Noggin the Nog
Encyclopedia
Noggin the Nog is a popular British children's character appearing in his own TV series (of the same name) and series of illustrated books, the brainchild of Oliver Postgate
and Peter Firmin
. The TV series is considered a 'cult classic' from the golden age of British
children's television. Noggin himself is a 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.
Some of the original artwork for the series is on display at the Rupert Bear Museum.
princess) and becomes the new king. Noggin and Nooka then have a son Knut who comes to the fore in later storylines. Other regular characters include:
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.
in the United Kingdom
from 1959 to 1965. twenty-one programmes were made in black and white, and six in colour at a running time of ten minutes, by a company called Smallfilms
. When the programme made a comeback in 1979, it ran for just six episodes and was made in colour, one new two-part story and a colour remake of the second saga, orginally a 6 parter, "Noggin and the Ice Dragon. This colour series of Noggin the Nog ran until the summer of 1980. The level of stop-motion animation
was basic, but this 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
, 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, combined with Vernon Elliott's haunting bassoon
score, conveyed a slightly "creepy" atmosphere, which children found a little frightening and consequently even more exciting.
Visually, it was primarily inspired by the Lewis chessmen
(of Norse origin), in fact one story 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
in 2005, in a package which also included DVD versions of the short story books.
2 The Ice Dragon (6 episodes) (b/w)
3 The Flying Machine (3 episodes) (b/w)
4 The Omruds (3 episodes) (b/w)
5 The Firecake (3 episodes) (b/w)
6 Noggin and the Ice Dragon (4 episodes) (colour) (remake of 2nd saga)
7 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.
TV series. All of the books were published by Kaye and Ward and were written by Oliver Postgate and illustrated in full colour by Peter Firmin.
Edmund Ward Starting to Read books:
There was also a standard book series published in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of 12 illustrated hardback books:
Also a large b/w illustrated book about Nog life was published:
Also to tie in with the colour series two omnibus Noggin books were published:
In 1992 a fully illustrated 96 page colour book published by Harper Collins titled The Sagas of Noggin the Nog. This volume includes four tales: i) King of the Nogs ii) The Ice Dragon iii) The Flying Machine iv) The Omruds.
(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 Good."
Oliver Postgate
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 programmes...
and Peter Firmin
Peter Firmin
Peter Arthur Firmin is an English artist and animator. He was the founder of Smallfilms, along with Oliver Postgate. Between them they created a number of popular children's TV programmes, The Saga of Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers, Bagpuss and Pogles' Wood.-Early life:He trained at...
. The TV series is considered a 'cult classic' from the golden age of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
children's television. Noggin himself is a 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.
Some of the original artwork for the series is on display at the Rupert Bear Museum.
Plot and Characters
The stories were based around the central character of Noggin, the simple 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. After many adventures, Noggin meets and marries Nooka of the Nooks (an EskimoEskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
princess) and becomes the new king. Noggin and Nooka then have a son Knut who comes to the fore in later storylines. Other regular characters include:
- Thor Nogson - Noggin's friend and Captain of the Royal Guard. (Nogson portrays himself as "fierce", but is actually anything but.)
- Olaf the Lofty - An eccentric but well-meaning inventor. Olaf's inventions rarely work out exactly as he intends them to.
- 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 not capable of human speech.
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.
Television series
The original television series was first broadcast on 11 September 1959 shown by the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
from 1959 to 1965. twenty-one programmes were made in black and white, and six in colour at a running time of ten minutes, by a company called Smallfilms
Smallfilms
Smallfilms was a British company that made animated television programmes for children, from 1959 to the 1980s. It was a partnership between Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin . Several very popular series of short films were made using stop-motion animation, including The Clangers, Noggin the Nog,...
. When the programme made a comeback in 1979, it ran for just six episodes and was made in colour, one new two-part story and a colour remake of the second saga, orginally a 6 parter, "Noggin and the Ice Dragon. This colour series of Noggin the Nog ran until the summer of 1980. The level of stop-motion animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
was basic, but this 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
Norse saga
The sagas are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during the voyages, about migration to Iceland and of feuds between Icelandic families...
, 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, combined with Vernon Elliott's haunting bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
score, conveyed a slightly "creepy" atmosphere, which children found a little frightening and consequently even more exciting.
Visually, it was primarily inspired by the Lewis chessmen
Lewis chessmen
The Lewis Chessmen are a group of 78 12th-century chess pieces, most of which are carved in walrus ivory...
(of Norse origin), in fact one story 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
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in 2005, in a package which also included DVD versions of the short story books.
The TV Sagas
1 The Saga of Noggin the Nog (a.k.a. The King of the Nogs) (6 episodes) (b/w)- episode 1 - The King
- episode 2 - The Ship
- episode 3 - The Journey
- episode 4 - The Island
- episode 5 - Nogbad the Bad (1)
- episode 6 - Nogbad the Bad (2)
2 The Ice Dragon (6 episodes) (b/w)
- 1 - The Little Man
- 2 - The Journey
- 3 - The Hot Water Valley
- 4 - The Dragon
- 5 - The Treasure
- 6 - Nogbad the Bad
3 The Flying Machine (3 episodes) (b/w)
- 1 - The Jar
- 2 - The Birds
- 3 - The City
4 The Omruds (3 episodes) (b/w)
- 1 - The Great Invention
- 2 - Under the Hill
- 3 - The Challenge
5 The Firecake (3 episodes) (b/w)
- 1 - The Crown of Flowers
- 2 - The Dream
- 3 - The Sorceror's Sword
6 Noggin and the Ice Dragon (4 episodes) (colour) (remake of 2nd saga)
7 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.
The books
Various Noggin short stories were also published, and a visitor in one of them, Noggin and the Moon Mouse, later provided the basis for the characters in the popular ClangersClangers
Clangers is a popular British stop-motion animated children's television series of short stories about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and in, a small blue planet . They speak in whistles, and eat green soup supplied by the Soup Dragon...
TV series. All of the books were published by Kaye and Ward and were written by Oliver Postgate and illustrated in full colour by Peter Firmin.
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)
Also a large b/w illustrated book about Nog life was published:
- Nogmania (1977) (reprinted by The Dragon's Friendly Society in 2000)
Also to tie in with the colour series two omnibus Noggin books were published:
- 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 published by Harper Collins titled The Sagas of Noggin the Nog. This volume includes four tales: i) King of the Nogs ii) The Ice Dragon iii) The Flying Machine iv) The Omruds.
Recognition with a Noggin stamp
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 'greetings' postage stampGreat Britain commemorative stamps 1990 - 1999
Commemorative stamps, postage stamps issued to honor or commemorate a place, event or person, have been released by Great Britain since 1924. Several sets were released during the decade of the 1990s.-History:...
(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 Good."