The Podgoblin’s Hat

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...

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 superstition...

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 Hel...

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 r...

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 scath...

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 Snor...

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...

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 c...

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 threat...

This week we're reading Comet in Moominland, the first fully fledged chapter book. There's lots of to discuss! The Little Creature from last week has become Sniff, a full member of the Moomin family by adoption. A philosopher comes knocking at the door in the middle of the night. But most importantly, Snufkin joins the cast.   We talk about the way this book is structured, the ways in which it cal...

It's our first read-along and we're reading The Moomins and the Great Flood.   We summarise this fairytale of Tove Jansson's, chat about her influences and make a first attempt at a taxonomy of the broader Moomin bestiary.   This week our question for Snufkin is: Things keep stealing my time, and I can't manage to do the things I want to do. What would Snufkin do? If you've got a question for Snuf...

This is the first episode of the Podgoblin's hat, with Nina and Dave.   We will be introducing ourselves, our relationship with each other, and our relationships with the Moomins.   Check out our twitter @ThePodgoblin and our Instagram @thepodgoblin to see pictures of the tattoos, cuddly toys and dog eared books we mentioned. Related media The Japanese cartoon BBC Tove Jansson documentary Mentione...

A little trailer to let you know what is to come on The Podgoblin's Hat, with Dave and Nina.   56d4fb04e48206ee3aeb937518d1aac955bba021