Moominpappa at Sea

Moominpappa at Sea (Swedish: Pappan och havet, literally "The father and the sea") is the seventh book in the Moomin books by Finnish author Tove Jansson.[1] It is based primarily around the character of Moominpappa. It was first published in 1965. Moominpappa at Sea forms the basis of episodes 25 and 26 in the 1990 TV series. The original title is a loose reference to Hemingway novel The Old Man and the Sea, though this is not reflected in the translation.

Moominpappa at Sea
First edition
AuthorTove Jansson
Original titlePappan och havet
CountryFinland
LanguageSwedish
SeriesMoomins
GenreNovel
Publication date
1965
Preceded byTales from Moominvalley 
Followed byMoominvalley in November 

Plot

Moominpappa is dissatisfied with his life in Moomin Valley, so he organises the family to set off on a journey to find a lighthouse in the sea. This will also be the perfect backdrop for a novel about the sea. Once arriving there, they find it a desolate and lonely place, inhabited only by a very unfriendly fisherman. Moomintroll also befriends The Groke and the sea horses. Moominmamma misses home so much that she paints flowers on the Moominhouse since none can be grown on the lighthouse island. Later they find out that the fisherman is actually the lighthouse keeper who fled from the loneliness.

Nature and the sea play a big part of the novel as Moominpappa tries to understand it, and there are many strange, inexplicable things happening on the island.

Location

The map at the front of Moominpappa at Sea locates the island in The Gulf of Finland. It even gives a location: Latitude 60° 7' 12" North, Longitude 25° 45' 50" East. This is about 42 kilometres (26 mi) east of Helsinki, and 11 kilometres (7 mi) south of the coast of Finland; though no island exists there in real life. Jansson is said to have used real-life Söderskär Lighthouse in Porvoo as a model when writing the lighthouse island of the book.[2][3][4]

References
  1. Ros Coward (2013-11-22). "Tove Jansson | Books". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-12-01.
  2. Söderskär Lighthouse – Helsinki This Week
  3. Svenska YLE: Unika illustrationer av Tove Jansson utställda i Söderskärs fyr (in Swedish)
  4. Tove Janssonin jäljillä Söderskarin majakalla (in Finnish)


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