The Podgoblin’s Hat

This episode's special guest is Mendel Skulski, a podcaster, mushroom-enthusiast and musician who wore an excellent Snufkin costume to a fancy dress party.

We chat about climate collapse as depicted in Comet in Moominland, and the different characters' attitudes to it. We also chat about the different mushrooms Little My picks in The Invisible Child, and how one might go about identifying and preparing them for eating. Mendel is wo...

For this Christmas-adjascent bonus, we're welcoming Helen Zaltzman, a podcaster and thinker about words.

Helen came to the Moomins as a young child while she was devouring the entire contents of her local library and volunteered to re-read Moominland Midwinter for us. We talk about how lovely the writing is, the art of translation, and what a relief it is when you revisit a beloved childhood story and find that it's still good. So ...

Our guest for this out-of-season bonus episode is Hanna: a lifelong Moomins fan and reader of the books in Polish!

We talk about faithfulness in adaptation, the differences between the Polish and English translations, and being out on the raw shore of the Baltic sea.

Hanna has a unique perspective on the Hemulen Who Loved Silence, which we read last season. A case is made for quiet people who don't want to have to bite to be heard.

And just like that, it's the end of the season! We're going out on a story that actually shows us what happens when someone has a problem and wonders "What would Snufkin do?"

Sniff is inconsolable over the loss of his favourite toy, a small dog called Cedric, with bejewelled eyes (?!). Even Moominmamma can't help him, so he wanders down to Snufkin's camp and gets told a story. It's a very classic story-shape about belongings not ma...

How many times has Moominpappa gone off with the Hattifatteners? Are they really as wicked as they're cracked up to be? What does the birch bark scroll mean? Hop along and find out none of the answers to these questions!

This is supposed to be a story about the Hattifatteners, but it might more appropriately be named: The Feelings and Projections that Moominpappa has about the Hattifatteners. Which is a bit disappointing for Hattif...

Our guest Ali Baker is a researcher in children's literature with a particular interest in children's voice and children's rights, so it's no surprise she chose to come on and talk to us about The Invisible Child!

Ali makes a strong case for Bjork as a Spirit of Little My and reminisces about finding the Moomins in her local library as a kid. We situate the Moomins as a type of fantasy, and Ali recommend's Dr Farah Mendlesohn's Rhe...

This week we're reading one of Tove's most famous short stories: The Invisible Child. It's a pretty bright and funny story with very dark themes. We both like it, but it doesn't quite live up to the hype, for us.

Little My is picking poisonous mushrooms (what else is new?), Moomintroll is an ass, and Moominmamma is a confirmed witch. It's a good one for cameos of Too-Ticky, and vengeance on fathers. We've got quite the fungus-based...

Our guest Lou has been a Moomin fan since childhood, and the character ey relate to is the Groke (iconic).

This chat is lots of things, and one of the things is a couple of autistics marvelling over the Hemulen Who Loved Silence, with a sideshoot through Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence. It's also Brian Blessed as Edward the Booble impersonations. It's a really good time!

Lou's Spirit of the Moomins is My Neighbour Toto...

Is this the underrated best story in this collection? We really think it might be.

What can a Hemulen tell us about work under capitalism? Will any of us ever get to be pensioned off? This is a beautiful story about introversion, access needs and the dangers of sharing your most secret desires with your relatives. IT BANGS LIKE A DRUM. And it generated a lot of conversation for us, during which we referenced Shy Radicals by Hamja A...

This story's title promises so much in terms of dragon content! In actuality there is hardly any dragon in this story, but what there is, is very good. Nina likes this story a lot anyway, Dave's more on the fence.

How understandable to want a small pet of your own, who would be attached just to you! How impossible to guarantee this outcome in any way, especially when said small pet is actually a wild thing and an endangered species...

There's so much to say about The Fillyjonk Who Believed in Disasters that we invited Ruby on to say some of it for us! We ponder on the exquisite combo that is cosy and creepy, lament the missed connection between Gaffsie and Fillyjonk and scribble all over our copies of Tales From Moomin Valley in pencil.

Ruby's Spirit of the Moomins is the folkloric art of John Bauer, and her Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is the Waterlands Podc...

This week we're reading The Fillyjonk Who Believed in disasters, certified banger no matter who you ask! It's a melancholy, funny, poignant story that feels almost too real.

Join us as we relate a little too closely and discuss the anxiety and depression of this poor Fillyjonk. We talk about the beauty and liberation of destruction, bombed out cathedrals, and monastic lifestyles. Do we ever really learn from these experiences, or...

Carrying on with our read-through of Tales from Moomin Valley, our story this week is A Tale of Horror! But don't get too excited. The scariest thing about it is the Whomper's daddy.

This story, despite not being our favourite, gave us lots to yap about. We talked about how stories about lying affect children's truthfulness (see article here for more on Kang Lee's experiment, or read the abstract here), shifting standards in kid li...

To round off our spring miniseason we've got a final (for now) look at The Spring Tune, with special guest Matt Miller, a poet and theatre maker.

Matt's take on this story is fairly different from all the other takes we've heard so far! It's about smoking, doing the washing up, procrastination. We play a round of our unofficial but recurring game: which Moomin character do you feel painfully called out by? And have a think about ...

This week we've got a special guest in to talk all about the music of Tove Jansson, and the game we talked about last week (Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley) AND the short story that kicked off this miniseason (the Spring Tune). Martin is a musician, a podcaster, a player of games, so he is ideal for all this!

If you would like to listen along to the music, you'll want to start with this advert composed by Robert Farnon. Then visi...

We're popping in with something a little different for you this week, it's a video game review! That's right, we're almost topical!

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a beautiful, relaxing, not quite open world exploration of Moomin Valley through the eyes and musical instruments of Snufkin. We discuss the way it feels, the way it looks, the way it sounds. Dave has some nitpicks. We wonder how canon the good ship SnufMin is to th...

The crocuses are up, the cherry trees are in bloom, and Snufkin is tramping back to Moomin Valley - it must be time for our spring miniseries!

We're kicking off with this beautiful, perfectly formed gem of a short story from the collection Tales from Moomin Valley. It's a story about creativity, inspiration, song writing, and how big you need to be to get a name.

We namecheck a lot of books in this one! A non exhaustive list: B...

We're wrapping up this year on the Podgoblin's Hat with Tove's Christmas offering: The Fir Tree.

It's got everything you want from a Christmas story: the light and the dark, the fear and the wonder. There's even a little cameo from the Moomin family gun.

We chat about different translations of this story, we exchange presents and talk at length about egg nog.

Our Spirits of the Moomins this Week are The Father Christmas Lette...

We're wrapping up Moominland Midwinter this week, and despite being only three chapters, it's 70% of the words in this book, so do strap in for a mammoth episode.

There's a whole raft of new characters: the lonely and the rum, a flock of small creep, a very melancholy dog and a jock Hemulen. Misunderstandings and unrequited longings abound. Moomintroll finally gets to grips with the snow. Little My invents ice skating. And we fin...