Who Will Comfort Toffle?



Who Will Comfort Toffle? (Swedish: Vem ska trösta Knyttet?) is the eight in the series of Tove Jansson's Moomin books and the second picture book, published in 1960. It was first translated into English by Kingsley Hart. The story follows the lonely and frightened Toffle, who is searching for friends, but too shy to talk to anyone.

This was the first Moomin book not to feature the Moomin family. However, other familiar faces like the Mymble, Little My, Snufkin, Too-ticky, Salome and the Groke appear alongside staple Moomin races like hemulens, fillyjonks and whompers.

The book is dedicated to Tuulikki, most likely referring to Tove Jansson's lifelong partner Tuulikki Pietilä.

Plot Summary
Toffle lives alone in a small house where he is constantly frightened by giant hemulens walking outside. One night he's had enough and abandons his home at dawn to live somewhere else, during the day he sees lots of people going by, but he's to scared to talk to anyone.

At night Toffle comes across a party in the woods, but stays outside of it. Instead he goes to the beach where he finds a beautiful seashell that he makes his new home. In the ocean Toffle finds a message in a bottle from Miffle, who writes about how scared she is of the Groke.

Suddenly, Toffle grows confident and determined to find and comfort Miffle. He makes a makeshift boat of his bag and travels the oceans, with his newfound courage he's able to talk to and befriend people, he's even able to speak to the enormous Booble.

At the other side of a dark forest Toffle finds and confronts the Groke. He bites her tail, which makes her so surprised she runs off screaming. Finally Toffle has a chance to comfort Miffle, but once again finds himself too shy to speak. Instead he writes a letter explaining his feelings.

The story ends as Toffle and Miffle ride home across the ocean to their seashell home while being cheered upon by all the characters encountered in the story.

Adaptations
An audiobook version of the story was released as an LP album in 1978 by the Swedish acid/psych progg duo of Peter Lundblad and Torbjörn Eklund.

An animated film by Johan Hagelbäck was made of the book in 1980. The story was also featured in the Swedish 1990 television show and has since been adapted into children's plays.