The Tove Jansson estate has a habit of taking down Moomin videos on Youtube, so enjoy this one while it’s up. In this episode, while the rest of the Moomin family are in the deep slumber of their winter hibernation, Moomintroll finds himself awake and unable to get back to sleep. He discovers a world unknown to him, where the sun does not rise and the ground is covered with cold, white, wet powder. Moomintroll is lonely at first but soon meets Too-ticky and his old friend Little My (who takes delight in sledging down the snowy hills on a tea tray). The friends build a snow horse for the Lady Of The Cold and mourn the passing of an absent-minded squirrel who gazed into the Lady’s eyes and froze to death. As the haunting winter progresses, many characters (notably the Groke, Sorry-oo the small dog, and a boisterous skiing Hemulen) come to Moominvalley in search of warmth, shelter and Moominmamma’s stores of jam.
The life partner of Tove Jansson was the graphic artist Tuulikki Pietilä, whose personality inspired the character Too-Ticky in Moominland Midwinter. Moomintroll and Little My can be seen as psychological self-portraits of the artist. The Moomins, generally speaking, relate strongly to Jansson’s own family - they were bohemian, lived close to nature and were very tolerant towards diversity. Moominpappa and Moominmamma are often seen as straight portraits of Jansson’s parents Viktor Jansson and Signe Hammarsten-Jansson. Some of Jansson’s characters are on the verge of melancholy, such as the always formal Hemulens, or the strange Hattifatteners who travel in concerted, ominous groups. The novelist Alison Lurie has described the Groke, a black, hill-shaped creation with glowing eyes, as a walking manifestation of Nordic gloominess - everyone she touches dies, and the ground freezes everywhere she sits.
The Moomin stories have a very humane message. The books have caprices and utterances which ponder life and ways of the world. Snufkin comments on freedom: “One can never be entirely free, if one admires someone else too much.” Little My expresses possession: “Possession means worries and luggage bags one has to drag along.”