In 1943, Tove Jansson drew a character named Snork in the Finland-Swedish satirical magazine Garm, which was the earliest predecessor of Moomintroll.[2] In early versions, the character was completely black with an open mouth and red eyes, born out of the "terrible war years."[3] The nose was also narrow and almost resembled a beak. In 1945, Jansson brought the series' signature character to the first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, under the new name Moomintroll, who at the same time gained a thicker, white body and a hippo-like nose.
