I was in a toy store a few weeks ago, looking for presents for small children of my acquaintance  when I fell into the vortex of the book section. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I came home with a copy of Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson. I probably own this book already, at my parents’ house, but it was in the clearance section, and a Tove Jansson book always needs a good home. Plus, I’d been thinking about the Moomins lately as an example of northern literature.

Tove Jansson was a Swedish-speaking Finn, an artist, and a sister. As I understand it, she tried to draw something really ugly for her brother, and ended up creating an adorable creature she decided was a Moomintroll. Moomintroll lives in Moominvalley with his Moominmamma and Moominpappa, and a whole host of strange creatures: grokes, hemulens, fillyjonks, creeps, the Snork Maiden, the Mymble’s daughter, and many many more. They inhabit a magical world which I was lucky to gain entry to as a child, and to visit again when I studied abroad in Finland as a high school exchange student. I’ve collected a number of Jansson books, though not as many as this blogger.

Moominland Midwinter stands out of the Moomin series, though. Moomins always hibernate throughout the long winter, but this year, something wakes Moomintroll up. He can’t fall asleep again, and he goes out to explore, learning about winter and about himself while the rest of his family, including his beloved Moominmamma, is sleeping. I’ve seen others point out that this is the first book which addresses death: there is a character which freezes to death, and a funeral.

At the moment, though, I’m most interested in the descriptions of winter, though. Moomintroll wakes up around New Year’s, when it is already quite snowy.

At dawn the snowdrift on the roof began to move. It went slithering down a bit, then it resolutely coasted over the roof edge and sat down with a soft thump.

Now all the windows were buried, and only a weak grey light found its way inside. The drawingroom looked more unreal than ever, as if it were deep under the earth.

Of course, the harshest part of winter is in January or February. Moomintroll meets a few others who are awake for winter, including Too-ticky, who helps him learn to survive winter.

“I just wanted to tell you the Great Cold’s on her way,” Too-ticky said.
“A still greatetr one?” asked Moomintroll. “How big do they grow?”
“This is the most dangerous of them all,” said Too-ticky. “And she’ll come in the afternoon, when the sky changes to green, straight in from the sea.”
“It’s a she, then?” asked Moomintroll.
“Yes, and very beautiful,” said Too-ticky. “But if you look her in the face you’ll be frozen to ice. You’ll be hard like a biscuit and not even crumble. That’s why you’d better keep at home tonight.”

For me, the personification of a cold snap coming over the sea, out of the green sky, is the strongest image in the book. As I reread it, I remembered many of the other details – Little My sledding on Moominmamma’s silver tea tray, Too-ticky’s invisible but musical shrews, the pine needle meal that the moominfamily eats before falling asleep – but the Lady of the Cold was the image already in my mind, the reason why I brought the book home to reread.

It’s an image only in my mind, for although there are a great many other illustrations by Jansson in the book, there’s not one of the Lady of the Cold. Well, I should mention that in the Finnish cartoon version, there are pictures of her, but she is not nearly as terrible and beautiful as I think she should be. The animation style is much more simplistic than Jansson’s art.

At just over 150 pages (with numerous black and white drawings) Moominland Midwinter is a quick read. I spent an hour skimming and reliving the story. If I knew an appropriately aged child, I might give it up, but instead I will put it on the shelf next to an edition of Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Jansson, in my section for books that are artistic and magical.