Finn Family Moomintroll – Tove Jansson

Finn Family Moomintroll is, outside of the Nordic Countries, most likely the first Moomin book you will encounter in the wild. Despite being it the third Moomin novel, Finn Family Moomintroll was the first book to get translated into English! Not only that, it was the first Nordic book to be published by Puffin in translation, which happened in 1961.

Finn Family Moomintroll was the book that would introduce the world to the Moomins, and considering the limited translations of Nordic children’s books at the time, it was crucial to get it right. One of the ways in which this work was made more accessible was by changing the name Trollkarlens Hatt, which would be ‘The Wizard’s Hat’ in English, to Finn Family Moomintroll, a title which ties the Moomins to their Finnish identity; this new title made for a better introduction as the literal translation would not make much sense to a new audience.

It was a challenging work to translate due to the Moomin terminology and the nonsense language that was used. Eventually, there were two English translations, one by Margaret Wasbourn and one by Elizabeth Portch. Washbourn’s version was more fluent and seemed to assimilate better to the English language, while Portch’s version was more “awkward and topsy-turvy”, which resulted in the text feeling more personal. Portch’s translation is normally used as the common edition of Finn Family Moomintroll. 

As of today, Jansson’s works have been translated into approximately 60 languages!

Author – Tove Jansson

Illustrator – Tove Jansson

Publisher – Puffin Books

Edition – Paperback 

ISBN – 014030150

Condition – Fair