The Miffyanic Legacy - Part 1

Added on 02 December 2008

What is it that connects an internationally popular children’s character to a dark and secretive society intent on enslaving Europe in a Soviet-style dictatorship? Probably nothing, but read on anyway.

My Ethnic Polish Friend (EPF) has recently translated three Miffy books into Polish to introduce the little Dutch rabbit to a new eastern European market. Click on the picture to find details of Miffy, Miffy w Zoo, and Urodziny Miffy.

I’d never seen Miffy before. As a child growing up in Scotland, obviously from a young age we read Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson, Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Irvine Welsh. My own kids were Thomas the Tank Engine junkies, with a bit of Winnie The Pooh on the side. But no Miffy.

So when EPF and I were discussing Miffy and I was giving her all the benefit of my years of international publishing conglomerate business genius, I had a look at the first Miffy book. And here’s what I found...

Miffy’s mum and dad live a life of happy Terry & June-esque domesticity. The father figure goes to work, the mum stays at home and does the garden and makes cakes. No stereotyping there. The only thing lacking is that they don’t have any children and the mum bizarrely seems upset by this. But then, in a sudden and unexpected twist, an angel turns up at the door. ‘You will have a child,’ says the Angel. ‘Even though, obviously, you’re still a virgin. Which seems odd given that you’re a rabbit, but never mind.’ And the next day, there’s Miffy.

An angel with a prophecy... a virgin birth... Not long afterwards three wise animals turn up. (Actually, they’re probably three dumb ass animals, but the allusion is there.) Given that this is a tale for very young children, the author Dick Bruna has omitted the more political elements of the Nativity - the slaughter of the innocents, all that stuff - however, it is apparent right from the very beginning that Miffy is a Christ figure, sent by God.

What exactly was Dick Bruna thinking in introducing Miffy in this way? Could we actually be looking at a Da Vinci Code type situation, with messages passed down from Bruna to all the other members of some dark and secret society? The very fact that the first Miffy book was published in the mid-50’s as The Treaty of Rome was being negotiated points quite obviously to a much grander conspiracy.

Clearly further investigative work needs to be done on all those other Miffy stories. But not by me. I can’t be bothered. Someone else must pick up the torch.

There are over thirty further Miffy books. Some of these stories sound quite innocent - Miffy At The Movies, Miffy Goes Flying - some have more subtle Gospel undertones - Miffy Feeds The Five Thousand and Miffy Turns Over The Tables In The Temple - while others are just plain sinister - The Miffyanic Legacy, The Miffy Key, Miffy Tries To Put The Descendants Of Christ On The Throne Of A United Europe.

The Dick Bruna Code, coming to a book shop near you. Just as soon as Dan Brown gets around to writing it.