Moominpappa at Sea

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Moominpappa at Sea

First edition
Author	Tove Jansson
Original title	Pappan och havet
Country	Finland
Language	Swedish
Series	Moomins
Genre	Novel
Publication date	1965
Preceded by	Tales from Moominvalley
Followed by	Moominvalley in November

Moominpappa at Sea (Swedish: Pappan och havet, literally "The father and the sea") is the seventh book in the Moomin books by Finnish author Tove Jansson.^[1] It is based primarily around the character of Moominpappa, who was heavily inspired by Jansson's father, Viktor Jansson.^[2] It was first published in 1965. Moominpappa at Sea forms the basis of episodes 25 and 26 in the 1990 TV series. The original title is a loose reference to Hemingway novel The Old Man and the Sea, though this is not reflected in the translation.

After Tove Jansson's death, the producer of the 1990 Moomin TV series, Dennis Livson, planned to make a film adaptation based on Moominpappa at Sea, but Tove Jansson's niece Sophia Jansson did not give him permission for the adaptation.^[3]

Plot[]

Moominpappa is dissatisfied with his life in Moominvalley, so he organizes for his family to set off on a journey to find a lighthouse in the sea. Once arriving there, they find it a desolate and lonely place, inhabited only by a very unfriendly fisherman.

Moominpappa wants to become lighthouse keeper, but gives up when he can't figure out how to make the lights shine. He resorts to other projects like building a pier, fishing and research a small lake, only to fail again and again.

Meanwhile, Moominmamma grows more and more melancholy as her dream of planting a garden never works out and her longing for home grows stronger. Eventually she starts painting the walls of the lighthouse with flowers until she's drawn all of Moominvalley. Moominmamma finds she can walk inside the painting to be at peace.

Moomintroll explores the nearby woods and finds a meadow he eventually moves into. He's disappointed to find it already inhabited by ants, and asks Little My for help with getting them to move elsewhere. Little My solves the problem by exterminating the ants with petroleum, much to Moomintroll's dismay.

At night, Moomintroll looks for the seafillies whom he admires greatly. The fillies are selfish and mean to Moomintroll, but he doesn't care. As he tries to attract them by waving his lamp he instead finds he's attracted the Groke. Every night, Moomintroll tries to call for the seafillies, but only ends up being accompanied by the Groke. However, slowly he starts growing a fondness for her, and when the lamp ultimately runs out of petroleum the Groke is no longer cold.

As the story draws to a close, the once disjointed family slowly grow close again. Together they confront the sea and safe the lonely fisherman. When they find out his birthday is coming, they invite him to a party at the lighthouse, which he reluctantly attends, only to slowly realize he is the original lighthouse keeper and retaking his position.

Location[]

The map at the front of Moominpappa at Sea locates the island in The Gulf of Finland. It even gives a location: Latitude 60° 7' 12" North, Longitude 25° 45' 50" East. This is about 42 kilometres (26 mi) east of Helsinki, and 11 kilometres (7 mi) south of the coast of Finland; though no island exists there in real life. Jansson is said to have used real-life Söderskär Lighthouse in Porvoo as a model when writing the lighthouse island of the book.^[4][5][6]

References[]

External links[]

• The Moomin Trove