They are a family of white, round fairy-tale characters with large snouts that make them resemble the hippopotamus. However, despite this resemblance, the Moomin family are trolls. The family lives in their house in Moominvalley. In all, nine books were released in the series, together with five picture books and a comic strip , between and On one occasion, Jansson explained that the term mumintroll was originally coined during her childhood by her uncle: to deter the young Jansson from taking food from his pantry, the uncle told her that it was inhabited by "cold moomintrolls", which would come out of the corners and rub their noses against Jansson if she came to steal food.
The mysterious creatures would then follow Jansson as she grew up. In a letter to Paul Ariste , an Estonian linguist, Jansson wrote in that she had created the word moomintroll to expresses something soft: She came up with an ad hoc Swedish word mumintroll , because, in her opinion, the consonant sound of m in particular conveys a sensation of softness.
As an artist, Jansson gave the Moomins a shape that also expresses softness, as opposed to flabbiness. The Moomin stories concern several eccentric and oddly-shaped characters, some of whom are related to each other. The central family consists of Moominpappa , Moominmamma and Moomintroll.
Other characters, such as Hemulens , Sniff , the Snork Maiden , Snufkin , and Little My are accepted into or attach themselves to the family group from time to time, generally living separate lives in the surrounding Moominvalley , where the series is set, and in which the Moomin family decides to live at the end of The Moomins and the Great Flood.
Critics have interpreted various Moomin characters as being inspired by real people, especially members of the author's family, and Tove Jansson spoke in interviews about the backgrounds of, and possible models for, her characters. Jansson uses the differences between the characters' philosophies to provide a venue for her satirical impulses.
