The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Den gamla bondkvinnan

The Old Farm Wife

243 sentences · 19 notes

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  1. 1

    Three weary travelers were out in the late evening seeking a night's lodging.

    Trethreetre · numeral, nominativequantifies resande
    tröttatiredtrött · adjective, nominative, pluralmodifies resande
    resandetravelersresande · noun, nominative, neuter, pluraloblique complement of voro
    vorowerevoro · verb, past, indicative, activemain verb of the sentence
    uteoutsideute · adverbmodifies voro
    ilatei · prepositionpreposition marking kvällen
    senalatesen · adjective, nominative, singularmodifies kvällen
    kvälleneveningkväll · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of ute
    ochandoch · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    söktesoughtsöka · verb, past, indicative, activecoordinated with voro
    natthärbärgenight's lodgingnatthärbärge · noun, nominative, neuter, pluraldirect object of sökte

  2. They were making their way through a poor and desolate part of northern Småland, but such a resting place as they wished for they ought still to have been able to find, for they were no weaklings who asked for soft beds or well-appointed rooms.

  3. »If one of these long ridges had a peak so steep and high that a fox could not climb up it from any side, then we'd have a good sleeping place,» said one of them.

  4. — »If just one of the great bogs lay unfrozen and was so soft and wet that a fox wouldn't dare venture out onto it, that too would be a really good night's lodging,» said the second.

  5. — »If the ice on one of the frozen lakes we're passing were rotten at the shore, so that a fox couldn't get out onto it, we'd have found just what we're looking for,» said the third.

  6. 2

    The worst of it was that when the sun had gone down, two of the travelers grew so sleepy that every moment they were on the point of tumbling to the ground.

  7. The third, who could keep himself awake, grew more anxious as the night drew nearer.

  8. »That was bad luck,» he thought, »that we've come to a land where lakes and bogs are frozen, so that the fox can get about everywhere.

  9. The ice has thawed away in other places, but now we must be up in the very coldest part of Småland, where spring hasn't reached yet.

  10. I don't understand how I'm going to manage to find a good sleeping place.

  11. If I can't find out a place that's well protected, we'll have Smirre Fox upon us before morning.»

  12. 3

    He stared in every direction, but he saw no shelter where he could take refuge.

  13. And it was a dark and raw evening, with wind and drizzle.

  14. It grew more dismal and more disagreeable around him with every moment.

  15. 4

    It may well sound strange, but the travelers did not seem at all inclined to ask for lodging at any farm.

  16. They had already passed by many church villages without knocking at a single door.

  17. Little cottages at the edge of the forest, which every poor wanderer is glad to come upon, they took no notice of either.

  18. One might almost be tempted to say that they deserved to have a hard time of it, since they did not seek help where it was there for the asking.

  19. 5

    But at last, when it had grown so dark that scarcely a streak of daylight remained under the sky, and the two who needed sleep were traveling on half-asleep, they came upon a farmhouse that lay alone, far apart from all its neighbors.

  20. And not only did it lie so desolately, but it looked to be quite uninhabited.

  21. No smoke rose from the chimney, no gleam of light shone from the windows, no person stirred in the farmyard.

  22. When the one of the three who could keep himself awake saw the place, he thought: »Now let it go however it will, but we must try to get into this farm.

  23. Something better we surely can't find.»

  24. 6

    Presently all three of them stood in the farmyard.

  25. The two fell asleep the instant they were allowed to stop, but the third looked eagerly about him to find out where he might get in under a roof.

  26. It was no small farm.

  27. Besides the dwelling house and the stable and the cow house, there were long ranges of barns and hay-lofts and storehouses and tool sheds.

  28. But the whole of it looked dreadfully poor and run down.

  29. The buildings had gray, moss-grown, leaning walls, that seemed ready to topple over.

  30. In the roofs there were gaping holes, and the doors hung crooked on broken hinges.

  31. It was plain that no one for a long time had bothered to drive a nail into a wall at this place.

  32. 7

    Meanwhile the one who was awake had figured out which building was the cow house.

  33. He shook his traveling companions out of their sleep and led them toward the cow-house door.

  34. This was fortunately closed with nothing more than a hook, which he could easily pry up with a twig.

  35. He already drew a sigh of relief at the thought that they would soon be safe.

  36. But when the cow-house door swung open with a shrill creak, he heard a cow begin to low.

  37. »Are you finally coming now, mistress?» said the cow.

  38. »I thought you weren't going to give me any food this evening.»

  39. 8

    The wakeful one stopped, quite frightened, in the doorway when he noticed that the cow house was not empty.

  40. But he soon saw that there was no more than a single cow and three or four hens there, and then he took courage again.

  41. »We are three poor travelers who wish to get in somewhere, where no fox can attack us and no human can catch us,» he said.

  42. »We wonder very much whether this might be a good place for us.»

  43. — »I can't think otherwise,» answered the cow.

  44. »The walls are poor enough, but the fox can't get through them yet, and no one else lives here but an old woman, who's surely in no state to catch anyone.

  45. But what sort are you?» she went on, turning herself in the stall to get a look at the newcomers.

  46. — »Well, I am Nils Holgersson from Västra Vemmenhög, who has been turned into a brownie,» answered the first of those who had come in, »and I have with me a tame goose, which I'm used to riding on, and a gray goose.»

  47. — »Such fine company hasn't been within my walls before,» said the cow, »and you shall be welcome, though I'd surely rather it had been my mistress who had come to give me my evening feed.»

  48. 9

    The boy now brought the geese into the cow house, which was quite large, and put them in an empty stall, where they fell asleep at once.

  49. For himself he gathered together a little bed of straw and expected that he too would fall asleep right away.

  50. 10

    But nothing came of that, for the poor cow, who had not gotten her evening feed, did not keep still for a single moment.

  51. She rattled her neck-chain, shifted herself in the stall, and complained of how hungry she was.

  52. The boy could not get a wink of sleep, but lay there awake and went through everything that had happened to him during the last few days.

  53. 11

    He thought of Åsa the goose girl and little Mats, whom he had so unexpectedly met, and he figured out that the little cottage he had happened to set on fire must have been their old home in Småland.

  54. He could well recall that he had heard them talk about just such a cottage and about the great heath that lay below it.

  55. Now they had come walking to see their home again, and there it had stood in flames when they had reached it!

  56. It was surely a great sorrow that he had brought upon them, and it grieved him very much.

  57. If he should ever become a human being again, he would have to try to make good to them for the harm and the disappointment.

  58. 12

    Then his thoughts went to the crows, and when he thought of Fumle-Drumle, who had rescued him and had met his death so shortly after being chosen chief, he grew so sorrowful that tears came to his eyes.

  59. 13

    He had had a very hard time of it these last days.

  60. But it had still been a great piece of luck that the gander and Dunfin had managed to find him.

  61. 14

    The gander had told him that as soon as the wild geese had noticed that Thumbietot was missing, they had asked the small creatures of the forest about him.

  62. They had soon learned that it was a flock of Småland crows that had carried him off.

  63. But the crows were already out of sight, and no one could say which way they had steered their course.

  64. So that they might find the boy as quickly as possible, Akka had then ordered the wild geese to set off two by two in different directions and search for him.

  65. But after two days of searching, whether they had found him or not, they were to meet in northwestern Småland on a high mountain peak that resembled a sheer, cut-off tower and was called Taberg.

  66. And once Akka had given them the best landmarks and carefully described to them how they should find their way to Taberg, they had parted ways.

  67. 15

    The white gander had chosen Dunfin as his traveling companion, and they had flown about here and there in the greatest anxiety over Thumbietot.

  68. During this wandering about they had heard a thrush sitting in a treetop, crying and carrying on because someone who called himself Crow-Robbed had made fun of him.

  69. They had struck up a conversation with the thrush, and he had shown them in which direction that Crow-Robbed had gone.

  70. Afterward they had come upon a pigeon cock, a starling, and a wild duck, who had all lamented over an evildoer who had disturbed them in their song and who had been called Crow-Caught, Crow-Snatched, and Crow-Stolen.

  71. In this way they had been able to track Thumbietot all the way down to the heath in Sunnerbo district.

  72. 16

    As soon as the gander and Dunfin had found Thumbietot, they had set off toward the north to reach Taberg.

  73. But it had been a long way to travel, and darkness had come upon them before they had caught sight of the mountain peak.

  74. »But just let us reach it tomorrow, and surely all our troubles will be over,» thought the boy, and burrowed deeper down into the straw to get warmer.

  75. 17

    The cow had been standing and fretting in her stall the whole time.

  76. Now she suddenly began to talk to the boy: »I thought that one of those who came in here said he was a brownie.

  77. If that's so, he surely knows how to take care of a cow.»

  78. — »What is it that ails you?» asked the boy.

  79. — »All sorts of things ail me,» said the cow.

  80. »I am neither milked nor groomed.

  81. I haven't gotten night fodder in the trough, and I haven't gotten bedded down beneath me.

  82. Mistress came in here at dusk to see to me, as she used to, but she felt so sick that she had to go back in again at once, and she hasn't come back.»

  83. — »It's a sad thing that I should be so small and feeble,» said the boy.

  84. »I don't believe I'm able to help you.»

  85. — »Don't go imagining that you're feeble just because you're small,» said the cow.

  86. »All the brownies I've ever heard tell of have been so strong that they could drag a whole load of hay and strike a cow dead with a blow of the fist.»

  87. The boy could not help laughing at the cow.

  88. »Those must have been brownies of another sort than I am,» he said.

  89. »But I'll loosen your neck-chain and open the door for you, so you can go out and drink from one of the puddles in the yard, and then I'll try to climb up into the hayloft and toss down hay into your trough.»

  90. — »Yes, that would certainly be some help,» said the cow.

  91. 18

    The boy did as he had said, and when the cow stood with her trough filled before her, he thought that at last he would get to sleep.

  92. But he had scarcely crept down into his bed when she began to talk to him again.

  93. 19

    »You'll surely grow quite weary of me if I ask you for one more thing,» said the cow.

  94. — »I won't, if it's only something I can manage,» said the boy.

  95. — »Then I'd like to ask you to go into the cottage over there and see how things stand with mistress.

  96. I'm afraid something has happened to her.»

  97. — »No, that I can't do,» said the boy.

  98. »I don't dare show myself to people.»

  99. — »Surely you can't be afraid of a poor sick old woman,» said the cow.

  100. »But you don't need to go into the cottage either.

  101. Just stand outside the door, and peep in through the crack!»

  102. — »Well, if that's all you ask of me, I suppose I'll do it,» said the boy.

  103. 20

    With that he opened the cow-house door and went out onto the farmyard.

  104. It was a dreadful night to be out in.

  105. Neither moon nor stars shone, the wind howled, and the rain poured down.

  106. But the worst of it was that seven great owls sat in a row on the ridge of the dwelling house.

  107. It was gruesome just to hear them sitting there complaining about the weather, and it was worse still to think that if a single one of them caught sight of him, it would be all over with him.

  108. 21

    »Pity the one who is small!» said the boy, as he went out onto the farmyard.

  109. And he had reason to say it.

  110. He was blown over twice before he got up to the dwelling house, and one time the wind swept him down into a puddle so deep that he nearly drowned.

  111. But he got there all the same.

  112. 22

    He climbed up a couple of steps, struggled over a threshold, and came into the entry.

  113. The cottage door was shut, but down in one corner a large piece had been cut away so that the cat could go in and out.

  114. So it was no trouble at all for the boy to see how things stood inside the cottage.

  115. 23

    Scarcely had he cast a glance in there when he gave a start and drew back his head.

  116. An old, gray-haired woman lay stretched out on the floor inside.

  117. She neither moved nor moaned, and her face shone strangely white.

  118. It was as if an invisible moon had cast a pale light over it.

  119. 24

    The boy remembered that when his grandfather had died, his face too had turned that odd white.

  120. And he understood that the old woman lying on the cottage floor must be dead.

  121. Death must have come upon her so suddenly that she had not even had time to lie down on her bed.

  122. 25

    He grew terribly afraid when he thought that in the middle of the dark night he was alone with a dead body.

  123. He threw himself headlong down the steps and rushed back to the cow house.

  124. 26

    When he told the cow what he had seen in the cottage, she stopped eating.

  125. »So mistress is dead,» she said.

  126. »Then it will soon be over for me too.»

  127. — »Surely there will always be someone to take care of you,» said the boy, trying to comfort her.

  128. — »You don't know, you,» said the cow, »that I'm already twice as old as a cow usually is before she's put on the slaughtering bench.

  129. But I don't care to live any longer either, now that she in there can no longer come and tend to me.»

  130. 27

    She said no more for a while, but the boy noticed well enough that she neither slept nor ate.

  131. It was not long before she began to talk again.

  132. »Is she lying on the bare floor?» she asked.

  133. — »Yes, she is,» said the boy.

  134. — »She used to come out into the cow house,» the cow went on, »and talk about everything that troubled her.

  135. I understood what she said, though I couldn't answer her.

  136. These last days she went about saying that she was afraid she wouldn't have anyone with her when she died.

  137. She was anxious that no one would close her eyes or fold her hands crosswise over her breast once she was dead.

  138. Perhaps you're willing to go in and do this?»

  139. The boy grew hesitant.

  140. He remembered that when his grandfather had died, his mother had been careful to lay him out properly.

  141. He knew that this was something that had to be done.

  142. But on the other hand he felt that he did not dare, in that dreadful night, go to the dead woman.

  143. He did not say no, but neither did he take a single step toward the cow-house door.

  144. 28

    For a couple of moments the old cow stood silent, as though she had been waiting for an answer.

  145. But when the boy said nothing, she did not repeat her request.

  146. Instead she began to talk to him about her mistress.

  147. 29

    There was much to talk about.

  148. There was first and foremost to tell about all the children whom she had raised.

  149. They had of course been in the cow house every day, and in the summer they had herded the cattle on the bog and in the pastures, so that the old cow knew them well.

  150. They had all been fine, and cheerful, and hardworking.

  151. A cow knows well enough what her keeper is good for.

  152. 30

    And likewise there was much to tell about the farm.

  153. It had not always been as poor as it was now.

  154. It was very extensive, though it consisted for the most part of bogs and stony pastures.

  155. There was not much room

  156. 31

    for fields there, but there was excellent grazing everywhere.

  157. At one time there had stood a cow in every single stall in the cow house, and the ox-stall, which now stood quite empty, had once been full of oxen.

  158. And then there had been pleasure and gladness both in the cottage and in the cow house.

  159. When the mistress opened the cow-house door, she had hummed and sung, and all the cows had lowed with joy when they heard her coming.

  160. 32

    But the master had died while the children were still so small that they could yet do no good, and the mistress had had to take over the farm and all the work and the care of it.

  161. She had been strong as a man, and she had both plowed and harvested.

  162. In the evenings, when she came in to the cow house to milk, she was sometimes so tired that she wept.

  163. But when she thought of her children, she grew glad again.

  164. Then she flung the tears from her eyes and said: »Never mind.

  165. I'll have good days too, as soon as my children are grown.

  166. Yes, just as soon as they're grown.»

  167. 33

    But as soon as the children were grown, so strange a longing came over them.

  168. They did not want to stay at home, but went off to foreign lands.

  169. Their mother never got any help from them.

  170. A couple of the children had managed to marry before they left, and they had left their little ones behind at home.

  171. And these children now followed the mistress about in the cow house, just as her own had done.

  172. They herded the cows, and they were good, fine folk.

  173. And in the evenings, when the mistress was so tired that she could fall asleep in the middle of milking, she roused herself to fresh courage by thinking of them.

  174. »I'll surely have good days too,» she said, and shook off her drowsiness, »just as soon as they're grown.»

  175. 34

    But when these children too grew up, they went off to their parents in the foreign land.

  176. No one came back, no one stayed home.

  177. The old mistress was left alone on the farm.

  178. 35

    She surely never asked them to stay with her.

  179. »Do you think, Rödlinna, that I should ask them to stay here with me, when they can go out into the world and do well for themselves?» she used to say, as she stood in the stall by the old cow.

  180. »Here in Småland they'd only have poverty to look forward to.»

  181. 36

    But when the last grandchild had left, it was all over with the mistress.

  182. She grew at once stooped and gray, and she staggered as she walked, as if she could no longer manage to move.

  183. And she stopped working.

  184. She would not tend to the farm, but let everything fall into ruin.

  185. She no longer helped repair the buildings, and she sold off both the oxen and the cows.

  186. The only one she kept was the old cow, who was now talking with Thumbietot.

  187. Her she let live, because all the children had herded cattle with her.

  188. 37

    She could well have taken maids and farmhands into her service, who might have helped her with the work, but she could not bear to see strangers about her, after her own had abandoned her.

  189. And perhaps she was best pleased to have the farm go to ruin, since none of the children would come to take it over.

  190. She did not care that she herself grew poor, because she took no care of what was hers.

  191. But she was anxious that the children should not learn how hard she had it.

  192. »If only the children don't find this out!

  193. If only the children don't find this out!» she sighed, as she staggered through the cow house.

  194. 38

    The children wrote constantly and begged her to come out to them, but that she would not do.

  195. She did not want to see the land that had taken them from her.

  196. She was angry at it.

  197. »It's foolish of me, I suppose, not to like that land, which has been so good for them,» she said.

  198. »But I don't want to see it.»

  199. 39

    She never thought of anything but the children and the fact that they had had to leave.

  200. When summer came, she led the cow out so that she might graze on the great bog.

  201. She herself sat all day long at the edge of the bog with her hands in her lap, and when she went home, she said: »You see, Rödlinna, if there had been big, rich fields here instead of this barren bog, they wouldn't have needed to leave.»

  202. 40

    She could grow angry at the bog, which spread itself out so vast and served no purpose at all.

  203. She could sit and talk about how it was the bog's fault that the children had gone away from her.

  204. 41

    This last evening she had been more trembling and weak than ever before.

  205. She had not even managed the milking.

  206. She had stood leaning against the stall and talked about how two farmers had come to see her and asked to buy the bog.

  207. They wanted to drain it and sow and reap on it.

  208. This had made her both anxious and glad.

  209. »Do you hear, Rödlinna,» she had said, »do you hear that they said rye can grow on the bog?

  210. Now I'll write to the children to come home.

  211. Now they won't need to stay away any longer, now they can earn their bread here at home.»

  212. 42

    That was what she had gone into the cottage to do. — — —

  213. 43

    The boy heard no more of what the old cow was telling.

  214. He had opened the cow-house door and gone across the yard to the dead woman, whom he had just before been so afraid of.

  215. 44

    First of all he stood still for a moment and looked about him.

  216. 45

    It was not so poor in the cottage as he had expected.

  217. It was richly furnished with such things as are usually found among those who have relatives in America.

  218. In one corner stood an American rocking chair, on the table in front of the window lay a gaudy plush cloth, a fine coverlet was spread over the bed, on the walls hung the photographs of the departed children and grandchildren in fine, carved frames, on the chest of drawers stood tall vases and a pair of candlesticks with thick, twisted candles.

  219. 46

    The boy found a matchbox and lit those candles, not because he needed to see any better than he already could, but because he felt this was a way to honor the dead woman.

  220. 47

    Then he went up to her, pressed her eyes shut, laid her hands crosswise over her breast, and stroked the thin, gray hair back from her face.

  221. 48

    He no longer thought about being afraid of her.

  222. He was so deeply grieved that she had had to live out her old age in loneliness and longing.

  223. Now he would at least keep watch over her dead body this night.

  224. 49

    He found the hymn book and sat down to read a couple of hymns half aloud.

  225. But in the middle of his reading he stopped, because he had come to think of his mother and father.

  226. 50

    To think that parents could long so for their children!

  227. That he had never known.

  228. To think that life could seem all but over for them, when the children were gone!

  229. To think, if they back home longed for him in the same way that this old woman had longed!

  230. 51

    The thought made him glad, but he did not dare to believe it.

  231. He had not been the kind of person that anyone could long for.

  232. 52

    But what he had not been, that he might perhaps become.

  233. 53

    All around him he saw the portraits of those who had gone away.

  234. They were tall, strong men and women with solemn faces.

  235. There were brides in long veils and gentlemen in fine clothes, and there were children with curled hair and beautiful white dresses.

  236. And he thought that they all stared blindly out into the air and did not want to see.

  237. 54

    »Poor you!» said the boy to the portraits.

  238. »Your mother is dead.

  239. You can never make up for having gone away from her.

  240. But my mother is alive!»

  241. 55

    Here he broke off, and nodded, and smiled to himself.

  242. »My mother is alive,» said he.

  243. »Both father and mother are alive.»

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.