlig midsommar). This is very similar to typical folkloric naming convention.
Muminmammans visa/song [Muminmamman’s song]
The Swedish publisher Birgitta Westin had an idea for a song collection about various songs from Mumindalen that Erna Tauro could compose. Including giving new songs for characters that never got songs on their own like Muminmamman.
Original Swedish:
Min stora väska har jag med mig överallt,
där finns kompass och ståltråd, lite salt –
ifall familjen fiskar på ett öde skär –
och varma strumpor för en frusen resenär
och karameller ifall det går rent på tok
och magpulver, en trevlig pocketbok
och mycket annat som man kunde ha
men också utan klarar vi oss bra!
My English translation:
I have my large bag with me everywhere,
There is compass and steel wire, little salt —
in case the family fish on a desolate skerry –
and warm socks for a frozen traveler
and candies in case if goes completely crazy/bad
and stomach powder, a nice paperback book
and much more one could have
But also without we’re doing well!
Unfortunately Erna Tauro passed away before finishing composing the music book but Visor från Mumindalen did manage to get released for the first time in 1993.
Most other songs originates from theaters and concerts that reflect the characters’ inner monologues about their personal subjective psyches, current mental state, worldview, philosophies, etc, very much like the subjective 3rd person POV narration except in 1st person POV. The ones with the most psychological themes are Filifjonkan and Misan.
You can hear Muminmamman’s song by Johanna Grüssner from the 2003 album Moomin Voices HERE.
Muminmamman’s multi-dimensional influences
Source from Official Moomin website HERE. Self-portrait of Signe Hammarsten-Jansson with young 4-years old Tove 1917 called "Husmor i Helsingfors"
Muminmamman as Tove Jansson’s mother Signe Hammarsten Jansson.
Tove Jansson claims in public that Muminmamman is one of the ONLY two characters being a portrait of another person other than Tove Jansson herself which is her own mother Signe Hammarsten Jansson, also nicknamed as “Ham” for short by both family and scholars. The other character being Tooticki as a portrait of Tove’s lifelong girlfriend Tuulikki Pietilä. Tove Jansson was rather strict with that claim. There are very few additional characters being confirmed privately by Tove herself being based on others which are Muminpappan being based on her father Viktor Jansson (even if really defensively denying that to a fan letter although I think she don’t want her private personal life end up inside some random teenager’s school essay) and Vifslan being based on her really complicated ex-girlfriend Vivica Bandler.
Signe Hammarsten-Jansson (1882-1970) was an illustrator from a priest family from Sweden. When she was young she was very free spirited and adventurous just like Tove Jansson herself and the rest of their family. She have done many things in her life yet struggles with various historical societal obstacles for being a woman. She's trying to balance her artistic work with her family life. You can read more about her HERE.
The characteristics of Muminmamman keeping others’ secrets, being very willing to listen and recognizing people’s individuality seems to be inherent from Signe. Signe was one of the most trusted ones Tove Jansson could share her most private personal experiences with which does include her same-gender attraction and sexuality. Seemingly Signe was the few ones alongside Tove’s brother Lars Jansson not having any initial negative reaction to Tove’s reveal that she was attracted to other women shortly after dating Vivica except her concern to lose contact with Atos Wirtanen which Signe personally enjoyed his company. What many biographers often forget, most of the people Tove Jansson first revealed her orientation to did eventually become tolerant and supportive as Tove continued discussing her attraction and sexuality while also thanking their ability to listen.
Other characters based on Signe is the grandmother from Sommarboken 1972. Sommarboken was a suggestion by Signe Hammarsten-Jansson that Tove Jansson had in mind for a long time. The granddaughter is based on Signe's grandmother Sophia Jansson who's Lars Jansson's daughter and Tove Jansson's niece.
Rosa’s mother in the short story Den stora resan from the anthology book Dockskåpet 1978 is also based on Signe. That short story was based on one brief break up between Tove and Tuulikki over Signe in 1963 that was quickly resolved; however unlike real life, Rosa chooses her mother over her girlfriend Elena in Den stora resan instead of value both. There's a 2005 adaptation you can view in YLE HERE.
Why Mumintrollet is the only one of his generation still living with his parents might reflect Tove’s own continuous strong attachment to her parents and family. Tuulikki, akin to Elena from Den stora resan, seems to think Tove was being too clingy with Signe that they broke up very briefly around 1963. Tove eventually noted that Tuulikki and Signe became friends again 1965.
Muminmamman as Tove Jansson herself
Source from Official Moomin website HERE. Muminmamman (left) and Muminmamman (right) sawing their frustrations away!
Just like most other characters being fragments of Tove Jansson (which is incredibly common creative aspect amongst creators, more so than literally trying to trace the cast on real life people based on just actually generic universal vibes alone), Muminmamman is also based on Tove Jansson herself. The abstracted fragmented “auto-biographical inspiration model” was actually confirmed in public interviews by Tove Jansson herself which should be the primary default approach to trace where influences originate (also very common creative method by creators) alongside explicit confirmations by Tove and highly specific parallels with unusual personal traits/events with no much possible alternative explanations (with vibe-based connections should follow these 3 secondarily but not the main sole base but if someone else resembles a character just for universally generic vibes alone with no confirmation then it’s just coincidences).
Muminmamman is one of characters Tove confirms being also based on herself she relates to in interviews. It’s often her gentleness she seems to relate to. Additionally I think she also relates to Muminmamman’s resilience (sisu!) and occasionally hot-tempered and struggles with frustrations with stress, pressure and burnouts (especially the stone island and throughout the Muminserien comic strips).
One of Tove Jansson’s common public nicknames is “Muminmamman” which in interviews like the one from 1984 she said she was proud of which you could view HERE. (Her nickname “Muminmamman” was also mentioned in the report of her death HERE)
Even late-40s, Tove Jansson seemed to like being nicknamed “Muminmamman”. In December 1949, a person which Tove Jansson had complicated relationship with that she calls “old enemy” started to “turvis” (either means “in turn” or “luckely”) call her “Muminmamman” which Tove saw as “försoningsbevis” (something like “reconciliation certification” or “evidence of reconciliation”).
I have noticed various parallels between Muminmamman and Muminpappan with Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä. Pappan och havet 1965 was very much inspired by Tove and Tuulikki's experience on Klovharun. Both couples were struggling and bickering around the stoned island which is rather common dynamic between older couples trying to navigate external pressures. Tove & Tuulikki's published their journals from Klovharun with the autobiographical Anteckningar från en ö 1996 where you can see various similarities with Pappan och havet.
