He was, in his own words, “the first Moomin to have lived through an entire year”, and he feels desperately isolated.ĭespite first appearances, the young troll gradually realises he is far from alone.

As his family slumber in their beds, oblivious to his predicament, he emerges into a world where the clocks have stopped, there is nothing to eat and the land is covered with snow.Īlthough we never learn the reason for his wakefulness, it seems plain that in some fundamental way this behaviour goes against nature. Moomins go into a state of deep hibernation from November to April, until the ice melts and spring sunshine warms their fur – it has always been so, or was, until a particular winter when something utterly perplexing happens to Moomintroll: he wakes from his state of torpor and cannot not get back to sleep. “ One has to discover everything for oneself. There is a palpable trepidation in the air, as if we might be facing a long, lonely, bitterly cold winter. I chose to explore this work out of chronological order since it was seasonally appropriate, but also because its storyline accords in some respects with the way many people I know are feeling at the start of the new decade. Moominland Midwinter (or Trollvinter) is the fifth title in Tove Jansson’s series of stories about a family of benevolent, philosophical trolls with downy fur and soft round snouts, who reside in a rather unusual house in an attractive woodland valley by the sea.

“ All was silent, nothing stirred, and slender stars were shining everywhere and twinkling in the ice. ( 28 ) My second Janssonian contribution to the Tove Trove Library.TOVE TROVE: Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson Home › Translated Literature › TOVE TROVE: Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson

Moominland midwinter