Tove Jansson after Tove had become an adult, the two often traveled together, and during her final years Signe also lived with Tove part-time. Jansson is principally known as the author of the Moomin books. Jansson created the Moomins, a family of trolls who are white, round and smooth in appearance, with large snouts that make them vaguely resemble hippopotamuses. The first Moomin book, "The Moomins and the Great Flood", was written in 1945. Although the primary characters are Moominmamma and Moomintroll, most of the principal characters of later stories were only introduced in the next book, so "The Moomins and the
Naantali towns in Finland, and the highest in the province of Southwest Finland. The name "Naantali" is the fennicised version of the Swedish name of the town, . The Swedish name was given as a direct translation from the Latin "Vallis Gratiae" which literally means "The Valley of Grace". This interesting divide between urban and rural is perhaps one reason as to why the city has been named the most popular tourist centre in the country in numerous surveys. Another factor affecting this is the proximity of both Turku, the region's administrative centre and largest city, and of the archipelago. There