The Podgoblin’s Hat

The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My & Who Will Comfort Toffle

We're breaking from our normal format for these next two episodes to bring you Tove Jansson's picture books.
 
The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My is really ahead of its time in terms of interactivity and the use of holes cut out of the pages. It's a simple enough journey story, and a vehicle for some really gorgeous art. We compare the translation from the 1960s with the more modern text in our newer editions. There's very creative versification and some brand new Hattifattener lore!
 
And if it's true to say that that first book showcases Tove's love of colour, that's even more true of Who Will Comfort Toffle?. Toffle is a small grey creature living in a big colourful world. He always feels on the outside of everything. Pointillism abounds in the black and white pictures of Toffle's fearful little world. Snufkin has a cameo and he's swapped his mouth organ for a silver flute - what is up with that? Ultimately it's a story about the wisdom and strength that love brings.
 
For obvious reasons, there are a lot more pictures to share than usual this week, so we recommend you find us on twitter and instagram to see all that stuff.
 
Our Spirits of the Moomins this week are the game Gris and Press Here by Herve Tullet. Our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is She-Ra: Progressive of Power.

Moominsummer Madness (part 2)

Content note: discussion of suicidal thoughts in the What Would Snufkin do part of the podcast 
This book splits three ways on Midsummer Eve: Snufkin is enacting revenge on a Park Keeper, Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden are having a party with a Fillyjonk, and the rest of our crew are still aboard the floating theatre.
There's so much about theatre in this book: a play within a play, a lion being played by two beavers, a disastrous dress rehearsal and happy endings all round.
We talk about the effects of responsibility on Snufkin (spoiler: he hates it) and there's some light prison abolitionism.
It's a banger. You should definitely read this one.
Our Spirits this week are Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett, How It Ends and Wizard Team, a black fantasy podcast from Black Nerds Create.

Moominsummer Madness (part 1)

It's summer in Moominvalley and this book truly hits the ground running. There's a volcano casually going off in the background, and another flood, and the Moomin family has to relocate to a strange floating house. Also, Snufkin is nowhere to be found and Moomintroll is pining away. 
 
We've got a bunch of cool new characters, some magical midsummer traditions, and a lot of theatrical superstitions. Dave is taking a new occasional rubrik out for a spin: it's the Clothes Corner!... Nina's usual Botany Corner is also here, and it's all about mosses and lichens.
 
Our Spirits this week are Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, The Spellcoats by Diana Wynne Jones, and So I Got To Thinking, a Sex and the City podcast by Juno Dawson and Dylan B Jones.

The Exploits (or Memoirs) of Moominpappa, part 2

We're back with the second half of Moominpappa's memoirs, in which our brave hero becomes the subject of a country run by an Autocrat, starts a colony and meets his wife.
Moomintroll has some very sensible notes for his Pappa in this half of the book, Sniff has some very good questions, but alas, we will never know why Moominmamma was in the sea.
 
Our question for Snufkin this week comes from Helen Zaltzman.
 
Our Spirits of the Moomins are Edward Carey's The Swallowed Man and Alice Tarbuck's A Spell in the Wild. Nina's other podcast, Even the Trunchbull, is our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat.

The Exploits (or Memoirs) of Moominpappa (part 1)

Welcome back to a new season of the Podgoblin's Hat! This week, Nina is reading the Exploits of Moominpappa and Dave is reading the Memoirs of Moominpappa. Our theme for these books is Memoir.
 
This episode is all about unreliable narrators, self mythologising and the fundamental mystery of our parents. Moominpappa has finally finished his memoirs and is reading them out to the children. Did he really build a Moomin house, or did he just draw it? How much of this story is true?
We have a question for Snufkin from upcoming guest Martin Zaltz Austwick, who you can find here.
 
Our Spirits of the Moomins are both memoirs: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. Dave's spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is Down to a Sunless Sea.
 

Bonus #2 Dr Eleanor Janega

Our special guest for this episode is Medieval historian Dr Eleanor Janega. Eleanor joins us to shout about how much she loves Comet in Moominland, share her Moomin memes of choice and talk about how Tove Jansson draws on medieval storytelling tropes like weird little guys you find in the woods, comets, and really good food writing. There is a case made for Moominmamma as an agony aunt and a scathing burn for Ian Fleming.
 
You can find Eleanor's on twitter @GoingMedieval, buy her new book The Once and Future Sex here and her comic The Middle Ages: A Graphic History here. She also has her own podcast We're Not So Different.
 
The Podgoblin's Hat will return in August with season two, which kicks off with The Memoirs of Moominpappa / The Exploits of Moominpappa. We'll tell you about both versions of the story so you can pick which one to seek out and read!

Bonus #1 Heidi the translator

In this first guest episode, we're talking to Heidi Gilhooly, a lifelong Moomin fan and translator. Heidi did a comparative study of three versions of the Trollkarlens Hatt: in Swedish, Finnish and English. She shares some juicy insider knowledge about what Elizabeth Portch left out when adapting it for an English audience, and what she changed.
 
We chat about the Thingumy and Bob, a gutsier Snorkmaiden and the origin of Moominmamma's proficiency with an axe.
 
Many thanks to Heidi for being our first ever guest! You can find out more about her here.

Finn Family Moomintroll (part 2)

It's the end of Finn Family Moomintroll, and the end of series 1!
 
The Hattifatteners have their barometer back, Snufkin gets around to telling the others about the Hobgoblin and his hat, and we meet Thingumy and Bob, the lesbian-inspired non binary couple of your dreams.
 
This book has more bumps in the road for us as modern readers than those that went before. #JusticeForTheSnorkmaiden
It also contains some really positive representations of what we might call non-monogamy and queerness. Truly a mixed bag.
Our question for Snufkin comes from Jane Eyre, and concerns marriage and true love.
 
Our Spirits of the Moomins this week are: The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
 
Our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is
On Eyre from Hot and Bothered.
 
We'll be back after a break with Memoirs (or are they Exploits?) of Moominpappa.

Finn Family Moomintroll (part 1)

This week we're reading the first half of Finn Family Moomintroll. Spring has sprung and the children have discovered a very interesting hat on top of a hill. The hat starts to transform everything that sits inside it, from eggshells, to outlandish words, to Moomintroll himself. Moominmamma is in the mood for a change of scene and leads an expedition to the Hattifatteners' lonely island. Snufkin catches sight of a terrific villain in the heart of a storm.
 
Our theme for this book is ALCHEMY, and we're looking at transformations and all things golden. Also, colonialist fantasies, various masculinities and the first edition of Nina's Botany Corner.
 
Our question this week pertains to Dave's nonmonogamous emotional life (!) so you'll definitely want to tune in for that.
 
Our Spirits of the Moomins are Bluey and Knock Three Times by Cressida Cowell.
 
Our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is Black Men Can't Jump [In Hollywood].

Comet in Moominland (part 2)

This week we're reading the second half of Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson, and what a rip roaring adventure it is! Moomintroll meets the fabled Snorkmaiden and falls in love on the spot, our brave adventurers attend not one but two end-of-the-world parties, and the philosopher gets stuck into something gooey.
 
We talk about war and climate catastrophes (again! why is Moominland always threatened by climate change?) and discuss the heteronormativity of the Snorkmaiden and Moomintroll's relationship, but also the ways in which they break that mould.
 
This week, our question for Snufkin was provided by the AITA community on Reddit and concerns landlords.
 
Our Spirit of the Moomins recommendations are as follows:
 
By Ash, Oak and Thorn by Melissa Harrison (special shout-out to the audiobook)
 
Toy Story 3
 
And our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat, as provided by Nina this week, is Dragon Babies, a YA fantasy nostalgia podcast.