The Shadow Remains Cast

How I interpret Snusmumriken's encounter with Dronten Fredrik would look like. Keep in mind Klingenberg never really gave information about the environment other than Fredrik's head could reach above the clouds. I found it difficult with depicting light.

For part 2 go HERE!

The information about the plot I have found in Detta är min målarsång 2025 by Emma Klingenberg.

I love that every time when the comet is depicted it looks like a freaking atom bomb with the atmosphere looks like an atomic blast which is no coincidence. This cold war nuclear weapon allegory got more explicit in the more adult-oriented comic strips (both old and new) where the comet actually hit Mumindalen but only minor impact.

So far the Polish animated series is the closest to Kometen kommer. My favorite is actually the 90s Kometen kommer, despite missing a lot from Kometen kommer, didn't sanitize the atomic blast visuals that was awesome, especially the 2023 restoration. Likely a feature film movie format didn't have such obnoxious broadcast policies Telescreen Japan had to follow where it tone downs an awful lot that felt so damn jarring to revisit to be honest (it's weird since it's not weird enough!).

Also the original Kometjakten 1946 is out of print and is instead replaced by Tove Jansson's polished and more profound revisited version Kometen kommer 1968 which most adaptations are based on and is like a totally different book. Only the few languages like English never got updated or only partially however I'm still skeptical if English is an accurate preservation since the translation tends to be garbage, especially consider Exploit of Moominpappa was actually awful to both Muminpappans bravader/memoarer as I own both versions (more of that will be covered in future posts). I wishes this year for Kometjakten's 80th-anniversary a better modern foreignized English translation of Kometen kommer that never sanitizes the language AND Kometjakten being sold in its original language again alongside Kometen kommer.

I'm working already with foreignized translation of Muminpappans memoarer with forewords (totally missing in Exploits) and preface (Exploits removed whole paragraphs from both Memoarer/Bravader). Right now there's only used copies of Kometjakten that are very rare that tends to be in worn-out shape and awfully expensive as hell. I'm planing on booking a time at Stockholm kungliga biblioteket (KB) in the future to review Kometjakten.

Plot summary of Mumintrollet och kometen 1949

Mumintrollet och kometen is the third variant of the comet story that mostly follows the basis of the comet arc that also blends with Trollkarlens hatt 1948 (that 3rd Mumin book whatever it’s called in English). It's one of the most bizarre variant of the comet arc.

Here it also includes a subplot with Hemulen’s angrily strict maternal aunt trying to educate the Mumin family that the family found more horrifying than the comet. Snusmumriken [Snufkin] apparently knows magic and makes a transformation potion that transforms Hemulen’s aunt to become nicer.

Snusmumriken gets the task to ask Dronten Fredrik to call out the comet to turn away for having such a long neck that it reaches above the clouds. Dronten Fredrik seems to be similar to Dronten Edward from Muminpappans bravader/memoarer. Snusmumriken gets anxious but calms himself by playing his harmonica when he meets Dronten Fredrik.

Klingenberg humorously comments if Dronten Fredrik is related to Dronten Edvard from Pappans memoarer in parentheses. "Dront" is actually the name of the dodo bird in Scandinavia which sounds more ancient even if it means "swollen" in Dutch. According to Detta är min målarsång, this scene seems to be similar to the theatrical manuscript Tove wrote as a child Skatten i spökslottet (The Treasure in the Ghost/Haunted Castle) that features a task to ask a giant for help. (Tove Jansson has plenty of lost and unpublished works briefly mentioned in biographies and sometimes references in her other published works).

Meanwhile Muminpappan sings quietly Villerivallaresången [The Villerivallare song] that was seen in Kometjakten/Kometen kommer [that 2nd book] where Mumintrollet sang while Snusmumriken plays it at the dance floor. 

Villerivallaresången lyrics:

Villerivallare, natten blir kallare the night get colder klockan är fem. it's five o'clock. Du vandrar allena You wander alone på trötta små bena on tired small legs och hitter ej hem. and don't find home.

"Villerivallare" and similar is a rather common wordless vocals or phrase (or whatever you call that) in Swedish folk music that means somethings about twirling, messy or chaotic.

Recreation of Villerivallaresången by Johanna Grüssner at Moomin Voices album can be found HERE. The lyrics from the official Moomin site seems to reuse the one found in the English localization meant to rhyming which can be found here HERE (switch between languages).

In photos, Muminpappan wears an coat with no top-hat just like what he was described having in Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen 1945 that he apparently lost when Mumintrollet and Muminmamman finds him at the end. He seems to start wearing his iconic top-hat in the comic strip arc Muminfamiljen 1955 [Moomin and Family Life] alongside Muminmamman start wearing her apron.

For part 2 go HERE!

(When I'm finished depicting the rather strange finale scene!)

From Detta är min målarsång 2025 by Emma Klingenberg

I have actually seen this large poster in real life last year's summer at the exhibit "Från Mumin till Chop Chop" at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde art museum in Stockholm. Unfortunate forgot buying the book that came with the museum.

Iris