| Series: | Moomins |
| First: | Finn Family Moomintroll |
| Last: | Moominpappa at Sea |
| Creator: | Tove Jansson |
| Gender: | Female |
The Groke (sv|Mårran, roughly "The Growlerette", fi|Mörkö, equivalent to "[The] Bogey") is a fictional character in the Moomin stories created by Swedish-speaking Finnish author Tove Jansson.[1]
A misunderstood creature condemned to be alone by her emanating coldness, she is a live representation of loneliness,[2] as well as a psychological depiction of very lonely people who have a hard time accepting and expressing love in the right way, making them seem cold and scary to others, which, in turn, only leads to more loneliness.[3] [4] She is known to be scary to children.
The Groke appears as a ghost-like, hill-shaped body with two cold staring eyes and a wide row of white shiny teeth beneath a large and wide triangular nose. In the book Who Will Comfort Toffle?, it is mentioned that she has a tail, but it has never been seen. Wherever she stands, the ground below her freezes, plants and grass die and if she stands in place too long the soil itself will die and nothing will ever grow there again. She leaves a trace of ice and snow when she walks the ground. Anything that she touches will freeze. On one occasion, she froze a campfire by sitting down on it, and she is even noted to make people cold by her stare. She seeks friendship and warmth, but she is declined by everyone and everything, leaving her in her cold cavern on top of the Lonely Mountains.
On one occasion in a comic, however, she was hailed as a heroine when she, in her constant search for warmth, extinguished a forest wildfire by sitting on it. In another comic, Sniff has made a magical potion with seemingly random effects. In curiosity, he drips a few drops on an ant which then transforms into the Groke. It is never made clear if this is how the Groke came to be, or if the ant transformed to another creature of the same type. In another story, she is mistreated, when two small characters, Thingumy and Bob, steal one of her possessions. When she comes after them, they hide with the Moomin family, and refuse to give up the stolen goods. However, when she arrives at the Moomin house, she eventually trades the stolen goods for a heart-shaped shell.
The Groke rarely shows any fear, as everyone around is afraid of her, but in one instance, when she wants to ride a horse made of snow, Moomin tells her it is for the The Lady of the Cold, a personification of winter and coldness, which freezes all that she sees. The Groke then quickly withdraws from the scene, indicating that not even she can withstand the personification of winter. In the story "Who Will Comfort Toffle?", she is also shown to be sensitive to pain, when her tail is bitten by the protagonist and she flees the scene in a haste.
The Groke is a melancholic and lonely character. Agneta Rehal-Johansson has argued that various other characters, such as Moomintroll or Moominmamma, identify with or are represented by her loneliness.
There have been various adaptations of the Moomin books on television. The Groke appears differently in the 1969 anime version of the Moomins, where she is depicted as white and depressed. In the Polish Moomin TV series, she is more like the character in the novels, but darker and bestial.
The Japanese-Dutch anime series Moomin includes her as an antagonist. In the Japanese dub, she is referred to as Morran, mirroring her original Swedish name Mårran. She is distinctive from her first appearance in the series for her intimidating appearance and the loud growling sounds that she utters. Dubs in other languages use different growls, as well as different malevolent theme music, which begins to play every time she appears. The Groke's primary introductions were in episode 6, 7 and 22 of the series. It was not until episode 37 that she was presented more sympathetically.
She also appears in the episode "Night of the Groke" in the 2019 series, in which she make a ghostly moaning sound as she slowly slides along, leaving an ice trail behind her as she searches for fire. She is first encountered by Moomintroll, Snufkin, and Sniff, who manage to escape her. Afterwards, the Groke attempts to head to Moominpappa and Moominmamma’s tent, in which they have a fire. Sniff manages to resist his greed and uses a large sheet of ice to put out the fire, but Moomintroll begins feeling sorry for the Groke and leads her out to sea via placing two lanterns on a log.