The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Brorslotten

The Brother's Portion

294 sentences · 27 notes

Tap a sentence to open its words.

  1. 1

    There was no place in Sweden where Bataki, the raven, liked himself so much as in Falun.

    Detitden · pronoun, neuter, singularexpletive with fanns
    fannsthere wasfinnas · verb, past, indicativemain verb of the sentence

    existential verb; fanns = 'there was/were, existed.'

    intenotinte · particlemodifies fanns
    någotanynågon · determiner, neuter, singulardeterminer of ställe
    ställeplaceställe · noun, nominative, neuter, singularsubject of fanns
    iini · prepositionpreposition marking Sverige
    SverigeSwedenSverige · proper noun, nominativemodifies ställe
    därtheredär · adverbmodifies Bataki
    BatakiBatakibataki · proper noun, nominativesubject of tyckte
    korpenravenkorp · noun, nominative, common gender, singularcoordinated with Bataki
    tycktethoughttycka · verb, past, indicative, activeparallel clause to fanns
    såasså · adverbmodifies tyckte
    mycketmuchmycket · adverbmodifies tyckte
    omlikedom · prepositionpreposition marking sig
    sighimselfsig · pronoun, accusativeoblique complement of tyckte
    somassom · pronounintroduces the clause of Falun

    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.

    iini · prepositionpreposition marking Falun
    FalunFalunFalun · proper noun, nominativecomplement of tyckte

    mining town, capital of Dalarna.

  2. As soon as the ground turned a little bare in spring, he set off there and then lingered several weeks near the old mining town.

  3. 2

    Falun lies in a valley hollow, through which a short stream flows.

  4. At the valley's northern end lies a clear and lovely little lake with green, many-pointed shores, called Varpan.

  5. At the southern end lies a lake-like inlet of Runn, called Tisken, which has shallow, impure water and swampy, ugly shores, cluttered with all sorts of rubbish.

  6. East of the valley runs a beautiful ridge, which on its summit bears stately pine forest and lush birches, and has its whole slope clothed in leafy gardens.

  7. West of the town there also runs a ridge.

  8. At its very top it is overgrown with meager conifer forest, and the whole slope is bare, naked, without trees or grass, like a veritable desert.

  9. The only thing that covers the ground is large, round boulders lying strewn across it.

  10. 3

    Falun town, which lies in the valley hollow on both sides of the stream, looks as though it had been fitted to the ground it is built on.

  11. On the green side of the valley stand all the buildings that have a neat or stately appearance.

  12. There stand the two churches, the town hall, the county governor's residence, the mining office, the banks, the hotels, the many schoolhouses, the hospital, all the handsome villas and dwelling houses.

  13. On the black side, by contrast, street after street is lined with small red-painted one-story houses, long dreary fences, and great heavy factory buildings.

  14. And beyond the streets, in the midst of the great stone desert, lies the Falun mine with its mine-engines and hoists and pump works, with ancient buildings leaning on the undermined ground, with black, steep slag heaps and long rows of roasting furnaces.

  15. 4

    As for Bataki, he never used to cast a glance at the eastern part of town, nor at the lovely lake Varpan.

  16. But all the more did he like the western side and the little lake Tisken.

  17. 5

    Bataki, the raven, loved everything that was mysterious, everything that gave cause for brooding and pondering and set thoughts in motion, and he found much of that on the town's black side.

  18. It had thus been a great joy to him to try to puzzle out why the old red timber town had not burned down like all the other red timber towns in this country.

  19. Likewise he had wondered how long the leaning houses at the edge of the mine could remain standing.

  20. He had pondered the great Stöten, the immense opening in the ground in the middle of the mining field, and had flown down to its bottom to investigate how this vast void had come about.

  21. He had fallen into wonder over the steep heaps of slag that stood round about Stöten and the mine buildings and encircled them like walls.

  22. He had tried to work out for himself what the little signal bell, which strikes a short, dismal-sounding toll at regular intervals the whole year round, might have to say, and first and last he had wondered what it could look like down under the ground, where the copper ore had been mined for many hundreds of years and the ground was as full of passages as an anthill.

  23. When Bataki had finally managed to get a fairly good grasp of all this, he floated off to the dreadful stone desert to think over why no grass grew among the boulders, or else he made his way down to Tisken.

  24. This lake he considered the strangest he had ever come across.

  25. How could it be that it was entirely without fish, and that its water sometimes, when stirred up by a storm, turned quite red?

  26. It was all the more peculiar since a large mine stream, which flowed out into the lake, had gleaming, clear-yellow water.

  27. He wondered at the ruins of destroyed buildings that lay remaining on the shore, and at the little place called Tisksågen, which lay there surrounded by green garden plots and shaded by trees, between the desolate stone desert and the strange lake.

  28. 6

    That year, when Nils Holgersson traveled with the wild geese through the land, there still stood on the shore of Tisken, some way outside the town, an old house called Svavelkoket, because sulfur was prepared there a couple of months every other year.

  29. It was an old wreck of a building, which had once been red but had gradually turned brownish gray.

  30. It had no windows, only a row of openings, which were shut with black shutters, and it stood almost always very firmly barred up.

  31. Into this house Bataki had never been able to cast a glance, and that aroused his curiosity more than anything else.

  32. He hopped about on the roof to find a hole, and he often sat on the tall chimney and peered down through the narrow opening.

  33. 7

    One day Bataki fared very badly indeed.

  34. There had been a strong wind.

  35. A shutter on the old Svavelkoket had been blown open, and Bataki had taken the chance to fly in through the opening to see inside the building.

  36. But scarcely had he gotten in when the shutter slammed shut behind him, and Bataki was shut in.

  37. He waited for the wind to blow the shutter open again, but it did not seem to intend to do anything of the kind.

  38. 8

    Quite a lot of daylight fell into the building through cracks in the walls, and Bataki at least had the joy of being able to find out what it looked like in there.

  39. There was nothing but a large furnace with a couple of built-in kettles, and he was soon satisfied with the sight of that.

  40. But when he wanted out again, it turned out that it was still impossible.

  41. The wind refused to blow the shutter open.

  42. Not a single opening or door stood open.

  43. The raven simply found himself in a prison.

  44. 9

    Bataki began to scream for help and kept it up the whole day.

  45. There are scarcely any animals as persistent at making a racket as ravens, and it soon became known far and wide that he had fallen into captivity.

  46. The gray-striped cat from Tisksågen was the first to learn of the mishap.

  47. He told the hens about it, and they cried it out to passing birds.

  48. Soon it was known to all the jackdaws and pigeons and crows and sparrows of Falun.

  49. They flew straight off to the old Svavelkoket to find out more about the matter.

  50. They felt very great pity for the raven, but none of them could think of any way to help him.

  51. 10

    All of a sudden Bataki called out to them in his sharp, gruff voice: "Quiet, all of you out there, and listen to me!

  52. Since you say you'd gladly help me, then go out and find the old wild goose Akka from Kebnekaise and her flock!

  53. I think they ought to be in Dalarna at this time of year.

  54. Tell Akka how things stand with me!

  55. I believe she brings with her the one person who can help me."

  56. 11

    Agar the carrier pigeon, who was the best messenger in the whole land, met the wild goose flock over on the bank of the Dal River, and when dusk fell, she and Akka came flying and landed in front of Svavelkoket.

  57. Thumbietot sat on Akka's back, but the other traveling companions they had left on an islet in Runn, because Akka thought they would have done more harm than good if they had come along to Falun.

  58. 12

    When Akka had consulted with Bataki a little, she took Thumbietot on her back and flew off to a farm that lay right near Svavelkoket.

  59. She flew slowly over the garden and the birch groves that surrounded the little place, all the while both she and the boy stared down at the ground.

  60. It was clear that children lived here who played outdoors, and it wasn't long before they found what they needed.

  61. In a small cheerful spring brook a row of little toy hammer-mills clattered, and nearby the boy found a chisel.

  62. On a pair of trestles lay a half-finished canoe, and beside it he found a small bundle of sailmaker's twine.

  63. 13

    With this they flew back to Svavelkoket.

  64. The boy fastened the twine around the chimney, let it down into the deep hole, and hauled himself down it.

  65. After he had greeted Bataki, who thanked him with many fine words for having come, he began to chop a hole in the wall with the chisel.

  66. 14

    Svavelkoket had no thick walls, but with every stroke the boy only loosened a chip so small and thin that a rat could just as well have gnawed it off with its front teeth.

  67. It was clear that he would be forced to work the whole night and perhaps longer still, before he got a hole big enough for the raven to squeeze through.

  68. 15

    Bataki was so eager to be free that he could not sleep, but stood beside the boy during the work.

  69. At first the boy was very diligent, but after a while the raven noticed that the strokes came at ever longer intervals, and at last they stopped altogether.

  70. 16

    "You must be tired," said the raven.

  71. "Perhaps you can't manage to work any longer?"

  72. — "No, I'm not tired," said the boy, taking up the chisel again, "but I haven't slept properly a single night in ever so long.

  73. I don't understand how I'm going to manage to stay awake."

  74. 17

    Now the work went along briskly for a while, but then the strokes came at ever longer intervals again.

  75. The raven woke the boy again, but he realized that if he couldn't think of some way to keep him awake, he would have to stay where he was, not just that night, but the whole next day too.

  76. 18

    "Perhaps it would go better with the work if I told you a story?" he said.

  77. — "Yes, that might well be a possibility," said the boy, but at the same time he yawned and was so sleepy that he could barely hold on to the tool.

  78. 19

    THE TALE OF THE FALUN MINE.

  79. 20

    "I will tell you, Thumbietot," said Bataki, "that I have had a long life on this earth.

  80. I have met with both bad and good, and several times it has happened to me that I have been held captive by humans.

  81. In that way I have learned not only to understand their language, but I have also picked up much of their learning.

  82. And I dare claim that there is not another bird in the land who knows your kinsmen as well as I do.

  83. 21

    Once I sat in a cage for many years in a row at a mining official's house here in Falun, and it was in his house that I came to learn of what I am now going to tell you.

  84. 22

    Long, long ago there lived here in Dalarna a giant who had two daughters.

  85. When the giant grew old and felt that he was going to die, he called his daughters to him to divide his possessions between them.

  86. 23

    His chief wealth consisted of some mountains that were full of copper, and these he wished to give to his daughters.

  87. 'But before I hand over the inheritance to you,' he said, 'you must promise me that if any stranger should happen to discover your copper mountains, you shall strike him dead before he manages to show his find to anyone else.'

  88. The eldest of the giant's daughters was cruel and fierce, and she promised without hesitation to obey her father's will.

  89. The other had a gentler nature, and the father saw that she hesitated before giving her promise.

  90. Therefore he left her only a third of the inheritance, while the eldest got exactly twice as much as she did.

  91. 'You I know I can rely on, as if you were a man,' said the giant, 'and therefore you shall have the lion's share.'

  92. 24

    Soon after, the old giant died, and for a long time afterward both daughters were equally careful to keep the promise.

  93. More than one poor woodcutter or hunter happened to catch sight of the copper ore, which in several places lay right at the surface of the mountain, but scarcely had he gotten home and told what he had seen before he was struck by misfortune.

  94. Either a dead pine toppled over onto him, or else he met with a rockslide.

  95. He was never given time to show anyone else where the treasure was to be found in the wilderness.

  96. 25

    In those days it was the custom everywhere in the land for farmers to send their cattle out to graze deep into the forests during the summers.

  97. The herders went along with them to look after the milk and make cheese and butter.

  98. So that people and livestock would have some shelter in the wilderness, the farmers cleared a small spot in the forest and built there a couple of small cabins, which they called «fäbodar».

  99. 26

    Now it happened that a farmer who lived by the Dal River in Torsång parish had his summer quarters on the shores of Lake Runn, where the ground was so full of stones that no one had ever tried to cultivate it.

  100. One autumn the farmer set off with a couple of pack horses to the summer pasture to help bring home the cattle, the butter tubs, and the cheeses.

  101. When he went to count the livestock, he happened to notice that one of the billy goats was quite red about the horns.

  102. 'What kind of horns has Kåre the billy goat gotten?' said the farmer to the herd-girl.

  103. — 'I don't know, I'm sure,' she answered.

  104. 'He's come home with red horns every evening this summer.

  105. He seems to think it's rather fine.'

  106. — 'Is that so, do you think,' said the farmer.

  107. — 'He has a mind of his own, this billy goat, and if I scour the red off the horns, he goes straight off and gets new.'

  108. — 'Scour off the red color once more, then,' said the farmer, 'so I can see how he goes about it!'

  109. 27

    No sooner had the goat had his horns scoured than he ran off into the forest.

  110. The farmer followed him, and when he caught up with the goat, the latter stood rubbing his horns against some stones that were red.

  111. The farmer picked up the stones, tasted and smelled them.

  112. He believed he understood that he had come upon some kind of ore.

  113. 28

    While he stood there pondering, a boulder came rolling down a steep slope right beside him.

  114. The farmer jumped aside and saved himself, but the goat Kåre was caught right under the boulder and was killed.

  115. When the farmer looked up the slope, he saw a big, strong giantess who was in the middle of rolling down yet another boulder at him.

  116. 'What are you up to?' cried the farmer.

  117. 'I have done neither you nor any of your kin any harm.'

  118. — 'No, that I know well enough,' said the giantess.

  119. 'But I must strike you dead, because you have discovered my copper mountain.'

  120. She said this in a sorrowful voice, as if she were quite reluctant to kill him, and this gave the farmer courage to enter into speech with her.

  121. Then she told him about the old giant, about the promise she had given, and about the sister who had received the lion's share.

  122. 'I am so weary of killing all the innocent wretches who find out about my copper mountain,' she said, 'that I wish I had never accepted the inheritance.

  123. But what I have promised, that I must keep.'

  124. With that she began once more to pry at the boulder.

  125. 'Don't be in such a hurry!' said the farmer.

  126. 'You needn't kill me for the sake of that promise.

  127. It wasn't I who found out about the copper, it was the goat, and him you have already killed.'

  128. — 'Do you mean that I could get off with that?' said the giant's daughter, and grew uncertain.

  129. — 'Yes, that is certainly what I mean,' said the farmer.

  130. 'You have kept your promise as well as anyone could ask.'

  131. And he spoke so sensibly with her that he got to keep his life.

  132. 29

    The farmer now first went home with the cows.

  133. Then he walked down to the Bergslagen district and hired farmhands who understood mining work.

  134. These helped him open up a mine at the spot where the goat had lost his life.

  135. At first he was afraid of being killed, but it seems the giant's daughter had grown tired of guarding her copper mountain.

  136. She never troubled him again.

  137. 30

    The vein of ore that the farmer had discovered ran right along the surface of the mountain, so that it was neither difficult nor troublesome to break out the ore.

  138. He and the farmhands hauled wood out of the forest, piled up great bonfires on the ore mountain, and set them alight.

  139. Then the rock cracked apart from the heat, so that they could get at the ore.

  140. After that they put the pieces of ore through one fire after another, until they got out the pure copper and had separated it from the slag.

  141. 31

    In days of old, people used copper for everyday purposes almost even more than they do nowadays.

  142. It was a sought-after and useful commodity, and the farmer who owned the mine soon became enormously rich.

  143. He built himself a large, splendid farm near the mine and called it Kårarvet after the goat.

  144. When he rode to church service in Torsång, his horse was shod with silver, and when his daughter was to celebrate her wedding, he had ale brewed from twenty barrels of malt and had ten great oxen roasted on the spit.

  145. 32

    In those days people mostly kept to themselves, each in their own corner of the country, and news did not travel about as easily as it does now.

  146. But word that a great copper mine had been found reached many people all the same, and those who had nothing better to do set off up toward Dalarna.

  147. At Kårarvet all the poor wanderers were well received.

  148. The farmer took them into his service, gave them good wages, and let them mine ore for him.

  149. There was ore enough and more than enough, and the more servants he could put to work, the richer he became.

  150. 33

    But one evening it is said to have happened that four sturdy fellows with mining picks over their shoulders came walking to Kårarvet.

  151. They were well received like everyone else, but when the farmer asked whether they wanted to work for him, they flatly said no.

  152. 'We intend to mine ore for our own account,' they said.

  153. — 'Surely it's the case, though, that this ore mountain is mine,' said the farmer.

  154. — 'We don't intend to mine in your mine,' the strangers answered.

  155. 'The mountain is large, and whatever lies free and unfenced in the wilderness, we have just as much right to as you do.'

  156. 34

    No more was said about this, and the farmer continued to show hospitality to the newcomers.

  157. Early the next day they went out to work, found copper ore some distance away, and began to mine it.

  158. When they had been at it for a few days, the farmer came to them.

  159. 'There's plenty of ore here in the mountain,' he said.

  160. — 'Yes, it will take a great deal of people's labor before this treasure is brought up,' answered one of the strangers.

  161. — 'That I well understand,' said the farmer, 'but still I think you ought to give me a tax on the ore you mine, because it is thanks to me that mining can be carried on here at all.'

  162. — 'Now we don't understand what you mean,' said the men.

  163. — 'Well, I freed the mountain through my own cleverness,' said the farmer, and told them about the two giant's daughters and about the lion's share.

  164. 35

    The men listened very carefully to this, but they seemed to fix on something else in the story than the farmer had expected.

  165. 'Is it certain that the other giantess is more dangerous than the one you met with?' they said.

  166. — 'I don't think she would show you much mercy,' answered the farmer.

  167. 36

    With that he left them, but he kept an eye on them, and after a while he saw that they stopped working and walked off into the forest.

  168. 37

    When the household sat at the evening meal at Kårarvet that day, a terrible howling of wolves was heard from over in the forest.

  169. Amid the howling of the wild beasts rang out human screams.

  170. The farmer rose at once, but the farmhands did not seem to want to follow him.

  171. 'It might be good enough for that thieving pack to be torn apart by the wolves,' said the household folk.

  172. — 'We shall surely help those who are in need,' said the farmer, and went out with all his fifty farmhands.

  173. 38

    They caught sight at once of a terribly large pack of wolves, tumbling over one another and tearing and fighting over a kill.

  174. The farmhands chased them off and then found on the ground four human bodies, so badly mangled that they would not have understood who they were, had they not seen four mining picks lying beside them.

  175. 39

    After this the copper mountain remained in one man's possession right up to the farmer's death, when it was taken over by his sons.

  176. These worked the mine together, but the ore that had been brought up in the course of a year they divided into heaps, cast lots for them, and then smelted out the copper each in his own furnace.

  177. They all became powerful mining men and built themselves large and imposing farms.

  178. And after them their heirs took up the work, opened new mine shafts, and increased the ore extraction.

  179. Year by year the mine grew in importance, and ever more mining men got a share in it.

  180. Some lived quite close to it, others had their farms and smelting huts scattered around the district.

  181. A powerful settlement arose, and this was called the Stora Kopparberg mining district.

  182. 40

    Now it is to be noted that the ore lying in such a way that it could be mined from above, the way one quarries stone from a stone pit, began to run out, and the miners were forced to seek the ore deep underground.

  183. They had to work their way, through narrow shafts and long winding passages, into the dark bowels of the earth in order to lay their fires and blast the rock apart.

  184. It is always heavy and difficult work to mine rock, but on top of that came the torment of the smoke, which could not find its way out into the air, and the difficulty of hauling the ore up steep ladders to the surface of the ground.

  185. And the farther down into the depths they pushed, the more dangerous the mining became.

  186. Sometimes strong currents of water came bursting out of some corner of the mine, sometimes it happened that the roof of the mine passages caved in over the mine workers.

  187. This made the work in the great mine so feared that no one wanted to devote themselves to it of their own free will.

  188. Then condemned criminals, and men who roamed the forests as outlaws, were offered pardon for their crimes if they were willing to become mine workers in Falun.

  189. 41

    For a long time no one had thought of searching for the Brother's Portion.

  190. But among the lawless men who came to Stora Kopparberget there were several who did not value their lives as highly as an adventure, and these began to roam the district in hopes of finding it.

  191. 42

    How things turned out for all the searchers, no one can say, but one story survives about a pair of mine workers who came home late one evening to their master and told him they had found a great and mighty vein of ore in the forest.

  192. They had blazed a trail to it, and the next day they meant to show it to their master.

  193. But the next day was a Sunday, and the master did not want to go to the forest and search for ore that day, but instead went to church with all his household.

  194. It was winter, and they walked to church across the lake Varpan.

  195. On the way there everything went well, but on the way home both mine workers fell through into an open patch of water and drowned.

  196. Then people began to recall the old legend of the Brother's Portion, and said that it was surely this that the men had found.

  197. 43

    To remedy all the shortcomings at the mine, the mining men set about calling in foreigners who were skilled in mining work, and these foreign masters taught them to build mine-engines that pumped away the water and hauled up the ore.

  198. The strangers were not inclined to put much faith in the tale of the giant's daughters, but they did believe it possible that there was a mighty vein of ore somewhere nearby, and they searched for it with great eagerness.

  199. And one evening a German mine foreman came to the lodging house by the mine and told them he had found the lion's share.

  200. But the thought of the great riches he was now going to win made him quite giddy and wild.

  201. He threw a feast that same night, drank and danced and played at dice, and in the end got into a quarrel and a brawl and was stabbed to death by one of his drinking companions.

  202. 44

    From Stora Kopparberget such a quantity of ore was constantly brought up that the mine was reckoned the richest copper mine to be found in any country.

  203. It brought great wealth, not only to the immediate district, but the treasures drawn from it were of great help to the Swedish realm in troubled times.

  204. For its sake all of Falun town was built up, and the mine has been considered so remarkable and useful that kings used to travel to Falun to visit it, calling it Sweden's fortune and the treasure chamber of the Swedish realm.

  205. 45

    When people thought of how much wealth had come out of the old mine, no one can wonder that those who believed a copper treasure twice as great lay nearby should be vexed that it was unattainable.

  206. Many risked their lives to search for it, but gained nothing by it.

  207. 46

    One of the last to see the lion's share was a young mining man of Falun, of good and wealthy family, who owned a farm and a smelting works in the town.

  208. He wanted to marry a beautiful farmer's daughter from Leksand and walked there to propose to her, but she refused to marry him, because she did not want to move to Falun, where the smoke from the roasting furnaces and smelting huts lay so heavy and oppressive over the town that she grew anxious just thinking of it.

  209. 47

    The mining man held her very dear, and when he turned back home, he was deeply grieved.

  210. He had lived in Falun his whole life, and he had never thought that it could be hard to live there.

  211. But now, as he approached the town, he was horrified.

  212. Out of the great mine opening, out of the hundred roasting furnaces around it, rose the heavy, stinging sulfur smoke, wrapping the whole town in a haze.

  213. The smoke kept the plants from thriving, so that the ground lay bare and naked far and wide.

  214. Smelting huts, out of which fire blazed, and which were surrounded by black slag heaps, he saw everywhere, not only in the town and its vicinity, but throughout the whole district.

  215. They stood at Grycksbo, at Bengtsarvet, at Bergsgården, at Stennäset, at Korsnäs, in Vika, and all the way over to Aspeboda.

  216. He understood that someone accustomed to living in light and greenery by the shining Lake Siljan could not thrive down here.

  217. 48

    The sight of the town made him even gloomier than he had been.

  218. He felt he did not want to go straight home, but turned off the road and wandered into the forest land.

  219. There he roamed about the whole day without thinking about where he was going.

  220. 49

    As evening drew on, it happened that he chanced to see a rock surface that gleamed like gold.

  221. When he looked more closely, he noticed that it was a mighty vein of copper ore.

  222. At first he was glad at the discovery, but then he came to think that this might well be the lion's share, which had brought so many to ruin, and then he grew frightened.

  223. 'Today I may well say that misfortune pursues me,' he thought.

  224. 'Perhaps I must now lose my life, because I have found this treasure.'

  225. 50

    He turned away at once and set off on the way home.

  226. After a while he met a tall, large woman.

  227. She resembled a stately mining-wife, but he could not recall having seen her before.

  228. 51

    'I wonder what you've been up to in the forest,' said the woman.

  229. 'I have seen that you have been roaming about here all day.'

  230. — 'I have been walking about looking for a homestead,' said the mining man, 'for the girl I care for does not want to live in Falun.'

  231. — 'Are you not thinking of mining ore from the copper mountain you found a while ago?' she asked further.

  232. — 'No, I must give up mining, otherwise I cannot have the one I care for.'

  233. — 'Well, just keep your word on that,' said the woman, 'and no harm shall come to you!'

  234. 52

    With that she left him at once.

  235. But he hastened to make true what he had said, out of necessity.

  236. He gave up mining copper and built himself a farm far from Falun.

  237. And after that she, whom he cared for, had nothing against moving in with him."

  238. 53

    With this the raven ended his story.

  239. The boy had indeed stayed awake the whole time, but he had not driven the chisel with any particular speed.

  240. 54

    "Well, how has it gone since then?" he asked, when the raven fell silent.

  241. 55

    "Well, things have gone downhill with the copper production since that time.

  242. Falun town, it's still standing, of course.

  243. But all the old smelting huts are gone.

  244. The whole district is scattered over with old mining-men's farms, but those who live on them have to devote themselves to farming or forestry instead.

  245. In the Falun mine the ore is running out.

  246. It would be more needed now than ever that someone should find out about the Brother's Portion."

  247. 56

    "I wonder if that mining man was the last one to see it," said the boy.

  248. 57

    "I'll tell you who last saw it, once you've chopped a hole in the wall and let me out," said Bataki.

  249. 58

    The boy gave a start and began to work a little more briskly.

  250. He thought Bataki had said that in a strangely meaningful tone.

  251. It sounded almost as if he wanted to let the boy understand that he, the raven, had seen the great vein of ore.

  252. Could he have had some particular purpose in telling him that story?

  253. 59

    "You must have traveled a great deal around this district," said the boy, to get a bit of clarity on the matter.

  254. "You have surely found this and that, while soaring over the forests and mountains around here."

  255. 60

    "I could certainly show you a good many remarkable things, if only you finish your work," said the raven.

  256. 61

    The boy began to chop with such eagerness that chips flew around him.

  257. Now he had become quite certain that the raven had found the Brother's Portion.

  258. "It's a real pity that you, being a raven, won't be able to get any enjoyment out of the wealth you have found," he said.

  259. 62

    "I don't want to talk any more about this matter, until I see that you can chop a hole in the wall and let me out," said the raven.

  260. 63

    The boy worked so hard that the chisel grew burning hot.

  261. He thought he could easily guess Bataki's meaning.

  262. The raven surely could not mine ore for his own account, and so it was certainly his intention to give the discovery to Nils Holgersson.

  263. That was surely both the most likely and the most reasonable thing.

  264. But if the boy now learned the secret, then he would come back here, as soon as he had become a human again, and find out about the great wealth.

  265. And when he had earned enough money, he would buy up all of Västra Vemmenhög parish and build a castle there, as grand as Vittskövle.

  266. And one day he would invite the cottager Holger Nilsson and his wife to the castle.

  267. And when they came walking up, he would stand on the steps and say: "Please, come in, and make yourselves at home here!"

  268. And of course they would not recognize him, but wonder who the fine gentleman was who had invited them.

  269. "Wouldn't you like to live in a place like this?" he would then say.

  270. — "Of course, but it's not for the likes of us," they would answer.

  271. — "Yes it is.

  272. It's meant that you should get this place in payment for the great white gander that flew away a couple of years back," he would say.

  273. 64

    The boy plied the chisel ever more nimbly.

  274. The next thing he would use the money for was to build a new cottage on the heather moor in Sunnerbo for Åsa the goose girl and little Mats.

  275. Much bigger and finer than the old one, of course.

  276. And then he would buy up all of Lake Tåkern and give it to the ducks, and then...

  277. 65

    "Now I must say you have worked at a good pace," said the raven.

  278. "I believe the hole is already big enough."

  279. 66

    The raven did indeed manage to squeeze his way out.

  280. The boy followed after and then saw Bataki sitting on a stone a couple of steps farther off.

  281. 67

    "I will now keep my promise to you, Thumbietot," said Bataki very solemnly, "and tell you that I have seen the Brother's Portion.

  282. But I do not want to advise you to begin searching for it, for it cost me years of effort before I found out where it was."

  283. 68

    "I thought you were going to tell me where it was, as a reward for having helped you out of captivity," said the boy.

  284. 69

    "You must have been quite sleepy while I was telling about the lion's share," said Bataki.

  285. "Otherwise you surely wouldn't have expected anything of the kind.

  286. Didn't you notice that everyone who has wanted to reveal where the Brother's Portion lay has met with misfortune?

  287. No indeed!

  288. Bataki has lived so long on this earth that he has learned to hold his tongue."

  289. 70

    With that he lifted his wings and flew away.

  290. 71

    Akka stood sleeping on the ground beside Svavelkoket, but it was a long while before the boy went up and woke her.

  291. He was despondent and sad, because he had missed out on the great wealth, and felt that he had nothing to be glad about.

  292. "I don't believe the story of the giant's daughters is true," he said to himself, "and I don't believe in wolves and thin ice, but I do believe that when poor mine workers have found the great vein of ore in the middle of the wild forest, they have become so giddy with joy that afterward they haven't been able to find their way back to it.

  293. And I believe that the disappointment has become so hard for them that they haven't been able to go on living.

  294. That's how I feel about it."

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
JSON · Markdown · A guide for agents
Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.