Clearly I have got a lot to learn.

It turns out that the "moomin" of my early childhood
is actually Moomintroll, but
I never knew he was Moomintroll because
of how the English translation dumbed him down.

There is a whole world of
Moominmother, Moominfather, Moomintroll, and goodness knows
how many other Moomins
who are commonplaces in the author's native Finland,
but to whom I have never been introduced.
At my age,
I better go at least halfway to meet them before it's too late.

Interesting detail:
Moomins, if you see the cartoon illustrations,
have no mouths.
Must make for a challenge for animation.