The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Vid Ronneby å

At the Ronneby River

172 sentences · 15 notes

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  1. 1

    Neither the wild geese nor Smirre the fox had ever thought that they would meet again, once they had left Skåne.

    VarkenneitherVarken · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    vildgässenthe wild geesevildgässe · noun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of hade

    attested only in the plural surface vildgässen; the collective noun for the wild-goose flock.

    elleroreller · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    SmirreSmirreSmirre · adjective, nominative, comparativecoordinated with vildgässen

    mistagged as a comparative adjective; this is the proper name of the fox character.

    rävfoxräv · noun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of hade
    hadehadha · verb, past, indicative, activemain verb of the sentence
    trottbelievedtrott · verb, active, supinemodifies hade
    attthatatt · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of råkas
    detheyde · pronoun, nominative, pluralsubject of passive råkas
    någonsinevernågonsin · adverbmodifies råkas
    skullewouldskola · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, activeauxiliary of råkas
    råkasmeet againråka · verb, passive, infinitiveclausal complement of hade
    sedansincesedan · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of lämnat
    detheyde · pronoun, nominative, pluralsubject of lämnat
    hadehadha · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, activeauxiliary of lämnat
    lämnatleftlämna · verb, active, supinecoordinated with råkas
    SkåneSkåneSkåne · proper noun, nominativedirect object of lämnat

  2. But now it happened that the wild geese came to take their way over Blekinge, and there Smirre the fox had also betaken himself.

  3. He had so far kept to the northern part of the province, and there he had not yet seen any manor parks or deer parks, full of roe deer and delicious roe-deer fawns.

  4. He was more discontented than he could say.

  5. 2

    One afternoon, as Smirre was roaming about in a desolate stretch of woodland in Mellanbygden, not far from the Ronneby River, he caught sight of a flock of wild geese flying overhead.

  6. He noticed at once that one of the geese was white, and then he knew well enough whom he had to deal with.

  7. 3

    Smirre at once began to hunt after the geese, as much out of a wish for a good meal as to take revenge on them for all the trouble they had caused him.

  8. He saw that they flew eastward, until they came to the Ronneby River.

  9. Then they changed direction and followed the river southward.

  10. He understood that they meant to seek out a sleeping place along the riverbank, and he thought he would be able to seize a couple of them without any particular difficulty.

  11. 4

    But when Smirre at last caught sight of the spot where the geese had settled down, he noticed that they had chosen so well-guarded a place that he could not get at them.

  12. 5

    The Ronneby River is, to be sure, no great or mighty watercourse, but it is nonetheless much talked of for the beauty of its banks.

  13. In several places it presses forward between steep rock walls, which stand upright out of the water and are entirely overgrown with honeysuckle and bird cherry, with hawthorn and alder, with rowan and willow, and there is not much that can be more pleasant on a fine summer day than to row along the little dark river and look up at all the soft green that clings fast to the harsh rock walls.

  14. 6

    But now, when the wild geese and Smirre came to the river, it was cold, raw early spring, all the trees stood bare, and there was surely no one who gave the least thought to whether the riverbank was ugly or beautiful.

  15. The wild geese counted themselves fortunate that beneath just such a steep rock wall they had found a strip of sand large enough for them to find room on.

  16. In front of them the river roared, swift and strong now in the season of snowmelt, behind them they had an unscalable rock face, and hanging branches sheltered them.

  17. They could not have had it better.

  18. 7

    The geese fell asleep at once, but the boy could not get a wink of sleep.

  19. As soon as the sun had vanished, he felt a fear of the dark and a dread of the wilderness, and he longed for human beings.

  20. Lying tucked in under the goose-wing, he could see nothing and hear only poorly, and he thought that if anything evil should come at the gander, he would not be able to save him.

  21. Rustling and rattling he heard from every side, and he fell into such unease that he had to creep out from under the wing and sit down on the ground beside the geese.

  22. 8

    Smirre stood on the brow of the hill, sour-faced, and looked down at the wild geese.

  23. »This chase you might as well give up at once,» he said to himself.

  24. »You cannot climb down so sheer a mountain, you cannot swim in so wild a current, and there is not the smallest strip of land below the mountain that leads to the sleeping place.

  25. Those geese are too clever for you.

  26. Never trouble yourself again about hunting them!»

  27. 9

    But Smirre, like other foxes, found it hard to give up an undertaking once begun, and so he lay down at the very edge of the rock and did not take his eyes off the wild geese.

  28. While he lay watching them, he thought of all the harm they had done him.

  29. Yes, it was their fault that he had been banished from Skåne and had had to move to poor Blekinge.

  30. He worked himself up so, as he lay there, that he wished the wild geese dead, even if he himself would not get to eat them.

  31. 10

    When Smirre's rage had reached such a pitch, he heard a rasping sound in a tall pine that grew close beside him, and saw a squirrel come down out of the tree, hotly pursued by a marten.

  32. Neither of them noticed Smirre, and he sat still and watched the chase, which went from tree to tree.

  33. He watched the squirrel, which moved among the branches as lightly as if it could fly.

  34. He watched the marten, which was not quite so skillful a climber as the squirrel, but still ran up and down tree trunks as surely as if they had been smooth paths in the forest.

  35. »If only I could climb half as well as one of those two,» thought the fox, »those down there would not get to sleep in peace for long.»

  36. 11

    As soon as the squirrel had been caught and the chase was over, Smirre went up to the marten, but stopped two paces off, as a sign that he did not want to rob him of his catch.

  37. He greeted the marten most amiably and congratulated him on the kill.

  38. Smirre chose his words well, as foxes always do.

  39. The marten, on the other hand, who with his long slender body, his fine head, his soft fur, and his light-brown throat patch seemed a little wonder of beauty, was in fact nothing but a rough forest-dweller, and he scarcely answered him.

  40. »It surprises me all the same,» said Smirre, »that so fine a hunter as you should content himself with hunting squirrels, when there is so much better game within reach.»

  41. Here he broke off, but when the marten only grinned at him quite impudently, he went on: »Is it possible you have not seen the wild geese standing here beneath the rock wall?

  42. Or are you not enough of a climber to get down to them?»

  43. 12

    This time he did not need to wait for an answer.

  44. The marten rushed at him, back arched and every hair on end.

  45. »Have you seen wild geese?» he hissed.

  46. »Where are they?

  47. Tell me at once, or I'll bite through your throat!»

  48. — »Now, you'd best remember that I am twice your size, and be a little civil.

  49. I ask nothing better than to show you the wild geese.»

  50. 13

    A moment later the marten was on his way down the slope, and while Smirre sat and watched him swing his snake-slender body from branch to branch, he thought: »That handsome tree-hunter has the cruelest heart in the whole forest.

  51. I believe the wild geese will make me pay for a bloody awakening.»

  52. 14

    But just as Smirre was waiting to hear the death-shrieks of the geese, he saw the marten fall from a branch and plop down into the river, so that the water splashed high.

  53. Directly after came a hard clap of stiff wings, and all the geese rose in hurried flight.

  54. 15

    Smirre meant to hurry after the geese at once, but he was so curious to learn how they had been saved that he stayed where he was, until the marten came climbing back up.

  55. The poor creature was soaked through and stopped now and again to rub his head with his forepaws.

  56. »Wasn't it just as I thought, that you were a clumsy fool and would tumble into the river?» said Smirre scornfully.

  57. 16

    »I have not behaved clumsily at all.

  58. You needn't scold me,» said the marten.

  59. »I was already sitting on one of the lowest branches and thinking over how I would go about tearing to pieces a whole crowd of geese, when a little mite, no bigger than a squirrel, rushed up and hurled a stone at my head with such force that I fell into the water, and before I managed to scramble up...

  60. 17

    The marten had no need to tell more.

  61. He had no listener left.

  62. Smirre was already far away, on his way after the geese.

  63. 18

    Meanwhile Akka had flown southward, seeking a new sleeping place.

  64. There was still a little daylight left, and besides the half-moon stood high in the sky, so that she could see tolerably well.

  65. Luckily she was well acquainted with the district, because it had happened more than once that she had been storm-driven to Blekinge when she had crossed the Baltic in springtime.

  66. 19

    She followed the river as long as she could see it wind through the moonlit landscape like a black, glittering snake.

  67. In this way she came all the way down to Djupafors, where the river first hides itself in an underground channel and then, clear and transparent as though it were made of glass, plunges down into a narrow gorge, against whose bottom it shatters into glittering drops and flying spray.

  68. Below the white falls lay a few rocks, between which the water roared away in a wild torrent, and here Akka came down.

  69. This was once again a good sleeping place, especially so late in the evening, when no humans were about.

  70. At sunset the geese would surely not have been able to settle there, for Djupafors does not lie in any wilderness.

  71. On one side of the falls rises a paper-pulp mill, and on the other, which is steep and wooded, lies Djupadal Park, where people constantly wander about on the slippery, steep paths to delight in the wild stream's roaring course down in the gorge.

  72. 20

    It was the same here as at the previous place, that not one of the travelers gave the least thought to the fact that they had come to a beautiful and much-praised spot.

  73. Rather they thought it dreadful and dangerous to stand and sleep on wet, slippery rocks in the middle of a roaring torrent.

  74. But they had to be content, so long as they were safe from beasts of prey.

  75. 21

    The geese fell asleep at once, but the boy had no peace to sleep, and instead sat beside them so as to be able to keep watch over the gander.

  76. 22

    In a while Smirre came running along the riverbank.

  77. He caught sight of the geese at once, where they stood out in the eddies of foam, and understood that this time too he could not get at them.

  78. But he could not bring himself to give them up, and instead sat down on the bank and watched them.

  79. He felt deeply humiliated, and it seemed to him that his whole reputation as a hunter was at stake.

  80. 23

    Just then he saw an otter come creeping up out of the rapids with a fish in its mouth.

  81. Smirre went toward him, but stopped two paces off to show that he did not want to take the catch from him.

  82. »You are a strange one, to content yourself with catching fish, when there are wild geese standing there on the rocks,» said Smirre.

  83. He was so eager that he had no time to choose his words as carefully as he usually did.

  84. The otter did not so much as turn his head toward the stream.

  85. He was a wanderer, as all otters are, had fished many a time in Lake Vomb, and knew Smirre the fox well.

  86. »I know well enough how you go about tricking a trout for yourself, Smirre,» he said.

  87. — »Ah, is it you, Gripe,» said Smirre, and grew glad, for he knew this otter was a bold and skillful swimmer.

  88. »I'm not surprised you take no notice of the wild geese, since you're not able to get out to them.»

  89. But the otter, who had webbed feet, a stiff tail as good as an oar, and a coat that no wet could get through, would not have it said of him that there was any torrent he could not manage.

  90. He turned toward the current, and as soon as he had caught sight of the wild geese, he flung the fish from him and plunged down the steep bank into the river.

  91. 24

    Had it been further on in the spring, so that the nightingales in Djupadal Park had been at home, they would afterward, on many a night, have sung of Gripe's battle with the torrent.

  92. For the otter was time and again torn away by the waves and swept downriver, but he fought his way up again each time.

  93. He swam on through still water, he crawled over stones, and little by little drew nearer the wild geese.

  94. It was a perilous journey, one that might well have deserved to be sung by the nightingales.

  95. 25

    Smirre followed his course with his eyes as best he could.

  96. At last he saw that the otter was about to climb up to the wild geese.

  97. But just then there came a shrill and wild scream.

  98. The otter plunged backward into the water and was swept away, as though he had been a blind kitten.

  99. Directly after, there came a hard clap of the geese's wings.

  100. They rose and flew off to find themselves another sleeping place.

  101. 26

    The otter soon came up onto land.

  102. He said nothing and began licking one forepaw.

  103. When Smirre mocked him for not having succeeded, he burst out: »There was nothing wrong with my swimming, Smirre.

  104. I had already reached the geese and was just about to climb up to them, when a little mite came running and struck me in the foot with something sharp of iron.

  105. It hurt so much that I lost my footing, and then the torrent took me.»

  106. 27

    He had no need to tell more.

  107. Smirre was already far away, on his way after the geese.

  108. 28

    Once again Akka and her flock had to take to nighttime flight.

  109. Luckily the moon had not yet set, and by its light she managed to find another of the sleeping places she knew of thereabouts.

  110. She followed the glittering river once more toward the south.

  111. Over Djupadal manor and over Ronneby's dark roofs and white waterfall she glided along without settling down.

  112. But a little way south of the town, not far from the sea, lies Ronneby health spa, with bathhouses and spring-houses, with great hotels and summer lodgings for the spa guests.

  113. All this stands empty and deserted the whole winter, as every bird well knows, and manifold are the flocks of birds that in hard stormy weather seek shelter on the balconies and verandas of the abandoned buildings.

  114. 29

    Here the wild geese settled down on a balcony, and as usual fell asleep at once.

  115. The boy, on the other hand, could not sleep, because he did not want to creep in under the gander's wing.

  116. 30

    The balcony faced south, so that the boy had a view over the sea.

  117. And since he could not sleep now, he sat and watched how fine it looked, where sea and land met here in Blekinge.

  118. 31

    You see, it is so that sea and land can meet in many different ways.

  119. In many places the land comes down toward the sea with flat, tussocky meadows, and the sea meets the land with drifting sand, which it heaps up into ridges and dunes.

  120. It is as though the two of them thought so ill of one another that they only wished to show the worst they had.

  121. But it can also happen that, when the land comes down toward the sea, it raises up a wall of rock before itself, as though the sea were something dangerous; and when the land does so, the sea comes against it with angry breakers, lashes and roars and beats against the cliffs and looks as though it wanted to tear the shoreline apart.

  122. 32

    But in Blekinge it goes quite differently, when sea and land meet.

  123. There the land splinters itself apart into points and islands and islets, and the sea divides itself into fjords and bays and sounds, and it is perhaps this that makes it look as if they were meeting in joy and harmony.

  124. 33

    Think first of all of the sea!

  125. Far out it lies desolate and empty and vast, and has nothing else to do but roll its gray waves.

  126. When it comes in toward land, it comes upon the first skerry.

  127. This it at once takes command of, strips it of everything green, and makes it as bare and gray as it is itself.

  128. Then it meets yet another skerry.

  129. With that one it goes the same way.

  130. And yet one more.

  131. Yes, it goes the same way with that one too.

  132. It is stripped bare and plundered, as though it had fallen into robbers' hands.

  133. But then the skerries come ever thicker, and then the sea surely understands that the land is sending against it its smallest children to move it to gentleness.

  134. It grows kinder too, the further in it comes, rolls its waves less high, tempers its storms, leaves greenery behind in cracks and crevices, divides itself into little sounds and bays, and at last, close by the land, becomes so harmless that small boats dare venture out on it.

  135. It surely cannot recognize itself, so bright and gentle has it become.

  136. 34

    And think then of the shoreland!

  137. It lies monotonous and looks much the same almost everywhere.

  138. It consists of flat fields with here and there a birch grove between them, or else of long stretching wooded ridges.

  139. It looks as though it thought only of oats and turnips and potatoes and spruce and pine.

  140. Then comes a bay of the sea, cutting far into it.

  141. That does not trouble it; it simply borders it with birch and alder, just as though it were an ordinary freshwater lake.

  142. Then comes yet another inlet.

  143. The shoreland does not trouble itself to make a fuss over that one either, but gives it the same dress as the first.

  144. But then the fjords begin to widen and break in.

  145. They splinter apart the fields and the forests, and so the shoreland cannot help but take notice of them.

  146. »I take it that it is the sea itself that is coming,» says the shoreland, and so it begins to dress itself up.

  147. It wreathes itself with flowers, rises and falls in hills, and casts out islands into the sea.

  148. It no longer wants to know anything of pines and spruces, but throws them away like old everyday clothes and thereafter shows off with great oak trees and lindens and chestnuts and with blossoming leafy meadows, and becomes as fine as a manor park.

  149. And when it meets the sea, it is so changed that it cannot recognize itself.

  150. 35

    All that one cannot rightly see until it is summer, but the boy noticed all the same how mild and gentle nature was, and he began to feel calmer than before that night.

  151. Then he heard suddenly a loud and dreadful howl from down in the bath-house park.

  152. And when he sat up, he saw a fox standing in the white moonlight on the ground beneath the balcony.

  153. For Smirre had followed after the geese once again.

  154. But when he had found the spot where they had placed themselves, he had understood that now it was impossible to get at them in any way, and then he had not been able to help howling in vexation.

  155. 36

    When the fox howled in this way, old Akka, the leader-goose, woke, and although she could hardly see anything, she still thought she recognized the voice.

  156. »Is that you, Smirre, out tonight?» she said.

  157. — »Yes,» said Smirre, »it is I, and now I want to ask what you geese think of the night I have given you.»

  158. — »Do you mean to say that it is you who have sent both the marten and the otter against us?» asked Akka.

  159. — »A good deed should not be denied,» said Smirre.

  160. »You have once played the goose-game with me.

  161. Now I have begun to play the fox-game with you, and I do not intend to stop it so long as a single one of you is left alive, even if I must follow you across the whole country.»

  162. — »You, Smirre, ought all the same to think whether it is right of you, armed as you are with both tooth and claw, to pursue us in this way, defenseless as we are,» said Akka.

  163. Smirre thought that Akka sounded afraid, and he said quickly: »If you, Akka, will take and throw down to me that Thumbietot, who has now stood in my way so many times, then I promise to make peace with you.

  164. I will then never again pursue either you or any of your own.»

  165. — »I cannot give you Thumbietot,» said Akka.

  166. »From the youngest to the oldest of us, we would gladly give our lives for his sake.»

  167. — »So you hold him that dear,» said Smirre, »then I promise you that he shall be the first of you on whom I take my revenge.»

  168. 37

    Akka answered no more, and after Smirre had sent up a few more howls, all fell silent.

  169. The boy lay awake all the while.

  170. Now it was Akka's words to the fox that kept him from sleep.

  171. Never had he thought that he would hear anything so great as that someone would risk their life for his sake.

  172. From that hour it could no longer be said of Nils Holgersson that he cared for no one.

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.
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Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.