PhantieArt

Despite deriving from the commercialized romance-heavy holiday Valentines day very recently during the late-1900s, Alla hjärtans dag [All hearts' day] from Sweden includes all kinds of love that's not only romance and Vändagen/Ystävänpäivä [The friend day] from Finland is exclusively about friendship. Historically midsummer had more fertility/romantic connotation instead. However that aspect died recently out throughout Nordic cultures in the 1900s so it's more about practicality and community (although ironically enough there's no historical evidences that the midsummer pole has any fertility connotation other than perverted Freudian minds). Many Swedish-speaking regions of Finland still have this romantic connotation to midsummer which is also reflected in Mumin [Moomin]. This article might be more Swedish-centric approach that includes romance and other strong relationships. Also haven't you thought about that Valentine's day is technically a winter holiday since it's in the middle of February and not a spring holiday when spring often has more romantic connotation?

Also considering Snusmumriken [Snufkin] and Snorkfröken [Snorkmaiden] was first introduced in Kometjakten 1945, means this post could be a 80th anniversary celebration for them too! (The original article at least where I covered each one individually.)

I'm using e-book versions which is incredibly useful to search through the books and letters and I found very interesting discoveries when coming to Tove's unique language use and artistic minimalism. The original article was more than TWICE as long already where I explored Mumintrollet's relationships individually which became too long and was incomplete. There might be missing references due to that cut. I might use individual posts instead in the future.

I don't have Kometjakten 1946 yet but I recently got a 1956 edition called Mumintrollet på kometjakt that's more similar to the original Kometjakten 1945 but at the same time not quiet. Unlike Muminpappans bravader 1950 vs. Muminpappans memoarer 1968 (still working on 3 posts about the basis, prologue that the English completely lost and preface that English shortened with the preface is almost finished), Kometen kommer 1968 (at least the e-book version, I'm still investigating on it) do seems like being more minimalistic and more stoic in general where the character are less chatty but align more to Tove Jansson's later style and philosophy at that time. Tove doesn't seem to do revisions of Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen 1945 and Trollkarlens hatt 1948 since Småtrollen is too deviating to fix (seemingly abandoning it unless discussing history and readings where it was exclusively only available in Swedish for decades, even for the Finnish translation was only released in the 90s) and seemingly more satisfied with Trollkarlens hatt for being more coherent with later books in style and philosophy.

I'm trying so hard to not come out as bitter and mean-spirited when I try doing structural critiques but I do sometimes insert my own dry deadpan humor to entertain myself that I hope you understand.

Platonic and romantic love

How Mumintrollet [Moomin] shows balance between Snorkfröken [Snorkmaiden] and Snusmumriken [Snufkin]

Mumintrollet [Moomintroll] views both Snorkfröken [Snorkmaiden] and Snusmumriken [Snufkin] as his equals and loves them equally but in different ways for fulfill different social needs. He never favors one over the another just like Tove Jansson did for her romantic partner Tuulikki Pietilä, her family, her best friends Eva Konikoff and Maya Vanni.

In the books and most adaptations, Snorkfröken sympathize with her romantic partner's longing for his best friend.

Such as in this beautiful passage from the last chapter in Trollkarlens hatt 1948:

Swedish original: Du tänker på nånting annat, sa Snorksystern. Till exempel vad? Min morgonros, det kan jag inte tala om, sa Mumintrollet. Men min hjärta är tungt i mig, för Snusmumriken har rest sin väg My English translation: You're thinking about something else, said Snorksystern. For example what? My morning rose, I couldn't tell you about it, said Mumintrollet. But my heart is heavy inside me, because Snusmumrilen have traveled away.

"Snorksystern" was early alternative name for Snorkfröken in Kometjakten 1946 (removed in Kometen kommer 1968) and Trollkarlens hatt 1948. Later works it's unknown if she's still considered distinctively a Snork (lost color changing ability after Trollkarlens hatt 1948) or a Mumintroll (she does refer to as one sometimes such as Mumindalen 1973 in one gag where she desperately tries to follow female ideals by becoming tan but will forever remain white for being a Mumintroll. I found character sheet by Lars Jansson for the 90s anime where she's defined as a "Moomin" although he might copy-paste guidelines for general character design. He define her color to be mainly white or slight yellow.).

Mumintrollet often doesn't want to reveal vulnerability and strong emotions outward in general even if he ironically still does in the books. This one characteristic aspect was not specific for Snusmumriken in by itself. Nordic societies at the time commonly encouraged stoicism and modesty when it comes to showing one's emotions outward (while compare to noisy Americans, we still do to some extent).

In Farlig midsommar 1954, Mumintrollet describe still miss Snusmumriken despite having Snorkfröken.

Original Swedish: "Snusmumriken var hans bästa vän. Naturligtvis tyckte ha förfärlig mycket om Snorkfröken också, men det kan ju inte vara detsamma med en flicka. " My English translation: "Snusmumriken was his best friend. Of course (he) likes Snorkfröken a lot too, but it's just not the same with a girl(friend)."

In Swedish language "förfärligt", "fruktansvärt" and "hemskt" are common expressive enhancer depending on context like "tack så hemskt mycket!" ["thanks an awful much!"/"thank you very much"], "det var förfärligt gott!" ["it was terribly tasty!"/"it was very tasty!"] and "jag tycker fruktansvärt mycket om det!" ["I liked it an awful lot!"/"I liked it a lot!"] that are either positive or neutral often without intentional irony despite they all three means literally "terrible" and "awful" by themselves. I don't know if that's the same with English.

This was one of two only instances "flicka" [girl] was used in the entire (current) book series (in original language) where characters' names, titles and 3rd-person singular pronouns are almost the only gender indications to keep gender mostly irrelevant and incidental to each character's individualism which is a part of the minimalist show-don't-tell style. Words like "kvinna" [woman], "man" (as noun), "pojke/kille" (boy/guy/dude) are completely avoided in the entire book series. Older versions like Kometjakten and Muminpappans bravader does uses them more commonly but removed in revisited versions Kometen kommer and Muminpappans memoarer. Tove does uses "dam" [lady] few times, often to describe female beauty (that's just her personal thing/habit since in private materials female beauty really turns her on, not at all intended to tell girls what to do as her female characters are diverse and do explore harm caused by rigged gender ideals). One old sexist misogynistic derogatory word/slur was used three times in the book series in Swedish but only to criticize bigoted misogynistic attitudes. As mentioned below, other mediums like Muminserien (comic strips) use clearer normal language where gender was frequently used to satirize gender ideals.

Instance showing that "flicka" can also mean "girlfriend" in Swedish at the time by comparing English and Swedish versions of Muminserien's 2st arc Muminfamiljen/Moomin and Family Life 1955 both written by Tove Jansson herself. Yeah I know the Swedish version is completely different however without downplaying and sanitizes. Most of the time it's different idioms and phrasings. The Swedish version was developed first but developed for longer than the English version since it didn't have tight deadlines. It's a mix from first Swedish drafts, English influences and new things different from both. Swedish versions' earlier arcs like this had more coherence with the book's style.

However in this context in Farlig midsommar dosen't mean the generalization of any girl. Today, calling a girl one's "flicka" in Swedish often means one's daughter due to "flicka" often used for young girls. Nowadays, we would instead use "tjej" (also means girl) to refers to one's girlfriend (with the male counterpart being "kille" to mean one's boyfriend). However historically "flicka" was very commonly used to refer to one's girlfriend since "flicka" was also commonly meant a young woman as well. My argument that "flicka" means girlfriend in that context was further supported in earlier arcs of Muminserien (comic strips) where everytime the English version (by the Jansson siblings themselves) uses the word "girlfriend", it's "flicka" in Swedish. The language use in the earlier arcs in Swedish often mirrors the show-don't-tell style as the books meanwhile the English uses a normal clarified language use. So that disproves this passage showing Mumintrollet being typically sexist like a little boy (is actually an older mature youth) preferring other boys over girls or turn off by girls. He meant that his platonic bond with Snusmumriken is not the same as with a romantic partner as it serves a different role in his life which is more about sharing thoughts, philosophies and other different experiences he didn't share with Snorkfröken. However that dosen't mean he found either one "less significant" than another.

This passage was one of my favorite out of the books because that actually bring me to tears how relevant it is personally to my ongoing longing for my own platonic childhood best friend who got separated due to really complicated life circumstances since start of 2020s. I had her since first grade and was like my sis while we both struggling with bullying and social pressures together surrounded with bizarre and abusive peers and teachers. I remember at the end of 2019 where I started gymnasium at the maximum starting age of 19 in graphic design, my best friend suddenly miss me a lot. I was very busy with studies at the time and I told her she could have her boyfriend for company which she replies "Yes but that's just not the same with a best friend since we shared different experiences." (translated). Now after I have graduated, my best friend is right know in a complicated situation that made me concerned about and really miss her. Both her physical and mental health is declining right now and makes me really worried and it feels really painful. I used to talk about almost everything to her akin to how Tove does with Eva and Maya but now she has difficulties to think right now. We don't have many friends and have trust issues from growing up with toxic people.

Both the passages I took out implies that Snorkfröken also sympathize with Mumintrollet's sorrow for Snusmumriken.

I notice the romantic clarification was much more explicit in Kometjakten 1946 such as Snusmumriken play romantic songs for Mumintrollet and Snorkfröken which was removed and heavily altered in the revisited Kometen kommer 1968 to align with show-don't-tell like the rest of the book series.

Original Swedish (only in Kometjakten, removed in Kometen kommer): "— Än jag då, undrade Snusmumriken. Vad får jag göra för dig? — Spela nånting för mig! sa Snorkfröken. Och Snusmumriken tog fram sin munharmonika och spelade de mest romantiska visor han kunde." My English translation: "— So me then, wondered Snusmumriken. What can I do for you? — Play something for me! said Snorkfröken. And Snusmumriken brought out his harmonica and played the most romantic songs he could."

Snusmumriken did found Snorkfröken really cute in when he first talked about her in Kometjakten 1946 that got removed in Kometen kommer. He still calls her very beautiful in a sad tone in both versions when Mumintrollet reached for her lost ring however he did added afterwards that she kept risking her life to pick flowers in dangerous places so it might be expressing safety concern rather than having a crush or jealousy. He might have concern that she might have passed away leaving behind her lost ring as her last remains. It's like saying "it would be sad if such beautiful person passed away early" or "she had a whole life ahead".

Keep in mind that people calling others or even things "cute", "beautiful" or even "attractive" is very common that doesn't inherently mean people are actually romantically attracted unlike what the knee-jerking scandal culture on the internet often thinks. These two instances of Kometjakten and Kometen kommer and one below should not have any deeper long-term implications.

In adaptations

Snusmumriken and Snorkfröken rarely interact with each other, there are some rare instances where they do in adaptations.

While the books mostly focus on Snusmumriken and Mumintrollet with less exploration with Snorkfröken, the comic strips mostly focus on Snorkfröken and Mumintrollet with Snusmumriken being mostly absent for some reason (despite would fit so perfectly for satire).

One single panel of weirdness!

There's one absurd single thrown-away panel gag where Snusmumriken appears to be madly in love on Snorkfröken in Muminserien's 2st arc Muminfamiljen/Moomin and Family Life (1955). Mumintrollet failed to convince Snusmumriken to help again with Moster Jenni by trapping her inside his tent which he understandably found that plan insane. However he immediately get convinced by Snorkfröken which he blushes while tangle himself with his fishing rod. Keep in mind the earlier arcs were really bizarre and experimental. Snusmumriken never tried to ask Snorkfröken out and show absolute zero sign of continuous interest in her immediately after this single panel. You could humorously interpret this gag as him feeling harassed by Snorkfröken like if he said "Fine, I do everything just please by the love of Tove STOP seduce me please! Yeesh!" although I honestly think Tove just experimenting and threw one random quick gag commonly found in comic strips. I really don't want to ship these two so please forget this from our memories!

Otherwise it seems to imply that Snusmumriken supports Mumintrollet and Snorkfröken's relationship. In the 16th arc Mumin och medborgarkänslan / Mumin blir social (The Conscientious Moomins), it implies in the last panels that Snusmumriken enjoy seeing Mumintrollet and Snorkfröken coming in terms with each other after Snusmumriken convinces everyone to return to their normal carefree unemployed lives requested my Mumintrollet.

Neither Snusmumriken and Snorkfröken makes appearance in the satirical live-action 1969 Mumintrollet show because they are not needed there which I'm actually fine with. Because Mumintrollet doesn't need Snorkfröken's emotional support there and Snusmumriken would just steal the show and end it way too quickly (Lilla My become more of the mischievous skeptical voice-of-reason role against the king's political nonsense).

Casting of the original Muumi ooppera 1974

Despite Snusmumriken and Snorkfröken normally never get into conflict with each other, in Muumi ooppera 1974 (the Mumin opera) Tove Jansson decided to do something very different by depict Snorkfröken get jealous over Snusmumriken and Mumintrollet's friendship. Tove Jansson wrote her own synopsis of the opera according to Detta är min målarsång 2025:

Swedish original: Långt därifrån vandrar Snusmumriken, Mumintrollets vän, den eviga vagabonden. Han letar efter en melodi och kan inte hitta den. Ibland hör man hans munharmonika och Mumintrollet tänker på honom hela tiden. Snorkfröken, den ljuvliga, är svartsjuk på deras vänskap och kan inte förstå den längtan som för ut mot en osäker horisont. My English translation: Far from there wanders Snusmumriken, Mumintrollet’s friend, the eternal vagabond. He searches for a melody and can’t find it. Sometimes you can hear his harmonica and Mumintrollet thinks about him all the time. Snorkfröken, the beautiful/lovely one, is envious of their friendship and doesn't understand the longing that leads to an uncertain horizon.

Both Snorkfröken and Mumintrollet get easily jealous with each other in Muminserien, often misread or get jealous of people of the opposite gender. This time it doesn't seem like romantic competition and more like Snorkfröken feeling left out akin to in Mumindalen 2019-2025. In the original Farlig midsommar that the opera was based of had her sympathize with Mumintrollet's longing for Snusmumriken like everywhere else. The theater was also shown in Graz, Austria of all places, in 1977 with creepy cursed nightmarish costumes (WTF is going on with foreigners being freaking creepy and butchering other's works?!). There was a recent modern recreation of the original script by Tove Jansson meant to celebrate bilingual collaboration 2017.

I actually love Snorkfröken's loyalty and dedication for Mumintrollet by try bring Snusmumriken to him by herself when he was sick and longs for Snusmumriken in the 90s anime. She knew how much significance Snusmumriken meant for Mumintrollet.

I however still really dislike how the 90s anime mishandled Mumintrollet's relationship with Snusmumriken here however where Snusmumriken is just one of the community and rarely bonded one-by-one as a mature exclusive strong relationship (Mumindalen 2019-2025 largely restore that). Their depiction of longing never personally relate to me as the books (and Mumindalen 2019-2025 most of the time) honestly as it reminds me of a clingy whiny little brother naively wanting everyone to stay like a cult and not understand Snusmumriken like a big brother returning home to his apartment.

Tove Jansson's original Mumintrollet was much more mature and cautious yet being a very anxiously insecure and shy introvert who values solitude on his own that made him in the books personally relate to Snusmumriken's solitude and acknowledge and validates it without any question, complaints nor tries show negative emotions outright during his departure (since he knew that would be a burden as Snusmumriken himself is much more emotionally vulnerable there also having mixed feelings of departure too). He NEVER asking to join Snusmumriken since he understands and respect what he needs (although if he actually dared to ask, Snusmumriken would let him join South few times as he previously let himself be Mumintrollet's roommate and hibernated together in Trollkarlens hatt). The original article covered a lot about that but decided to be future post. Still love the animation though but dislike most of everything else unfortunately just like Tove Jansson herself did (it's weird for not being weird enough!).

Non-hierarchical view of love of all kinds

I think I would write an academic-style document instead. I had to cut a lot of content that's more political and even more overly explain the common missteps of common apophenia caused by modern romance tropes.

Methods

Tove Jansson, just like J.R.R Tolkien and many modern series, realistically showcase that there are so many types of love that are equally significant and powerful, fulfill different social needs for many people which are often based on personal experiences. Human beings are naturally expressive and affectionate for closeness regardless of gender, orientation and relationship status and it mostly really depends on the personal and cultural context of how these are performed.

"Feminine" women at the time do often express strong intense loving expressions across relationships that looks very similar to each other and could very easily mistaken as "romantic" today however I do found differences between how Tove express love to everyone else compare to Vivica and Tuulikki which is presence of eroticism and flirting. Previous male lovers (Sam Vaani, Tapio Tapiovaara and Atos Wirtanen) however are more professional, formal and much similar to close friendship except discussions about marriage and sharing domestic future (Tove hates marriages and idea of being a housewife with kids but she was conflicted with social norms in the 30s-40s and she would be absolute furious if she found out that Telescreen Japan suddenly inserted the outdated housewife agendas on Snorkfröken and Mymlan that was even outdated in 90s Japan. Not even Muminmamman in the original sources is inherently tied to housework, especially not in Muminserien. Tove was always actually very hesitate to marry Atos but incredibly heated about it against Tapio but learnt to ignore the old social norms to be honest and confident with herself after the 1952).

Many human expressions are mistaken as "romantic" through oversaturations of common modern romance cliche tropes by our romance-obsessed societies and media landscapes which is a form of the common cognitive illusion apophenia. I try to avoid falling for the common romantic-centric apophenia as much as possible in favor to understand how a person personally expresses. Our media landscapes often depict greater contrasts between romance and anything else by downplay all other relationships more colder and restrained to make romance to stand out much more. Social norms also plays parts of frame closeness as inherently suspicious or romantic (especially when at least one man involved). I refuses to believe that romance is the "ultimate form of relationship" that's everyone's life goal as it often framed as in society and instead see it as one of many forms of love that's not "more" or "lesser" than anything else. People just being close in by itself and get automatically interpret as "romance" is the same apophenia as mistaking cats rolling around to show trust as "flirting" and fish fighting as "kissing" (they don't have limbs so the mouth becomes their only weapons).

Such as heart motives and emphasis on heart pounding were commonly used by Tove personally for various people, just happens to be used the most to her best friend Eva. "Hjärtats lust" ["the desire of the heart"] (can also be seen in the song Höstvisa) seems like having romantic connotation to describe her love for Tuulikki and Vivica and describe the love between Lars and Nita. The heart pounding expressions are also used to describe hype, fear, sadness or stress over things unrelated to relationships which just happens to be phrased similarly so it really depend on context. That was reflected in the Mumin books where Mumintrollet's joy, excitement with Snusmumriken with his heart pounding for him is written identically to when Sniff get his heart pounding in excitement and joy over things he really want. Heart rises for various reasons in real life depending on strong mood. It's like every blush doesn't mean it's a crush since that's a very common bodily response for many things which is extremely context-sensitive (like anger, embarrassment, surprise/shock, joy, excitement, very high or low temperature, illness, intoxication, etc). Just like every sneeze doesn't mean you have a cold as it could be dust stuck in you nose.

Likewise admirations (not confused with idolization) and longing are very universal human experiences and Tove express them for most people for different reasons and intensity. Admiration seems rather closely related to appreciation. The romantic couple Jonna and Mari from Rent spel 1989 also mentioned to admire a lot of people and things. Also Tove thinks you can admire something without liking it such as art she dosen't like.

From the 28 FEB 52 letter to Eva about an "abstract art". "Kan beundra men inte riktigt »tycka om»" "Can admire but not really »like»"

The ones Tove express longing the most desperate were Eva (lived in US and the one Tove was actually most desperate for), Signe and Tuulikki. Others Tove has more patient, calmer, milder and even "happy" longing as she often described them as.

I can't quote right now about instances of longing and admiration since that happens so frequently but I would make future post about the letter collection. But you can already found those extremely common themes absolutely everywhere in the letter collection Brev från Tove [Letters from Tove] for various people.

Also I just want to say I have developed a more healthier mature norm on my own that I interpret real life relationship as acquaintances by default until proven otherwise regardless of vibes and chemistry rather than automatically assumed being romantic. I was initially embarrassed with myself once Barbro Gustafsson herself confirmed being previous partner of Kerstin Hammarsten (Tove Jansson's cousin) in her book (seen below) as I first assumed they were colleagues for being two significant Swedish activists and priests who mentioned each other in one article. I thought my previous assumption was resulted from the obnoxious unconscious sexist belief that two women can't be in romantic relationships. However what's actually going on is that I simply just got insufficient data before since I would do the same thing if all I knew were a female and male brain surgeons known to be attracted to the opposite gender and votes for the same parties working together. I wouldn't automatically assumed they dated for sharing a lot in common by itself unless they themselves stated so.

I also did the same with Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä when I returned to Tove Jansson when felt she personally related a lot to me for her philosophies, thought, humor and artistic/business struggles after watching Mumin och havet 1968 last year (understandably their relationship was never revealed there since it was unfortunately illegal when it was filmed). I didn't really think much whatever romantic love life she was in and whoever Tuulikki was for her at the time other than Tuulikki lived on the same island and being inspiration for Tooticki. Just later being surprised they two dated not because of the gender (I vaguely remembered already Tove dated Vivica Bandler since 2016) just that it was just Tuulikki as a person (I did knew before being a professor and helped war children in WW2).

I absolutely reject stereotypical interpretations since that's irrelevant to attractions as human beings are highly diverse in personalities, demeanor, taste and physique which none of those should be gatekept by any particular group.

I also absolutely reject Freudian interpretations whose ghost is still uncritically haunts the academic fields despite in post-2000s claims to move on from Sigmund Freud (especially those with specific sociological fields trying to find absolutely everything to support one's biased political agendas). I definitely consider Freudian interpretations as a form of apophenia that's trained from oversaturated patterns that the observers have consumed that makes them see it everywhere when it's actually just misleading personal projections. You basically just see a bunch of clouds, "heart-shaped" clouds.

Academia is not one monolithic organisation but a rather diverse free open space of various networks with various qualities (which unfortunately explains the flood of fraudulent AI slop issue today) where absolute everyone could attend without specific degree (since many geniuses scientists like Isaac Newton don't have degrees) and scholars are still flawed humans not immune from cognitive mistakes (such as basic pattern recognitions and archetype-chasing without grasping the context that's either unintentional from rushing with the subject or intentionally cherry-picked and biased for specific agendas). For such a relativity niche topic like Mumin, there's not much consensus and "scholars agree" arguments as scholars from various fields are studying Mumin for various aspects ranging from aesthetics to psychology. Some are common such as the Bisamråttan-Atos connection amongst archivists commonly used in official biographies (explained below) based on highly personal-specific aspects. Majority wasn't peer reviewed (which also has many flaws on its own such as many ignores the content and qualities of the papers but just the reputation of the scholars or just simply ideological agreements). I'm not at all saying that one should distrust and reject academia, I'm saying you should still be cautious and critical while review academic sources.

Why I might write more on romance here is due to how actually difficult it is to find in Tove Jansson's literature but it does have some specific predictable patterns.

When it comes to trace real life inspirations

What Tove Jansson actually confirms

While it's incredibly difficult to trace exact origin the characters and their relationships unless Tove Jansson herself confirms. So far she confirms Too-ticki being based on Tuulikki Pietilä (she confirmed it multiple times in public interviews and materials, frequently depict Tuulikki together with a female partner resembling Tove in private journals and almost always called Tuulikki for "Too-ticki" in public Finland-Swedish interviews as found easily in YLE Arena's public archives if you know the language despite the Finnish subtitles mistranslated it as "Tuulikki" that official site and its experts bizarrely misses) Mumintrollet's parents based on her own parents (while very frequently confirms Muminmamman in public, only in private letters confirms Muminpappan is mainly based on her father Victor Jansson during production for Pappan och havet but defensively denies that when a Swedish-speaking blogger was asking her as a teen writing an essay about Muminpappans memoarer). While Mumintrollet and Too-ticki's bond was based on an actual romantic relationship (Tove also confirms Too-ticki's guidance to Mumintrollet was based on Tuulikki's guidance to Tove during difficult times), they were clearly depicted as close friendship. That's very common in works to be based on real life but altered to become different. Also I might still spell her name "Too-ticki" as seen in Trollvinter when later spelling is much more commonly "Tooticki" as I noticed recently.

Both Mumintrollet and Snusmumriken are the characters most similar to herself through extensive literary analysis and her own words during interviews (Tove Jansson very frequently establish Snusmumriken being her absolute favorite she personally related the most such as Mumin och havet 1968 documentary which I will cover in future post but "summery" could be found below). She mostly relate to their individual desires for solitude (despite desire for solitude is actually a norm in Mumindalen, I would later explore that in future post). Other characters Tove Jansson confirms being partially based on herself is Lilla My's spiciness and sharpness (also mentioned in Mumin och havet 1968) and Muminmamman's gentleness and resilience (Tove's common fan nickname was "Muminmamman" which she was proud of).

While Tove Jansson was alive, Tofslan and Vifslan (F you with your English names that made one into male that even Tove was puzzled about) was mainly overlooked by the public due to limited appearances so Tove didn't brought them up much (some late-1900s articles did mention that Vifslan is based on Vivica Bandler however if it was publicly announced by Tove herself or repeated rumors is rather unclear). However in private materials and letters with Vivica Bandler throughout the 40s we clearly see that Tofslan and Vifslan started out as their private pet names and using the same speech patterns by ending almost every other words with "-sla". These nicknames and speech patterns were also used by their close underground networks of women with same-gender attraction to refer them as seen in invitation letters (where they even sign the two characters). Tove told Vivica she had a dream of interviewers asking who's Vifslan which Tove told them it's just a character from Mumin without knowing it refers to Vivica. "Mårran" was also mentioned with materials related to Vivica which I first was unsure if it was a codename for a third person that made their relationship complicated. However Tove Jansson much later explained to her mother Signe that Mårran began as an expressive concept of everything she considered "evil" in a discussion of turning Mårran into more sympathetic. Tofslan and Vifslan are still depicted with the same unusual patterns typical for romantic pairs as seen below. They alongside Tooticki also appears rather frequently in dioramas at the Tempere museum when they weren't present in the books such as scenes from Muminpappans memoarer (that this museum ignores and only refer to Bravader just to be in sync with the stupid English outdated version desire the ship scene clearly based on the Memoarer version) and Kometen kommer. Also I got absolute pissed with the English awful subtitles in Tove 2020 when I checked out of curiosity where Vivica clearly calls Tove "Tofslan" due to her name and tasseled hair and the subtitle reads "Bob" that shows official sources still mistreats and mishandle translation by localized historical familiarity over accuracies. I don't think this godawful outdated historical English domestication still going on today was caused by some bizarre historical "cover-your-ass" move over possibility that it might be same-gender lovers but thinking female duos aren't "marketable" unless you have one male to make it "more marketable", "neutral" and "balanced" that's similar to Hansel and Gretel which seems like a common sexist trend at the time.

Examples of literary analysis to trace origins: Bisamråttan [muskrat] and Snusmumriken [Snufkin]

Majority of the characters are fragmentations of Tove Jansson and many don't have single origins. However you can try trace origins through literary analysis and try find specifical unique shared characteristics. Here's some examples below:

Bisamråttan's inspiration

Bisamråttan has a very unusually specific personal connection to Atos Wirtanen as many archivists connects heavily. You would think a philosopher muskrat (the ONLY character explicitly called a "philosopher" just like what Tove often nicknames Atos) is nonsensically random since muskrats was newly invasive species in Finland that haven't developed any cultural significance at the time there. However according to Brev från Tove, Tove noted in one notification dated from 1946 at spring that Atos Wirtanen was very fond of a muskrat they named after his absolute favorite idol (which Tove humorously calls "Atos' prophet" in the 13.10.44 letter to Eva) Nietzsche at Grankulla. She wrote:

"Atos gick till bisamkärret och beundrade Nietzche." My translation: "Atos went to the muskrat-marsh and admire Nietzche."

All hail Nietzsche the philosopher muskrat prophet!

She mentioned Atos' prophet Nietzsche the muskrat again in the letters to Atos such as this 8.2.46 letter:

"Står du på huvudet i politiken igen, har du nånsin tid att gå ner och titta på vår bisamråtta?" My translation: "Are your head full of politics again, have you ever time to go down and look at our muskrat?"

Tove noted being frustrated, embarrassed and tired with Atos' constant political ramblings and she really hates all politics as she calls "the worst thing she ever knew" and thinks he's philosophically "incomplete" with politics. Bisamråttan seems to be a playful humorous caricature of Atos.

Tove also noted Atos HATES all kinds of gifting and traditions/holidays and got mad over Tove's Lucia celebrations (one of her favorite traditions) and said he doesn't understand compassion and melancholy at Tove's introduction of Atos to Eva in the 13.10.44 letter (these last ones likely was just Tove's frustrated outburst rather than being true. She do really want to keep him as friend as he seems nice in general yet very busy with politics but she wasn't really that close to him, only mentioned him once in public 1997 in an essay "Atos, min vän" to explain the Ny tid's comic strips while had avoided mention him at all when discussing Mumin history in public such as her own decision to publish Småtrollen "for fun" and "they" want her to change the name title and in the forewords mentions an anonymous friend want her to publish Småtrollen).

Atos was drawn on a hammock at Tove Jansson's dawning of their artist colony (while this one in by itself weak but contextually supportive when stacked). Many of these points about Bisamråttan connection was covered briefly by Brev från Tove 2014's introduction entry of Atos Wirtanen, still used briefly in Skatter från Mumindalen 2024. Apparently, Mumintrollet is a harem love sim protag with too many weird love options which includes Bisamråttan, one of the least romantic characters, when using the same fandom logistical romance-centric fallacy of "based of lover = always true love interest" regardless of context.

Snusmumriken's inspirations

Above are two Garm covers featuring vagabond-like men looking very similar to Snusmumriken. The left one looks very similar to Harald Hammarsten on his boat Thalattas with a Mumintroll as signature figure on his knee, predating Snusmumriken's conception 1945 October. The right one is a bearded traveling painter made during the same year Kometjakten was released 1946 September. Below shows family photo of Tove Jansson's maternal Swedish uncle Harald Hammarsten in comparison of Snusmumriken from Farlig midsommar 1954. I personally think Snusmumriken's visual inspiration don't have one single origin as his earliest design looks honestly generic for a vagabond and also happens to resemble the typical popular fashion at the time as well.

Snusmumriken has always mainly been based on Tove Jansson herself which multiple times established her most favorite character she would love to be like. Tove Jansson herself was very intellectual, educated, philosophical, poetic, adventurous and loves travels just like Snusmumriken, shared by many people she knew (Such as her Swedish family of traveling scientists from her mother's side such as Harald Hammarsten who loves adventure which his daughter tries recently confirmed). In 1995, she became a professor which could be see HERE (graduation) and HERE (Finland-Swedish report of her death where she's also mentioned as professor). She also has close ties to nature (most of her family does), loves storms (also shared by her father Viktor which seems like her favorite memory repeated in interviews with him where every time there's storm he immediately bring the family on a boat tour), commonly wears flower wreath (common neutral headdress almost wore by everyone at midsummer here), loves solitude, introverted while still very socially capable, really appeals to melancholy/bittersweetness ("melankoli(sk)" was her absolute favorite word she constantly uses everywhere but in English localizations of the Mumin books often flats down to "very sad"), minimalistic, being a musician (Tove wrote plenty of songs such as Höstvisa and can play various instruments like accordion and Balalaika), complex relation to fans and children that started with frustration into caring (Ti-ti-oo and Skogsungarna [the forest children] for Snusmumriken), laughs a lot (yes, I counted myself that Snusmumriken happens to be one of the most laughing characters in the books, Tove often laughs a lot in real life although I think many people fo), dry deadpan humor (very common in this culture), do enjoy gifting (Snusmumriken do like gifts if they were meaningful or practical such as the shark teeth from Muminpappan and the tobacco pouch from Skogsungarna despite dislike most possessions).

The Finnish Mumin historian Juhani Toivanen wrote in the official comic strips' English biographic introduction of Lars Jansson during Lars' solo runs claims that Snusmumriken was modeled after Lars. I think that's partially true since he, like many others, happens to overlap with Tove Jansson such as humor (however she's the one most shared traits with Snusmumriken seen above). I would consider that Snusmumriken was indeed based on Lars during Lars' solo runs just like Tove likely did for her own solo runs which are very common phenomena with artists writing certain characters after themselves, especially long-runners passing down across different artists. However I think it's unlikely Snusmumriken's conception and book depictions are based on Lars.

Snusmumriken's earliest design was honestly a very generic and typical vagabond design and Tove drew various Snusmumrik-like vagabond characters with various facial shape and some even have beards earlier (one of the beardless one was found in Garm's cover heavily resembles a family photo of Harald Hammarsten). He's also based on common male fashion at the time such as overcoats and felt hats that most of the male members of the Jansson family wore that time. However his hat is not a fedora but a much older common long pointed felt hat design that existed between 1300-1800 like the 600-years old Lappvattnet hat. That makes sense since his hat is described being very old since the beginning. Olive green is one of the most common colors in the 40s but Snusmumriken's green color is obviously symbolize closeness to nature. All these makes his visual design's origin having no single person to be based of.

In the books, Snusmumriken lacks explicit role/titles like most characters through show-don't-tell beyond Mumintrollet's best friend which is a very unusual aspect (see more below). Most of the time he's known by his folk group like most characters (while he was introduced with his kind's diminutive form "en mumrik" twice, one instance was ambiguous if being same individual, he normally called "en snusmumrik" throughout the books, Muminserien comic strips and even interviews like Mumin och havet 1968 with his kind was called "snusmumrikar" twice. Beginning with lower-case letter in Swedish indicates it's NOT ironically treating names like normal nouns like "a David" or "Davids". In English localization of the books changes these instances to be a proper unique name that makes his kind unknown but in comic strips translated by the Jansson siblings themselves mirrors Swedish with "a Snufkin" and "Snufkins", intended that "Snufkin" is also his kind in English.). During mediums and interviews where language is normal, he's just called a wanderer or vagabond.

He's never called a "philosopher" like fans and some institutions define him although if we consider him a "philosopher" simply for being thoughtful and philosophical then everyone would considering a "philosopher" as almost each character has their own philosophies and very thoughtful (what made him more unique is being more aware than average). He was only called a "poet" in Ny tid's comic strip where he often read up his intentionally awkward poetries. Kometjakten did have Sniff ask Snusmumriken if he wrote poetries which he said he sometimes does which got removed in Kometen kommer. Although again most characters are already poetic in the books like rest of her writing style. Coincidentally Swedish-speaking troll folklore are sometimes noted to be mostly silent and speak more poetic than most humans unlike the noisy Norwegian/global trolls. While highly diverse, trolls looking identical to humans like Snusmumriken, Lilla My and Homsan Toft happens to be the most common troll types in Swedish-speaking folklore according to Oknytt's Swedish podcast (the high diversity of trolls in Swedish-speaking folklore do culturally explains the high diversity of character designs and personalities amongst Tove Jansson's trolls. Fauni trolls also being depicted with similar high abstractions before working with Mumin in early 50s so it seems like at that period Finnish trolls were very commonly depicted as extremely abstract and diverse already were many are easily mistaken as animals unintentionally due to simple shapes).

I will write a whole or better article about this in the future.

How does relationships works in Tove Jansson's literatures?

Extensive show-don't-tell and relationship statuses

Tove Jansson's literatures and sometimes theaters uses very extensively a show-don't-tell minimalism that avoids most expositions. Every individual non-family relationship statuses remains mostly unlabeled to emphasis on mainly shared experiences that makes each one feel unique and living.

The only exception for this rule seems to be platonic friendship where the direct singular use of friend is mentioned explicitly between the characters rather frequently and first introduced as such which shouldn't be confused with any other close friendship that avoids them. This are phrasings like "min (bästa) vän" ["my (best) friend"] and "hans/hennes/sin vän" ["his/her friend] as well as "vänskap" ["friendship"]. This frequent direct use of singular friendship terms seems to be characteristic of platonic love and so far Snusmumriken & Mumintrollet (they were even called best friends twice), Muminpappan & Fredrikson (Muminpappans memoarer), Onkelskruttet & Förfadern [ancestor] (Sent i november), a lot of various characters across gender and age in Solstaden (although this book display this non-hierarchical love philosophy the most explicit across all relationship and even love for Jesus) shares this characteristic. Sure few characters in other literatures (but not used in Mumin) might often addresses everyone as "min vän", even to stranger, to show being friendly.

Other kinds of friendship are rarely that direct and more referred as a part of a generalized group of friends in plural such as "Mumintrollet och hans vänner" ["Mumintrollet and his friends"]. One instance was when Mumintrollet introduce Lilla My to Filifjonkan in Trollvinter 1957 where he calls Lilla My "En av mina äldsta vänner" ["one of my oldest friends"] which is also different from the frequent direct "min/hans/sin vän" ["my/his friend"] used between the relationship and narration. This plural use of friends are also incredibly rare and only shown a few times in Trollkarlens hatt (narration), once for Lilla My in Trollvinter (to Filifjonkan) and once for Snorkfröken in Pappan och havet (to Sjöhästarna [Sea horses]). Keep in mind how Tove Jansson very selectively uses friend-related terms and other specific language uses are only artistic choices in her literature, not reflected in her actual daily language use in real life where she's very open to call most people a friend.

The word "vänlig" is used very frequently throughout Tove Jansson's literature however that doesn't necessary mean "friendly" or to mean a friend since that was also commonly used for romantic and family relationships as well as even non-relationship-related actions (such as treatments of objects). So "vänlig" can simply mean "gentle". "Vänskaplig" (exclusively mean "friendly" used for relationship rather than generalized "gentle" actions like "vänlig" does) however are much rarer but especially used between platonic friendships.

Almost every romantic couple do refer each other "friend" once or twice which is more than most close friendships (remains almost completely unlabeled) but less than platonic friendship. Otherwise they remains mostly unlabeled where the terms "pojkvän/flickvän"["boyfriend/girlfriend"] and not even "partner" is used at all. Female same-gender attraction is treated basically the same as between men and women thanks to all romantic depictions regardless of gender remains unlabeled (this will explained in later post). That might reflect that Tove Jansson herself in public pre-80s (and most of the time later) almost never actually reveal whatever relationship status she had with Tuulikki Pietilä as she kept ambiguous rather than follow the typically historical defense tactic of using "friends" as euphemism like most romantic relationships deemed as "taboo" did. This might be some kind of honesty as Tove does values friendships as their own separate but still equally significant things.

She does call Vivica "friend" few times to others although start doing that after first time catch her cheating after 3 weeks while still return dating her until 1952 so it might just be personal embarrassment and uncertainty with Vivica rather than taboo with gender around her close circles, trying to pretend romantically moving away from her (Despite frustrating chaos with Vivica, Tove explained she fully "transition" herself into a "lesbian", or "spöke" ["ghost"] that she explained her word for "lesbian" during the same letter, after years of hesitation over the stigma of the word which is very common to this day where it's still loaded with expectations and stereotypes, about cutting all contact with Atos which she did for a whole decade, meanwhile explain keep Vivica as a close friend despite Eva doesn't like Vivica's unstable unfaithful nature and Tove start instead date Britt-Sofie Fock for a while. Eva seems fine with Britt-Sofie and even helps book a room in New York for Tove and Tuulikki meanwhile Tove allowed discuss openly about them to Eva. Unlike Tove 2020, Tove never wasn't that open with Atos as she explained in a 1962 letter to Eva he doesn't even knew her "new tendencies" after the renewal contact with him that was still limited. Tove explained she dated/"mymla" with Atos for "friendship's sake" in the 1952 letter despite deciding to do the very radical decision to cut all ties to him. "Mymla" seems to be multi-purpose word not necessary be a sexual slang. Just like Vivica, still simultaneously call Atos "friend" while still discuss about possible marry him in the future after dispute with Vivica over Ny Tid's comic strips on December 1947 just out of spite. Seemingly she did that due to insecurity and confusion about what to interpret these relationships before leaving and enter a more mature stable monogamous relationship with Tuulikki.). I will write a more complete article in the future about that.

There's a lot of really interesting mixed stuff from Tove Jansson (private quotes about her works and even information of unpublished lost media, etc.) in this book from 1992 despite including Barbro's own bizarre theories. The cover is a painting made in 30s named "De svarta hundarna i solnedgången" ["The black hounds in the sunset"] with a long personal letter attached explaining depict her psychologist's psychoanalysis of the ending of a nightmare dream of being chased by black hounds down a shore reaching for a small shiny object which was interpret as oppressed sensuality and personality. Throughout the other literary works, canid-like beast motif do appears very often to describe discomfort or oppression. As I found in early letters already before Vivica, she had always express hesitations with men.

The only confirmed male-male romantic couple I found was Alexander & Erik in Dockskåpet (Tove confirmed being "homofil" alongside the female-female romantic couple Rosa & Elena from Den långa resan in private 1978 letter to the publisher Åke Runnquist) however treated differently from other romantic pairs being both introduced more explicit for being friends and rather limited interaction overall (let alone physical). This doesn't mean all friendship using the term "friend" a lot is secretly romantic and euphemistic (especially older ones). Tove Jansson's choice to depict Erik & Alexander milder (in terms of affection) and euphemistic seems like either her personal choice (in generally has very female-centric gazes in both romantic and erotic sense despite gender is mostly irrelevant elsewhere) or society was much more suspicious with men in any relationships in general so she played safer. The only indication Erik & Alexander might be romantic is shared domestic life and want to live together (please keep in mind just because people have desire to live together in by itself dosen't mean they have a crush. I do that for my own best friend and her boyfriend for sharing interests, philosophies and support).

No, I'm not trying to be biased against any genders, I have disqualified plenty of relationships that has no confirmations in other literatures regardless of gender that don't follow Tove Jansson's specific typical patterns throughout her works. Many relationships resembles friendships between Mumintrollet & Snusmumriken and Mumintrollet & Tooticki where there's no confirmations, very minimal physical affections, no flirting, no gazes and already have known romantic partner.

I notice do notice my relationship model (shown below) doesn't work when considering Rosa's complicated relationship with her mother in Den långa resan since the mother follows unusual intense affection resembling the ones for Tove's romantic couples. The theologian/sociologist/activist priest/scholar Barbro Gustafsson (who knew Tove Jansson personally for being previous partner to her Swedish priest cousin Kerstin Hammarsten) in her 1992 book "Stenåker och ängsmark - Erotiska motiv och homosexuella skildringar i Tove Janssons senare litteratur" (You could view some quotes from this book at Lucia celebration, it also includes religious interpretation and some private quotes from Tove) do interpret it as romantic love triangle with the mother being jealous bigoted hypocrite condemning Rosa's relationship with Elena so that Barbro could have a lecture about the statistical history of individuals with same-gender attraction often being abandoned by their parents in real life. I'm very cautious with that "erotic" angle (the mother's affection is unfortunately very similar to Tove's romantic depictions and different from how she normally would depict family relationships, such as "flirting" a lot about abducting Rosa and hail her as a queen in isolated castle while constantly snuggling) but I don't agree with that the mother being dominant, bigoted and against Elena in Den långa resan since it appears to be reversed as the mother was very calm, passive and non-judgemental to them both with only Elena mocks Rosa to have close clingy bond with her mother and claiming Rosa couldn't travel with both them (yeah, I honestly dosen't like this aspect of the story too as I found it confusing).

Tove does describe Rosa being "neurotic" having complicated relationship with her mother to Barbro. Although even if some characters and relationships are based on Tove's real life, she often makes drastic changes for fictional storytelling such as in Dockskåpet SPOILERS!!!: ends with Erik almost murders Boy in a bloody fight despite the story was heavily based on the wholesome construction of the real life dollhouse of Muminhuset in the Tempere museum. That story doesn't mean Tove secretly wants to murder Pentti over Tuulikki or felt "left out" by them through writing Dockskåpet that was dedicated to close friendship with him. So maybe there are some twist about a very complicated relationship between an adult daughter and elderly mother as well in Den långa resan but I'm very cautious about that. I notice that Den långa resan was based on a brief break up with Tuulikki around 1963 where Tove felt conflicted between Tuulikki and her mother Signe where Tuulikki felt Signe was "in the way" and criticized that Tove's "too obsessed" and "clingy" with Signe (that conflict was resolved around 1965, Tuulikki became tolerant and friends with Signe). (Also Tove and Tuulikki's various disputes over the island are very similar to Muminpappan and Muminmamman's various disputes over their island in Pappan och havet which are normal older couple behaviors during external pressure. Although which one is similar to which is not really clear, might be hybridized between them two just like Jonna & Mari from Rent Spel 1989)

One major issues (amongst many such as uncritical big fan of Freud) I found with Barbro Gustafsson's book is that it claims that same-gender attraction is "the love who never dare to mention by name" when EVERY attraction between the opposite gender does exactly that as well, especially noticeable with Mumintrollet & Snorkfröken and Linda & Bounty-Joe (Solstaden) so long they don't marry.

Older married couples like Muminpappan and Muminmamman seems to be exception from the inexplicit label pattern for romantic couples although their marital status seems to be treated akin to family rather than non-kinship relationships likely due to shared domestic role of the household.

The honorifics "herr" and "fru" doesn't necessary mean someone's married but implies maturity or higher status. It's very common in older literature (and sometimes modern translations reviving older Swedish language uses) where an independent character who's not known to be married nor widowed is called "herr" or "fru". Known unmarried woman can be called both "fröken" and "fru" simultaneously, often when she's mature, older (around middle-aged and older) or high status. Many dictionaries has a third entry defining "fru" as: "kvinna oavsett civilt tillstånd" ["woman regardless of civile status"] which was actually more common in the past (explaining why we have "jungfru" ["maiden"/"virgin"/"young woman"] and "lilla havsfru" ["little mermaid"] that has nothing to do with marriage at all and is related to German's "frau" which just means woman) than today where today it ironically enough now it mainly means "wife" (suspect it might accidentally ended up that way when 2st wave feminist used "fru" as shorthand for "hemmafru" as in "housewife" when fighting against this housewife expectation norm. Tove did noted that younger women wanted to have the title "fru" while unmarried).

In (most) adaptations and interviews has more clearer normal language use where characters' relationship statuses are frequently more clarified so they can call each other friends (beyond platonic) and boyfriend/girlfriend.

Despite this love philosophy across relationships and friendship is very explicit and clarified Mumindalen 2019-2025, they cleverly used heavy show-don't-tell for Mumintrollet and Snorkfröken like the books since you don't need to be told what kind of relationship they are in by heavy use of contexts, actions and visual language that speaks for themselves. There's a running gag where every time they are about to tell what kind of relationship they are in they get interrupted.

Physical affection

Tove Jansson has a rather stoic approach of depicting physical affection in general in her literature. Keep in mind what I meant by "stoicism", it's more like classic Greek definition, not the common definition of being "cold". Every relationship statuses express the same types of physical expression which are similar how Tove Jansson express physical expression to friends. Embraces and hugs seems one of the most common. Physical affection are very situationally context-based tied to comfort, reassure safety, reunion and departure. Romantic love in contrasts often characterized with unusual high frequencies regardless of context although this is more milder in the other literatures. However lack of physical affection does NOT mean the relationship is less powerful just as much as minimal dialogues doesn't make the relationship less significant.

Some gestures are exclusively for certain contexts like nose-kisses are exclusively a friendly gesture between friends and families for specific context like comfort, reassure security, ceremonial, joy and departure but never romantic.

It's difficult to find specifical romance-exclusive gestures as it's difficult to trace a coherent exclusive patterns for them. Snorkfröken rests her head on Mumintrollet's knee twice in Trollkarlens hatt 1948 which seems like something exclusive between them two. Romantic couples like Snorkfröken & Mumintrollet, Tofslan & Vifslan and Rådd-djuret & Sås-djuret do heavily emphasis on holding hands together.

In visual adaptations, the character's body language and expression is extended heavily across relationships. Romantic love seems very much more highlighted and clarified.

Verbal and narrative expressions

Verbally each relationship is very unique based on the personality dynamics. There's no specific predictable pattern.

Romantic couples do frequently flirt and call each other pet names that aren't diminutives (like "min morgonros" ["My morning rose"] as seen above). Some romantic couples does express verbal love language more clearly such as flirting between Mumintrollet and Snorkfröken (above) and Rent spel (1989) ends with Jonna bless Mari with love (Rent spel won various awards for depiction of same-gender romance at the time according to Barbro Gustafson 1992 which Tove confirms representing a romantic couple). However in Solstaden, "kärlek" and "älska" is very frequently mentioned between all kinds of relationships that might be due to more religious themes.

There's a rather common strange flirtation theme about women wanting to be abducted by the ones they have crush on or men/women wanting to abduct the women they have crush on throughout Tove's works. Maybe that's just her personal thing.

Love-related words like "kärlek" [love] and "älska" [to love] is never mention between relationship in Mumin book series other than dedicate passion for a thing or activities in the whole book series. Such as Sniff to his plushie Cedric missing his plushie for "kärlekens skull" ["love's sake"]. "Älskling" ["darling/honey"] is much more commonly used between family members. The only romantic couple calling one another "älskling" is between Muminpappan & Muminmamman. The prefix "älsklings-" means something's favorite such as the skiing Hemulen's "älskningsstycke" in Trollvinter 1967 which means "favorite piece of music".

In visual adaptation, love expressions are much more clear, especially in Mumindalen 2019-2025 where love is mentioned constantly between different relationships. Romantic couples are much more freely to call each "älskling" a lot.

Other dynamic structures

Unique "identity merging" moments amongst young romantic couples

I notice a very unusual pattern shown by Tofslan & Vifslan, Mumintrollet & Snorkfröken (mostly in Farlig midsommar) and Rådd-djuret & Sås-djuret where they have moments of acting like one single unit. This is incredible rare amongst other relationships when relationships normally heavily emphasize on independence and individuality that makes each relationship unique and difficult to compare.

I just noticed that Sniff's father Rådd-djuret's third singular pronouns ("han/honom" ["he/him"]) got heavily minimalized or removed after he got married to Sås-djuret and Sås-djuret only mentioned "henne" ["her"] once while being treated as one single unit using plural "de(ras/m)" ["they/them"] and the contextual singular pronouns "sig/sin(a)" for describing each individually, very similar to Tofslan & Vifslan.

In Farlig midsommar, Snorkfröken & Mumintrollet also do this when they departs from the others although without abandoning completely their singular 3rd-person pronouns.

Tofslan & Vifslan are referred with female pronouns in productions of "Mumin 3" (Trollkarlens hatt's early production name. Tove confirmed Trollkarlens hatt was dedicated for Vivica and was about their signature figures Tofslan & Vifslan) and private letters (even mentioned that Tofslan is having a crush in Vifslan although there's ambiguity if these are referring to the characters or Tove roleplaying with Vivica using them as nicknames or personal storytelling since they two blurs a lot) where each individual are more specified (even with less pleasant vulgar anatomical details attached I would rather forget). Them being used contextual singular pronouns while being called plural pronouns seems more like artistic stylistic choice to emphasize on their pairhood rather than specific gender statements. You should be however cautious with interpret early production notes (like those outdated family trees below that's no longer supported in current revisited version sold today) but I still think Tofslan & Vifslan still meant to represents two female lovers even after break-up with Vivica.

All three pairs cooperating in sync with minimal verbal communications as if they communicates telepathically. They also take turns finishing each other's sentences when speaking to a third person as if they were the same person sharing the same mind (akin to this common telepathic twin trope).

Families

Mumintrollet seems to be the only youth still living with his parents. The reasons seems to differ from medium but it seems like due to loneness or preferences most of the time. Muminserien it seems like it's also due to housing crisis. That might reflect that Tove Jansson herself had strong lifelong bond to her parents despite social expectation expects adults to distance from their families to focus mainly on forming their own families.

Mymlan is implied to be a peer who moved out recently considered she was called "Mymlans dotter" [Mymble's daughter] in Farlig midsommar but later called just called Mymlan in Trollvinter 1957 in the mainline book once she start living in a cave or became a lonely solitary drifter in Sent i november 1970. She was already earlier called just Mymlan before such as Hur gick det sen? Boken om Mymlan, Mumintrollet och Lilla My 1952. She immediately becomes just Mymlan in Muminserien while her mother remains unnamed. Sent i november she's noted she's physically fully grown, implies she's actually average sized for a young adult Mymla while her mother and grandmother (from the short story En hemsk historia) are just unusually large individuals. Ti-ti-oo also moved out recently from Ti-ti-oo's mother after given a name.

Offsprings seems to inherent only one of the parent's folk groups that makes "hybrids"/mixes don't exist there. Such as Sniff looks identical to his mother Sås-djuret in Memoarer/Bravader rather than a mix with Rådd-djuret. Likewise Snusmumriken is NOT the same folk group as his father Joxaren who's a Joxare (multiple times called "en joxare" rather than "en (snus)mumrik") like his son (if taking this pattern serious it further implies Snusmumriken's ambiguous mother in the revisited version Muminpappans memoarer was unlikely the Mymla mother Joxaren befriended but likely another Snusmumrik that Muminpappan dosen't know that explains why he refusing clear answers about Snusmumriken's mother which makes sense since he was born after losing contact with Joxaren). While that's a very common fictional trope but that could reflect Tove Jansson's own heritage who despite close bond with her Swedish relatives, she relates to Finland far more and consider herself mainly a Finn rather than just a Swede (while not nationally, she still consider herself a Finland-Swede who are culturally mixed and/or distinct ethnic group genetically indistinguishable from other nearby Finnish-speaking coastal Finns, simply named after their language rather than ties to Sweden). You can also see this pattern in Muminserien where Misan has a sister that resembles a Mumintroll. One could interpret as possible adoption although that's never mentioned.

Adoption is a very common norm in Mumindalen but who's adopted is never the same through all renditions. They are often treated both as close friend and family most of the time. Although Mumintrollet often display heated sibling-like rivalry with Sniff and Lilla My even when not being adopted which seems more like based on Sniff's and Lilla My's personalities. They never really call each other as siblings it seems. In the books, Rådd-djuret got adopted by his uncle Fredrikson after his parents got lost in "storstädning" (whatever is called in English, "deep cleaning"?). Skogsungarna was briefly adopted by Snusmumriken in Farlig midsommar where the narration humorously calls Snusmumriken "en olycklig pappa" ["a miserable dad"] and Mumintrollet called them "Snusmumrikens barn" ["Snusmumriken's children"] althought they later got adopted by Filifjonkan and Emma (apparently Filifjonkan in Farlig midsommar is either a prototype or different individual just like the bizarre Mymla depictions of Bravader/Memoarer to later depictions). Lilla My got suddenly adopted into the Mumin family in Pappan och havet and Sent i november (the two last books).

Both Sniff and Lilla My was adopted in Muminserien although their later adoption status is ambiguous in later arcs. Mumintrollet himself got adopted by his parents in the 2st arc (Muminfamiljen/Moomin and Family Life) after losing both his two houses before realize he was their lost biological child all along.

In the satirical live action show Mumintrollet 1969, Rådd-djuret is adopted into the household. This was likely a theatrical continuation where Rådd-djuret often becomes Sniff's replacement as Mumintrollet's peer or younger which pre-dates Muminpappans bravader 1950 where he actually got recycled as Sniff's dad (his first appearance was the first Mumin theater directed by Vivica Bandler Mumintrollet och Kometen 1949. I have summary of its plot which you can viewed in PART 1 and PART 2).

Obsolete abandoned relationship dynamics.

While family relationships (often relating to adoptions) might change depending on the stories since Mumin doesn't have coherent fixed/rigged "lore/canon" (not even between the book series such as Förfadern being 1000 years old in Trollvinter but 300 in Sent i november) beyond few "basic rules" like IF Mumintrollet had parents, that would be Muminpappan and Muminmamman. Mumin functions more like Donald Duck comics than LOTR. However there are relationships that was removed and altered in later version of the "same" stories and never brought up again. Clearly, Tove don't want clear fixed/rigged "lores/canon" like so many modern IPs does nowadays and only want to view the stories as individual independent folklore-like stories where the tones, message and storytelling is the focus, not consistent literal timelines and world buildings.

AT FIRST, the Mymla sisters (likely meant to be one-shots at first) was meant to be Snusmumriken's OLDER sisters (despite later depiction, Lilla My is both called and treated as a literal child by everyone beyond just affectionate by Muminpappan, Muminmamman and elders) with the one-shot Mymla mother (also named Mymlan) having affair with his one-shot father Joxaren in Muminpappans Bravader 1950 (no, it wasn't the daughter since Joxaren had barely interaction with her, it was definitely the freakish-looking mother and the daughter looks the same at the epilogue) and a very outdated "family trees" drafts for Bravader (plastered with notes not even make it to the final published Bravader book such as unused names, unused backstories and also explains why there's absence of family members later introduced in other works). Bravader was very rushed and short, throwing around a bunch of common tropes (missing mother and missing father. The missing father trope was removed as Snusmumriken actually grew up with Joxaren in Memoarer) without much further explorations and coherent connections.

Tove Jansson immediately discontinued Snusmumriken's family connection with the Mymla sisters with the next book Farlig midsommar 1954 where Snusmumriken meets Lilla My "AGAIN" where he didn't recognize her at first since last time he met her was when she so tiny that she was invisible despite in Bravader/Memoarer she was clearly visible at the epilogue. Later in that book he was SURPRISED to know that Lilla My was related to Mymlan (Lilla My's older sister), implies he knew Mymlan before Lilla My by that point. Elsewhere Snusmumriken continue having zero family connection to the Mymla sisters. Including Sent i november where Snusmumriken interacts with Mymlan the most but zero mentions of ever being related at all. Likely Tove Jansson quickly saw that family dynamic as a mistake of undeveloped implications of children being born from polygamist affairs that weren't covered properly which she really disliked (as someone being deeply highly monogamous) as well as making Snusmumriken more minimal to emphasis on his philosophies and independence rather than being more inherently tied to people by blood.

Later in Tove Jansson's more polished and extended revisited version of Bravader that's Muminpappans memoarer 1968 that currently being sold in its original language and most other languages (which Exploits of Moominpappa only selectively took only few passages from) where she heavily altered Joxaren's relationship with the Mymla mother to be strictly close buddies (majority of romantic implications being removed), making Muminpappan (he had always flaws, unreliability and imperfection in Bravader, enhanced greatly in Memoarer in a good rather realistic way but was actually removed in Exploits) cryptic and evasive with Snusmumriken's questions about his mother without clear answers (unlike Bravader/Exploits) that made only Snusmumriken suspect the Mymla mother is his mother and Lilla My being related (but not sister anymore). Also the new prologue missing in the English Exploits starts with mention the "present time" took place long time ago when Mumintrollet and his friends were very little which means they were children (despite epilogue shows them adult-sized like all other books) and Snusmumriken is Mumintrollet's childhood friend there despite relatively recently met in their older youths in Kometen kommer which was revisited exactly the same year. Again, they are just different separate stories. That also discontinue further with Farlig midsommar where Snusmumriken is clearly a young adult yet mentioned last time met Lilla My was when she was invisible despite "childhood" epilogue met her when she was visible.

I personally interpret the Mymla family in Muminpappan's past as either prototypes or different families from the later depictions due to fundamentally different behaviors and appearances (they have all tails! Some has antennas! The mother had Mårran's giant feet and hands!"). "My" could be a common name for Mymlor just like in real life in Swedish. Especially when everyone got redesigned to their modern designs in revisited versions except the Mymla family keeping all their freakish appearances intact.

But I want to say, no, Snusmumriken don't "hate his family" for not recognize certain characters as related, it's just that family dynamics changes and some are abandoned and outdated. That explains why he and the Mymla sisters NEVER call each other siblings anymore beyond Bravader/Exploits. In Mumindalen 2019-2025 Lilla My does call Snusmumriken "brorsan" [bro] only once however my best friend also calls me that which are just common thing between friends which also fits with Lilla My's general sister-like energy to everyone. Likewise her mother calls him "raring" ["dear/honey"] only once which she also did with Toft (had strangely change to "Toffle"/Knyttet in the ENG dub despite characterization is Toft with Knyttet's appearance) because of her nurturing personality. And then I also see clueless fans making inappropriate jokes about the 90s anime's very brief gag of Lilla My mockingly asking Snusmumriken out just to mock romance and shock him for fun when they are actually no longer considered related at all.

This is a very large topic that I will explore in later posts and showcase more passages.

While I do want a depiction of Joxaren being father to Snusmumriken just like Bravader/Memoarer however I do praise that they kept Joxaren's relation to Snusmumriken ambiguous and unsolved in Mumindalen 2019-2025 following adaptation trend where he's either ambiguous or just a look-alike stranger (the only adaptation I find where they are being related is the OLDER Finnish-Polish stop motion series). It's a common mature theme in both original and Mumindalen 2019-2025 to maturely accept and embrace uncomfortable ambiguity and unresolved situations that also happens in real life as not everything has to be so neat, easy and clear. Lilla My was only suspicious that Joxaren might be related to Snusmumriken but not really exact in what way. But never suspect her mother to have any specific relations with neither unlike with the previous episode with Brisk where she's suspicious if he's her biological father from seeing him in family photos dancing with her mother (remains unclear if he's her biological father when Brisk rejects her but that's unimportant since found family with Muminpappan as father figure is much more significant). Lilla My said to Snusmumriken she want to show him Joxaren which he understandably don't recognize immediately since Joxaren is not an unique name and actually named after his own kind so it's like saying "I want to show you the cat I found" without knowing "which" cat (it may or may not be your cat). When he saw Joxaren in the distance Snusmumriken said he dosen't want to face that "fate" and goes away that made Lilla My puzzled but respect Snusmumriken's personal choice of not meet Joxaren. It's just unclear what made him not want to meet him and what relation but we never know since Joxaren is never seen afterwards.

I notice that adaptation works from current latest versions of the books in either Swedish or Finnish that's sold today, not English outdated versions. They are also very independent from the website's informations that's often more in sync with the English versions and uncritically presents outdated drafts as if they are still "relevant" for modern fanservice "lore/canon" and cute fan vibes like "aww look, they are siblings!" regardless if they actually aligns with what the original language and other languages actually got and the author's later wishes. The Tempere museum was mostly great except when it ignores Memoarer that the ship diorama was obviously based on just because the English Exploits of Moominpappa is freaking outdated for decades and drags every other languages down to get in sync with its outdatedness without proper context of being historical versions. I really wish they did a new faithful foreignized English translations of the revisited editions that Tove Jansson made herself.

Then I start see people get frustrated with why the actual materials never actually treat Snusmumriken and the Mymla sisters as siblings and thinks Snusmumriken must "hate his family" when that's not true at all.

Sure many things are really great and important from the official websites but I'm still cautious and not blindly believe in everything as absolute dogma without checking, especially if they themselves never quotes from Tove Jansson herself or track consistencies and histories properly. Sure I also make mistakes and might forget or not properly sourcing (or add later such as exact letters and dates referred. Many sources might unfortunately be already region-locked and limited by language barriers to non-Swedish-speaking audiences or only exist physically). I do appreciate when modern official sources tries restore their trollish nature however they never really properly explained the cultural and stylized contexts behind them that made so many fans still confused if these are just buzzword placeholders for not aligned with the typical monstrous Norwegian/global-styled trolls and unable to tolerant abstractions.

Also I don't appreciate when fans and the official website romanticizing admiration and longing as inherently romantic and exclusive to specific relationships when they are extremely very universal emotions and expressions for Tove to many people (especially Eva for moving to US) that really depends on context.