Paulus the Woodgnome

I guess this is related to the previous post 'You gotta have soul'. Reading about the mythic structures of our lives and the dark and unconscious forces manifested through the world soul...tickled a vague recollection I had from childhood.

Whenever me and the family would wax nostalgic about the good old days of children's TV back in the 70's (Tizwaz, Pipkins, Swap Shop,Rainbow etc) my mother would always snigger at me and pipe up:
"Do you remember 'Paulus the Woodgnome?"
At this somewhat rhetorically flavoured question, my mind would clunkily manage to conjure up a vague image of a ugly puppet witch, set against a gloomy Nordic forest background.

Apparently, so my mother claimed, I adored this programme and became something of an animated puppet myself at the first strains of the opening theme tune. For years I knew she wasn't just implanting a false memory in my somewhat chronically spongy head.

I knew in the deepest recesses of my heart and soul that Paulus and his friends meant something to me, something profound - indeed, 'primary psychic architecture' is not too grandiose a phrase I think to possibly encompass the importance of this deeply weird (and disturbing) overdubbed Dutch puppet show from the late 60's.
(Actually, just saying the words 'overdubbed Dutch puppet show from the late 60's' gives you a flavour of the possible oddity of its content.)

After doing a bit of research (literally - a bit), I discovered that the show only ran for a couple of years on British TV in the late 60's - and I couldn't find any mention of re-runs so I must have been only 2 or 3 years old at the time.

I guess my age insulated me from the initial trauma of witnessing this surreal atrocity of the human imagination at the time. But I believe I absorbed and developed certain aspects, atmospheres, colours, sounds, symbolism from that early and totally uncensored exposure.

I'm too scared to really examine deeply, how this particular example of televisual Kinder art may have unbalanced my psychic matrix - I need a second opinion.

See what you think: