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Glimmingehus

Glimmingehus

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  1. 1

    BLACK RATS AND GRAY RATS.

    SVARTRÅTTORBLACK RATSSVARTRÅTTOR · proper noun, nominativehead of the phrase
    OCHANDOCH · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    GRÅRÅTTORGRAY RATSGRÅRÅTTOR · proper noun, nominativehead of the phrase
  2. 2

    In southeastern Skåne, not far from the sea, there lies an old castle called Glimmingehus.

  3. It consists of a single tall, great, and strong stone house, which can be seen for miles across the plain.

  4. It is no more than four stories high, but it is so massive that an ordinary dwelling house standing on the same farm looks like a little child's playhouse beside it.

  5. 3

    The great stone house has such thick outer walls, partition walls, and vaulted ceilings that inside there is scarcely room for anything but the thick walls themselves.

  6. The stairways are narrow, the entryways small, and the rooms few.

  7. So that the walls might keep their strength, only a small number of windows were set into the upper stories, and in the lowest there are none at all, only narrow slits of light.

  8. In the old days of war, people were just as glad to shut themselves up inside such a strong and mighty house as one is nowadays to creep into a fur coat in bitter cold winter, but when the good peacetime came, they no longer wished to live in the old castle's dark and cold stone halls.

  9. They abandoned the great Glimmingehus long ago and moved into dwellings that let light and air come in.

  10. 4

    At the time when Nils Holgersson was traveling about with the wild geese, there were accordingly no people living at Glimmingehus, but that did not mean it lacked inhabitants.

  11. Every summer a pair of storks lived in a great nest on the roof; in the attic dwelt a pair of tawny owls; bats hung in the secret passages; an old cat lived by the hearth in the kitchen; and down in the cellar there were some hundreds of the old black rats.

  12. 5

    Rats are not exactly held in high regard by the other animals, but the black rats of Glimmingehus were an exception.

  13. They were always spoken of with respect, because they had shown great bravery in battle against their enemies and great endurance through the great misfortunes that had befallen their people.

  14. For they belonged to a rat-folk that had once been very numerous and mighty, but was now dying out.

  15. For a great many years the black rats had owned Skåne and the whole country.

  16. They had been found in every cellar, in every attic, in barns and threshing-floors, in storehouses and bakehouses, in cowsheds and stables, in churches and castles, in breweries and mills, in every building raised by human hands, but now they were driven out of all this and almost exterminated.

  17. Only in this or that old and lonely spot could one still come across a few of them, and nowhere were they found in such great numbers as at Glimmingehus.

  18. 6

    When an animal-folk dies out, people are usually to blame for it, but that was not the case this time.

  19. The people had indeed fought against the black rats, but they had not been able to do them any notable harm.

  20. Those who had defeated them were an animal-folk of their own kind, called gray rats.

  21. 7

    These gray rats had not lived in the country since time immemorial, as the black rats had.

  22. They were descended from a pair of poor immigrants, who a hundred years before had come ashore at Malmö from a ship out of Lübeck.

  23. These were homeless, starving wretches, who kept to the harbor itself, swam about among the piles beneath the wharves, and ate the garbage that was thrown into the water.

  24. They never dared venture up into the town, which was owned by the black rats.

  25. 8

    But little by little, as the gray rats grew in number, they became bolder.

  26. At first they moved into a few deserted and condemned old houses that the black rats had abandoned.

  27. They sought their food in gutters and rubbish heaps and made do with all the refuse that the black rats did not care to take.

  28. They were hardy, easily satisfied, and undaunted, and within a few years they had grown so powerful that they set about driving the black rats out of Malmö.

  29. They took from them attics, cellars, and storehouses, starved them out or bit them to death, for they were not at all afraid of a fight.

  30. 9

    And once Malmö was taken, they set off in small and large bands to conquer the whole country.

  31. It is almost impossible to understand why the black rats did not gather into one great, united war-host and destroy the gray rats while these were still few.

  32. But the black ones were, it seems, so sure of their power that they could not believe it possible to lose it.

  33. They sat still on their own properties, and meanwhile the gray rats took from them farm after farm, village after village, town after town.

  34. They were starved out, driven out, exterminated.

  35. In Skåne they had not been able to hold their ground in a single place except at Glimmingehus.

  36. 10

    The old stone house had walls so secure, and so few rat-passages led through them, that the black rats had managed to defend them and keep the gray rats from breaking in.

  37. Year after year, night after night the battle had gone on between attackers and defenders, but the black rats had kept faithful watch and fought with the utmost contempt for death, and thanks to the splendid old house they had always been victorious.

  38. 11

    It must be admitted that as long as the black rats were in power, they had been just as hated by all other living creatures as the gray rats are nowadays, and rightly so.

  39. They had fallen upon poor, chained prisoners and tormented them, they had feasted on corpses, they had stolen the last turnip from the poor man's cellar, bitten the feet off sleeping geese, robbed eggs and down-chicks from the hens, and done a thousand misdeeds.

  40. But since misfortune had overtaken them, all this seemed to be forgotten, and no one could help admiring the last of the race, who had held out so long in their resistance against their enemies.

  41. 12

    The gray rats, who lived on the Glimminge farmstead and in the country round about, kept up the struggle without end and tried to seize every fitting chance to gain possession of the castle.

  42. It might seem that they ought to have let the small band of black rats hold Glimmingehus in peace, since they themselves had won all the rest of the country, but that never occurred to them at all.

  43. They liked to say that it was a matter of honor for them to defeat the black rats once and for all, but whoever knew the gray rats well knew that it was really because people used Glimmingehus as a grain storehouse that the gray ones could not rest easy until they had taken it.

  44. 13

    Early one morning the wild geese, who stood asleep on the ice of Lake Vomb, were woken by loud cries from up in the air.

  45. »Tri-rop! Tri-rop!» it rang out.

  46. »Trianut, the crane, sends greetings to Akka, the wild goose, and her flock. Tomorrow the great crane dance takes place on Kullaberg.»

  47. 14

    Akka at once raised her head and answered: »Greet them and give thanks! Greet them and give thanks!»

  48. 15

    Then the cranes flew on, but the wild geese heard them for a long while, as they went crying out over every field and every hillside: »Trianut sends greetings. Tomorrow the great crane dance takes place on Kullaberg.»

  49. 16

    At this news the wild geese became very glad.

  50. »You are in luck,» they said to the white gander, »to get to see the great crane dance.»

  51. — »Is it really so remarkable to watch cranes dance?» asked the gander.

  52. »It is something you have never dreamed of,» answered the wild geese.

  53. 17

    »Now we must think out where to put Thumbietot tomorrow, so that no harm comes to him while we travel to Kullaberg,» said Akka.

  54. — »Thumbietot need not be alone,» said the gander. »If the cranes do not allow him to watch their dance, then I will stay with him.»

  55. — »No human being has ever yet been allowed to attend the animals' gathering on Kullaberg,» said Akka, »and I dare not take Thumbietot there with me. But we can talk more of this later in the day. Right now we must first of all think about getting something to eat.»

  56. 18

    With that Akka gave the signal to set off.

  57. That day too she sought her grazing ground far away for fear of Smirre Fox, and did not land until she reached the marshy meadows a little south of Glimmingehus.

  58. 19

    All that day the boy sat by the edge of a small pond, blowing on reed-pipes.

  59. He was sulking because he would not be allowed to watch the crane dance, and could not bring himself to say a word either to the gander or to any of the others.

  60. 20

    It was quite bitter that Akka should still distrust him.

  61. When a boy had given up being human in order to travel about with a few poor wild geese, they surely ought to understand that he had no wish to betray them.

  62. And just as much they ought to understand that, since he had sacrificed so much to be allowed to follow them, it was their duty to let him see everything remarkable that they could show him.

  63. 21

    »I really must tell them my mind straight out,» he thought.

  64. But hour after hour went by, without him bringing himself to do it.

  65. It may sound strange, but the boy had truly come to feel a kind of respect for the old lead-goose.

  66. It was not easy, he felt, to set himself up against her will.

  67. 22

    On one side of the marshy meadow where the geese were grazing, there lay a broad stone wall.

  68. And it happened now that when the boy, toward evening, raised his head to speak to Akka at last, his eyes fell upon it.

  69. He gave a little cry of astonishment, and all the geese at once looked up and turned to stare in the same direction as he did.

  70. For the first instant both they and the boy thought that all the gray cobblestones the wall was built of had grown legs and begun to run, but soon they saw that it was a horde of rats racing along over it.

  71. They moved very fast and ran along tightly packed, rank upon rank, and were so many that for a good while they covered the whole wall.

  72. 23

    The boy had been afraid of rats even when he was a big, strong human being.

  73. How much more afraid must he be now, when he was so small that two or three of them could overpower him?

  74. Shiver after shiver ran down his back as he stood watching them.

  75. 24

    But it was strange that the geese seemed to feel the same disgust for the rats as he did.

  76. They did not speak to them, and once they had passed, they shook themselves, as though mud had gotten between their feathers.

  77. 25

    »So many gray rats out!» said Yksi of Vassijaure. »That is not a good sign.»

  78. 26

    Now the boy intended to seize the chance to tell Akka that he thought she ought to let him come along to Kullaberg, but he was hindered once again, because a big bird suddenly swooped down right among the geese.

  79. 27

    Seeing this bird, one might think he had borrowed his body, neck, and head from a little white goose.

  80. But in addition to all that he had provided himself with great black wings, tall red legs, and a long, thick beak, which was too big for the small head and weighed it down, giving him a somewhat worried and mournful look.

  81. 28

    Akka quickly smoothed her wing-coverts and bowed her neck many times over as she went toward the stork.

  82. She was not especially surprised to see him in Skåne so early in spring, for she knew that the male storks are used to travel ahead in good time to check that the nest has not been damaged over the winter, before the female storks trouble themselves to fly across the Baltic.

  83. But she wondered a great deal what it could mean that he had sought her out, since storks generally keep company with their own kind.

  84. 29

    »I surely cannot believe that something is wrong with your home, Mr. Ermenrich,» said Akka.

  85. 30

    It now turned out to be true, what people say, that a stork can hardly open his beak without complaining.

  86. What made what the stork said sound even more mournful was that he had trouble getting the words out.

  87. He stood a long while just clattering with his beak, and then spoke in a hoarse, weak voice.

  88. He complained about all sorts of things: the nest, which lay at the very top of the roof-ridge of Glimmingehus, had been completely ruined by the winter storms, and he could no longer get any food in Skåne.

  89. The people of Skåne were busy appropriating all his property.

  90. They were draining his marshes and cultivating his bogs.

  91. He intended to leave this land and never come back.

  92. 31

    While the stork complained, Akka the wild goose, who had nowhere any shelter or protection, could not help thinking to herself: »If I had it as good as you, Mr. Ermenrich, I would think myself above complaining. You have remained a free and wild bird, and yet you stand so well with the people that no one wants to fire a shot at you or steal an egg from your nest.»

  93. But all this she kept to herself.

  94. To the stork she said only that she could not believe he would want to move away from a house where storks had had their home ever since it was built.

  95. 32

    Then the stork asked quickly whether the geese had seen the gray rats marching toward Glimmingehus, and when Akka answered that she had seen the vermin, he began to tell her about the brave black rats, who for many years had defended the castle.

  96. »But this very night Glimmingehus will fall into the power of the gray rats,» said the stork with a sigh.

  97. 33

    »Why this very night, Mr. Ermenrich?» asked Akka.

  98. 34

    »Yes, because almost all the black rats went off to Kullaberg last evening,» said the stork, »since they trusted that all the other animals would hurry there too. But you see that the gray rats have stayed at home, and now they are gathering to force their way into the castle tonight, when it is defended only by a few poor old ones who haven't had the strength to go along to Kullaberg. They will most likely reach their goal, but I have now lived in such long neighborly peace with the black rats that it does not please me to live in the same place as their enemies.»

  99. 35

    Akka now understood that the stork had become so angry over the gray rats' behavior that he had sought her out in order to complain about them.

  100. But according to the ways of storks, he had surely done nothing at all to prevent the disaster.

  101. »Have you sent word to the black rats, Mr. Ermenrich?» she asked.

  102. — »No,» answered the stork, »that would be no use. Before they can get back, the castle will already be taken.»

  103. — »You should not be so sure of that, Mr. Ermenrich,» said Akka. »I know an old wild goose, I do, who would very much like to prevent such a wicked deed.»

  104. 36

    When Akka said this, the stork raised his head and stared wide-eyed at her.

  105. And that was hardly surprising, for old Akka had neither claws nor beak fit for a fight.

  106. And on top of that she was a daytime bird, and as soon as darkness fell she sank helplessly into sleep, while it was exactly at night that the rats did their fighting.

  107. 37

    But Akka had evidently made up her mind to help the black rats.

  108. She called Yksi of Vassijaure forward and ordered him to lead the geese up to Lake Vomb, and when the geese raised objections, she said commandingly: »I think it will be best for all of us if you obey me. I must fly ahead to the great stone house, and if you follow me, it cannot be helped that the farm folk will see us and shoot us down. The only one I want to bring with me on this journey is Thumbietot. He can be of great use to me, because he has good eyes and can stay awake at night.»

  109. 38

    The boy was in his stubborn mood that day, and when he heard what Akka said, he drew himself up to look as tall as he could and stepped forward with his hands on his back and his nose in the air, meaning to say that he certainly did not want to take part in fighting gray rats.

  110. She would just have to look elsewhere for help.

  111. 39

    But the very moment the boy became visible, the stork began to stir.

  112. Until then he had stood, as storks are used to do, with his head bent down and his beak pressed against his neck.

  113. But now a gurgling could be heard deep down in his throat, as though he were laughing.

  114. He lowered his beak like lightning, seized the boy, and tossed him a couple of meters up into the air.

  115. He repeated this feat seven times over, all the while the boy screamed and the geese called out: »What are you doing, Mr. Ermenrich? That is no frog. That is a human being, Mr. Ermenrich.»

  116. 40

    At last the stork set the boy down again, quite unharmed.

  117. Then he said to Akka: »I am flying back to Glimmingehus now, mother Akka. Everyone who lives there was very anxious when I left. You may be sure they will be very glad when I tell them that Akka the wild goose and Thumbietot the little human are coming along behind to save them.»

  118. 41

    With that the stork stretched out his neck, spread his wings, and set off like an arrow shot from a taut bow.

  119. Akka understood that he was making fun of her, but she did not let it trouble her at all.

  120. She waited until the boy had found his wooden shoes, which the stork had shaken off him; then she set him on her back and followed the stork.

  121. And the boy, for his part, put up no resistance and did not say a single word about not wanting to come along.

  122. He had grown so angry at the stork that he sat there positively snorting.

  123. That long red-leg thought he was good for nothing just because he was small, but he would show him what sort of fellow Nils Holgersson of Västra Vemmenhög was.

  124. 42

    A couple of moments later Akka stood in the stork's nest on Glimmingehus.

  125. It was a large and splendid nest.

  126. For a foundation it had a wheel, and over that lay several layers of twigs and clumps of grass.

  127. The nest was so old that many bushes and herbs had taken root up there, and when the mother stork lay on her eggs in the round hollow at the center of the nest, she had not only the fine view over a good part of Skåne to delight in, but also rosehip blossoms and houseleek to look at.

  128. 43

    Both the boy and Akka could see at once that something was going on here that turned all the usual order upside down.

  129. For on the edge of the stork's nest sat two tawny owls, an old gray-striped cat, and a dozen ancient rats with overgrown teeth and watery eyes.

  130. These were not exactly the kind of animals one usually sees gathered together in peaceful company.

  131. 44

    None of them turned around to look at Akka or bid her welcome.

  132. They could think of nothing but staring after certain long, gray lines that glimpsed here and there across the winter-bare fields.

  133. 45

    All the black rats kept silent.

  134. One could see by them that they were sunk in deep despair and knew full well that they could defend neither their own lives nor the castle.

  135. The two owls sat rolling their great eyes, twisting their eye-rings, and talking in horrid, sharp voices about the gray rats' great cruelty, and about how they themselves would have to move out of their nest, because they had heard that the gray rats spared neither eggs nor down-chicks.

  136. The old striped cat was certain that the gray rats would bite him to death once they forced their way into the castle in such great numbers, and he quarreled ceaselessly with the black rats.

  137. »How could you be so foolish as to let your best warriors go away?» he said.

  138. »How could you trust the gray rats? It is quite unforgivable.»

  139. 46

    The twelve black rats did not answer a single word, but the stork, despite his own grief, could not resist teasing the cat.

  140. »Don't be anxious, Måns the housecat!» he said.

  141. »Don't you see that mother Akka and Thumbietot have come here to save the castle? You may be sure they will succeed. Now I must settle down to sleep, and I shall do it with the greatest calm. Tomorrow, when I wake, there will surely not be a single gray rat left at Glimmingehus.»

  142. 47

    The boy winked at Akka and made a sign that he wanted to push the stork down onto the ground, now that he was settling himself to sleep on the very edge of the nest with one leg drawn up, but Akka stopped him.

  143. She did not look at all annoyed.

  144. Instead she said in a satisfied tone: »It would indeed be a poor thing if someone as old as I could not manage her way out of worse troubles than this. If only the owl-husband and the owl-wife, who can stay awake the whole night, will fly off with a couple of messages on my behalf, I think everything will go well.»

  145. 48

    Both eagle owls were willing, and Akka asked the owl-husband to go and seek out the black rats who had traveled away, and to advise them to hurry home at once.

  146. The owl-wife she sent to Flammea, the barn owl, who lived in Lund Cathedral, with a task so secret that Akka dared entrust it to her only in a whispering voice.

  147. 49

    THE RATCATCHER.

  148. 50

    It was drawing on toward midnight when the gray rats, after much searching, managed to find a cellar vent that stood open.

  149. It sat rather high up on the wall, but the rats stood on one another's shoulders, and it was not long before the boldest among them was sitting in the vent, ready to force her way into Glimmingehus, outside whose walls so many of her ancestors had fallen.

  150. 51

    The gray rat sat still for a moment in the vent, waiting to be attacked.

  151. The defenders' main host was indeed gone, but she supposed that the black rats still remaining in the castle would not give up without a fight.

  152. With a pounding heart she listened for the slightest noise, but everything remained silent.

  153. Then the gray rats' leader took her courage in hand and jumped down into the pitch-black cellar.

  154. 52

    One gray rat after another followed the leader.

  155. All of them kept very quiet, and all of them expected an ambush from the black rats.

  156. Not until so many of them had crowded into the cellar that the floor could hold no more did they venture any further.

  157. 53

    Although they had never been inside the building before, it gave them no difficulty to find their way.

  158. Very soon they found the passages in the walls that the black rats had used to reach the upper floors.

  159. Before they began to climb up these narrow, steep paths, they listened once more very carefully.

  160. They felt far more frightened by the black rats holding themselves hidden this way than they would have if they had met them in open battle.

  161. They could hardly believe their luck when they came up into the first floor without mishap.

  162. 54

    As soon as they entered, the gray rats were met by the smell of the grain stored in great bins on the floor.

  163. But it was not yet time for them to begin enjoying their victory.

  164. First they searched through the gloomy, bare rooms with the greatest care.

  165. They ran up into the hearth that stood in the middle of the floor of the old castle kitchen, and came close to tumbling down into the well in the inner room.

  166. Not one of the narrow light-slits did they leave unexamined, but still they found no black rats.

  167. When this floor was entirely in their power, they began to take possession of the next one with the same caution.

  168. Again they had to risk a laborious and dangerous climb through the walls, while in breathless dread they waited for the enemy to hurl themselves upon them.

  169. And though they were tempted by the most delicious smell from the grain bins, they forced themselves to search with the greatest order through the old soldiers' pillared castle hall, their stone tables and hearths, the deep window niches, and the hole in the floor that in olden days had been made so that boiling pitch could be poured down through it onto an invading enemy.

  170. 55

    The black rats were still nowhere to be seen.

  171. The gray ones felt their way up to the third floor with the lord's great banquet hall, which stood just as bare and naked as every other room in the old house, and they even made their way up to the topmost floor, which consisted of nothing but one large, desolate room.

  172. The one place they never thought to search was the great stork's nest on the roof, where at that very moment the owl-wife was waking Akka and telling her that Flammea the barn owl had granted her request and sent her what she had asked for.

  173. 56

    Once the gray rats had so conscientiously searched through the whole castle, they felt at ease.

  174. They understood that the black rats had fled and had no thought of putting up resistance, and with glad hearts they scampered up into the grain bins.

  175. 57

    But scarcely had the gray rats swallowed the first grains of wheat when, from down in the courtyard, the sharp sound of a small shrill pipe was heard.

  176. The gray rats lifted their heads from the grain, listened uneasily, ran a few steps as though meaning to leave the bin, but then turned back and began eating again.

  177. 58

    Again the pipe sounded with a strong, piercing note, and now something remarkable happened.

  178. One rat, two rats, indeed a whole crowd of rats left the grain, jumped out of the bin, and hurried by the shortest way down to the cellar to get out of the house.

  179. Still, many gray rats remained.

  180. They thought of the trouble it had cost them to win Glimmingehus, and they did not want to leave it.

  181. But the notes of the pipe reached them once more, and they had to follow them.

  182. They rushed up out of the bins in wild eagerness, tumbled down through the narrow holes in the walls, and stumbled over one another in their eagerness to get out.

  183. 59

    In the middle of the courtyard stood a small youngster, blowing on a pipe.

  184. Around him he already had a whole circle of rats, listening to him amazed and spellbound, and more came at every moment.

  185. Once he took the pipe from his mouth for just a second to make a long nose at the rats, and then it looked as if they wanted to fling themselves on him and bite him to death, but the moment he blew again, they were under his power.

  186. 60

    When the youngster had piped all the gray rats out of Glimmingehus, he began to walk slowly from the courtyard out onto the highway, and all the gray rats followed him, because the notes from that pipe sounded so sweet in their ears that they could not resist them.

  187. 61

    The youngster walked ahead of them and lured them along on the road toward Vallby.

  188. He led them in all sorts of rings and turns and bends, through hedges and down into ditches, and wherever he went, they had to follow.

  189. He blew ceaselessly on his pipe, which seemed to be made from an animal's horn, though the horn was so small that there is no animal nowadays from whose forehead it could have been cut.

  190. Nor did anyone know who had made it.

  191. Flammea the barn owl had found it in a niche in the tower of Lund Cathedral.

  192. She had shown it to Bataki the raven, and the two of them had worked out that it was the kind of horn that used to be made, in olden times, by those who wanted to gain power over rats and mice.

  193. But the raven was Akka's friend, and it was from him that she had learned that Flammea possessed such a treasure.

  194. 62

    And it was true that the rats could not resist the pipe.

  195. The boy walked ahead of them and played for as long as the starlight lasted, and the whole time they followed him.

  196. He played at dawn, he played at sunrise, and all the while the whole horde of gray rats followed after him, lured farther and farther away from the great grain lofts of Glimmingehus.

The particulars

The text
Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, Selma Lagerlöf. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.
Translation
Public-domain Swedish (Lagerlöf, d. 1940; published 1906–07). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
Words
Every word of the text, by letter.
Data
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Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.