Dancing bears

[altariel]

A site collecting Tove Jansson's illustrations for The Hobbit. How cool is that? I wish she'd done Earthsea too.

Comments

[telperion1.livejournal.com]

Nice. I especially liked Gollum, though for a moment I wondered if I was seeing Thranduil a la Bakshi.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thranduil a la Bakshi

Good God. I'm so glad I've never seen that film. I just get dripfed a new horror periodically.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Oh my. How utterly lovely.

I think I like The Bridge to Rivendell best.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That's particularly beautiful, and particularly Jansson (especially Moominsummer Madness). I love her horses, they look almost edible.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I haven't read all the Moomin books, and I can't remember if I've read that one. (I only have Tales from Moomin Valley and Comet in Moominland.)

I also liked the picture of Lake Town.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Moominsummer Madness is the one where the valley gets flooded, and the family end up living in a theatre that's floating down the river. Wonderful.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

BTW, her illustrations to Alice in Wonderland on that site too.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, those are really wonderful. Some great ones of the dragon there. I must make myself Tove Jansson icons.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The world needs more Jansson icons.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of Ged-as-Snufkin.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! One of my favourite Ged moments is at the start of The Farthest Shore, just after he's spoken to Arren, when he has a nap underneath the tree. Very Snufkinish.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Tove pwnz. I don't know if Tolkien ever saw her stuff, but being a geek about Finland he would probably have loved it.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm sure he must have seen them, he always took a real (and professional) interest in translations of his books, and I'd be amazed if he wasn't particularly interested in the Finnish editions. I can't remember anything from the Letters though, and I would definitely have noticed Tove Jansson's name if it had been mentioned (it's not in the index).

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

This edition was a Swedish translation (since Jansson was a Swedish speaker), but I'm sure he would've been interested in it, yes.

When the LotR movies came out my chav of a sister came in complaining about the translations of the characters' names, and I answered by telling her that Tolkien himself had supervised the Finnish translations and decided on a lot of the Finnish names. So Gollum became "Klonkku" ("clunky") because of the sounds he makes and so on...

Re: Just passing by

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I hope that the illustrations to Alice in Wonderland turn up on that site at some point, I'd love to see those. You probably know already, but in case not, the comic strips she did for the London Evening News are coming back into print.

Re: Just passing by

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Should never answer LJ before drinking my morning coffee. The Alice pictures are there already.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Oh, how wonderful, thank you! So many beautiful and adorable things there; possibly the most striking thing, though, was the figures in Mirkwood. A lovely collection.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

They're beautiful stuff :-)

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

I missed out on Tove Jansson completely, and it sounds like I really did miss something there. I must say, though, that in the picture of Bilbo and one of the Mirkwood spiders, the spider looks rather more amiable than I pictured. More like it would invite you in for a hospitable cup of tea than to be a dinner ingredient...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Her books read just as well when you're an adult. One of her adult novels was reprinted a few years back, The Summer Book, and a short story collection has just come back into print, under the title A Winter Book. Awesome stuff.

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

I must look out for them, then. You were one of the people who recommended Diana Wynne Jones' books to this chronological adult, and I enjoy those. Going by that, I'd probably enjoy Jansson's works too.

[fictualities.livejournal.com]

Those are great! I'd never seen those before. I particularly like the dreamy Laketown picture, and the elves rolling the barrels into the water.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Beautiful, aren't they? There are some for Alice in Wonderland on the same site.