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Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Karrs och Gråfälls saga

The Saga of Karr and Gråfäll

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  1. 1

    North of Bråviken, where the boundary runs between Östergötland and Sörmland, there rises a mountain that is several miles long and more than a mile wide.

    NorrnorthNorr · noun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of reser
    omofom · prepositionpreposition marking Bråviken
    BråvikenBråvikenBråviken · proper noun, nominativemodifies Norr
    därtheredär · adverbmodifies går
    gränsenbordergräns · noun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of går
    gårgoesgå · verb, present, indicative, activerelative clause on Bråviken
    framforwardfram · adverbdepends on går
    mellanbetweenmellan · prepositionpreposition marking Östergötland
    ÖstergötlandÖstergötlandÖstergötland · proper noun, nominativeoblique complement of går
    ochandoch · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    SörmlandSörmlandSörmland · proper noun, nominativecoordinated with Östergötland

    A Swedish province.

    reserrisesresa · verb, present, indicative, activemain verb of the sentence

    3 of 4 examples in this chunk are reflexive 'reser sig' meaning 'rises/raises itself' (a mill, a wall, a town), not 'travels'. The glosser's single gloss 'travels' only fits the ch04-p17 example.

    sigitselfsig · pronoun, accusativeindirect object of reser
    ettaen · determiner, neuter, singulardeterminer of berg
    bergmountainberg · noun, nominative, neuter, singularsubject of reser
    somwhichsom · pronounsubject of mil

    Three of this key's four examples ('som om far skulle...', 'för just som han stod...', 'som de är borta') are actually the conjunctive 'as'/'while' use, not the relative pronoun 'that/which' shown by 'länstolen, som blev köpt...'. The glosser's original senses list (that/who/which) omitted the dominant 'as' reading entirely.

    ärisvara · auxiliary verb, present, indicative, activecopula linking to mil
    fleraseveralflera · adjective, nominative, pluralmodifies mil
    milmilesmil · noun, nominative, common gender, pluralrelative clause on berg

    Swedish mil = 10 km; conventionally rendered 'mile(s)' in translation.

    långtfarlångt · adverbmodifies mil
    ochandoch · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    mermoremycket · adverbmodifies en
    änthanän · subordinating conjunctionpart of the phrase mer
    enaen · determiner, common gender, singularquantifies mil
    milmilemil · noun, nominative, common gender, singularmodifies mil

    A Swedish mil is historically about 10 km; the studio translation renders it as an English mile.

    brettbroadbred · adjective, nominative, neuter, singularmodifies mil

  2. If it had a height to match its length and breadth, it would be one of the most splendid mountains that ever existed, but that height it does not have.

  3. 2

    It happens sometimes that one comes upon a building site that was planned so large from the outset that the owner has never managed to finish it.

  4. When one reaches it, one sees thick foundation walls, strong vaulted arches, and deep cellars, but there are neither walls nor a roof: the whole of it rises only a couple of feet from the ground.

  5. It is not without reason that whoever catches sight of that border mountain might come to think of just such an abandoned building, for it looks almost as if it were not a finished mountain at all, but only the foundation for one.

  6. It rises from the plain with sheer, steep walls, and everywhere proud masses of rock stand towering, as if meant to bear high, immense mountain halls.

  7. Everything about it is mighty and wild and planned on a great scale, but there is no proper height or rise to the whole.

  8. The master builder grew weary and left off the work before he had managed to raise up those long steep slopes and sharp peaks and ridges that are wont to stand as walls and roof on a finished mountain.

  9. 3

    But as if in compensation for crags and cliffs, the great mountain tract has at all times been clothed with tall and mighty trees.

  10. Oaks and lindens have stood along the edges and in the valleys, birches and alders around the lakeshores, pines up on the steep ledges, and spruces everywhere they found a pinch of soil to grow in.

  11. All these trees together formed the great forest of Kolmården, which in former times was so dreaded that everyone who had to pass through it prayed to God and made ready for his last hour.

  12. 4

    It is now so long since Kolmården grew up that it is impossible to say how it came about that it became what it became.

  13. It surely had a hard time at first on the bare rock, and it was hardened by having to win a foothold among hard slabs of stone and feed itself out of meager gravel banks.

  14. It fared with it as with many a one who must suffer hardship in youth but grows strong and sturdy once he is full-grown.

  15. When the forest was full-grown, it had trees that were three fathoms around, the branches of the trees were woven together into an impenetrable net, and the ground was threaded through with hard, slippery roots.

  16. It was a splendid refuge for wild animals and robbers, who knew how to crawl and clamber and creep to make their way through it.

  17. But for others it had little to tempt them.

  18. It was dark and dank, trackless and unmapped, brushy and prickly, and the old trees looked like trolls as they stood there with beards on their branches and moss on their trunks.

  19. 5

    When people first moved into Sörmland and Östergötland, forests grew almost everywhere, but those that stood in fertile valleys and on plains were soon cleared away.

  20. Kolmården, on the other hand, growing as it did on poor rock, no one troubled to fell.

  21. But the longer it was left to stand undisturbed, the mightier it grew.

  22. It was like a fortress whose walls grew thicker every day, and whoever wished to force his way through the forest-wall had to bring the axe to his aid.

  23. 6

    Other forests may well be afraid of people, but of Kolmården people were given leave to be afraid.

  24. It was so dark and dense-grown that hunters and brushwood-gatherers again and again lost their way in there and came near perishing before they could work their way out of the thickets.

  25. And for travelers who had to journey between Östergötland and Sörmland, it was downright deadly.

  26. They had to feel their way forward on narrow game trails, for the border folk did not even have the power to keep a cleared road across the forest.

  27. There was no bridge over stream, no ferry over lake, no plank across bog.

  28. And in the whole forest there was not one cottage where peaceable folk lived, but of wild-beast dens and robbers' lairs there was plenty.

  29. Few there were who crossed the forest without harm, but all the more numerous were those who slipped down a precipice or rode into a morass, who were plundered by robbers or hunted by wild beasts.

  30. But even those who lived below the forest and never ventured into it had trouble from it, because bears and wolves came down time and again from Kolmården and tore their livestock.

  31. And there was no way to root out the wild beasts, since they had so good a hiding place in the dense forest.

  32. 7

    It was certain that both the East Gothlanders and the Södermanlanders would gladly have been rid of Kolmården, but that went slowly as long as there was arable land to be had elsewhere.

  33. Little by little it was tamed a little, all the same.

  34. On the mountain slopes around the great forest itself, farms and parishes grew up.

  35. The forest became somewhat mapped with roads, and at Krokek, in the very worst of the wilderness, monks raised a monastery where travelers found a safe refuge.

  36. 8

    Yet the forest went on being mighty and dangerous, until one fine day a wanderer who had pressed far into the forest's depths chanced to discover that there was ore in the rock it grew on.

  37. As soon as this became known, miners and ironmasters hurried up into the forest to seek out its riches.

  38. 9

    And now came that which broke the forest's power.

  39. People opened mines, they raised smelting-houses and ironworks on the old forest ground.

  40. But this need not have done the forest any serious harm, had it not been that an incredible amount of wood and charcoal was needed for the ironworking.

  41. Charcoal-burners and woodcutters moved into the old, grim primeval forest and very nearly made an end of it.

  42. Around the ironworks it was cleared quite bare, and the ground there was laid out as fields.

  43. Many settlers moved up there, and soon there were several new parishes with church and parsonage, where shortly before there had been nothing but bears' dens.

  44. 10

    Even where the forest was not entirely cleared away, the old trees were felled and the dense thickets cut through.

  45. Roads were driven through everywhere, and wild beasts and robbers were hunted away.

  46. When people at last had gained the upper hand over the forest, they treated it terribly ill: they felled and burn-cleared and charcoaled without restraint.

  47. They had not forgotten their old hatred of the forest, and now it seemed they meant to destroy it altogether.

  48. 11

    It was a stroke of luck for the forest that there was not, after all, so very much ore in the Kolmården mines, so that the mining and the ironworking dwindled.

  49. Then the charcoal-burning too came to a stop, and the forest got a little breathing space.

  50. Many who had settled in the Kolmården parishes were left without work and had a hard time making a living, but the forest began to grow again and spread out, so that farms and ironworks lay embedded in it like islands in the sea.

  51. The people of Kolmården tried their hand at farming, but without great success.

  52. The old forest soil would sooner bear giant oaks and great firs than turnips and grain.

  53. 12

    The people went about casting dark looks at the forest, which seemed to grow more vigorous and lush the poorer they themselves became, but at last it occurred to them that there might be some good in the forest too.

  54. Might there perhaps be a living to be had in the forest?

  55. It might be worth trying to make use of it after all.

  56. 13

    So they began fetching timber and planks out of the forest and selling them to the plain-dwellers, who had already made an end of their own woods.

  57. They soon noticed that if they only went about it sensibly, they could earn their living from the forest just as well as from

  58. 14

    the fields and the mine.

  59. And so they came to look at it in a different way than before.

  60. They learned to tend it and love it.

  61. They quite forgot the old enmity and came to regard the forest as their best friend.

  62. 15

    About twelve years before Nils Holgersson had begun traveling around with the wild geese, it happened that an ironworks owner on Kolmården wanted to get rid of one of his hunting dogs.

  63. He sent for his gamekeeper, told him it was impossible to keep the dog, because they could not break him of chasing after every sheep and hen he caught sight of, and asked the gamekeeper to take the dog to the forest and shoot him.

  64. 16

    The gamekeeper put a leash on the dog to lead him to a spot in the forest where all the manor's worn-out dogs used to be shot and buried.

  65. He was no ill-natured fellow, but he was rather glad to get to shoot the dog, because he knew that it was not only sheep and hens that the dog was in the habit of chasing.

  66. More often than not he had been off in the forest snatching himself a hare or a young blackgame.

  67. 17

    The dog was small and black, with a yellow chest and yellow forelegs.

  68. He was called Karr, and was so clever that he understood everything people said.

  69. When the gamekeeper led him off through the forest, he knew very well what awaited him.

  70. But no one could have seen it on him.

  71. He neither hung his head nor drooped his tail, but looked just as carefree as usual.

  72. 18

    It was precisely because they were walking through the forest that the dog took such pains not to let any uneasiness show.

  73. For a great, wide forest spread out on every side of the old ironworks, and that forest was famous both among animals and among people, because its owners for many years back had cared so much for it that they had scarcely had the heart to fell a tree for firewood.

  74. Nor had they had the heart to thin and prune it, but the forest had been left to look after itself as it pleased.

  75. But it stood to reason that a forest allowed to stand so undisturbed would become a beloved refuge for the forest animals, and they were indeed found there in great numbers.

  76. Among themselves they called it the Peace Forest, and they reckoned it the best refuge they had in the whole land.

  77. 19

    As the dog was led through the forest, he thought about what a bully he had been to all the small creatures who lived there.

  78. »Now, Karr, they'd all be glad enough in among the thickets, if they knew what's in store for you,» he thought.

  79. At the same moment he wagged his tail and let out a cheerful bark, so that no one should think he was anxious and downcast.

  80. 20

    »What fun would there have been in living, if I hadn't got to go hunting now and then?» he said.

  81. »Whoever wants to may regret it, but it won't be me.»

  82. 21

    But just as the dog said this, a strange change came over him.

  83. He stretched up his head and neck, as though he had a mind to howl.

  84. He no longer ran alongside the gamekeeper, but held back behind him.

  85. It was plain that he had come to think of something unpleasant.

  86. 22

    Now this was just at the beginning of summer.

  87. The cow moose had only just borne their calves, and the evening before, the dog had managed to separate a moose calf, no more than five days old, from its mother and drive it down onto a bog.

  88. There he had hunted it back and forth among the tussocks, not really to catch it, but only to amuse himself at its terror.

  89. The cow moose knew that the bog was bottomless just then, so soon after the thaw, and could not yet bear so large an animal as herself, and she stayed on the shore as long as she could.

  90. But when Karr drove the calf farther and farther away, she suddenly went out onto the bog, drove off the dog, took the calf to her, and turned back toward land.

  91. Moose are more skillful than other animals at crossing soft and treacherous ground, and it looked as if she would come safely ashore.

  92. But when she was quite near the shore, a tussock she trod on sank straight down into the mud, and she went down with it.

  93. She tried to climb up again, but found no firm foothold, and sank and sank.

  94. Karr stood and watched, not daring to draw breath, but when he saw that the cow moose could not save herself, he ran off as fast as he could.

  95. He had come to think of all the beating he would get, if it were discovered that he had lured a cow moose to her death, and he grew so frightened that he did not dare stop until he was home.

  96. 23

    That was what the dog had happened to be reminded of, and it troubled him in quite a different way from all the other mischief he had done.

  97. It was perhaps because he had not wished to kill either the cow moose or her calf, but had brought about their death entirely without meaning to.

  98. 24

    »Well, but perhaps they're still alive,» the dog thought suddenly.

  99. »They weren't dead, after all, when I ran off from them.

  100. Maybe they saved themselves.»

  101. 25

    He was seized by an irresistible urge to find out something about this, while there was still time for him to learn anything at all.

  102. He saw that the gamekeeper was not holding the leash especially fast, made a quick leap to the side, and did in fact get free.

  103. Then he dashed off through the forest toward the bog at such a pace that the gamekeeper did not manage to get the gun up to his eye before he had already vanished.

  104. 26

    The gamekeeper had nothing to do but hurry after him, and when he came to the bog, he saw the dog standing out on a tussock a few yards from land, howling with all his might.

  105. The fellow thought he ought to find out what this could mean, set down his gun, and crawled out onto the bog on hands and knees.

  106. He had not gone far before he caught sight of a cow moose lying dead in the mud.

  107. Close beside her lay a small calf.

  108. It was still alive, but so exhausted that it could not move.

  109. Karr stood beside the calf.

  110. Now he bent down and licked it, now he let out fierce howls to call for help.

  111. 27

    Now the gamekeeper lifted up the calf and began dragging it toward land.

  112. When the dog understood that the calf was to be saved, he was beside himself with joy.

  113. He jumped around the gamekeeper, licked his hands, and whined with satisfaction.

  114. 28

    The gamekeeper carried the calf home and shut it into a pen in the barn.

  115. Then he had to get help to haul the dead cow moose out of the bog, and only when all this was done did he remember that he was supposed to shoot Karr.

  116. He coaxed the dog, who had followed him the whole time, and set off once more into the forest with him.

  117. 29

    At first the gamekeeper went straight toward the dog-grave, but during the walk he seemed to have second thoughts, for just at the last moment he turned and went up toward the manor house instead.

  118. 30

    Karr had followed him quite calmly, but when he noticed that the gamekeeper was heading for his old home, he grew uneasy.

  119. The gamekeeper had surely worked out that it was he who had brought about the cow moose's death, and now he was to go up to the manor and be punished before he was allowed to die.

  120. 31

    But to get a beating — that was worse than anything else, and in the face of it Karr was not able to keep up his spirits.

  121. He went along hanging his head, and when he came to the manor house, he did not look up, and pretended not to know a single soul.

  122. 32

    The squire stood on the front steps as the gamekeeper came walking up.

  123. »What in the world is that for a dog the gamekeeper's bringing?» he said.

  124. »That's surely never Karr, is it?

  125. He must have been dead long ago.»

  126. The gamekeeper then began telling about the moose, and Karr made himself as small as he could and crept in behind the gamekeeper's legs as if to hide.

  127. 33

    But the gamekeeper did not speak of the matter as the dog had expected.

  128. He had nothing but praise for Karr.

  129. He said it was plain that the dog had known the moose were in distress and had wanted to save them.

  130. »The squire may do as he pleases, but this dog I cannot shoot,» said the gamekeeper at last.

  131. 34

    The dog rose up and pricked his ears.

  132. He could hardly believe he had heard right.

  133. Though he did not much want to show how anxious he had been, he could not help whining a little.

  134. Could it really be possible that he was to keep his life just because he had been worried about the moose?

  135. 35

    The squire, too, thought that Karr had behaved well, but since he did not want him back in any case, he did not know at once what to decide.

  136. »If the gamekeeper wants to take charge of him and answer for his behaving better than up to now, then he may live,» he said after a while.

  137. Yes, that the gamekeeper was willing to do, and in this way Karr came to move to the gamekeeper's cottage.

  138. 36

    GRÅFÄLL'S FLIGHT.

  139. 37

    From the day Karr came to the gamekeeper, he stopped entirely from carrying on unlawful hunting in the forest.

  140. This came about not only because he had been frightened, but he did not, in fact, want the gamekeeper to grow angry with him.

  141. For ever since the gamekeeper had saved his life, he loved him above everything else.

  142. He thought of nothing but following him and watching over him.

  143. If he went from home, Karr ran ahead and scouted the way, and if he sat at home, Karr lay outside the door and kept watch over everyone who came and went.

  144. 38

    When it was quiet at the gamekeeper's cottage, when no footsteps were heard on the road and the master was off busying himself with his tree seedlings, which he raised on a vegetable patch, Karr used to spend the time playing with the moose calf.

  145. 39

    At first Karr had had no wish at all to take any notice of him.

  146. But since he followed the master everywhere, he went with him too to the barn when he gave the moose calf milk, and he used to sit outside the pen and watch him.

  147. The gamekeeper called the calf Gråfäll, because he did not think it deserved a finer name, and Karr agreed with him on that point.

  148. Every time he looked at him, he thought he had never seen anything so ugly and so badly put together.

  149. He had long, gangling legs that stood under his body like loose stilts.

  150. His head was big and old and wrinkled, and it always hung to one side.

  151. His hide sat in creases and folds, as if he had been given a coat that was not made for him.

  152. He always looked sad and downhearted, but, oddly enough, he would rise with great haste every time he saw Karr outside the pen, as though he had been glad to see him.

  153. 40

    The moose calf grew worse day by day, did not grow, and at last could not even manage to get up when he caught sight of Karr.

  154. The dog then would jump up into the pen to him, and at that a gleam would come into the poor creature's eyes, as if a strong wish of his had been granted.

  155. From then on Karr used to visit the moose calf every day and spend whole hours with him, licking his coat, playing and romping with him, and teaching him a little of everything a forest animal needs to know.

  156. 41

    It was remarkable that ever since Karr had taken to leaping in to the moose calf, the latter had begun to thrive and grow.

  157. And once he had really got going, he grew so much in a couple of weeks that he no longer fit in the small pen, but had to be moved out into a paddock.

  158. When he had gone about in the paddock for a couple of months, his legs had grown so long that he could step over the fence whenever he liked.

  159. Then the gamekeeper got permission from the squire to put up a high, large enclosure for him.

  160. Here the moose lived for several years and grew into a strong and stately animal.

  161. Karr kept him company as often as he could, but now it was not out of pity, but because a great friendship had sprung up between the two of them.

  162. The moose remained ever sorrowful and seemed sluggish and unenterprising, but Karr understood the art of making him playful and glad.

  163. 42

    Gråfäll had lived five summers at the gamekeeper's cottage when the squire got a letter from a zoological garden abroad inquiring whether it might buy the moose.

  164. The squire liked the proposal; the gamekeeper was grieved, but had no power to say no, and so it was decided that the moose should be sold.

  165. Karr soon got wind of what was afoot and hurried to the moose to tell him that the plan was to send him away.

  166. The dog was in the greatest anguish at the thought of losing him, but the moose took the matter calmly and seemed neither glad nor sorry.

  167. »Do you mean to let yourself be led away without resistance?» asked Karr.

  168. — »What good would it do to resist?» said Gråfäll.

  169. »I'd rather stay where I am, but if I'm sold, I suppose I must go from here.»

  170. Karr stood and looked at Gråfäll, fairly measuring him with his eyes.

  171. It was plain enough that the moose was not yet fully grown.

  172. He did not have such broad antlers or so high a hump or so thick a mane as the full-grown moose bulls, but he certainly had strength enough to fight for his freedom.

  173. »It shows that he's been kept a captive all his life,» thought Karr, but said nothing.

  174. 43

    Karr did not go back to the moose yard until after midnight, when he knew Gråfäll had slept his fill and was busy with his first meal.

  175. »You're doing right, Gråfäll, to let yourself be led away,» said Karr, and now seemed calm and content.

  176. »You'll be kept captive in a great garden and get to lead a carefree life.

  177. I only think it's a shame that you have to leave here without ever having seen the forest.

  178. You know your kinsmen have as their motto that the moose are one with the forest, yet you've never even once been inside a forest.»

  179. 44

    Gråfäll looked up from the clover he stood chewing.

  180. »I'd like well enough to see the forest, but how am I to get over the enclosure?» he said with his usual sluggishness.

  181. — »No, that's surely impossible for one with such short legs,» said Karr.

  182. The moose looked down at Karr from under his brow, at Karr who leaped over the enclosure several times a day, small as he was, went up to the fence, made a spring, and was out in the open, almost without knowing how it had come about.

  183. 45

    Karr and Gråfäll now set off into the forest.

  184. It was a fine, moonlit night at the end of summer, but under the trees it was dim, and the moose walked quite slowly.

  185. »Perhaps it's best we turn back,» said Karr.

  186. »You, who have never before walked out in the wild forest, could easily break your legs.»

  187. At that Gråfäll began to move forward faster and with more courage.

  188. 46

    Karr led the moose to a stretch of the forest where huge spruces grew, standing so thick that no wind could force its way between them.

  189. »In here your kinsmen usually seek shelter from cold and storm,» said Karr.

  190. »Out here they're used to standing under the open sky the whole winter through.

  191. You'll surely have it much better where you're going.

  192. You'll have a roof over your head and get to stand in a stall like an ox.»

  193. Gråfäll answered nothing, but only stood and drank in the strong scent of the needles.

  194. »Have you anything more to show me, or have I now seen the whole forest?» he asked.

  195. 47

    Then Karr took him to a great bog and showed him tussocks and quaking mires.

  196. »Over this bog the moose are used to fleeing when they're in danger,» said Karr.

  197. »I don't know how they manage it, but big and heavy as they are, they can cross here without sinking.

  198. You surely wouldn't be able to hold yourself up on such treacherous ground, but you don't need to either, for you'll never be pursued by hunters.»

  199. Gråfäll answered nothing, but with one long bound he was out on the bog.

  200. He grew glad when he felt how the tussocks rocked beneath him, went dashing straight across the bog, and came back to Karr without having gone down into any mud-hole.

  201. »Have we seen the whole forest now?» he asked.

  202. — »No, not yet,» said Karr.

  203. 48

    He led the moose now to the edge of the forest, where stately leaf-trees grew: oak and aspen and linden.

  204. »In here your kinsmen usually eat leaves and bark,» said Karr.

  205. »They consider such things the best food, but you'll doubtless get better fare abroad.»

  206. Gråfäll was amazed at the huge leaf-trees, which arched their green domes over him.

  207. He tasted both oak leaves and aspen bark.

  208. »This tastes bitter and good,» he said.

  209. »It's better than clover.»

  210. — »Well, it was good that you got to taste it once, at least,» said the dog.

  211. 49

    After that he took the moose with him to a little forest lake.

  212. It lay quite still and glassy, mirroring the shores, which were wrapped in thin, pale mists.

  213. When Gråfäll saw it, he stood stock-still.

  214. »What is this, Karr?» he asked.

  215. It was the first time he had ever seen a lake.

  216. — »It's a great water, it's a lake,» said Karr.

  217. »Your kind are used to swimming across it from shore to shore.

  218. It's not to be expected that you'll manage that, but you ought at least to go down and have a bath.»

  219. Karr himself went into the water and began to swim.

  220. Gråfäll stayed on land a good while.

  221. At last he followed.

  222. He was breathless with delight when the water crept soft and cool around his body.

  223. He wanted it over his back too, went further out, felt the water bearing him up, and began to swim.

  224. He swam round and round Karr and was as much at home in the water as anywhere.

  225. When they stood on the shore again, the dog asked whether they should go home now.

  226. »It's a long time until morning.

  227. We can go about in the forest a while longer,» said Gråfäll.

  228. 50

    They went back into the pine forest.

  229. Soon they came to a small open place that lay bright in the moonlight, with grass and flowers glittering with dew.

  230. In the middle of the woodland meadow several large animals were walking and grazing.

  231. It was a bull moose, a few cow moose, and several heifers and calves.

  232. When Gråfäll caught sight of them, he stopped short.

  233. He scarcely glanced at the cows and the young ones.

  234. He only stared at the old bull moose, who had broad, shovel-shaped antlers with many tines, a high hump over his shoulders, and a long-haired flap of skin hanging under his throat.

  235. »What is that one there?» asked Gråfäll, his voice trembling with amazement.

  236. — »He's called Hornkrone,» said Karr, »and he's a kinsman of yours.

  237. One day you too will surely get such broad antlers and just such a mane, and if you stayed in the forest, you'd get a herd to lead as well.»

  238. — »If he over there is my kinsman, then I want to go nearer and look at him,» said Gråfäll.

  239. »I never imagined that an animal could be so magnificent.»

  240. 51

    Gråfäll went up to the moose, but came back to Karr again almost at once, for Karr had stayed behind at the edge of the forest.

  241. »You weren't very well received, it seems?» said Karr.

  242. — »I told him this was the first time I'd ever met kinsmen, and I asked to be allowed to go among them on the meadow, but he drove me off and threatened me with his antlers.»

  243. — »It was right of you to give way,» said Karr.

  244. »A young bull who has only a spike crown must take care about fighting old moose.

  245. Another might have gotten himself a bad name throughout the forest by yielding without a fight, but that needn't trouble you, who are to move abroad.»

  246. 52

    Karr had scarcely finished speaking before Gråfäll turned and went forward onto the meadow.

  247. The old moose came toward him, and at once they clashed in battle.

  248. They set their antlers against each other and strained, and it went so that Gråfäll was driven backward across the whole meadow.

  249. He seemed not to understand how to make use of his own strength.

  250. But when he came to the edge of the forest, he planted his feet harder in the ground, strained hard with his antlers, and began to drive Hornkrone back.

  251. Gråfäll fought silently, but Hornkrone snorted and puffed.

  252. The old moose was now, in his turn, forced back over the meadow.

  253. Suddenly there came a loud crack.

  254. It was a tine in the old moose's antler that had snapped.

  255. He then tore himself violently free of Gråfäll and ran off into the forest.

  256. 53

    Karr stayed at the edge of the forest as Gråfäll came up to him.

  257. »Now you've seen what's in the forest,» said Karr. »Will you come home now?»

  258. — »Yes, it's surely about time,» said the moose.

  259. 54

    Both were silent on the way home.

  260. Karr sighed several times, as if he had misjudged something, but Gråfäll strode forward with head held high and seemed glad of the adventure.

  261. He walked on without the least hesitation, all the way until he came to the enclosure, but there he stopped.

  262. He looked in over the cramped space where he had lived all his life until now, saw the trampled ground, the withered fodder, the little hollow where he had drunk water, and the dark shed where he had slept.

  263. »The moose are one with the forest,» he cried, threw his head back so that his neck lay against his spine, and stormed off in wildest flight into the forest.

  264. 55

    HELPLESS.

  265. 56

    Deep within the great Peace Forest there appeared every year in August, in a spruce thicket, a few grayish-white night moths of the kind called nun moths.

  266. They were small and few, and there was hardly anyone who paid them any notice.

  267. When they had fluttered about in the forest depths for a couple of nights, they laid a few thousand eggs on the tree trunks, and shortly after that sank lifeless to the ground.

  268. 57

    When spring came, small speckled larvae crept out of the eggs and began eating spruce needles.

  269. They had a good appetite, but they never came to do the trees any serious harm, because they were hard pressed by birds.

  270. There were seldom more than a few hundred larvae that escaped their pursuers.

  271. 58

    The poor larvae that managed to grow full-sized crept up onto the branches, spun themselves into white threads, and sat a couple of weeks as motionless pupae.

  272. During this time, usually more than half of them were snatched away.

  273. If a hundred or so nun moths emerged winged and ready in August, that could be counted a good year for them.

  274. 59

    Such an uncertain and unnoticed existence the nun moths led for many years in the Peace Forest.

  275. There was no insect folk in the whole district so few in number.

  276. And as powerless and harmless as that they would have gone on being, had they not, quite unexpectedly, gotten a helper.

  277. 60

    But that the nun moths got a helper was bound up with the fact that the moose had fled from the gamekeeper's cottage.

  278. For Gråfäll had spent the whole day after his flight wandering about the forest to make himself at home.

  279. Toward afternoon he came to force his way through some dense thickets and found behind them an open place where the ground was made of mud and loose ooze.

  280. In the middle lay a pool of black water, and all around it stood tall spruces, almost bare of needles from age and poor growth.

  281. Gråfäll disliked the place and would have left it at once, had he not caught sight of a few bright green calla leaves growing beside the pool.

  282. 61

    As he now lowered his head over the calla stems, he happened to wake a large, black snake that lay sleeping beneath them.

  283. The moose had heard Karr speak of the poisonous vipers found in the forest, and when the snake lifted its head, put out its forked tongue, and hissed at him, he believed he had come upon a dreadfully dangerous animal.

  284. He was thoroughly frightened, lifted his foot, struck with his hoof, and crushed the snake's head.

  285. Then he hurried off in wild flight.

  286. 62

    As soon as Gråfäll was gone, another snake, just as long and black as the first, rose up out of the pool.

  287. He crept forward to the dead one and ran his tongue over the crushed head.

  288. 63

    »Is it truly possible that you're dead, old Harmless One?» hissed the snake.

  289. »And the two of us, who have lived so many years together!

  290. We, who have had it so good with each other, and who have thrived so well here in this marsh that we've grown older than any other grass snakes in the forest!

  291. That was the worst grief that could befall me.»

  292. 64

    The grass snake was so grieved that his long body writhed, as if it had been wounded.

  293. Even the frogs, who lived in constant dread of him, thought it a pity for him.

  294. 65

    »How wicked whoever it was must be, to strike dead a poor grass snake who can't even defend himself!» hissed the snake.

  295. »He deserves a truly hard punishment, indeed.»

  296. He lay a while writhing in grief, but all at once he raised his head.

  297. »As surely as my name is Helpless, and I'm the oldest grass snake in the forest, so shall I take revenge for this.

  298. I won't rest until that moose lies dead on the ground, just like my old snake-wife.»

  299. 66

    When the snake had made this vow, he coiled himself up into a ring and lay down to think.

  300. But it's hardly imaginable that anything could be harder for a poor grass snake than to exact revenge on a great, powerful moose, and old Helpless pondered for days and nights without finding any way out.

  301. 67

    But one night, as the snake lay there with his thoughts of revenge and could not sleep, he heard a light rustling above his head.

  302. He looked up and made out a few pale nun moths playing among the trees.

  303. He followed them a long while with his eyes, then began hissing loudly to himself, but at last fell asleep and seemed then content with what he had thought out.

  304. 68

    The next morning the snake went off to Kryle, the viper, who lived in a stony, high-lying part of the Peace Forest.

  305. To him he now told of the old snake-wife's death and begged that he, who could give such dangerous bites, would take it upon himself to avenge her.

  306. But Kryle was not much inclined to enter into battle with the moose.

  307. »If I attacked a moose,» he said, »he'd strike me dead at once.

  308. Old Harmless is dead, and we can't bring her back to life.

  309. Why should I plunge myself into misfortune for her sake?»

  310. 69

    When the snake got this answer, he raised his head a whole foot from the ground and hissed most dreadfully.

  311. »Hiss, hiss!

  312. Hiss, hiss!» he said.

  313. »It's a pity that you, who've been given such weapons, should be so much of a coward that you don't dare use them.»

  314. When the viper heard this, he too grew angry.

  315. »Crawl off, old Helpless!» he hissed.

  316. »The venom runs down into my fangs, but I'd rather spare one who's said to be my own kinsman.»

  317. 70

    But the snake did not stir from the spot, and for a long while the two serpents lay there hissing insults at one another.

  318. When Kryle was so angry that he could no longer manage to hiss, but only moved his tongue back and forth, the snake suddenly changed his tune and began to speak in quite another tone.

  319. 71

    »I actually had one more errand,» he said, lowering his voice to a gentle whisper, »but now I've likely provoked you so much that you no longer want to help me?»

  320. — »If you don't ask me for anything too outrageous, I'll gladly be of service to you.»

  321. — »In the spruces near my marsh,» said the snake, »there lives a moth-folk that flies about at night in late summer.»

  322. — »I know well enough who you mean,» said Kryle, »what about them?»

  323. — »They're the smallest insect-folk in the forest,» said Helpless, »and the most harmless of all, since the larvae content themselves with eating nothing but spruce needles.»

  324. — »Yes, I know,» said Kryle.

  325. — »I'm afraid that moth-folk will soon be wiped out entirely,» said the snake.

  326. »There are so many who pick off the larvae in spring.»

  327. Now Kryle believed he understood that the snake wished to keep the larvae for himself, and he answered kindly: »Do you want me to tell the owls to leave those spruce-worms in peace?»

  328. — »Yes, that would be good, if you, who have some say in the forest, could bring that about,» said Helpless.

  329. — »Perhaps I should also put in a good word for the needle-pickers with the thrushes?» said the viper.

  330. »I'm glad to be of service, when you don't ask anything unreasonable.»

  331. — »Now you've given me a good promise, Kryle,» said Helpless, »and I'm glad I came here to you.»

  332. 72

    THE NUN MOTHS.

  333. 73

    Several years after this, Karr lay one morning asleep out on the front steps.

  334. It was early summer, in the time of the short nights, and it was full daylight, though the sun was not yet up.

  335. Then Karr woke at hearing someone call his name.

  336. »Is that you, Gråfäll?» asked Karr, for he was used to the moose coming to visit him nearly every night.

  337. He got no answer, but he heard again that someone was calling him.

  338. He thought he recognized Gråfäll's voice, and hurried off after the sound.

  339. 74

    Karr heard that the moose was running ahead of him, but could not catch up to him.

  340. He rushed into the thickest spruce forest, straight across the thickets, without following path or track.

  341. Karr had all he could do not to lose the trail.

  342. »Karr, Karr!» the call came then, and the voice was Gråfäll's, though it had a ring the dog had never heard before.

  343. »I'm coming, I'm coming.

  344. Where are you?» answered the dog.

  345. — »Karr, Karr, don't you see how it's falling and falling?» asked Gråfäll.

  346. Karr then saw that needles were ceaselessly falling from the spruces, like a thin rain.

  347. »Yes, I see how it's falling,» he called, but at once set off further into the forest to look for the moose.

  348. 75

    Gråfäll hurried on ahead, straight through the thickets, and Karr was once again close to losing the trail.

  349. »Karr, Karr!» Gråfäll screamed, in a real roar.

  350. »Don't you smell how it smells in the forest?»

  351. Karr stopped and sniffed the air.

  352. He had not thought of it before, but now he noticed that the spruces were giving off a far stronger scent about them than usual.

  353. »Yes, I smell how it smells,» he said, but did not stop to find out what caused it, and hurried on after Gråfäll.

  354. 76

    The moose once again ran off at such a pace that the dog could not catch him.

  355. »Karr, Karr,» he called after a while, »don't you hear how it's clicking in the spruces?»

  356. Now the voice was so mournful it could have melted a stone.

  357. Karr stopped to listen and heard a faint but distinct clicking up from the trees.

  358. It sounded like the ticking of a clock.

  359. »Yes, I hear how it's clicking,» Karr called, and now ran no farther.

  360. He understood that the moose did not want him to follow after him, but wanted him to pay attention to something that was going on in the forest.

  361. 77

    Karr stood beneath a spruce that had shaggy, drooping branches and coarse, dark-green needles.

  362. He looked closely at the tree and thought then that it was as if its needles were moving.

  363. When he went still closer, he discovered a great many grayish-white larvae feeling their way along the tree's branches and eating the needles.

  364. There were plenty of them on every branch, gnawing and eating.

  365. It clicked and clicked in the trees from all their small working jaws.

  366. Gnawed-off needles fell ceaselessly to the ground, and from the poor spruces there streamed out so strong a scent that the dog was tormented by it.

  367. 78

    »That spruce won't get to keep many needles, I'd say,» he thought, and turned his gaze toward the nearest tree.

  368. This one too was a large, stately spruce, but it looked just the same.

  369. »What can this be?» thought Karr.

  370. »It's a shame about the lovely trees.

  371. They'll soon have little of their beauty left.»

  372. He went from tree to tree and tried to find out how things stood with them.

  373. »There's a pine.

  374. They probably haven't dared attack that one,» he thought.

  375. But they had attacked the pine too.

  376. »And there's a birch.

  377. Yes, that one too, that one too!

  378. The gamekeeper won't like this at all,» thought Karr.

  379. 79

    He ran farther into the thickets to find out how widely the devastation had spread.

  380. Wherever he went, he heard the same ticking, sensed the same smell, and saw the same rain of needles falling.

  381. He did not need to stop to look.

  382. He understood from these signs how it all hung together.

  383. The small larvae were everywhere.

  384. The whole forest was being eaten bare by them.

  385. 80

    Suddenly he came to a stretch where no scent could be sensed, and where it was quiet and still.

  386. »Here's where their rule ends,» thought the dog, and stopped and looked about him.

  387. But here it was even worse: here the larvae had already finished their work, and the trees stood bare of needles.

  388. They looked as if dead, and the only thing that clothed them was a mass of tangled threads that the larvae had spun to use as bridges and pathways.

  389. 81

    In among the dying trees stood Gråfäll, waiting for Karr.

  390. But he was not alone; beside him stood four old moose, the most respected in the forest.

  391. Karr knew them.

  392. There was Krokrygg, who was a small moose but had a bigger hump than any other; Hornkrone, who was the stateliest of the moose-folk; Strävmane, with the thick coat; and an old, high-legged one named Storstarke, who had been terribly fiery and eager for battle, until at the last autumn hunt he had taken a bullet in the thigh.

  393. 82

    »What in the world is happening to the forest?» asked Karr, when he came up to the moose, who stood with heads hanging and lips pushed far forward, looking thoughtful.

  394. — »No one can say,» answered Gråfäll.

  395. »This insect-folk has been the most powerless thing in the forest and has never before done any harm, but in the last few years it's suddenly grown enormously in number, and now it looks as if it's going to destroy the whole forest.»

  396. — »Yes, this looks bad,» said Karr, »but I notice that the wisest in the forest have gathered together to take counsel, and they may have found some help.»

  397. 83

    When the dog said this, Krokrygg, very solemnly, lifted his heavy head, flicked his long ears, and said: »We've called you here, Karr, to find out whether the humans know about this devastation.»

  398. — »No,» said Karr, »no human ever comes this far in among the thickets, when it's not hunting season.

  399. They know nothing of the disaster.»

  400. — »We, who are old in the forest,» said Hornkrone then, »don't believe we animals can manage against this insect-folk on our own.»

  401. — »We think one misfortune is nearly as great as the other,» said Strävmane.

  402. »There'll surely be an end to the peace of the forest after this.»

  403. — »But we can't let the whole forest be destroyed,» said Storstarke.

  404. »We haven't anything else to choose.»

  405. 84

    Karr understood that the moose were having trouble getting out what they wanted to say, and he tried to help them along.

  406. »Perhaps it's your wish that I let the humans know how things stand here?»

  407. At that all the old ones began nodding their heads.

  408. »It's a hard misfortune, to have to beg help of the humans, but we have no other counsel.»

  409. 85

    A while after that, Karr was on his way home.

  410. As he hurried along, deeply troubled by all he had learned, a large black grass snake came toward him.

  411. »Well met in the forest!» hissed the snake.

  412. — »Well met yourself!» snapped Karr, and hurried past without stopping.

  413. But the snake turned and tried to catch up with him.

  414. »Maybe that one's worried about the forest too,» thought Karr, and stopped.

  415. The snake began at once to speak of the great devastation.

  416. »There'll surely be an end to peace and quiet here in the forest, once the humans are called in,» he said.

  417. — »I fear the same,» said Karr, »but the old ones in the forest surely know what they're doing.»

  418. — »I do believe I might know better counsel,» said the snake, »if only I got the reward I want for myself.»

  419. — »Aren't you the one they call Helpless?» said the dog scornfully.

  420. — »I'm old in the forest,» said the snake.

  421. »I know how to get rid of such vermin.»

  422. — »If you can only get rid of it,» said Karr, »I don't think anyone would refuse you what you ask.»

  423. 86

    When Karr answered this, the snake slid in under a tree root and did not go on with the conversation until he lay well protected in a narrow hole.

  424. »Then give Gråfäll my greeting,» he said, »and tell him that if he'll leave the Peace Forest and not stop until he's gone so far north that not an oak grows in the forest, and not come back here as long as the snake Helpless lives, then I'll send sickness and death upon all these creatures that crawl and gnaw on the spruces!»

  425. — »What is it you're saying?» asked Karr, and the hair on his back began to rise.

  426. »What has Gråfäll done to you, to wrong you so?»

  427. — »He struck dead the one I cared for most,» said the snake, »and I want revenge on him.»

  428. Before the snake had finished speaking, Karr made a lunge at him, but the snake lay out of reach beneath the tree root.

  429. »Lie there, then, as long as you like!» said Karr at last.

  430. »We'll manage to drive off the spruce-worms without your help.»

  431. 87

    The next day the squire and the gamekeeper walked forward along a forest road.

  432. Karr ran beside them at first, but after a while he vanished, and shortly after that a loud bark was heard from the forest.

  433. »That's Karr, driving something,» said the squire.

  434. The gamekeeper did not want to believe it.

  435. »Karr hasn't hunted unlawfully in many years,» he said.

  436. He ran into the forest to see what sort of dog this was, and the squire went after him.

  437. 88

    They followed the barking into the densest part of the forest, but there it fell silent.

  438. They stopped to listen, and there, in the stillness, they heard how the larvae's jaws were working, saw how the needles rained down, and sensed the strong scent.

  439. Then they too noticed that every tree was covered with the nun moth's larvae, those small enemies of the trees that can lay waste whole miles of forest.

  440. 89

    THE GREAT WAR OF THE NUN MOTHS.

  441. 90

    The next spring Karr came running one morning through the forest.

  442. »Karr, Karr!» someone called after him.

  443. Karr turned around.

  444. He had not misheard.

  445. It was an old fox, standing outside his den, calling.

  446. »You must tell me whether the humans are doing anything for the forest,» said the fox.

  447. — »Yes, you may be sure of it!» said Karr.

  448. »They're working, as hard as they can.»

  449. — »They've killed off my whole family, and they'll kill me too before long,» said the fox.

  450. »But let that be forgiven them, so long as they help the forest.»

  451. 91

    Karr never ran through the thickets that year without someone asking him whether the humans could save the forest.

  452. It was not easy for Karr to answer, for the humans themselves did not know whether they would manage to defeat the nun moths.

  453. 92

    Considering how feared and hated old Kolmården had once been, it was truly remarkable to see that more than a hundred men went into the forest every day and worked to save it from ruin.

  454. They felled the forest where it was most damaged, cleared away the undergrowth, and took off the lowest branches, so that the larvae could not so easily crawl from tree to tree.

  455. They cut broad lanes around the damaged forest and laid out glue-coated poles, so that the larvae would be shut in there and unable to spread onto new areas.

  456. Once this was done, they began laying glue-rings around the tree trunks.

  457. The idea was that in this way they would prevent the larvae from coming down out of trees they had already stripped bare, and force them to stay where they were and starve to death.

  458. 93

    The people kept at these labors well into the spring.

  459. They were quite hopeful and waited almost impatiently for the larvae to come out of the eggs.

  460. They were certain they had fenced them in so well that the greater part of them must die of hunger.

  461. 94

    So the larvae came at the start of summer, many times more numerous than they had been the year before.

  462. But that mattered nothing, so long as they were shut in and could not get enough to eat.

  463. 95

    But things did not turn out quite the way people had hoped.

  464. There were plenty of larvae that got stuck to the glued poles, and there were whole swarms hindered by the glue-rings and unable to get down from the trees, but no one could say that the larvae were shut in.

  465. They were outside the fence, and they were inside it.

  466. They were everywhere.

  467. They crept along the country roads, along the fences, up the cottage walls.

  468. They wandered out beyond the bounds of the Peace Forest and into other tracts of Kolmården.

  469. 96

    »They won't stop until all our forest is destroyed,» said the people.

  470. They were in the greatest anguish and could not go into the forest without getting tears in their eyes.

  471. 97

    Karr grew so sickened by all this crawling and gnawing that he could hardly bring himself to go outside the door.

  472. But one day he thought he ought to go and hear how Gråfäll was doing.

  473. He took the shortest way toward his grounds and hurried on with his nose to the ground.

  474. When he came to the tree root where he had met Helpless the year before, the snake lay there again below and called out to him.

  475. »Have you told Gråfäll what I said to you, the last time we met?» asked the snake.

  476. Karr only snapped and tried to get at him.

  477. »Tell him anyway!» said the snake.

  478. »You can see the humans don't know any remedy against the devastation.»

  479. — »No, and neither do you,» answered Karr, and ran on.

  480. 98

    Karr found Gråfäll, but the moose was in such gloomy spirits that he scarcely greeted him.

  481. He began at once to speak of the forest.

  482. »I don't know what I wouldn't give, if this misery would end,» he said.

  483. 99

    »Then I'll tell you that you may be able to save the forest,» said Karr, and now delivered the snake's message.

  484. — »If it were anyone but Helpless who promised this, I'd go into exile at once,» said the moose.

  485. »But how could a poor grass snake have such power?»

  486. — »It's just boasting, of course,» said Karr.

  487. »Snakes always want to pretend they know more than other animals.»

  488. 100

    When Karr was about to go home, Gråfäll walked with him partway.

  489. Karr then heard a thrush, sitting in a spruce top, begin to call out: »There goes Gråfäll, who has destroyed the forest!

  490. There goes Gråfäll, who has destroyed the forest!»

  491. 101

    Karr thought he must have misheard, but only a little while after that a hare came dashing across the path.

  492. When the hare saw them, he stopped, flicked his ears, and called: »Here comes Gråfäll, who has destroyed the forest!»

  493. Then he dashed off, as fast as he could.

  494. 102

    »What do they mean by that?» asked Karr.

  495. — »I don't rightly know,» said Gråfäll.

  496. »I believe the small folk of the forest are displeased with me, because it was I who advised that we seek help from the humans.

  497. They've had all their hiding-places and dwellings destroyed, now that the undergrowth's been cut away.»

  498. 103

    They walked on together a while longer, and Karr heard it being called out from every direction: »There goes Gråfäll, who has destroyed the forest!»

  499. Gråfäll pretended not to hear it, but Karr now believed he understood why he was so downcast.

  500. 104

    »Say, Gråfäll,» asked Karr suddenly, »what does the snake mean, that you're supposed to have struck dead the one he cared most for?»

  501. — »How should I know that?» said Gråfäll.

  502. »You know I'm never in the habit of striking anything dead.»

  503. 105

    Shortly after, they met the four old moose: Krokrygg, Hornkrone, Strävmane, and Storstarke.

  504. They came walking slowly and thoughtfully, one behind the other.

  505. »Well met in the forest!» Gråfäll called to them.

  506. — »Well met yourself!» answered the moose.

  507. »We wanted just to meet you, Gråfäll, to take counsel with you about the forest.»

  508. 106

    »It's so,» said Krokrygg, »that we've learned there's been a wrongdoing done here in the forest, and it's because it hasn't been punished that the whole forest is being destroyed.»

  509. — »What wrongdoing is that?»

  510. — »It's that someone has struck dead a harmless animal, one he couldn't even eat.

  511. Such a thing counts as a wrongdoing here in the Peace Forest.»

  512. — »Who is it that's done such a shameful deed?» said Gråfäll.

  513. — »It's said to be a moose, and we wanted now to ask you if you know who it could be.»

  514. — »No,» said Gråfäll, »I've never heard of any moose that's struck dead a harmless animal.»

  515. 107

    Gråfäll parted from the old ones and walked on with Karr.

  516. He had grown ever more silent and walked with his head bowed deep down.

  517. They came to pass by Kryle, the viper, where he lay on his rock.

  518. »There goes Gråfäll, who has destroyed the forest,» hissed Kryle, he, like all the rest.

  519. Now Gråfäll had lost his patience.

  520. He went up to the snake and lifted his forefoot.

  521. »Do you mean to strike me dead, the way you struck dead the old snake-wife?» said Kryle.

  522. — »Have I struck dead a snake-wife?» asked Gråfäll.

  523. — »The very first day you came into the forest, you struck dead the snake Helpless's wife,» said Kryle.

  524. 108

    Gråfäll went hastily away from Kryle and went on walking beside Karr.

  525. Suddenly he stopped.

  526. »Karr, it is I who did the wrong.

  527. I struck dead a harmless animal.

  528. It's for my sake that the forest is being destroyed.»

  529. — »What is it you're saying?» broke in Karr.

  530. — »Tell the snake Helpless that Gråfäll goes into exile this very night!»

  531. — »That I'll never say,» said Karr.

  532. »It's a dangerous land for moose up there in the north.»

  533. — »Do you think I want to stay here, now that I've brought about such a misfortune?» said Gråfäll.

  534. — »Now you mustn't be hasty.

  535. Wait until tomorrow before doing anything!»

  536. — »It's you who taught me that the moose are one with the forest,» said Gråfäll, and with that he parted from Karr.

  537. 109

    Karr went home, but this conversation had made him uneasy, and already the next day he went back out into the forest to find the moose.

  538. But Gråfäll was nowhere to be found, nor did the dog search long for him.

  539. He understood that Gråfäll had taken the snake at his word and gone into exile.

  540. 110

    On the way home, Karr was in such foul spirits that it can hardly be described.

  541. He could not understand Gråfäll, letting that wretched little snake trick him away like that.

  542. He had never heard of such folly.

  543. What sort of power could that Helpless have?

  544. 111

    As Karr came walking along lost in these thoughts, he caught sight of the gamekeeper, standing pointing up at a tree.

  545. »What are you looking at?» asked a man standing beside him.

  546. — »Sickness has broken out among the larvae,» said the gamekeeper.

  547. 112

    Karr was incredibly astonished, but he was almost more vexed still that the snake had had the power to keep his word.

  548. Now, surely, Gråfäll would be forced to stay away for an endless time, for that snake would never die, it seemed.

  549. 113

    In the midst of his deepest grief, a thought came to Karr that comforted him a little.

  550. »The snake may not have to live to be so old, after all,» he thought.

  551. »He surely won't always lie safe under a tree root.

  552. Once he's gotten rid of the larvae, I know who's going to bite him to death.»

  553. 114

    Sickness had indeed broken out among the larvae, but that first summer it had not had time to spread very widely among them.

  554. It had scarcely broken out before it was time for the larvae to turn into pupae.

  555. Out of these came millions of moths.

  556. They flew about like driving snow among the trees at night and laid a countless number of eggs.

  557. The next year one had to expect even greater devastation.

  558. 115

    The devastation came, but not over the forest alone — it came over the larvae themselves as well.

  559. The sickness spread swiftly from forest tract to forest tract.

  560. The sick larvae stopped eating, crept up to the tops of the trees, and died there.

  561. There was great rejoicing among the people when they saw them dying, but greater still among the forest animals.

  562. 116

    Karr, the dog, went about every day in grim satisfaction, thinking of the moment when he would dare to bite Helpless to death.

  563. 117

    But the larvae had had time to spread for miles over the neighboring forests, and this summer too the sickness did not reach them all, so that many lived until they became pupae and moths.

  564. 118

    Through the birds that flew by, Karr got news from Gråfäll that he was alive and doing well.

  565. But the birds also confided to Karr that Gråfäll had several times been hard pressed by poachers, and had only with the greatest difficulty gotten away.

  566. 119

    Karr lived in sorrow and longing and worry.

  567. And still he had to go on waiting two more summers.

  568. Only then was it truly over with the larvae.

  569. 120

    Karr had scarcely heard the gamekeeper say that the forest was out of danger before he set off in search of Helpless.

  570. But when he came into the thickets, he discovered something dreadful.

  571. He could no longer hunt, he could no longer run, he could no longer track down his enemy, he could not see at all.

  572. During the long wait, old age had crept up on Karr.

  573. He had grown old without noticing it.

  574. He no longer had the strength even to bite a grass snake to death.

  575. He was not able to free his friend Gråfäll from his enemy.

  576. 121

    THE REVENGE.

  577. 122

    One afternoon Akka from Kebnekaise and her flock came down by the shore of a forest lake.

  578. They were still on Kolmården, but they had left Östergötland and now found themselves in Jönåker district in Sörmland.

  579. 123

    Spring was behind schedule, as it usually is in hilly country, and ice covered the whole lake except for a strip of open water along the shore.

  580. The geese plunged at once into the water to bathe and search for food, but Nils Holgersson had lost one of his wooden shoes that morning, and he made his way in among the alders and birches growing on the shore to look for something he could bind around his foot.

  581. 124

    The boy had to walk a fair distance before he found anything useful, and he looked around uneasily, for he did not care for himself being in the forest at all.

  582. »Give me the plain or the lake any day,» he thought.

  583. »There you can see whatever's coming to meet you.

  584. If it were a beech wood, it might be all right, for there the ground lies almost bare, but these birch woods and spruce woods, so trackless and wild, I can't understand how folk can stand them.

  585. If it were up to me and I owned this, I'd chop the whole lot down.»

  586. 125

    At last he caught sight of a piece of birch bark and was just fitting it onto his foot when he heard a rustling behind him.

  587. He turned around and saw a snake come sliding through the brush straight toward him.

  588. It was unusually long and thick, but the boy saw at once that it had a white patch on each cheek, and stood stock-still.

  589. »Why, it's only a grass snake,» he thought.

  590. »That can't do me any harm.»

  591. 126

    But the next moment he got such a powerful blow to the chest from the snake that he fell over.

  592. The boy got to his feet in a great hurry and ran off, but the snake pursued him.

  593. It was rough, stony ground, and the boy did not get away particularly fast, but had the snake close at his heels.

  594. 127

    Suddenly the boy saw right in front of him a great stone with steep sides, and he set about climbing up it.

  595. »The snake surely can't follow me up here,» he thought, but when he was up and turned around, he saw that the snake was trying to follow him after all.

  596. 128

    Close beside the boy, on top of the block, lay another stone, almost round and as big as a man's head.

  597. It lay quite loose on a narrow ledge.

  598. It was hard to understand how it had ever remained lying there.

  599. When the snake came closer, the boy sprang behind the round stone and gave it a shove.

  600. It rolled down straight onto the snake, dragged him down with it to the ground, and came to rest over the snake's head.

  601. 129

    »That one did its job well,» thought the boy, and drew a deep breath, when he saw how the snake made a couple of violent jerks and then lay still.

  602. »I don't think I've been in worse danger on this whole journey.»

  603. 130

    He had scarcely had time to collect himself before he heard a rushing sound from above and saw a bird swoop down onto the ground close beside the snake.

  604. It was like a crow in size and shape, but it was clothed in a handsome garb of black, metallic-gleaming feathers.

  605. The boy drew back carefully into a crack in the stone.

  606. He still had fresh in his memory that adventure when he was carried off by the crows, and did not want to show himself needlessly.

  607. 131

    The black bird walked with long steps back and forth along the snake's body and turned it over with his beak.

  608. At last he flapped out his wings and let out a cry so shrill it grated on the ears: »That's certainly Helpless, the grass snake, lying here dead.»

  609. He walked once more along its length, and then stood a while in deep thought, scratching himself behind the neck with his foot.

  610. »It's impossible that there could be two such large snakes here in this forest,» he said.

  611. »It's certain that it's him.»

  612. 132

    He seemed just about to drive his beak into the snake, but suddenly he checked himself.

  613. »You mustn't be a fool, Bataki,» he said to himself.

  614. »You surely can't think of eating up the snake before you've called Karr here.

  615. He'd never dare believe Helpless is dead unless he sees him with his own eyes.»

  616. 133

    The boy tried to keep still, but the bird was so ridiculously solemn, going about talking to himself, that he could not help laughing.

  617. 134

    The bird heard him, and with a single flap was up on the stone.

  618. The boy rose quickly and went toward him.

  619. »Aren't you the one called Bataki, the raven, and a good friend of Akka from Kebnekaise?» asked the boy.

  620. The bird studied him closely, and then nodded three times.

  621. »You surely can't be the one who flies about with the wild geese, whom they call Thumbietot?»

  622. — »Yes, that's not far off,» said the boy.

  623. 135

    »It was mighty lucky that I met you.

  624. Perhaps you can tell me who's struck this snake dead.»

  625. — »It was the stone I rolled down onto him that struck him dead,» said the boy, and told him how it had all happened.

  626. — »That was well done, for one as small as you,» said the raven.

  627. »I have a friend in this district who'll be glad this snake is dead, and I'd like to be able to do you a good turn in return.»

  628. — »Tell me, then, why you're so glad the snake is dead!» said the boy.

  629. — »Ah,» said the raven, »that's a long story.

  630. You haven't the patience to listen to it.»

  631. 136

    But the boy insisted that he had, indeed, and now the raven told the whole story of Karr and Gråfäll and the snake Helpless.

  632. When he had finished, the boy sat silent a while, looking straight ahead of him.

  633. »Now you're to have my thanks,» he said.

  634. »It's as if I'll understand the forest better now that I've heard this.

  635. I wonder if anything's left of the great Peace Forest nowadays?»

  636. — »Most of it's destroyed, in fact,» said Bataki.

  637. »The trees look as if a fire had swept over them.

  638. They'll have to be felled, and it'll be many years before this forest becomes what it once was.»

  639. — »That snake deserved his death,» said the boy, »but I wonder if it's really possible that he was wise enough to send sickness upon the larvae.»

  640. — »Maybe he knew that they're apt to fall sick in that way anyhow,» said Bataki.

  641. — »Well, that may be so, but I must say he was a pretty clever creature all the same.»

  642. 137

    The boy fell silent.

  643. The raven was not listening to him, but sat with his head turned away, listening.

  644. »Listen!» he said.

  645. »Karr is nearby.

  646. Now he's going to be happy, when he learns that Helpless is dead.»

  647. The boy turned his head toward where the sound was coming from.

  648. »He's talking with the wild geese,» he said.

  649. — »Yes, he's surely dragged himself down to the shore to hear news of Gråfäll.»

  650. 138

    Both the boy and the raven jumped down from the stone and hurried toward the shore.

  651. Here all the geese had come up out of the water and stood talking with an old dog, so frail and weak that one might think he could fall down dead at any moment.

  652. 139

    »There you have Karr,» said Bataki to the boy.

  653. »Let him first hear what the wild geese have to tell him!

  654. Then we'll tell him the snake is dead.»

  655. 140

    They soon heard how Akka was speaking to Karr.

  656. »It was last year, when we made our spring journey,» said the leading goose.

  657. »We had flown out, Yksi and Kaksi and I, one morning from Siljan in Dalarna, and traveled over the great border forests between Dalarna and Hälsingland.

  658. We saw nothing beneath us but the black-green pine forest.

  659. The snow still lay deep among the trees, the rivers were frozen over save for the odd black open patch, and along the riverbanks the snow had partly gone.

  660. We saw almost no villages or farms, only gray summer sheds standing deserted through the winter.

  661. Here and there ran narrow, crooked forest roads, where people had hauled timber during the winter.

  662. Down by the rivers lay great piles of timber, tossed up in heaps.

  663. 141

    Just as we were flying, we saw three hunters walking down in the forest.

  664. They pushed themselves forward on skis, they had dogs on leashes and knives at their belts, but no guns.

  665. There was a hard crust on the snow, and they did not bother to follow the crooked forest roads, but went straight ahead.

  666. It looked as if they knew well enough where they had to go to find what they were seeking.

  667. 142

    We wild geese flew on high up, and the whole forest lay visible beneath us.

  668. When we had seen the hunters, we took a mind to find out what game they were after.

  669. We began flying back and forth, scanning between the trees.

  670. We then saw, in a dense thicket, something that looked like large, moss-grown stones.

  671. But stones they could hardly be, since there was no snow lying on them.

  672. 143

    We now dropped quickly and came down right in the thicket.

  673. Then the three boulders stirred.

  674. They were three moose lying there in the forest gloom: a bull and two cows.

  675. The bull moose rose up when we came down and came toward us.

  676. It was the biggest and finest animal we had ever seen.

  677. But when he noticed that it was only a couple of poor wild geese who had woken him, he lay down again.

  678. 144

    'No, old father, don't go lying down to sleep!' I said to him then. 'Flee, as fast as you can!

  679. There are hunters out in the forest, and they're heading straight for this very moose-thicket.'

  680. 145

    'You have my thanks, goose-mother,' said the moose, and it looked as if he were falling asleep even as he spoke, 'but you must know we moose are protected at this time of year.

  681. Those hunters have surely gone out to hunt fox.'

  682. 146

    'There were plenty of fox tracks in the forest, but the hunters paid them no mind.

  683. Believe me!

  684. They know you're lying here, old father.

  685. Now they're coming here to fell you.

  686. They've gone out without guns, only with spears and knives, because they daren't fire a shot in the forest at this time of year.'

  687. 147

    The bull moose lay just as calm, but the cow moose grew uneasy. 'Maybe it's as the geese say,' they said, and began to rise.

  688. — 'Just you lie still!' said the bull. 'No hunters are coming here to this thicket.

  689. You can be sure of that.'

  690. 148

    There was nothing to be done about it, and we wild geese rose up into the air again.

  691. But we kept on flying back over the same spot, to see how things would go for the moose.

  692. 149

    We had scarcely come up to our usual flying height before we saw that the bull moose came out of the thicket.

  693. He sniffed the air around him and then went straight toward the hunters.

  694. As he strode forward, he trod on dry twigs, so that they snapped with loud cracks.

  695. A great, bare bog lay in his path.

  696. There he went and took his stand, right in the middle of the open bog, where nothing hid him.

  697. 150

    The bull moose stood there until the hunters came out to the edge of the forest.

  698. Then he turned about and fled in another direction than the one he had come from.

  699. The hunters let the dogs loose, and they themselves went striding after him on their skis at as fast a pace as they could manage.

  700. 151

    The moose had laid his head back along his spine and ran with the greatest speed.

  701. He threw up snow so that it stood about him like a snow flurry.

  702. Both dogs and hunters fell far behind.

  703. Then he would stop, as if to let them catch up, and when they were again within sight, he would rush off anew.

  704. We understood that it was his intention to lure the hunters away from the spot where the cows lay.

  705. We thought he was brave, to go himself into danger so that those who belonged to him might be left in peace.

  706. Not one of us would have wanted to leave the place until we had seen how all this would end.

  707. 152

    The chase went on in the same way for a couple of hours.

  708. We wondered that the hunters bothered to keep after the moose, when they were not even armed with guns.

  709. They surely could not believe that they'd manage to tire out such a runner as he.

  710. 153

    But then we saw that the moose no longer fled at the same speed.

  711. He set his feet down more carefully in the snow.

  712. And when he drew them up again, blood showed in the tracks.

  713. 154

    Then we understood why the hunters had been so persistent.

  714. They were counting on help from the snow.

  715. The moose was heavy, and with every step he took he sank down to the bottom of the drift.

  716. But the hard crust on the snow wore his legs raw as he did so.

  717. It scraped off the hair and broke through the skin, so that he suffered every time he set down his foot.

  718. 155

    The hunters and the dogs, being so light that they could walk on the crust, kept after him without let-up.

  719. He fled and fled, but his steps grew ever more unsteady and stumbling.

  720. He panted hard.

  721. It was not enough that he suffered such great pain.

  722. He grew weary too from wading through the deep snow.

  723. 156

    At last he lost patience.

  724. He stopped to let the dogs and hunters come right up to him and fight it out with them.

  725. While he stood there waiting, he cast a glance upward, and when he saw us wild geese hovering above him, he called out: 'Stay here now, wild geese, until it's all over!

  726. And the next time you fly over Kolmården, seek out Karr, the dog, and tell him whether his friend Gråfäll got a good death'»

  727. 157

    When Akka had gotten this far, the old dog rose and went two steps nearer to her.

  728. »Gråfäll led a good life,» he said.

  729. »He knows me.

  730. He knows I'm a brave dog, and that I'll be glad to hear he got a good death.

  731. Tell me now how...

  732. 158

    He lifted his tail and raised his head as if to give himself a bold and proud bearing, but sank back down.

  733. 159

    »Karr, Karr!» a human voice now called from within the forest.

  734. 160

    The old dog rose swiftly.

  735. »That's my master calling me,» he said, »and I don't want to delay in following him.

  736. I saw just now that he loaded his gun, and the two of us will go together into the forest one last time.

  737. You have my thanks, wild goose.

  738. I know now everything I need to know to go content to my death.»

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.