Paulus the woodgnome

Paulus the woodgnome (Dutch: Paulus de boskabouter) was a newspaper comic strip and children's book character, created by Jan van Oort (pseudonym Jean Dulieu) in the period 1946–1985.

Paulus is the keeper of a wood, supported by his friends Oehoeboeroe, Salomo and Gregorius. Their counterplayers are Eucalypta the witch, and her assistant Krakras.

The series started as a newspaper comic strip in Het Vrije Volk. Later stories were published as a radio drama and TV programmes, with puppets, and all voices by Dulieu himself. It was translated into many languages.

Storyline

Paulus is the keeper of a wood, supported by his friends Oehoeboeroe (pronounced: Oohoobooroo) the owl, Salomo the raven and Gregorius the badger. Their counterplayers are Eucalypta the witch, and her assistant Krakras the soup chicken. In the stories there are visitors to the wood, including Joris the fish horse, giants, Paulus' uncle, and the acorn men.

Bibliography

In the first 12 years, nearly 3600 daily comic strips were created by Van Oort. During later years, films and radio drama followed. In the 1970s, a series of books has been published. From 2003 onward, De Meulder Publishers has published a new series of Paulus books, the so-called red books.

  1. The hay cage
  2. The log plan
  3. The sparrows job
  4. The heroic mole
  5. The outdoor schnaps
  6. The squat birds
  7. The boo trees
  8. The inventor
  9. Acornities
  10. The snow sniffer
  11. The fly chicken
  12. L'union fait la force
  13. The jumpsuit
  14. The trinity
  15. The bottle man
  16. The annual assembly
  17. The frog bride
  18. The rooster helmet
  19. In trouble
  20. Snails' talk
  21. The Breton beast
  22. The hats party

Further publications are forthcoming.

British broadcast

It was a children's TV programme on ITV from 1967-1968 in the United Kingdom. It was narrated by Arthur Lowe. The show was made in colour in the Netherlands under the title Paulus de boskabouter and dubbed into English for distribution to the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Jan van Oort made all the puppets for the series, the smallest of these puppets being a 3 cm (1") mouse. He also made all the scenery and dwellings.

The programme was directed by Fred Bosman, written by Jan van Oort and first released on the 1 October 1967. Despite only running for a year in the UK 40 episodes were made, each around 10 minutes long.

It was produced by NTS Netherlands.

References

    External links