''Paulus the woodgnome'' ( nl, Paulus de boskabouter) was a Dutch newspaper

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

, which ran between 1946 and 1984. Its popularity inspired a series of children's novels, a radio series and a television puppet series. It was created by

Jan van Oort Jan van Oort (13 April 1921 – 29 November 2006) was a Dutch children's book writer and comic strip cartoonist, working under the pseudonym of Jean Dulieu. He is known for his creation of ''Paulus the woodgnome''. Personal biography Jan va ...

(

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Jean Dulieu), who personally made all adaptations of his work. ''Paulus'' was translated into German, English, Swedish and Japanese.

History

The first ''Paulus'' comic strip was published on February 2, 1946, in the Dutch newspaper ''

Het Vrije Volk ''Het Vrije Volk'' was a Dutch social-democratic daily newspaper. It was the successor, after World War II, of the socialist daily '' Het Volk''. The paper appeared legally 1 March 1945 in Eindhoven. From 28 January 1946, all subdivisions of the ...

''. Like most comic strips in

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

at the time it was published in

text comics Text comics or a text comic is a form of comics where the stories are told in Cartoon caption, captions below the images and without the use of speech balloons. It is the oldest form of comics and was especially dominant in European comics from t ...

format, with the text below the images. During the first 12 years nearly 3500 individual strips were written and drawn. Dulieu temporarily interrupted his comic strip in 1957 to focus more on his radio series adaptation of ''Paulus''. After the show was cancelled in 1963 he continued making new comic strips until 1967–1968, when he focused on a new project: a TV puppet series. Between 1974 and 1984 Dulieu drew his final series of comics about Paulus. Apart from ''Het Vrije Volk'' the comics were also published in magazines such as ''Kris Kras'', ''

Bobo Bobo may refer to: Animals and plants * Bobo (gorilla) a popular gorilla at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle from 1953 to 1968 * Bobo, Vietnamese name for Job's tears, a plant of south-east Asia Entertainment, arts and media * ''Bobo'' (mag ...

'', ''Avrobode'' and ''Eva''.

Storyline

Paulus is a

gnome A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

who lives in the woods. His friends are Oehoeboeroe (pronounced: "Oohoobooroo") the

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

, Salomo the

raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...

and Gregorius the

badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by ...

. His archenemy is Eucalypta the witch and her assistant Krakras the soup chicken.

Characters

* Paulus: A nice, good natured wood gnome who is a friend of all nature and enjoys to smoke a pipe now and then. * Oehoeboeroe: A wise

who enjoys talking in archaic language. He is a good friend of Paulus, despite his love for eating mice. * Gregorius: A greedy, lazy and not too bright

. He frequently makes use of

spoonerism A spoonerism is an occurrence in speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words in a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and ordained minister William Archibald Spooner, w ...

s. He too is a friend of Paulus. * Salomo: A wise

who is another one of Paulus' friends. * Eucalypta: An ugly and evil witch who is Paulus' arch enemy. * Krakras: A

crow A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

who was transformed into a featherless chick by Eucalypta. She often assists her. * Mol: A

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

who often helps Paulus. * Pluim: A

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...

and friend of Paulus. * Wipper: A rabbit. * Reintje: An evil

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, who is a threat to the other animals and often works together with Eucalypta. * Poetepa and Moetema: A

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

couple who have a little cub named Poetepoet, who ran away from home because he wanted to be big.

Radio series

Between 1955 and 1964 ''Paulus de boskabouter'' was adapted for

VARA Vara or VARA may refer to: Geography *Vara (river), in Liguria, Italy * Vara Parish, former municipality in Tartu County, Estonia * Vara, Estonia, village in Peipsiääre Parish, Tartu County, Estonia * Vara Municipality, municipality in western S ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

as a series of

audio play Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

s. 900 episodes were made. Jean Dulieu did all the voices personally, except for Prinses Priegeltje, which was done by his daughter Dorinde van Oort. The theme music was "Dance of an ostracised imp" by Frederic Curzon. Several episodes were released on vinyl records and in the 2000s some were also made available on CD.

Television series

Between October 1, 1967, and December 29, 1968, ''Paulus de boskabouter'' was made into a puppet series for VARA television. Dulieu made all the puppets himself and also provided the voices. Fred Bosman was the director. The series was exported to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

The British dub was narrated by Arthur Lowe, with voices by

Peter Hawkins Peter John Hawkins (3 April 1924 – 8 July 2006) was a British actor. During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, he was one of the most sought-after voice artists for radio and television, becoming a regular face and voice around the Soho-based cir ...

and broadcast on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

. It was produced by NTS Netherlands. From September 29, 1974, until May 31, 1975, a new puppet TV series about Paulus was made. This time the puppets were made by the Brothers Slabbers and the voices were done by professional actors, such as Elsje Scherjon, Frans van Dusschoten and Ger Smith, who also worked for ''

De Fabeltjeskrant ''Fabeltjeskrant'' () (or ''De Fabeltjeskrant'', Dutch for "''The Fables Newspaper''") is a Dutch children's television series featuring puppetry and stop motion. Created in 1968 by and produced by Thijs Chanowski (1st series) and Loek de L ...

''.

Leen Valkenier Leen may refer to: * Leen (given name) * Leen (surname) *River Leen, a river in England See also *Leens Leens is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Het Hogeland. Leens was a separate municipality u ...

wrote the scripts and Loek de Levita produced the show.

Novelizations

During the 1970s ''Paulus'' was also published as a series of children's novels. From 2003 onward, De Meulder Publishers has published a new series of Paulus books, the so-called ''red books''. # "The Hay Cage" # "The Log Plan" # "The Sparrows Job" # The Heroic Mole" # The Outdoor Schnaps # "The Squat Birds" # "The Boo Trees" # "The Inventor" # "Acornities" # "The Snow Sniffer" # "The Fly Chicken" # "United We Stand" # "The Jumpsuit" # "The Trinity" # "The Bottle Man" # "The Annual Assembly" # "The Frog Bride" # "The Rooster Helmet" # "In Dire Straits" # "Snails' Talk" # "The Breton Beast" # "The Hats Party" Further publications are forthcoming.

References

External links

List of programmes (new catalogue)
in the archives of

Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Dutch: Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, or short, Beeld en Geluid) is the cultural archive and a museum located in Hilversum. The Institute for Sound and Vision collects, looks after, and ...

Paulus Archives
(Dutch), website * {{IMDb title, 0295806 Dutch comic strips Fictional gnomes Fictional Dutch people Fantasy comics Text comics Comics about animals Comics set in forests 1946 comics debuts 1957 comics endings 1963 comics debuts 1967 comics endings 1974 comics debuts 1984 comics endings Comics characters introduced in 1946 Dutch comics characters Male characters in comics Dutch radio programs 1955 radio programme debuts 1964 radio programme endings Children's radio programs Fantasy radio programs Radio programs based on comic strips Comics adapted into radio series Comics adapted into television series Comics adapted into novels Dutch children's television series Dutch fantasy television series 1967 Dutch television series debuts 1968 Dutch television series endings 1974 Dutch television series debuts 1975 Dutch television series endings Dutch television shows featuring puppetry Dutch-language television shows ITV children's television shows Dutch children's books