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Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Islossningen

The Breaking-Up of the Ice

87 sentences · 19 notes

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  1. 1

    The next day the weather was clear and beautiful.

    Nästanextnästa · adjective, nominativemodifies dag
    dagdaydag · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of blankt
    varwasvara · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, activecopula linking to blankt
    detitden · pronoun, neuter, singularsubject of blankt
    blanktsmooth and shinyblankt · adjective, nominative, neuter, singularhead of the phrase
    ochandoch · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    vackertbeautifulvacker · adjective, nominative, neuter, singularmodifies väder
    väderweatherväder · noun, nominative, neuter, singularcoordinated with blankt

  2. A rather strong wind was blowing from the west, it's true, but one was only glad of it, for it dried the roads, which were completely soaked by the previous day's heavy rain.

  3. 2

    In good time in the morning, the two Småland children, Åsa the goose girl and little Mats, came walking along a country road that led from Sörmland into Närke.

  4. The road ran along the southern shore of Lake Hjälmaren, and the children walked along looking at the ice, which still covered the greater part of the lake.

  5. The morning sun poured its bright light over the ice, and it did not look dark and unpleasant, as spring ice usually does, but shone white and inviting.

  6. As far as they could see out over it, it lay firm and dry.

  7. The rainwater had already run down into hollows and cracks, or else it had been soaked up into the ice itself.

  8. They saw nothing but the finest ice.

  9. 3

    Åsa the goose girl and little Mats were journeying northward, and they could not help thinking how many steps it would save them if they could walk straight across the great lake instead of tramping all the way around it.

  10. They knew well enough that spring ice is dangerous, but this ice certainly looked perfectly safe.

  11. They could see that it was several inches thick near the shore.

  12. They saw a path they could follow, and the far shore seemed to lie so near that they ought to be able to walk across to it in an hour.

  13. 4

    "Come on, let's try it!" said little Mats.

  14. "If we're just careful not to fall into any open patch, we should be all right."

  15. 5

    With that, they set out onto the lake.

  16. The ice was not particularly slippery, but very pleasant to walk on.

  17. There was more water on it than they had been able to see, and here and there was spongy ice, where the water bubbled up and down.

  18. Such spots one had to watch out for, but that was surely not difficult in the middle of the day, in the bright sunshine.

  19. 6

    The children got along quickly and easily, and they talked of nothing but how clever they had been to go out on the ice instead of continuing their journey along the rain-battered country road.

  20. 7

    When they had walked for a while, they came near the island of Vinön.

  21. There an old woman caught sight of them from her window.

  22. She ran out of her cottage, waved her arms at them, and shouted something they could not hear.

  23. They understood very well that she was warning them not to go on.

  24. But they, being out on the ice, could see for themselves that there was no danger at hand.

  25. It would surely have been quite foolish to leave the ice when everything was going so splendidly.

  26. 8

    So they walked on past Vinön and now had a stretch of ice a mile wide before them.

  27. Out here there were such large pools of water that the children were forced to make long detours.

  28. But that only amused them.

  29. They competed to find out where the ice was best.

  30. They were neither tired nor hungry.

  31. They had the whole day ahead of them, and they only laughed when they met new obstacles.

  32. 9

    Now and then they cast glances over toward the far shore.

  33. It still seemed far away, although they had been walking a good hour.

  34. They were a little astonished that the lake was so wide.

  35. "It's as if that shore were moving away from us," said little Mats.

  36. 10

    Out here they had no shelter from the west wind.

  37. It grew fiercer with every minute and pressed their clothes so hard against their bodies that they had trouble moving.

  38. The cold gale was the first real discomfort they had met with on their journey.

  39. 11

    One thing that puzzled them was that the wind came with such a loud roar, as if it had carried with it the noise of a great mill or a mechanical workshop.

  40. But surely nothing of the kind could exist out there on the ice fields.

  41. 12

    They had walked west of the great island of Valen, and now it truly seemed to them that they were nearing the northern shore.

  42. But at the same time the wind grew more and more troublesome, and the loud roar that came with it increased so much that they began to feel uneasy.

  43. 13

    All at once they thought they understood that the roar they heard came from waves that, foaming and thundering, were dashing against a shore, but that too was surely impossible, since the lake still lay covered with ice.

  44. 14

    In any case they stopped and looked around.

  45. Then, far away to the west, over toward Björnön and the Göksholm shore, they noticed a white ridge running straight across the lake.

  46. At first they thought it was a snowbank along a road, but then they understood that it was foam from waves being flung against the ice.

  47. 15

    When they saw this, they took each other by the hand and began to run without saying a word.

  48. The lake lay open over there in the west, and they thought they had seen the line of foam moving swiftly eastward.

  49. They did not know whether the ice would break up everywhere or what was going to happen.

  50. But they sensed that they were in danger.

  51. 16

    All of a sudden it seemed to them as if the ice lifted right at the spot where they were running: rose and sank down again, as if someone had shoved it from below.

  52. Then a dull crack was heard in the ice, and after that cracks ran out over it in every direction.

  53. The children could see how they raced across the ice sheet.

  54. 17

    Now it was still for a little while, but then that same rising and sinking was felt again.

  55. After this the cracks began to widen into fissures, through which one could see water bubbling up.

  56. Soon after, the fissures became wide rifts, and the ice began to split into great floes.

  57. 18

    "Åsa," said little Mats, "this must be the ice breaking up."

  58. 19

    "Yes, that's so, little Mats," said Åsa, "but we can still make it to shore.

  59. Just keep running!"

  60. 20

    In fact the wind and the waves still had a great deal of work to do before they could clear the ice from the lake.

  61. The hardest part was no doubt done once the ice sheet had broken into pieces, but all those pieces had to be split up again and thrown against one another to be crushed, worn down, and dissolved.

  62. There still remained a great quantity of hard, solid ice, forming large, unbroken fields.

  63. 21

    But the worst danger for the children was that they had no overview of the ice.

  64. They could not see where the rifts were so wide that it was impossible to cross them.

  65. They did not know where the great ice floes were to be found that could bear their weight.

  66. So they wandered about here and there, back and forth.

  67. They came out farther onto the lake instead of nearing the shore.

  68. They became so bewildered and frightened out on the crumbling ice that at last they simply stood still and wept.

  69. 22

    Then a flock of wild geese came whizzing over them in swift flight.

  70. They cried out loudly and strongly, and the remarkable thing was that, in the midst of the goose-cackle, the children heard the words: "Go to the right, to the right, to the right!"

  71. 23

    They set off at once and followed the advice, but it was not long before they again stood at a loss in front of a wide rift.

  72. 24

    Again they heard the geese screaming over their heads, and in the cackle they made out a couple of words: "Stand still where you are! Stand still where you are!"

  73. 25

    The children said not a word to each other about what they heard, but they obeyed and stood still.

  74. Soon after, the pieces of ice slid together so that they could cross the rift.

  75. Then they took each other by the hand again and ran.

  76. They were anxious not only about the danger, but also about the help they had received.

  77. 26

    They soon had to stop again in fresh hesitation, but at once they heard a voice reach down to them.

  78. "Straight ahead! Straight ahead! Straight ahead!" said the voice.

  79. 27

    This went on for a good half hour, but then they arrived at the long Lungersudden point and were able to leave the ice and wade ashore.

  80. It showed how frightened they had been, for once they had reached solid ground, they did not so much as stop to look back at the lake, where the waves now began to churn the ice blocks ever more fiercely, but simply walked on.

  81. But when they had come some way up onto the point, Åsa suddenly stopped.

  82. "Wait here, little Mats!" she said.

  83. "There's something I've forgotten."

  84. 28

    Åsa the goose girl went back down to the shore.

  85. There she set about digging in her bag and at last brought out a little wooden shoe, which she set on a stone where it could be seen very clearly.

  86. Then she went back to little Mats without looking back a single time.

  87. 29

    But no sooner had she turned her back than a big white goose shot down out of the sky like lightning, snatched up the wooden shoe, and rose upward again with the same speed.

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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Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.