The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Två städer

Two Cities

243 sentences · 29 notes

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  1. 1

    It turned into a calm, clear night.

    Detitden · pronoun, neuter, singularexpletive with blev
    blevbecamebli · verb, past, indicative, activemain verb of the sentence
    enaen · determiner, common gender, singulardeterminer of lugn
    lugncalmlugn · adjective, nominative, common gender, singularmodifies natt
    ochandoch · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    klarclearklar · adjective, nominative, common gender, singularcoordinated with lugn
    nattnightnatt · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of blev

  2. The wild geese did not bother to seek shelter in any of the caves, but stood and slept up on the hilltop, and the boy had lain down in the short, dry grass beside the geese.

  3. 2

    There was strong moonlight that night, so strong that the boy found it hard to fall asleep.

  4. He lay thinking about how long he had been away from home, and he worked out that it was three weeks since he had begun the journey.

  5. At the same time he remembered that this evening was Easter Eve.

  6. 3

    “Tonight is the night all the witches come home from Blåkulla,” he thought, and laughed to himself.

  7. For he was a little afraid of both the näck and the tomte, but he did not believe in witches in the least.

  8. 4

    If there had been witches out that evening, he would surely have seen them.

  9. It was so brightly clear up toward the sky that not the smallest black speck could move through the air without his noticing it.

  10. 5

    While he lay there with his nose in the air, thinking about this, he caught sight of something beautiful.

  11. The disc of the moon stood whole and round, fairly high up, and in front of it a large bird came flying.

  12. He did not fly past the moon, but came in such a way that it looked as if he had flown right out of it.

  13. The bird showed black against the bright background, and its wings stretched from one edge of the moon's disc to the other.

  14. He flew so steadily onward in the same direction that the boy thought he looked drawn onto the moon's disc.

  15. The body was small, the neck long and slender, the legs hung down, long and thin.

  16. It could be nothing other than a stork.

  17. 6

    A couple of moments later, Sir Ermenrich the stork landed beside him.

  18. He bent over the boy and nudged him with his beak to wake him up.

  19. 7

    The boy sat up at once.

  20. “I'm not asleep, Sir Ermenrich,” he said.

  21. “How is it that you're out in the middle of the night, and how are things at Glimmingehus?

  22. Do you want to talk to Mother Akka?”

  23. 8

    “It's too bright to sleep tonight,” answered Sir Ermenrich.

  24. “So I took it upon myself to travel over here to Karlsön and look you up, my friend Thumbietot.

  25. I learned from a seagull that you were here tonight.

  26. I haven't yet moved over to Glimmingehus, but am still living in Pomerania.”

  27. 9

    The boy was incredibly glad that Sir Ermenrich had sought him out.

  28. They chatted about all sorts of things, like old friends.

  29. At last the stork asked whether the boy would not like to go out and ride for a while in the beautiful night.

  30. 10

    Yes, the boy would very much like that, if only the stork would arrange for him to be back with the wild geese before sunrise.

  31. That he promised, and so off they went.

  32. 11

    Sir Ermenrich flew off once more, straight toward the moon.

  33. They climbed and climbed, the sea sank far below, but the flight went so strangely easily that it almost seemed as if they were lying still in the air.

  34. 12

    The boy thought it was an unreasonably short time that the flight had lasted, when Sir Ermenrich dropped down to land.

  35. 13

    They landed on a desolate seashore, which was covered with smooth, fine sand.

  36. Along the coast ran a long row of dune hills with beach-rye growing on their crests.

  37. They were not very high, but they kept the boy from seeing anything of the land beyond.

  38. 14

    Sir Ermenrich stood himself on a sand hill, drew up one leg, and bent his neck backward to tuck his beak under his wing.

  39. “You can wander about here on the beach for a while,” he said to Thumbietot, “while I rest.

  40. But don't go farther off than you can find your way back to me!”

  41. 15

    The boy meant, first of all, to climb up a dune hill to see what the land looked like farther in.

  42. But when he had gone a couple of steps, he struck the toe of his wooden shoe against something hard.

  43. He bent down and saw that on the sand lay a small copper coin, so eaten away by verdigris that it was almost transparent.

  44. It was so worthless that he did not even bother to put it away, but just kicked it aside.

  45. 16

    But when he stood upright again, he was quite astonished, for two steps away rose a high, dark wall with a great, tower-flanked gate.

  46. 17

    A moment before, when the boy had bent down, the sea had spread out glittering and smooth, and now it was hidden by a long wall with battlements and towers.

  47. And directly in front of him, where a moment ago there had lain only a few banks of seaweed, the great wall-gate stood open.

  48. 18

    The boy well understood that there was sorcery at work.

  49. But this was nothing to be afraid of, he thought.

  50. It was not any dangerous trolls or other wickedness, the kind he always feared running into at night.

  51. Both the wall and the gate were so splendidly built that he only felt a wish to see what might be behind them.

  52. “I'll just have to find out what this can be,” he thought, and made his way in through the gate.

  53. 19

    In the deep gate-vault sat guards, dressed in gaudy, puffed clothes, with long-shafted halberds beside them, playing dice.

  54. They thought only of the game and paid no attention to the boy, who slipped quickly past them.

  55. 20

    Inside the gate he found an open square, paved with large, even flagstones.

  56. All around stood high, splendid houses, and between them opened long, narrow streets.

  57. 21

    The square in front of the gate swarmed with people.

  58. The men wore long, fur-trimmed cloaks over silk undergarments, plume-decked berets sat aslant on their heads, and splendid chains hung on their chests.

  59. They were all so magnificently arrayed that they could have been kings.

  60. 22

    The women went about in pointed caps, long skirts, and tight sleeves.

  61. They too were splendidly dressed, but their finery did not come anywhere near the men's.

  62. 23

    This was exactly like the old storybook his mother would sometimes take out of the chest and show him.

  63. The boy simply could not believe his eyes.

  64. 24

    But what was more remarkable to see than either the men or the women was the town itself.

  65. Every house was built so that it turned a gable toward the street.

  66. And the gables were so ornamented that one might think they wanted to compete with each other over who could show off the finest decorations.

  67. 25

    Anyone who suddenly sees so much that is new cannot manage to keep it all in memory.

  68. But the boy could still recall afterward that he had seen stepped gables that bore images of Christ and his apostles on their several ledges, gables where figures stood in niche after niche the whole way up the wall, gables that were inlaid with many-colored bits of glass, and gables that were striped and checkered with white and black marble.

  69. 26

    While the boy was admiring all this, a sudden urgency came over him.

  70. “My eyes have never seen anything like this before.

  71. Never again will they see anything like it,” he said to himself.

  72. And he began to run into the town, up one street and down another.

  73. 27

    The streets were narrow and cramped, but not empty and gloomy like the towns he knew.

  74. There were people everywhere.

  75. Old women sat at their doors spinning without a spinning wheel, using only a distaff.

  76. The merchants' shops were open to the street like market stalls.

  77. All the craftsmen kept themselves and their work out of doors.

  78. In one place train-oil was being boiled, in another hides were being tanned, and in a third there was a long rope-walk.

  79. 28

    If the boy had only had the time, he could have learned to make all sorts of things.

  80. Here he watched armorers hammer out thin breastplates, goldsmiths set precious stones into rings and bracelets, turners guide their tools, cobblers sole soft red shoes, the gold-drawer twist gold thread, and the weavers work silk and gold into their fabrics.

  81. 29

    But the boy had no time to stop.

  82. He just rushed onward to manage to see as much as possible before it should all vanish again.

  83. 30

    The high wall ran all around the whole town, enclosing it the way a fence encloses a field.

  84. At the end of every street he saw it, tower-adorned and battlement-crowned.

  85. Up on the wall walked soldiers in gleaming armor and helmets.

  86. 31

    When he had run straight through the whole town, he came to yet another gate in the wall.

  87. Outside it lay the sea with the harbor.

  88. The boy saw old-fashioned ships with rowing benches across the middle and high structures fore and aft.

  89. Some lay taking on cargo, others were just dropping anchor.

  90. Porters and merchants hurried past one another; everywhere there was bustle and life.

  91. 32

    But here too he felt he had no time to linger.

  92. He hurried back into the town again, and now he came to the great market square.

  93. There stood the cathedral with its three tall towers and deep, image-adorned door-vaults.

  94. The walls were so carved by sculptors that there was not a stone without its own ornament.

  95. And what splendor glimpsed through the open door — golden crosses, gold-wrought altars, and priests in golden vestments!

  96. Opposite the church stood a house with battlements on its roof and a single narrow, sky-high tower.

  97. That must have been the town hall.

  98. And between the church and the town hall, all around the square, rose the beautiful gabled houses in the most manifold ornamentation.

  99. 33

    The boy had run himself both warm and tired.

  100. He believed he had now seen the most remarkable things, and so began to walk more slowly.

  101. The street he had now turned onto was surely the one where the townspeople bought their splendid clothes.

  102. He saw crowds of people standing in front of the little shops, where the merchants spread out over their counters flowered, stiff silk, heavy gold cloth, shimmering velvet, light gauze, and lace as thin as spiderweb.

  103. 34

    Before, when the boy had been running so fast, no one had paid him any attention.

  104. The people had surely thought it was only a little gray rat scurrying past them.

  105. But now, as he walked slowly along the street, one of the merchants caught sight of him and began to wave at him.

  106. 35

    The boy was frightened at first and wanted to hurry away, but the merchant only waved and smiled and spread out on his counter a gorgeous piece of silk damask, as if to lure him.

  107. 36

    The boy shook his head.

  108. “I will never be rich enough to buy a single meter of that cloth,” he thought.

  109. 37

    But now he had been spotted in every single shop the whole length of the street.

  110. Wherever he looked, a shopkeeper stood waving at him.

  111. They left their wealthy customers and thought only of him.

  112. He watched how they hurried into the shop's most hidden corner to fetch the best they had to sell, and how their hands trembled with haste and eagerness as they laid it out on the counter.

  113. 38

    When the boy kept walking on, one of the merchants flung himself over the counter, caught up with him, and laid down before him silver cloth and woven tapestries that blazed with color.

  114. The boy could not help laughing at him.

  115. Surely the shopkeeper must understand that a poor wretch like him could not buy such things.

  116. He stopped and held out his two empty hands, so that they would understand he owned nothing, and would leave him in peace.

  117. 39

    But the merchant held up one finger, nodded, and pushed the whole pile of splendid goods toward him.

  118. 40

    “Can he mean that he wants to sell all this for a single gold coin?” the boy wondered.

  119. 41

    The merchant brought out a small, worn, and shabby coin, the meanest one could imagine, and showed it to him.

  120. And he was so eager to make the sale that he added to his pile a couple of large, heavy silver goblets.

  121. 42

    Then the boy began to dig in his pockets.

  122. He knew well enough that he did not own a single coin, but he could not help feeling around anyway.

  123. 43

    All the other merchants stood watching to see how the deal would turn out, and when they noticed the boy starting to dig in his pockets, they flung themselves over their counters, took their hands full of gold and silver jewelry, and held them out to him.

  124. And they all showed him that all they were asking in payment was just one single small coin.

  125. 44

    But the boy turned both his vest and trouser pockets inside out, so they would see he owned nothing at all.

  126. Then tears came to their eyes, all these splendid merchants who were so much richer than he.

  127. He was at last moved to see them looking so anxious, and he pondered whether there was no way he could help them.

  128. And so he came to think of the corroded coin he had just seen on the shore.

  129. 45

    He set off running down the street, and luck was with him, so that he came to the very gate he had first happened upon.

  130. He rushed through it and began searching for the little verdigris-green copper coin that had lain on the shore a little while before.

  131. 46

    He did indeed find it, but when he had picked it up and wanted to hurry back into the town with it, he saw only the sea before him.

  132. No town wall, no gate, no guards, no streets, no houses were to be seen now — only the sea.

  133. 47

    The boy could not help it — tears came to his eyes.

  134. At first he had believed that what he saw was nothing but an illusion, but by now he had come to forget that.

  135. He had only thought about how beautiful everything was.

  136. He felt truly deep sorrow that the town had vanished.

  137. 48

    At that same moment Sir Ermenrich woke up and came over to him.

  138. But he did not hear him, so the stork had to nudge him with his beak to make himself noticed.

  139. “I think you're standing here asleep, same as I was,” said Sir Ermenrich.

  140. 49

    “Oh, Sir Ermenrich!” said the boy.

  141. “What town was that, standing here just now?”

  142. 50

    “Have you seen a town?” said the stork.

  143. “You've been sleeping and dreaming, just as I said.”

  144. 51

    “No, I have not been dreaming,” said Thumbietot, and he told the stork everything he had experienced.

  145. 52

    Then Sir Ermenrich said: “For my own part, Thumbietot, I believe you have fallen asleep here on the shore and dreamed all this.

  146. But I don't want to hide from you that Bataki the raven, who is the most learned of all birds, once told me that long ago a town called Vineta stood on this very shore.

  147. It was so rich and happy that no town has ever been more splendid, but unfortunately its inhabitants gave themselves over to arrogance and a love of pomp.

  148. As punishment for this, Bataki says, the town of Vineta was overwhelmed by a storm flood and sunk into the sea.

  149. But its inhabitants cannot die, and neither can their town be destroyed.

  150. And one night every hundred years it rises up out of the sea in all its splendor, and lies on the earth's surface for exactly one hour.”

  151. 53

    “Yes, that must be how it is,” said Thumbietot, “for this is what I have seen.”

  152. 54

    “But when the hour is over, it sinks back into the sea again, unless a merchant in Vineta has in the meantime managed to sell something to a living creature.

  153. If you, Thumbietot, had only had even the smallest coin to pay the merchants, Vineta would have been allowed to remain here on the shore, and its people would have been allowed to live and die like other people.”

  154. 55

    “Sir Ermenrich,” said the boy, “now I understand why you came and fetched me in the middle of the night.

  155. It was because you believed I might be able to save the old town.

  156. I am so sorry that it did not turn out as you wished, Sir Ermenrich.”

  157. 56

    He put his hands over his eyes and wept.

  158. It was hard to say who looked the more grieved, the boy or Sir Ermenrich.

  159. 57

    On the afternoon of Easter Monday, the wild geese and Thumbietot were out flying.

  160. They flew on over Gotland.

  161. 58

    The great island lay flat and smooth beneath them.

  162. The ground was checkered just as in Skåne, and there was no shortage of either churches or farms.

  163. But there was this difference, that more leafy meadows lay between the fields here, and the farms were not built around a courtyard.

  164. And there were no great manors at all, with old, tower-crowned castles and sprawling parks.

  165. 59

    The wild geese had taken the route over Gotland for Thumbietot's sake.

  166. For two days now he had been quite unlike himself and had not spoken a single cheerful word.

  167. It came from the fact that he thought only of that town, which had shown itself to him in such a strange way.

  168. He had never seen anything so beautiful and splendid, and he could not reconcile himself to not having been able to save it.

  169. He was not otherwise soft-hearted, but he truly grieved over the beautiful buildings and the splendid people.

  170. 60

    Both Akka and the gander had tried to convince Thumbietot that he had merely had a dream or an illusion, but the boy would not hear of any such thing.

  171. He was so certain that he had truly seen what he had seen that no one could shake him from this conviction.

  172. He went about so grieved that his traveling companions grew worried about him.

  173. 61

    Just when the boy was most downcast, old Kaksi had come back to the flock.

  174. She had been blown toward Gotland and had had to travel across the whole island before she learned from some crows that her companions were on Lilla Karlsön.

  175. When Kaksi learned what ailed Thumbietot, she suddenly said:

  176. 62

    “If Thumbietot is grieving over an old town, then we can comfort him soon enough.

  177. Just come along, and I'll take you all to a place I saw yesterday!

  178. He won't need to be sad much longer.”

  179. 63

    Thereupon the geese had taken leave of the sheep, and now they were on their way to the place Kaksi wanted to show Thumbietot.

  180. Sorrowful as he was, he could not help, as usual, looking down at the land he was flying over.

  181. 64

    He thought it looked as if the whole island had originally been just such a high, steep cliff as Karlsön, though of course much larger.

  182. But then it had somehow been flattened out.

  183. Someone had taken a great rolling pin and rolled it flat, as if it had been a piece of dough.

  184. Not that it had become perfectly flat and smooth like a loaf of bread — it certainly had not.

  185. While they had been flying along the coast, he had seen in several places high, white limestone walls with caves and sea-stacks, but in most places these had been worn away, and the shore sank inconspicuously down toward the sea.

  186. 65

    On Gotland they had a beautiful, peaceful holiday afternoon.

  187. A mild spring weather prevailed; the trees had large buds, spring flowers dressed the ground in the leafy meadows, the poplars' long, thin catkins swayed, and in the small gardens by every cottage the gooseberry bushes stood entirely green.

  188. 66

    The warmth and the budding of spring had lured people out onto roads and farmyards, and wherever a few of them were gathered, they were busy playing games.

  189. It was not only the children who played, but the grown-ups too.

  190. They threw stones at targets, and they struck balls up into the air with such fine bats that they almost reached the wild geese.

  191. It looked merry and pleasant to see grown people playing, and the boy would surely have taken delight in it if he had been able to forget his grief over not having been able to save the old town.

  192. 67

    Still, he had to admit that this was a beautiful journey.

  193. There was so much song and sound in the air.

  194. Small children played a ring game and sang along.

  195. And the Salvation Army was out.

  196. He saw a whole crowd of people, dressed in black and red, sitting on a wooded slope playing guitars and brass instruments.

  197. Along a road came a large crowd of people.

  198. They were temperance-society members who had been on an outing.

  199. He recognized them by the large banners with gold inscriptions waving over them.

  200. And song after song they sang, for as long as he could hear them.

  201. 68

    The boy could never afterward think of Gotland without at the same time thinking of games and songs.

  202. 69

    For a long while he had sat looking down, but now he happened to lift his eyes.

  203. No one could describe how astonished he became.

  204. Without his having noticed it, the geese had left the interior of the island and flown westward toward the coast.

  205. Now the wide, blue sea lay before him.

  206. But it was not the sea that was remarkable, but a town that rose up on the seashore.

  207. 70

    The boy was coming from the east, and the sun had begun to sink toward the west.

  208. As he drew near the town, its walls and towers and tall gabled houses and churches stood quite black against the bright evening sky.

  209. He could not therefore see what their true state really was, and for a couple of moments he believed this was just as splendid a town as the one he had seen on Easter night.

  210. 71

    When he came right up to it, he saw that it was both like and unlike that town from the sea floor.

  211. It was the same difference as if, on one day, a person were to

  212. 72

    see a man dressed in purple and jewels, and on another day were to see him stripped bare and in rags.

  213. 73

    Yes, this town too had surely once been just like the one he sat thinking about.

  214. This one too was surrounded by a town wall with towers and gates.

  215. But the towers in this town, which had been allowed to remain on land, stood roofless, hollow, and empty.

  216. The gates were without doors; the guards and soldiers were gone.

  217. All the gleaming splendor was gone.

  218. There was only the naked, gray stone frame left standing.

  219. 74

    When the boy came farther into the town, he saw that it was for the most part built up with small, low houses, but here and there some tall gabled houses and a few churches remained from the old days.

  220. The gabled houses' walls were whitewashed and entirely without ornament, but because the boy had so recently seen the sunken town, he felt he understood how they had once been adorned: some with statues and others with black and white marble.

  221. And it was the same with the old churches.

  222. Most of them were roofless, with bare interiors.

  223. The window openings stood empty, the floors were overgrown with grass, and ivy climbed up the walls.

  224. But now he knew how they had once looked — that they had been covered with carvings and paintings, that the choir had held an adorned altar and a golden cross, and that priests dressed in golden vestments had once moved about there.

  225. 75

    The boy also saw the narrow streets, almost empty of people on the holiday afternoon.

  226. He knew, he did, what a stream of splendid people had once swarmed along them.

  227. He knew that they had once been like great workshops, full of every kind of worker.

  228. 76

    But what Nils Holgersson did not see was that the town was, even today, both beautiful and remarkable.

  229. He saw neither the pleasant cottages along the back streets, with black walls, white corner boards, and red geraniums behind the gleaming windowpanes, nor the many beautiful gardens and avenues, nor the beauty of the vine-clad ruins.

  230. His eyes were so filled with the glory of the past that he could not see anything good in the present.

  231. 77

    The wild geese flew back and forth over the town a couple of times, so that Thumbietot would really get to see everything properly.

  232. At last they settled down onto the grass-grown floor of a ruined church, to stay there for the night.

  233. 78

    When they had already settled down to sleep, Thumbietot was still awake, looking up through the broken roof-vaults at the pale-red evening sky.

  234. After he had sat there for a while, he thought that he no longer wanted to torment himself over not having been able to save the sunken town.

  235. 79

    No, he did not want to, now that he had gotten to see this one.

  236. If the town he had seen had not been allowed to sink back down to the sea floor, then perhaps in time it too would have become as decayed as this one was.

  237. Perhaps it would not have been able to withstand time and decay, and would soon have stood with roofless churches and unadorned houses and desolate, empty streets just like this one.

  238. Then it was better that it remained, in all its glory, down there hidden away.

  239. 80

    “It was best that things turned out as they did,” he thought.

  240. “If I had the power to save the town, I don't think I would want to do it.”

  241. After that he grieved over the matter no more.

  242. 81

    And there are surely many among the young who think the same way.

  243. But when people grow old and have learned to be content with little, then they are gladder of the Visby that exists than of a splendid Vineta on the sea floor.

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.