The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Från Taberg till Huskvarna

From Taberg to Huskvarna

79 sentences · 16 notes

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  1. 1

    The boy lay awake almost the whole night, but toward morning he fell asleep, and then he dreamed about his father and mother.

    Pojkenboypojke · noun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of satt
    sattsatsitta · verb, past, indicative, activemain verb of the sentence
    vakenawakevak · noun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of satt

    All four examples in this chunk use "vaken" as the adjective (awake), not the noun "vak" (ice-hole); the primary gloss should be "awake" here, though the ice-hole noun sense also occurs elsewhere in the book under this same conflated surface.

    nästanalmostnästan · adverbmodifies hela
    helawholehel · adjective, nominative, singularmodifies natten
    nattennightnatt · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of satt
    menbutmen · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    mottowardmot · prepositionpreposition marking morgonen
    morgonenmorningmorgon · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of somnade
    somnadefell asleepsomna · verb, past, indicative, activecoordinated with satt
    hanhehan · pronoun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of somnade
    ininin · adverbmodifies somnade
    ochandoch · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    dåthendå · adverbmodifies drömde
    drömdedreameddrömdea · verb, present, indicative, activecoordinated with satt
    hanhehan · pronoun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of drömde
    omaboutom · prepositionpreposition marking far
    farfatherfar · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of drömde
    ochandoch · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    mormothermor · noun, nominative, common gender, singularcoordinated with far

  2. He could hardly recognize them.

  3. Both of them had gone gray-haired and gotten old, wrinkled faces.

  4. He asked what had brought this about, and they answered that they had aged so much because they had longed for him.

  5. He was both moved and astonished, for he had never believed anything else than that they would be glad to be rid of him.

  6. 2

    When the boy woke, morning had come with beautiful, clear weather.

  7. He first ate a piece of bread himself, which he found in the cottage, then gave morning feed to both the geese and the cow, and opened the barn door so that the cow could set off for the nearest farm.

  8. When she came walking alone, the neighbors would surely understand that things stood badly with her mistress.

  9. They would hurry up to the deserted farm to see how the old woman was, and so they would find her dead body and bury it.

  10. 3

    Scarcely had the boy and the geese risen into the air before they caught sight of a tall mountain with almost sheer walls and an abruptly broken-off peak, and they understood that this must be Taberg.

  11. And on the top of Taberg stood Akka with Yksi and Kaksi, Kolme and Neljä, Viisi and Kuusi, and all six goslings, waiting for them.

  12. There arose a joy and a cackling and a flapping and a calling that no one can describe, when they saw that the gander and Dunfin had succeeded in finding Thumbietot.

  13. 4

    Forest grew fairly high up the sides of Taberg, but the topmost peak was bare, and from there one could see far around in every direction.

  14. If one looked east, south, or west, there was almost nothing else to see than a poor highland with dark spruce forests, brown bogs, ice-covered lakes, and bluish mountain ridges.

  15. The boy could not help thinking that it was true that whoever had created this had not taken much trouble with his work, but had hacked it together in a hurry.

  16. But if one looked north, it was quite another matter.

  17. Here the land looked as though it had been shaped with the greatest love and care.

  18. In that direction nothing but beautiful mountains, soft valleys, and winding streams could be seen, all the way to the great lake Vättern, which lay free of ice, shining and clear, and glowed as though it were filled not with water but with blue light.

  19. 5

    It was Vättern itself that made it so beautiful to look north, because it looked as though a blue shimmer had risen up from the lake and spread out over the land as well.

  20. Groves and heights and the roofs and spires of the town of Jönköping, which showed faintly on the shore of Vättern, lay wrapped in a light blue that caressed the eye.

  21. If there were countries in heaven, they would surely be just as blue as that, the boy thought, and felt that he had gotten a small idea of what paradise looked like.

  22. 6

    When the geese continued their migration later in the day, they flew up along the blue valley.

  23. They were in the very best of spirits, screeching and clamoring so that no one who had ears could fail to notice them.

  24. 7

    Now it happened that this was the first truly beautiful spring day they had had in this region.

  25. Up until now, spring had done its work under rain and raw weather, and when the weather had now quite suddenly turned fine, people were filled with such a longing for summer warmth and green forests that they found it hard to attend to their tasks.

  26. And when the wild geese flew past, free and merry, high above the earth, there was not a single one who did not drop whatever she had in hand and gaze after them.

  27. 8

    The first who saw the wild geese that day were the miners at Taberg, who quarried ore right at the mountain's surface.

  28. When they heard them cackling, they stopped drilling their blast-holes, and one of them shouted to the birds: “Where are you going? Where are you going?”

  29. The geese did not understand what he said, but the boy leaned out over the goose's back and answered in their place: “To where there is neither pick nor hammer.”

  30. When the miners heard the words, they believed it was their own longing that had made the geese's cackling sound like human speech.

  31. “Let us come along! Let us come along!” they shouted.

  32. “Not this year,” the boy cried.

  33. “Not this year.”

  34. 9

    The wild geese followed the Taberg stream down toward Munksjön, and they kept up the same racket.

  35. Here, on the narrow strip of land between Munksjön and Vättern, lay Jönköping with its great factory works.

  36. The wild geese flew first over the Munksjö paper mill.

  37. It was just then the end of the midday break, and the great crowds of workers were streaming toward the factory gate.

  38. When they heard the wild geese, they stopped for a moment to listen to them.

  39. “Where are you going? Where are you going?” shouted a worker.

  40. The wild geese did not understand what he said, but the boy answered in their place: “To where there are neither machines nor boilers.”

  41. When the workers heard the answer, they believed it was their own longing that made the geese's cackling sound like human speech.

  42. “Let us come along!” shouted a whole crowd of them.

  43. “Let us come along!”

  44. “Not this year,” answered the boy.

  45. “Not this year.”

  46. 10

    Next the geese flew over the far-famed match factory, which lies on the shore of Vättern, big as a fortress, and stretches its tall chimneys toward the sky.

  47. No one was stirring outside in the yards, but in a great hall young workwomen sat filling matchboxes.

  48. They had opened a window for the sake of the fine weather, and through it the calls of the wild geese reached in to them.

  49. The one who sat nearest the window leaned out with a matchbox in her hand and called: “Where are you going? Where are you going?”

  50. “To the land where neither light nor matches are needed,” said the boy.

  51. The girl no doubt believed that what she had heard was only goose-cackle, but since she thought she had made out a couple of words, she called back in answer: “Let me come along! Let me come along!”

  52. “Not this year,” answered the boy.

  53. “Not this year.”

  54. 11

    East of the factories rises Jönköping, on the loveliest site any town could occupy.

  55. The narrow Vättern has high, steep sand banks on both the eastern and western side, but directly to the south the sand walls are broken down, as if to make room for a great gateway through which one reaches the lake.

  56. And right in the middle of that gateway, with mountains to the right and mountains to the left, with Munksjön behind it and Vättern before it, lies Jönköping.

  57. 12

    The geese flew on over the long, narrow town and kept up the same racket here as out in the countryside.

  58. But in the town there was no one who answered them.

  59. It was not to be expected that the townsfolk would stop out in the street and call up to the wild geese.

  60. 13

    The journey continued on along the shore of Vättern, and after a while the geese came to the Sanna sanatorium.

  61. Some of the patients had gone out onto a veranda to enjoy the spring air, and so came to hear the geese cackling.

  62. “Where are you going? Where are you going?” asked one of them in a voice so faint it could hardly be heard.

  63. “To the land where there is neither sorrow nor sickness,” answered the boy.

  64. “Let us come along!” said the sick.

  65. “Not this year,” answered the boy.

  66. “Not this year.”

  67. 14

    When they had flown yet a little farther, they came to Huskvarna.

  68. It lay in a valley.

  69. The mountains stood steep and beautifully shaped around it.

  70. A stream came tumbling down the height in long, narrow falls.

  71. Great workshops and factories lay beneath the mountain walls; over the valley floor spread workers' dwellings, surrounded by garden plots, and in the middle of the valley lay the schoolhouses.

  72. Just as the wild geese came flying, a bell rang, and a crowd of children marched out, rank by rank.

  73. There were so many of them that the whole schoolyard was filled with them.

  74. “Where are you going? Where are you going?” the children cried when they heard the wild geese.

  75. “To where there are neither books nor homework,” answered the boy.

  76. “Take us along!” cried the children.

  77. “Take us along!”

  78. “Not this year, but by next year,” the boy called.

  79. “Not this year, but by next year.”

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