Talk:Snufkin/@comment-44399812-20191113081106/@comment-36678579-20191117025222

There's no definitive ages for any characters, really, at least not numerical ages.

With magic and strange creatures around, it makes it even harder to apply human ages to these characters - some creatures all seem to be the same age, some never age - though that is likely what Tove wanted so more people can relate to them.

They seem to be in three main categories: toddlers/children, young people, older people/elders. So the forest children and Mymble's children are children/toddlers, then Moomintroll, Snufkin, Sniff, Snorkmaiden, etc, are young people, and pretty much everyone else is in the older people/elders category, with Moominmamma and Moominpappa, Mrs Fillyjonk, Mymble... etc. The Groke and Stinky and other characters are in this older people category too, although there's an argument for them being sort of ageless or immortal or something that can't be aged, especially in The Groke's case, and other more supernatural entities like the Lady of the Cold.

There are characters like Too-Ticky and Mymble's Daughter who seem to be bordering the young people and older people groups, both independent but also capable of making mistakes and having learning journeys like the younger characters, but then Too-Ticky also is like a parental figure for Moomintroll in Moominland Midwinter, so they are older people, but not as old as Moominmamma and Moominpappa, for example.

Little My obviously confuses too as she is small and plays with Moomintroll and his friends, and tends to have a young sounding voice actor, but unlike Sniff, Snufkin, Snorkmaiden, etc, she is sometimes clearly described as being much older, being an older sister to Snufkin, and being old enough to know better, but young at heart. In The Exploits of Moominpappa it is said that Little My no longer ages. My is a bit of an enigma, but we love her all the same.

Snufkin doesn't really have a mentor role in the same way as the parental characters, he tends to be seen as on the same level as Sniff and Moomintroll, and he often plays with them and is seen as one of them, really, at least this is in the books. He smokes a pipe, however the age limit on smoking in Finland when the books were written was 16, and some were written before that age limit was introduced, so that doesn't mean he isn't a teenager or young adult. In a similar way, Moomintroll often travels alone without parental supervision, takes on big challenges, builds his own house to live in, and I'm pretty sure he gets drunk or smokes too at some point, so these things are there to remind us that they are not young children, but are not necessarily adults, either, just live unsupervised and free.

With different adaptions, different interpretations, different translations, and different voice actors, there's a lot of versions of the characters that seem to be all sorts of ages. The books are not consistent - My sometimes acts young, then will act more mature and sarcastic - and lots is left up to interpretation in these stories. General consensus is that Sniff, Moomintroll, Snorkmaiden and Snufkin all represent different types of young people - some, like Moomintroll, like to be close to home yet maintain a level of independence, some, like Sniff, find a family and home with someone else and like to be looked after, some, like Snorkmaiden, are brought up by/live with a sibling and like to have their actions recognised, and some, like Snufkin, are very independent, live more solitary, yet do need friends and parental figures, too. Tove didn't focus on specific ages, because that wasn't what was important to the stories, what was important was creating characters who explore the world and interact with other people and learn new things in a way that most people can relate to regardless of age, hence the characters being sort of ageless and unspecified.