Materials and editorial principles

The manuscripts in this digital scholarly edition provide a deeper insight into Tove Jansson’s literary creative work, characterised by an exploratory working process in which words, rhythm, and phrasing are continually reconsidered and refined. The edition aims to bring together her known and preserved book manuscripts as completely as possible. Spanning several decades, they show how Jansson shaped her stories through repeated rewritings, detailed linguistic adjustments, and consistent self-editing – from the earliest drafts to the published books.

The main body of material in the edition is based on the literary estate that Tove Jansson donated in 1991 to the Åbo Akademi University Library. It is an extensive collection spread across 18 archival volumes. It includes everything from early handwritten drafts and working notes to typewritten manuscripts with extensive authorial corrections, additions, and deletions. These documents bear witness to an intensive and long-term revision process. The material reflects different stages of her writing and reveals how she repeatedly revisited her texts, reworking them toward a more subdued and contemplative expression.

With the permission of Moomin Characters and Tove Jansson’s rights holders, the material has been digitised at the Åbo Akademi University Library for presentation in a digital edition. This makes it possible for scholars and readers to follow the works’ genesis in detail and to study how Jansson, step by step, refined her language, developed her motifs, and worked towards the stylistic clarity that characterises her authorship.

The publication of the edition will begin in 2026, with new material subsequently being released on an annual basis.

Principles of transcription

The edition comprises all manuscripts pertaining to a given work and accords them equal weight. They can be read side by side in separate columns to facilitate comparison. The transcription is diplomatic: in the manuscript column, the text is reproduced as closely as possible to the original, preserving spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, and line breaks. Authorial revisions – such as deletions, additions, and underlinings – are reproduced and consistently marked in accordance with their graphical form and placement in the document.

The transcriptions are encoded according to the international TEI/XML standard (Text Encoding Initiative), which means that the text has been marked up using a shared system for describing both content and form. This makes it possible to represent, for example, revisions, structural features, and layout in a clear and consistent way, while also enabling the material to be searched and presented in different versions. By activating the “Show all revisions applied” function, the reader can choose a clean reading version of the transcription in which all revisions have been incorporated into the text.

By opening the Legend column, the user gains access to an overview of the symbols and markings used in the manuscript transcriptions. These explanations facilitate the interpretation of deletions, additions, and other editorial interventions, and contribute to a clearer understanding of how the texts have been revised.

In the Facsimile column, the user can study facsimile images of both the manuscripts and the printed books.

The edition will include manuscripts for the following works:

Moomin books (novels & short story collections)

  • Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Moomins and the Great Flood), 1945
  • Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland), 1946
  • Muminpappans bravader (The Exploits of Moominpappa), 1950
  • Farlig midsommar (Moominsummer Madness), 1954
  • Trollvinter (Moominland Midwinter), 1957
  • Det osynliga barnet (Tales from Moominvalley), 1962 (short stories)
  • Pappan och havet (Moominpappa at Sea), 1965
  • Sent i november (Moominvalley in November), 1970

Picture books

  • Fnitt, fnatt, Skrutt och My (unpublished)
  • Hur gick det sen? (The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My), 1952
  • Vem ska trösta knyttet? (Who Will Comfort Toffle?), 1960
  • Den farliga resan (The Dangerous Journey), 1977

Prose for adults/other works

  • Bildhuggarens dotter (Sculptor’s Daughter), 1968
  • Lyssnerskan (The Listener), 1971
  • Sommarboken (The Summer Book), 1972
  • Solstaden (Sun City), 1974
  • Dockskåpet (Art in Nature), 1978
  • Den ärliga bedragaren (The True Deceiver), 1982
  • Stenåkern (untranslated), 1984
  • Resa med lätt bagage (Travelling Light), 1987
  • Rent spel (Fair Play), 1989