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Kind: News, Opinion Music Genre: Vocal Categories: Entertainment, Arts, Children, Books Published: December 1, 2009

The Fir Tree Moomin Story a Continued Seasonal Hit

By FIONA WILKINSON

The Fir Tree, a short story from the "Tales from Moominvalley" novel by Tove Jansson continues to be a seasonal hit for children around Christmastime. The Moomins, who typically hibernate during winter, wake up to prepare for a looming disaster called "Christmas". Who is Christmas? Advised by their neighbors on how to prepare for the event, the calm and easy-going Moomins conform to the uneasy time of their surroundings by preparing "the arrival of Christmas". This story, reflecting feelings which arise in the month of December, in order to make the season successful, has a comical undertone which appeal to children from generation to generation.

Tove Marika Jansson (1914-2001) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. She was the author of, among other works, the eight Moomin books. The sea was Tove Jansson's greatest inspiration. When she was a child her family lived in summer in the Stockholm archipelago. She painted her whole life, changing style from the classical impressionism of her youth to the highly abstract modernist style of her later years. Jansson displayed a number of artworks in exhibitions during the 30s and early 40s, and her first solo exhibition was held in 1943. Between 1960 and 1970 Jansson held five more solo-exhibitions. She said later that World War II had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naive and innocent. One of her political cartoons achieved brief international fame: she drew Adolf Hitler as a crying baby in diapers, surrounded by Neville Chamberlain and other leaders of Europe, who tried to calm the baby down by giving it slices of cake, depicted as Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. It is, however, Jansson's work as the author of the Moomin stories which she is remembered for, and continue to be bestselling favorites of all ages, especially in Scandinavia, The United Kingdom and Japan.

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