Moomin-related
May 3rd, 2008 by snarpOn YouTube I found a video of the Hemulen from Moominland Midwinter dying horribly. I have no idea what they’re saying, being as it is in Swedish Finnish, says the person in the comments, and all.
Also, this guy’s YouTube channel seems to have the entirety of the felt-puppets Moomin show. It is nice and creepy. “And the Lady of the Cold left the squirrel for dead, frozen stiff on the ground. Little My said, “Not to worry, we can give him a lovely funeral!” And so the horse of ice carried the squirrel away to their own frozen world!”
(It calls Too-ticky “he.” She’s a girl! She’s based on Jansson’s wife! Apparently people get confused because Swedish doesn’t have gendered pronouns?)
I walked all over Osu-Kannon today, and also I am in the middle of my routine bioform cleansing, so random places on my body feel cold and others feel like they have already fallen off. But I have acquired The Items. I hope the post office is open tomorrow.
Posted in a: jansson tove, personal, wtf internet | 
05.05.2008 at 08:08 (link)
Those Finnish joke clips parodying the Moomins are pretty common on YouTube. The one with Hemulen didn’t have a very complicated plot - they’re just chanting that they’re going to “play a trick” on him. Dubbing Moomin animation clips with homemade dialogue is also pretty common. But it’s all in Finnish - maybe Finnish-speaking kids have a more traumatic relationship to the Moomins than Swedish-speaking kids. And yep, Finnish is the language without gendered pronouns, in the Swedish originals it’s pretty obvious that Tooticki is a “she”. I think people get confused because she has short hair, pants, and a practical knife - like most Finnish women I know, sure, but heteronormativity is harsh…
You have a fun blog! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the world.
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05.05.2008 at 15:54 (link)
Thank you so much for explaining that! I really ought to be able to recognize Swedish by now, with all the Swedish students at my school, but apparently no. (I’m not sure where I read that it didn’t have gendered pronouns.)
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