The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Karlskrona

Karlskrona

172 sentences · 23 notes

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  1. 1

    It was an evening in Karlskrona, when there was moonlight.

    Detitden · pronoun, neuter, singularsubject of kväll
    varwasvara · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, activecopula linking to kväll
    enaen · determiner, common gender, singulardeterminer of kväll
    kvälleveningkväll · noun, nominative, common gender, singularhead of the phrase
    iini · prepositionpreposition marking Karlskrona
    KarlskronaKarlskronaKarlskrona · proper noun, nominativemodifies kväll
    närwhennär · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of var
    detitden · pronoun, neuter, singularsubject of var
    varwasvara · verb, past, indicative, activemodifies månsken
    månskenmoonlightmånsk · adjective, nominative, common gender, singularparallel clause to kväll

  2. It was beautiful and calm, but earlier in the day it had stormed and rained, and the people surely believed that the bad weather was still going on, for hardly a single one of them had dared to go out into the street.

  3. 2

    While the town lay there so deserted, Akka the wild goose and her flock came flying over Vämmön and Pantarholmen down toward it.

  4. They were out in the late evening to seek a safe sleeping place for themselves in the skerries.

  5. They could not stay on land, because they were disturbed by Smirre the fox wherever they settled down.

  6. 3

    When the boy now rode along high up in the air and looked at the sea and the archipelago that spread out before him, it seemed to him that everything looked strange and ghostly.

  7. The sky was no longer blue, but arched over him like a dome of green glass.

  8. The sea was milk-white.

  9. As far as he could see, small white waves rolled by, with silver shimmer on their crests.

  10. In the midst of all this white, the many skerry islands lay quite coal-black.

  11. Whether they were large or small, whether they were level like meadows or full of crags, they looked equally black.

  12. Indeed, even dwelling houses and churches and windmills, which are usually white or red, stood out black against the green sky.

  13. The boy felt as though the earth had been exchanged for another beneath him, and that he had come to a different world.

  14. 4

    He had just been thinking that this night he wanted to keep himself brave and not become afraid, when he caught sight of something that truly frightened him.

  15. There was a high rocky island covered with great, angular blocks, and between the black blocks there shone patches of clear, glittering gold.

  16. He could not help thinking of the Maglestenen at Trolle-Ljungby, which the trolls sometimes lifted up onto tall golden pillars, and he wondered whether this might be something of the same kind.

  17. 5

    But the stones and the gold would still have been bearable, if there had not been so much vile stuff lying in the water all around the island.

  18. It looked like whales and sharks and other great sea creatures, but the boy understood that these were the sea-trolls, who had gathered around the island and meant to crawl up onto it to fight the land-trolls who lived there.

  19. And those on land were surely afraid, for he saw how a great giant stood at the very top of the island and stretched up his arms as though in despair over all the misfortune that was about to befall him and his island.

  20. 6

    The boy was not a little frightened when he noticed that Akka was beginning to sink right down over that island.

  21. »No, for goodness' sake!

  22. There we surely mustn't land,» he said.

  23. 7

    But the geese kept sinking, and soon the boy had to marvel at how badly he had been able to see.

  24. The great blocks of stone were, first of all, nothing other than houses.

  25. The whole island was a town, and the shining gold specks were lanterns and lit rows of windows.

  26. The giant, who stood highest on the island and stretched up his arms, was a church with two blunt towers, and all the sea-trolls and monsters he had thought he saw were boats and ships of every kind, lying moored all around the island.

  27. On the side facing land there were mostly rowboats and sailing sloops and small coastal steamers, but on the side facing the sea lay armored warships, some broad with immensely thick, sloping-back funnels, others long and slender and so shaped that they ought to be able to glide through the water like fish.

  28. 8

    What town could this now be?

  29. Well, that the boy could figure out, because he saw the many warships.

  30. He had taken delight in ships his whole life, though he had had nothing to do with any but the galleys he had let sail in the roadside ditch.

  31. He knew very well that the town where so many warships lay could be none other than Karlskrona.

  32. 9

    The boy's grandfather had been an old navy sailor, and for as long as he had lived, he had told, every single day, about Karlskrona, about the great naval dockyard, and about everything else there was to see in that town.

  33. Here the boy felt quite at home, and he grew glad that he would get to see all this that he had heard so much talk of.

  34. 10

    But he only got to glimpse the towers and the fortifications that closed off the entrance to the harbor, and the many buildings at the dockyard, before Akka landed on one of the flat church towers.

  35. 11

    It was surely a safe place for those who wanted to escape a fox, and the boy began to wonder whether he might dare to creep in under the gander's wing for this one night.

  36. Yes, that he certainly could; it would do him good to get a bit of sleep.

  37. He would try to see a little more of the dockyard and the ships once it had grown light. — — — — — —

  38. 12

    The boy himself thought it was strange that he could not keep still and wait until next morning to see the ships.

  39. He had surely not slept five minutes before he slid out from under the wing and climbed down along the lightning rod and the gutters all the way to the ground.

  40. 13

    He soon stood on a large square that spread out in front of the church.

  41. It was paved with round cobblestones and was just as hard for him to walk across as it is for tall folk to walk over a tussocky meadow.

  42. Those who are used to keeping to the wilderness, or living far away out in the country, always feel anxious when they come into a town, where the houses stand straight and stiff and the streets lie open, so that anyone can see whoever walks there.

  43. And it was just the same now with the boy.

  44. When he stood on the great Karlskrona square and looked at the German Church and the town hall and the Great Church, which he had just come down from, he could not help but wish he were back up on the tower with the geese.

  45. 14

    It was lucky that the square was quite empty.

  46. There was not a single person there, unless one were to count a statue that stood there on a tall pedestal.

  47. The boy looked long at the statue, which portrayed a big, coarse man in a three-cornered hat, a long coat, knee-breeches, and heavy shoes, and wondered who it was meant to be.

  48. He held a long stick in his hand and looked as if he might well know how to make use of it too, for he had a dreadfully stern face with a big, hooked nose and an ugly mouth.

  49. 15

    »What business does that long-lip have here?» said the boy at last.

  50. He had never in his life felt so small and pitiful as he did that evening.

  51. He tried to cheer himself up by saying a bold word.

  52. Then he thought no more about the statue, but turned onto a broad street that led down toward the sea.

  53. 16

    But the boy had not gone far before he heard that someone was coming after him.

  54. Someone was walking behind him, stamping on the pavement with heavy feet and striking the ground with a shod cane.

  55. It sounded as though the great bronze man up in the square himself had set out for a walk.

  56. 17

    The boy listened to the footsteps as he ran down the street, and he became ever more certain that it was the bronze man.

  57. The ground trembled, and the houses shook.

  58. It could be no one else who walked so heavily, and the boy grew afraid when he thought of what he had just said to him.

  59. He did not dare turn his head to see whether it really was him.

  60. 18

    »Maybe he's just out walking for the sake of it,» thought the boy.

  61. »Surely he can't be angry with me for the words I said.

  62. It wasn't meant so badly at all.»

  63. 19

    Instead of going straight on and trying to get down to the dockyard, the boy turned off onto a street that led east.

  64. He wanted first and foremost to get away from the one who was walking after him.

  65. 20

    But just after that he heard that the bronze man had turned onto the same street, and the boy grew so afraid that he had no idea at all what to do with himself.

  66. And how hard it was to find any hiding places in a town where all the gates stood shut!

  67. Then he saw, on his right hand, an old wooden church that lay a little way from the street in the middle of a large planting of trees.

  68. Not for one moment did he hesitate, but rushed straight toward the church.

  69. »If only I can get there, I should surely be safe from all harm,» he thought.

  70. 21

    As he ran forward, he suddenly caught sight of a man standing on a sanded path and beckoning to him.

  71. »There's surely someone there who wants to help me.» thought the boy, grew heartily glad, and hurried in that direction.

  72. He was truly so afraid that his heart pounded in his chest.

  73. 22

    But when he came up to the man, who stood at the edge of the sanded path on a small pedestal, he was quite dumbfounded.

  74. »That surely can't have been the one who beckoned to me,» he thought, for he saw that the whole man was made of wood.

  75. 23

    He stood still and stared at him.

  76. It was a coarse man on short legs, with a broad, ruddy face, shiny black hair, and a full black beard.

  77. On his head he wore a black wooden hat, on his body a brown wooden coat, around his waist a black wooden belt, on his legs he had wide, gray wooden knee-breeches and wooden stockings, and on his feet black wooden clogs.

  78. He was freshly painted and freshly varnished, so that he shone and glistened in the moonlight, and this no doubt helped to give him such a good-natured look that the boy at once felt trust in him.

  79. 24

    In his left hand he held a wooden board, and there the boy read:

  80. 25

    Most humbly I ask of you, though my voice is faint indeed: come lay a coin down here, but lift up my hat as you leave!

  81. 26

    So then, the man was only a poor-box.

  82. The boy felt let down.

  83. He had expected this would be something truly remarkable.

  84. And now he remembered that this wooden man was something grandfather had talked of too, and had said that all the children in Karlskrona were very fond of him.

  85. And it was probably true, for even he found it hard to tear himself away from the wooden man.

  86. He had something so old-fashioned about him that one might well have taken him to be many hundred years old, and at the same time he looked so strong and hearty and full of the joy of life, just as one might imagine folk did in olden times.

  87. 27

    The boy was having such fun looking at the wooden man that he quite forgot the other one, whom he had been fleeing from.

  88. But now he heard him.

  89. He turned off the street and came into the churchyard.

  90. He had followed him in here too!

  91. Where was the boy to go?

  92. 28

    At that same moment he saw the wooden man bend down toward him and reach out his big, broad hand.

  93. It was impossible to think anything but good of him, and the boy took a leap up into the hand.

  94. And the wooden man lifted him up to his hat and tucked him in underneath it.

  95. 29

    Barely was the boy hidden, and barely had the wooden man got his arm back down in its proper place, than the bronze man stopped in front of him and thrust his cane down into the ground, so that the wooden man shook on his pedestal.

  96. Then the bronze man said in a strong, ringing voice: »What sort is he?»

  97. 30

    The wooden man's arm shot upward, so that the old timber creaked, and he touched the brim of his hat as he answered: »Rosenbom, if I may, Your Majesty.

  98. Once, in his day, a boatswain on the ship of the line Dristigheten; after his war service ended, sexton at the Admiralty Church; of late carved in wood and set up in the churchyard as a poor-box.»

  99. 31

    It gave the boy a start when he heard the wooden man say: »Your Majesty».

  100. For when he now thought it over, he knew that the statue in the square portrayed the one who had founded the town.

  101. It was surely none other than Charles the Eleventh himself that he had run into.

  102. 32

    »He gives a good account of himself,» said the bronze man.

  103. »Can he also tell me now whether he has seen a little lad running about the town tonight?

  104. He's a saucy rascal, and if I only get hold of him, I'll teach him manners.»

  105. With that he thrust the cane once more into the ground and looked dreadfully angry.

  106. 33

    »If I may, Your Majesty, I have seen him,» said the wooden man, and the boy grew so afraid that he began to tremble, sitting there hidden under the hat, watching the bronze man through a crack in the wood.

  107. But he calmed down when the wooden man continued: »Your Majesty is on the wrong track.

  108. That lad did indeed intend to run onto the dockyard and hide himself away there.»

  109. 34

    »Does he say so, Rosenbom?

  110. Then don't stand still on your pedestal any longer, but come with me, and help me hunt him down!

  111. Four eyes see more than two, Rosenbom.»

  112. 35

    But the wooden man answered in a mournful voice: »I would most humbly beg to remain standing where I stand.

  113. I look fresh and shiny for the sake of the paint, but I am old and rotten and cannot bear to move.»

  114. 36

    The bronze man surely was not one of those who liked to be contradicted.

  115. »What kind of manners is that?

  116. Come along, man, Rosenbom!»

  117. And he raised his long cane and gave the other a resounding blow across the shoulder.

  118. »Does he see that he holds together, Rosenbom?»

  119. 37

    With that they set off and strode, big and mighty, along the streets of Karlskrona, until they reached a tall gate that led in to the dockyard.

  120. Outside it, one of the navy's sailors stood on watch, but the bronze man simply strode right past him and kicked the gate open, without the sailor taking any notice of it at all.

  121. 38

    As soon as they had come into the dockyard, they saw before them a vast harbor, divided up by pile bridges.

  122. In the various harbor basins lay the warships, looking bigger and more fearsome close up like this than they had just now, when the boy had seen them from above.

  123. »So it wasn't so mad after all to think they were sea-trolls,» he thought.

  124. 39

    »Where does he think it most advisable that we begin the search, Rosenbom?» said the bronze man.

  125. 40

    »Someone like him could most easily hide himself away in the model hall,» answered the wooden man.

  126. 41

    On a narrow strip of land that stretched off to the right from the gate, all along the harbor, stood old-fashioned buildings.

  127. The bronze man went up to a house with low walls, small windows, and a substantial roof.

  128. He thrust his staff against the door, so that it flew open, and stamped his way up a stairway with worn steps.

  129. Then they came into a large hall that was filled with rigged and fully-fitted small ships.

  130. The boy understood, without anyone telling him, that these were models of the ships that had been built for the account of the Swedish navy.

  131. 42

    There were ships of many different kinds.

  132. There were old ships of the line with their sides packed with cannon, with tall structures fore and aft, and masts weighed down by a tangle of sails and rigging.

  133. There were small archipelago craft with rowing benches along the ships' sides; there were undecked gunboats and richly gilded frigates, which were models of those the kings had used on their travels.

  134. At last there were also the heavy, broad armored ships with turrets and guns on deck, such as are in use nowadays, and slender, gleaming torpedo boats that resembled long, slim fish.

  135. 43

    As the boy was carried around among all this, he grew quite amazed.

  136. »That such great and splendid ships have been built here in Sweden!» he thought to himself.

  137. 44

    He had plenty of time to look at what was there inside, for once the bronze man caught sight of the models, he forgot all about everything else.

  138. He looked at them all, from the first to the last, and asked about them.

  139. And Rosenbom, boatswain of the Dristigheten, told all he knew about the shipbuilders and about those who had sailed them, and about the fates that had befallen them.

  140. He told of Chapman and Puke and Trolle, of Hogland and Svensksund, all the way up to 1809, for after that he had not been around any longer.

  141. 45

    Both he and the bronze man had the most to say about the old, splendid wooden ships.

  142. The new armored ships they did not seem to understand quite so well.

  143. 46

    »I hear that Rosenbom knows nothing about these new ones,» said the bronze man.

  144. »Let us go and look at something else, then!

  145. For this amuses me, Rosenbom.»

  146. 47

    By now he had surely given up altogether looking for the boy, and the boy felt safe and calm, sitting there in the wooden hat.

  147. 48

    Then the two men wandered through the great works: the sailmaker's workshop and the anchor forge, the machine shop and the joiner's workshops.

  148. They saw the mast cranes and the docks, the great storehouses, the artillery yard, the ordnance house, the long ropewalk, and the great abandoned dock that had been blasted out of the solid rock.

  149. They went out onto the pile bridges, where the men-of-war lay moored, went aboard them, and inspected them like two old sea-dogs, wondering and rejecting and approving and growing vexed.

  150. 49

    The boy sat safe under the wooden hat and heard tell of how there had been work and struggle in this place to fit out all the fleets that had sailed out from here.

  151. He heard how life and blood had been risked, how the last farthing had been sacrificed to build the warships, how ingenious men had strained all their strength to improve and perfect these ships that had been the fatherland's defense.

  152. It was not without cause that the boy, a couple of times, got tears in his eyes when he heard tell of all this.

  153. And he was glad that he got to learn so much about it.

  154. 50

    Last of all they went into an open yard where the figureheads from old ships of the line stood set up.

  155. And a more remarkable sight the boy had never seen, for these figures had incredibly powerful, terrifying faces.

  156. They were big, bold, and wild, filled with the same proud spirit that had equipped the great ships.

  157. They were from a different age than his.

  158. He felt himself shrink before them.

  159. 51

    But when they came here, the bronze man said to the wooden man: »Take off your hat, Rosenbom, for those who stand here!

  160. They have all been in battle for the fatherland.»

  161. 52

    And Rosenbom had forgotten why they had begun the walk, just as the bronze man had.

  162. Without thinking, he lifted the wooden hat from his head and cried out:

  163. 53

    »I lift my hat for the one who chose the harbor and founded the dockyard and remade the fleet, for the king who has called all this to life.»

  164. 54

    »Thank you, Rosenbom!

  165. That was well said.

  166. Rosenbom is a splendid fellow.

  167. But what is this now, Rosenbom?»

  168. 55

    For there stood Nils Holgersson right on top of Rosenbom's bare crown.

  169. But he was not afraid any more now; instead he lifted his little white cap and shouted: »Hurrah for you, Long-Lip!»

  170. 56

    The bronze man thrust his cane hard into the ground, but the boy never got to know what he had meant to do, for now the sun rose, and at the same instant both bronze man and wooden man vanished, as though they had been made of mist.

  171. While he still stood staring after them, the wild geese flew up from the church tower and hovered back and forth over the town.

  172. At once they caught sight of Nils Holgersson, and then the big white one shot down out of the sky and fetched him.

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.