The Groke

The Groke (Finnish: Mörkö, Swedish: Mårran) is a fictional character in the Moomin world created by Tove Jansson. Wherever she stands, the ground below her freezes and plants and grass die. She leaves a trail of ice and snow when she walks on the ground. Anything she touches will freeze, and fire quickly extinguishes when she goes near it. She seeks friendship and warmth, but she is declined by everyone and everything, leaving her to live in her cold cavern on top of the Lonely Mountains.

On one occasion in a comic, however, she was hailed as a hero when she, in her constant search for warmth, extinguished a forest wildfire by sitting on it. The Groke is both a live representation of loneliness and a psychological depiction of very lonely people who have a hard time accepting and expressing love in the right way, making them seem cold and scary to others, which, in turn, only leads to more loneliness. She is quite scary to some readers.

Physical Description
The Groke appears as a dark, hill-shaped creature with a heavily hunched posture. Her face is always twisted into an unsettling grimace, with two cold staring eyes, a big nose, and a wide mouth containing a permanently bared set of large, white teeth. Her lower body is like a curtain, obscuring much of her form from the waist down and giving her a ghost-like appearance. Despite this, she does have legs, as she leaves footprints in her wake. In the book Who Will Comfort Toffle?, it is is revealed that she has a tail; though it is unseen in the original book, it is visible in the animated musical adaptation of the story, and is depicted to resemble that of a Moomintroll.

Books she appears in

 * 3. Finn Family Moomintroll - This is the first appearance of the Groke, (except a very brief one in the Ny Tid moomin comic from 1947) and she is generally played as a frightening villain, though Sniff expresses a bit of sympathy for her, at one point moving himself to tears with a speech on how awful it must be to be so alone (in all fairness, his main goal is probably to put Thingumy and Bob in a bad light, after learning that they have stolen the King's Ruby from the Groke).
 * 4. The Exploits of Moominpappa - Here, several characters refer to the Groke eating people: The Joxter claims to have a cousin who was eaten by the Groke, and the young Moominpappa saves the Hemulen's Aunt from being eaten by the Groke. She is never actually seen to eat anyone, though, and since the book is written as Moominpappa's memoirs, it's quite possible (and quite in his character) that he exaggerated things a little in order to make himself look more heroic.
 * 6. Moominland Midwinter - The Groke makes a couple of cameo appearances, though she comes across as far less villainous and more to be pitied than feared. Too-Ticky even expresses sympathy for her when she wants to warm herself by the fire at the celebration for the sun, and ends up not only scaring everyone away but inadvertedly putting out the fire with her own coldness.
 * 8. Moominpappa at Sea - In this work, the Groke keeps on going to Moominpappa's island to beg Moomintroll to show her his lantern flame. This story builds on the new angle of the Groke that Too-Ticky offered in Moominland Midwinter, and is generally seen as the most sympathetic portrayal of her in the books, even containing short passages written from her point of view; constantly craving warmth and light but unable to get either. Towards the end of the story, Moomintroll gives the Groke the friendship she has long been searching for, and her newfound happiness frees her from her own icy curse as the ground below her stops freezing.
 * Who Will Comfort Toffle? - Toffle bites her as he is saving Miffle. however, it is not known whether she was holding Miffle hostage or not.

Adaptations
There have been various adaptations of the Moomin books on TV. The Groke appears in many of these.Tove Jansson

Moomin (1969) & New Moomin (1972)
Confusingly, this duology of adaptations has two versions of the Groke. The first being merely a lookalike and the second being the adaptations' proper version of the character.

The first "Groke" appears in Episode 4 as a one-off character called "Licky-Licky". Licky-Licky bears the closest resemblance to traditional depictions of the Groke in appearance, but seems to be an entirely different character altogether, being completely belligerent in nature and lacking her heat sink-like abilities. Instead, it tries to attack people by licking their faces off, often flapping its large green tongue while shouting "Pero pero pero!" Moomin and Snufkin manage to ward off the creature by having the former wear a mask made of mustard-coated bread, causing the creature to lick it and convulse in pain and disgust from the flavor. Licky-Licky did not appear again after this, presumably because Tove did not approve of this portrayal of the character.

A second, more proper depiction of the Groke makes her debut in episode 60 of the first series, and would continue to appear in the second series, New Moomin. This Groke is generally more true to her counterpart from the original novels, possessing the ability to freeze her surroundings and serving as a representation of loneliness. However, she still differs greatly from other iterations in many respects. This Groke is white in color rather than black or grey, and is completely benevolent and capable of speaking in full sentences. She also has a wider range of facial expressions, whereas most other depictions have a permanent tooth baring grimace. More interestingly, she is shown to have a hobby in ice sculpting.

The Moomins (TV series)
The Polish series features the Groke in several episodes. She is portrayed far more menacingly, making creepy sounds that resemble loud uncanny hissing (Original Polish version) or growling (English broadcast). For the most part this Groke lacks her trademark smile and arms, that only appear when she's attacking someone or tries to grab something. The Polish Groke has large, black eyes with glowing pupils that change colour depending on the Groke's emotions.

Magician's Hat (1980)
The Soviet Magician's Hat has what is considered by many the strangest interpretation of Groke in Moomin history - this version of the Groke is much smaller than any others, has very long grey fur, a nose, and laughs and speaks. She also wears a hat and can turn into a flower and even fly, making strange sounds while doing so. She also has very large feet.

Who Will Comfort Toffle? (short film)
This short film features Groke as very tall, grey, and having a very big nose, even larger than other interpretations of her. She also has a visible, tufted tail.

Moomin (1990 Japan)
The Japanese anime series Moomin has her as a recurring character. Apart from her intimidating appearance, the loud growling sounds she utters contributed to this effect. As well as her malevolent theme music, which begins to play every time she appears. The Groke's primary introductions were in episode 6 and 20 of the series. Especially in her first episode, the dark image and her growling spooky voice were seen as too frightening for some children which might be why the Groke appears with brighter colors and a more relaxed expression in the next episode. It was not until episode 37 that children could start seeing the Groke more sympathetically.

Episodes

 * Episode 6, Tiny Guests: Thingumy and Bob hide from The Groke in Moominhouse and she appears at night.
 * Episode 7, The Suitcase: The episode starts with Moomin having a nightmare where he's chased by The Groke. The next night, right after her previous appearance, Groke comes back to Moominhouse, freezing flowers, rivers, and the ground on her way. When there, Groke confirms that she's there for the suitcase Thingumy and Bob brought. Moominmamma trades Moomin's heart-shaped shell for her to leave them alone.
 * Episode 22, Moomin and Little My's Adventure: Moomin hears The Groke's voice in winter. Him and Little My encounter her from afar. Later, she wants to ride a snow horse made for The Lady of the Cold but decides not to. Her chilling presence helps freeze the horse solid.
 * Episode 37, The Midwinter Bonfire: She comes up to Moomin and The Snorkmaiden, seemingly trying to be social, but Moomin and Snorkmaiden leave because the cold would hurt them. Later, she's getting dangerously close to Alice after a near-accident. Moomin stops Groke and she leaves. Alice says Groke got mad when she mentioned Moomin, and it's implied she's got a crush on him. In the end of the episode, she comes to the bonfire, chasing away all the shrews. When she tries to warm herself by sitting on the fire it extinguishes.

Trivia

 * In the late '90s and early 2000s, when the 90's anime series - which is considered by many to have the scariest portrayal of the Groke in it - premiered in Poland, the Groke - known in Poland as Buka - caused a panic amongst Polish children. The Groke had different sounds - deep, eerie cold howls and moans performed by voice actor Andrzej Bogusz. This, mixed with the darker coloring of the episodes (a trait shared with Finnish episodes and some other airings) and the fact that the Moomins were mostly broadcast in the evening, in the Wieczorynka programming block caused the Groke to be widely considered one of the scariest childhood characters in Poland, both by '90s and early 2000s kids.
 * Many children were horrified by her, were scared to go to sleep because of her, having dreams of her chasing them or turning into the Groke (some examples of such dreams could be found on the myslalemże.pl portal before it got shut down around the early 2010s). The defunct portal Grono.net even had an Anti-Groke forum called ANTY-BUKA, where people would share their childhood stories about the Groke.
 * In the short film Who Will Comfort Toffle?, her nose is so big that some viewers have mistaken it for part of her mouth.
 * Her gender has confused people a lot. She is mostly voiced by a male actor although she is said to be a female. But in Shlyapa Volshebnika might have been a rare time she was voiced by a female actress. The actress did a really deep voice that confused people.