The Moomins and the Great Flood

Infobox Book
name = The Moomins and the Great Flood
title_orig = "Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen"
translator = David McDuff


image_caption =
author = Tove Jansson
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Finland
language = Swedish
series = Moomins
subject =
genre = Children's novel
publisher =
pub_date = 1945
english_pub_date = 2005
media_type =
pages =
isbn = ISBN 951-50-1550-2 (English)
oclc =
preceded_by =
followed_by = Comet in Moominland

The Moomins and the Great Flood (in the original Swedish it is "The Little Trolls and the Great Flood") is a book written by Finnish author Tove Jansson in 1945. It was the first book to star the Moomins, but is often seen as a prequel to the main Moomin books, as most of the main characters are introduced in the next book.

Plot

Moominmamma and Moomintroll are travelling through a dark and scary forest looking for Moominpappa, who has gone off adventuring with the Hattifatteners.

They meet a little creature, who joins them (in later books he is named Sniff). They use a tulip to light their way, and are attacked by a giant snake. They are saved when a beautiful young girl with shining blue hair called Tullipa comes out of the tulip and scares the snake away.

They later find the home of an old man, who invites them to live in his garden, which is made entirely of sweets. However when they find out that the sun is made of shiny paper, they leave and continue their journey.

Moominmamma is attacked by an ant-lion, but is rescued by the others. They then find the hattifatteners and get onto one of their boats with them.

The boat does not appear to be going in any particular direction, so the group invite a sea-troll to come aboard and steer the ship. They reach land, and the hattifatteners and sea troll depart.

The group goes in search for Moominpappa and find a lighthouse lived in by a red haired boy. He says that he saw Moominpappa.

Moominmamma, Moomintroll and the small creature rush off to search, while Tulippa stays to live with the red haired boy. They soon find that a flood has begun, and they rescue a cat and her kittens before using a chair as a boat to search for Moominpappa.

They find a message of help in a bottle from Moominpappa, and with the help of a stork, find Moominpappa stuck up a tree. They rescue him and go to dry land, however, Moominpappa is very upset that he has lost Moominhouse, which he just built for the family, as it has drifted away in the flood.

They go for a walk, and in a beautiful valley, find that the blue Moominhouse has been washed up by the flood and landed there.

English Translation

This was the last Moomin book to be translated into English, in 2005, to celebrate 60 years of the Moomins. It was published by Schildts in a limited hardback version.

External links

* [http://www.halldor.demon.co.uk/MOOMIN1.htm/ Translation]
* [http://www.moomintrove.com/9515015502-0-detail.htm The Moomin Trove]
* [http://www.schildts.fi/in-english/moomin-books/44/The-Moomins-and-the-Great-Flood Schildts]

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