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Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Sagan om Uppland

The Tale of Uppland

71 sentences · 38 notes

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  1. 1

    The next day the rain had stopped, but the storm continued the whole forenoon, and the flood kept spreading further.

    Nästanextnästa · adjective, nominativemodifies dag
    dagdaydag · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of upphört
    hadehadha · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, activeauxiliary of upphört
    regnetrainregn · noun, nominative, neuter, singularsubject of upphört
    upphörtceasedupphöra · verb, active, supinemain verb of the sentence
    menbutmen · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    stormenstormstorm · noun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of fortfor
    fortforwent on/continuedfortfor · numeral, nominativeadverbial clause on utbredde

    Past tense of 'fortfara' (to continue); mistagged as a numeral.

    helawholehel · adjective, nominative, singularmodifies förmiddagen
    förmiddagenmorningförmiddag · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of fortfor
    översvämningenfloodöversvämning · noun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of utbredde
    utbreddespread oututbredde · verb, past, indicative, activeclausal complement of upphört
    sigitselfsig · pronoun, accusativedirect object of utbredde
    alltjämtstillalltjämt · adverbmodifies utbredde

  2. But shortly after midday a change occurred.

  3. All at once the weather turned the loveliest imaginable: warm, calm, and delightful.

  4. 2

    The boy lay most contentedly in the middle of a great tussock of splendidly blooming marsh marigold and looked up at the sky, when two little schoolchildren came walking with books and lunch baskets along a small path that wound its way along the shore.

  5. They walked slowly and looked very sorrowful.

  6. When they had come right opposite Nils Holgersson, they sat themselves down on a couple of stones and began to talk about their misfortune.

  7. 3

    "Mother will be so angry with us, when she hears that we haven't known our lesson today either," said one of the children.

  8. "— Yes, and father too!" said the other, and at that their grief overwhelmed them so much that they began to cry.

  9. 4

    The boy was just wondering whether he might be able to comfort them somehow, when a little, bent old woman, who had a kind and gentle face, came walking along the path and stopped beside them.

  10. 5

    "What are these children crying for?" asked the old woman, and then the little ones told her that they hadn't known their lesson at school, and now they were so ashamed that they didn't want to go home.

  11. 6

    "What can it have been, that was so difficult that you couldn't learn it?" said the old woman, and the children explained that what they'd had for their lesson was the whole of Uppland.

  12. 7

    "Well, perhaps it isn't so easy to learn from books," said the old woman, "but now you shall hear what my mother once told me about this land.

  13. I never went to school, myself, so I never got any proper schooling, but what my mother told about, I have remembered my whole life."

  14. 8

    "Well, mother said," the old woman began and sat down on the stone beside the children, "that long, long ago Uppland was the poorest and most insignificant of all the provinces in the whole of Sweden.

  15. It consisted of nothing but lean clay fields and small low stony hills, and it is likely still that way in many places in the province today, although we who live down here by Mälaren don't see much of it.

  16. 9

    Well now, whatever the cause of it, it is certain that things were poor and wretched here.

  17. Uppland felt that the other provinces regarded it as a real reject, and that sort of thing becomes irritating in the long run.

  18. One fine day it grew so weary of the misery that it took the sack on its back and the staff in its hand and set out to go begging from those who were better off.

  19. 10

    Uppland first wandered south, as far as Skåne, and when it got there, it complained of how poor it was and asked for land.

  20. 'It isn't easy to know what to come up with to give everyone who comes and asks,' said Skåne.

  21. 'But let me see!

  22. I have just been busy digging up a couple of marl pits.

  23. You may pick up some clods of earth that I've thrown up onto the edge, if you have any use for them.'

  24. 11

    Uppland gave thanks and accepted, and then went on to Västergötland.

  25. There too it complained of how poor it was and asked for land.

  26. 'I don't want to give you any land,' said Västergötland.

  27. 'I don't begrudge — I mean, I won't spare — a single bit of my fat fields for beggars.

  28. But you may have one of these little streams that trickles across the plain, if you can make any use of it.'

  29. 12

    Uppland gave thanks and accepted, and now turned off toward Halland.

  30. There it again began to complain of how poor it was and asked for land.

  31. 'I'm no richer, myself, than you are,' said Halland, 'and for that reason I really oughtn't to give you anything.

  32. But you may break up a few stone hillocks out of the ground and take them with you, if you think it's worth the trouble.'

  33. 13

    Uppland gave thanks and accepted, and then trudged onward to Bohuslän.

  34. There it was allowed to pick as many bare little skerries into its sack as it liked.

  35. 'Those don't look like much, of course, but they're good to have as shelter against the wind,' said Bohuslän.

  36. 'You can surely make use of them, since you're at home on the coast, you as well as I.'

  37. 14

    Uppland was grateful for everything it was given, and said no to nothing, even though everywhere it got the kind of thing the others thought they could most easily spare.

  38. Värmland tossed it a piece of bedrock.

  39. Västmanland gave it a stretch of its ridges.

  40. Östergötland gave it a piece of the wild Kolmården forest, and Småland filled the sack almost full with bogs and stone cairns and heather-covered hills.

  41. 15

    Sörmland was willing to give nothing but a couple of Mälaren bays, and Dalarna likewise felt it didn't want to give up any solid ground, and asked whether Uppland would make do with a piece of the Dal River.

  42. 16

    Lastly it got from Närke some of the waterlogged meadows on the shore of Lake Hjälmaren, and with that it had gotten its sack so full that it felt it no longer needed to wander any further.

  43. 17

    When Uppland came home and took out everything it had collected, it couldn't help thinking that what it had gotten was a dreadful heap of scraps, and it sighed and wondered how it should go about making any use of the gifts.

  44. 18

    One year followed another, and Uppland stayed home arranging its affairs, and at last it had gotten everything just as it wanted it.

  45. 19

    At that time there arose talk of where in Sweden the king should live and the capital be raised, and all the provinces came together to deliberate on the matter.

  46. It was clear that each one wanted the king for itself, and there was a long dispute.

  47. 'I think the king ought to live in the province that is the wisest and most capable,' said Uppland, and everyone found this to be wise counsel.

  48. They decided that the province that could show it possessed the most wisdom and ability should get the king and the capital.

  49. 20

    Scarcely had all the provinces managed to get back home again, before word came from Uppland that they should travel to it for a feast.

  50. 'What can that poor land have to offer?' said the provinces, but they heeded the invitation all the same.

  51. 21

    When they arrived, they were utterly astonished at what they saw.

  52. There lay Uppland fully built up with splendid farms in its interior, with towns along its coasts, and with all the waters surrounding it filled with ships.

  53. 22

    'It's a shame to go around begging when one is so well off,' said the other provinces.

  54. 23

    'I have invited you here to thank you for your gifts,' said Uppland, 'for it is thanks to them that I am now so well off that I can support myself.'

  55. 24

    'The first thing I did, once I came home,' it went on, 'was to lead the Dal River onto my land, and I arranged it so that it had to make two splendid falls: one at Söderfors and one at Älvkarleby.

  56. South of the river, at Dannemora, I laid down the bedrock I had gotten from Värmland, and then I noticed that Värmland hadn't really checked what it had given away, because the bedrock consisted of the finest iron ore.

  57. All around I planted the forest I had gotten from Östergötland, and since there was now, in one spot, both ore and charcoal-timber and water power, it was of course a given that a rich mining district would arise there.

  58. 25

    Once I had gotten things so nicely arranged up north, I stretched out the Västmanland ridges, and I pulled at them so that they reached all the way to Mälaren and formed headlands and islands, which clothed themselves in green and have become as fair as pleasure gardens.

  59. But the bays that Sörmland had given me, I drew far inland, so that the land was opened to seafarers and could come into contact with the world.

  60. 26

    When I had gotten everything finished in the north and in the south, I proceeded to the eastern coast, and now I gathered up all the bare skerries and stony hills and heather-moors and naked tracts of land you had given me, and threw them out into the sea.

  61. And out of that arose all my islets and islands, which have been of such great use to me both for fishing and shipping, and which I count as my finest possession.

  62. 27

    After that I had little more left of the gifts than those clods of earth I had gotten from Skåne, and those I laid out in the middle of the area to form the fertile Vaksala plain.

  63. And the sluggish stream I had gotten from Västergötland, that I led across the plain, so that it would have a good connection with the Mälaren bays.'

  64. 28

    Now the other provinces understood how everything had come about, and although they were somewhat annoyed, they couldn't help feeling that Uppland had arranged things well for itself.

  65. 'You have done a great deal with slender means,' said the provinces.

  66. 'You are surely the one among us who is wisest and most capable.'

  67. 29

    'My thanks to you for that word!' said Uppland.

  68. 'Since you say so, then it must be I who gets to take the king and the capital for myself.'

  69. 30

    Again the other provinces were annoyed, but what had been decided, they had to stand by.

  70. 31

    And so Uppland got the king and the capital, and became the foremost of all the provinces.

  71. And that was only right, for it is wisdom and ability that turn beggars into princes, even to this day."

The particulars

The text
Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, Selma Lagerlöf. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.
Translation
Public-domain Swedish (Lagerlöf, d. 1940; published 1906–07). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
Words
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Data
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Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.