''Noggin the Nog'' is a fictional character appearing in a TV series (of the same name, originally broadcast 1959–1965 and 1982) and a series of illustrated books (published 1965–1977), created by
Oliver Postgate
Richard Oliver Postgate (12 April 1925 – 8 December 2008), generally known as Oliver Postgate, was an English animator, puppeteer, and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television progra ...
and
Peter Firmin
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
. The TV series is considered a cult classic from the golden age of British
children's television
Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television show, television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during ...
. Noggin himself is the simple, kind and unassuming “King of the Northmen” in a roughly Viking-age setting, with various fantastic elements such as dragons, flying machines and talking birds.
Peter Firmin is said to have come up with the name of Noggin after travelling on the
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
and seeing
Neasden tube station
Neasden is a London Underground station in Neasden. It is on the Jubilee line, between Wembley Park and Dollis Hill stations. Metropolitan line trains pass through the station but do not stop, except on rare occasions. The Chiltern Main Line/Lo ...
, which made him think "Noggin".
Some of the original artwork for the series is on display at the
Rupert Bear Museum
The Canterbury Heritage Museum (formerly the Museum of Canterbury) was a museum in Stour Street, Canterbury, South East England, telling the history of the city. It was housed in the 12th-century Poor Priests' Hospital next to the River Stour. ...
.
[ The appearance of the characters was influenced by that of the ]Lewis chessmen
The Lewis chessmen ( no, Lewisbrikkene; gd, Fir-Tàilisg; sco, Lewis chesmen) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most o ...
in the British Museum.
Plot and characters
The stories were based around the central character of Noggin, the rather simple but good-natured son of Knut, King of the Nogs, and his queen Grunhilda. When King Knut dies, Noggin must find a queen to rule beside him or else forfeit the crown to his uncle, Nogbad the Bad. Noggin meets and marries Nooka of the Nooks (an Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
princess), and becomes the new king. Noggin and Nooka have a son, Knut, who comes to the fore in later storylines. Other regular characters include:
*Thornogson – Noggin's closest friend and Captain of the Royal Guard. As the “Hero of a Thousand Battles” Thornogson portrays himself as "fierce", but is actually anything but fierce, and is a little lazy. But he is unfailingly loyal, and never hesitates to defend the honour of his king.
*Olaf the Lofty – An eccentric and occasionally arrogant, but well-meaning, inventor. Olaf's inventions rarely work out exactly as he intends them to, although his most notable success is the Flying Machine.
*Graculus – A big green bird who arrives as Nooka's messenger in the first episode. Later by chance they return to the place of his birth and meet his family, who unlike him are incapable of human speech.
*Grolliffe – A friendly ice dragon whom Noggin befriends, and who helps Noggin and his friends in a later episode.
Although the individual stories vary, any trouble encountered by the heroes is usually caused by Nogbad the Bad, who never gives up trying to claim Noggin's throne for himself. Nogbad always loses in the end, though not always through the intervention of Noggin himself.
Television series
The original television series was first broadcast, beginning on 11 September 1959, by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
in the United Kingdom, and continued until 1965.[ Production company ]Smallfilms
Smallfilms is a British television production company that made animated TV programmes for children from 1959 until the 1980s. In 2014 the company began operating again, producing a new series of its most famous show, ''The Clangers'', however it ...
made 21 programmes in black and white, and six in colour, each with a running time of 10 minutes.
When the programme made a comeback in 1982 it ran for just six episodes and was made in colour. The new series comprised one new two-part story and a colour remake of the second saga, originally a six-parter, "Noggin and the Ice Dragon". The level of stop-motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
was basic, but did not detract from the popularity of the series.
The on-screen title is "The Saga of Noggin the Nog", since the stories were based on the principle of a Norse saga
is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, from the Super NES to the Play ...
, and episodes began with the words, "Listen to me and I will tell you the story of Noggin the Nog, as it was told in the days of old", or "In the lands of the North, where the Black Rocks stand guard against the cold sea, in the dark night that is very long, the Men of the Northlands sit by their great log fires and they tell a tale ... and those tales they tell are the stories of a kind and wise king and his people; they are the Sagas of Noggin the Nog. Welcome to Northlands, a tribute to Noggin, King of the Nogs and the People of the Northlands." These opening lines were accompanied by Vernon Elliott
Vernon Pelling Elliott (27 July 1912 – 12 October 1996) was a British bassoonist, conductor and composer.
Born into a musical family in 1912, Elliott took up the bassoon at a very early age. From then on he had an eventful, busy and very musica ...
's bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...
score.
Visually, the series was primarily inspired by the Lewis chessmen
The Lewis chessmen ( no, Lewisbrikkene; gd, Fir-Tàilisg; sco, Lewis chesmen) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most o ...
(of Norse origin);[ one of the stories is about Noggin playing chess with Nogbad the Bad.
A new series was rumoured in the late 1990s, but nothing came of it.][
The complete series was released on ]DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
in 2005, in a package that also included DVD versions of the short story books.
Television sagas
# "The Saga of Noggin the Nog" (a.k.a. "The King of the Nogs") (6 episodes) (b/w)
##"The King"
##"The Ship"
##"The Journey"
##"The Island"
##"Nogbad the Bad"
##"The King of the Nogs"
#"The Ice Dragon" (6 episodes) (b/w)
##"The Little Man"
##"The Journey"
##"The Hot Water Valley"
##"The Dragon"
##"The Treasure"
##"Nogbad the Bad"
#"The Flying Machine" (3 episodes) (b/w)
##"The Jar"
##"The Birds"
##"The City"
#"The Omruds" (3 episodes) (b/w)
##"The Great Invention"
##"Under the Hill"
##"The Challenge"
#"The Firecake" (3 episodes) (b/w)
##"The Crown of Flowers"
##"The Dream"
##"The Sorcerer's Sword"
#"Noggin and the Ice Dragon" (4 episodes) (colour) (remake of 2nd saga)
#"Noggin and the Pie" (2 episodes) (colour) (based on the book published in 1971)
Narrated by Oliver Postgate.
Character voices by Oliver Postgate and Ronnie Stevens.
Stories by Oliver Postgate, Pictures by Peter Firmin.
Music by Vernon Elliott.
Books
Various Noggin short stories were also published, and a visitor in one of them, ''Noggin and the Moon Mouse'', provided the basis for the characters in the popular ''Clangers
''Clangers'' (usually referred to as ''The Clangers'') is a British stop-motion children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet. They speak only ...
'' TV series. All the books were written by Oliver Postgate, illustrated in full colour by Peter Firmin, and published by Kaye & Ward
William Heinemann Ltd., with the imprint Heinemann, was a London publisher founded in 1890 by William Heinemann. Their first published book, 1890's ''The Bondman'', was a huge success in the United Kingdom and launched the company. He was joined ...
.
Edmund Ward Starting to Read books:
# "Noggin The King" (1965)
# "Noggin and The Whale" (1965)
# "Noggin and The Dragon" (1966)
# "Nogbad Comes Back!" (1966)
# "Noggin and The Moon Mouse" (1967)
# "Nogbad and The Elephants" (1967)
# "Noggin and The Money" (1973)
# "Noggin and The Storks" (1973)
There was also a standard book series published in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of 12 illustrated hardback books:
# "King of the Nogs" (1968)
# "The Ice Dragon" (1968)
# "The Flying Machine" (1968)
# "The Omruds" (1968)
# "The Island" (1969)
# "The Firecake" (1969)
# "The Pie" (1971)
# "The Flowers" (1971)
# "The Game" (1972)
# "The Monster" (1972)
# "The Black-Wash" (1975)
# "The Icebergs" (1975)
A large book about Nog's life, illustrated in black and white, was also published:
* "Nogmania" (1977) (reprinted by The Dragon's Friendly Society in 2000)
Two omnibus books were published to tie in with the colour TV series:
# "Three Tales of Noggin Volume 1" (1981) ("Noggin the King"/"Noggin and The Whale"/"Noggin and the Moon Mouse")
# "Three Tales of Noggin Volume 2" (1981) ("Noggin and the Dragon"/"Nogbad and the Elephant"/"Noggin and the Storks")
In 1992 a fully illustrated 96-page colour book, ''The Sagas of Noggin the Nog'', was published by HarperCollins. This volume contains four tales: "King of the Nogs", "The Ice Dragon", "The Flying Machine", and "The Omruds".
Theatre
In 1971 The Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre c ...
produced a stage version: ''Noggin the Nog. - The Rings of Nudrug,'' with an Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin script. The show was designed by Firmin and included six Postgate songs, with music by Norman Dannatt. Directed by Michael Simpson, it premiered on 23 December and ran for 27 performances until 15 January 1972. Noggin was played by Piers Rogers, with Jane Sandbrook as Nooka, Paul Chapman as Nogbad and Stuart Knee as Prince Knut. A programme produced to accompany the production included this explanatory note:
"The tale of ''The Rings of Nudrug'' is a hitherto unknown story. It tells how Noggin’s son, Prince Knut celebrates his birthday by taking a long and mainly unintentional journey. It tells how the Rings of the Black Sorcerer of Nudrug were brought together again, how the King of the trolls is transformed and how at last the evil power of the rings is broken."
A message to "learned Nogophilists" in the programme pointed out that there were certain discrepancies between the tale presented on stage and that seen on TV, but explained that this was a function of the frequent reinvention of mythical tales. Graculus was absent, and credit for the flying machine was here given to Olaf the Lofty. In fact, this machine was previously stated to have been invented before the birth of Prince Knut, who was seen as a youth in the stage version.
VHS and DVD releases
Between 4 June 1990 and 5 August 1991. Two ''Noggin the Nog'' videos were released by the BBC.
*''The Saga of Noggin the Nog: Tales of the Northlands'' (BBCV 4359). Released: 4 June 1990. Two series:
**"Noggin and the Ice Dragon" (colour)
**"Noggin and The Flying Machine" (black and white)
*''The Saga of Noggin the Nog: The Omruds/The Firecake (BBCV 4651). Released: 5 August 1991. Two series:
**"Noggin and the Omruds" (black and white)
**"Noggin and the Firecake" (black and white)
Recognition
Noggin has received an accolade achieved by very few Norse characters – he appeared with the Ice Dragon reading him a note from Nogbad, on a British commemorative postage stamp (SG1804) in January 1994. The art work for the stamp was drawn by Peter Firmin, who also produced a series of illustrations for the advertising campaign to publicize the new stamps.[ The stamp was one of a set of ten on the theme of "messages", featuring characters from British children's literature. All the characters were pictured holding a letter, note or message. Noggin's note reads: "I, Nogbad 'the Bad' do hereby promise to be 'the Good'."][
]
References
External links
* 1959-1965
* 1979-1980
Noggin the Nog Fan Site
Noggin the Nog at smallfilms.co.uk
The Dragons' Friendly Society
*
Noggin the Nog miniatures at The Little Soldier Company
{{Smallfilms
Television series by Smallfilms
BBC children's television shows
British children's animated fantasy television series
1959 British television series debuts
1965 British television series endings
1950s British children's television series
1960s British children's television series
1960s British animated television series
Fictional Vikings
Fictional princes
Male characters in animation
Television series set in the Viking Age
Stereotypes of Inuit people