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Dunfin

Dunfin

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  1. 1

    No one could be milder or kinder than the little gray goose Dunfin.

    Ingenno oneingen · pronoun, common gender, singularsubject of mild
    kundecouldkunna · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, activeauxiliary of mild
    varabevara · auxiliary verb, active, infinitivecopula linking to mild
    meramoremycket · adverbmodifies mild
    mildmildmild · adjective, nominative, common gender, singularmodifies Dunfin
    ochandoch · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    godgoodgod · adjective, nominative, common gender, singularcoordinated with mild
    änthanän · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of grågåsen
    denaen · determiner, common gender, singulardeterminer of grågåsen
    lillalittleliten · adjective, nominative, singularmodifies grågåsen
    grågåsengreylag goosegrågåse · noun, nominative, common gender, singularadverbial clause on mild
    DunfinDunfinDunfin · noun, nominative, common gender, singularhead of the phrase

  2. All the wild geese were very fond of her, and the white gander would have gone to his death for her.

  3. When Dunfin asked for something, not even Akka could bring herself to say no.

  4. 2

    As soon as Dunfin reached Lake Mälaren, she began to recognize the countryside.

  5. Out beyond it lay the sea with a great archipelago, and there her parents and siblings lived on a small islet.

  6. She begged the wild geese to go to her home before they traveled on northward, so that she might show her own that she was still alive.

  7. It would be such a great joy to them.

  8. 3

    Akka said frankly that she thought Dunfin's parents and siblings had not shown her much love, when they had abandoned her on Öland.

  9. But Dunfin would not admit she was right about this.

  10. “What else were they to do, when they saw that I could not fly?” she said.

  11. “They could hardly stay behind on Öland for my sake.”

  12. 4

    Dunfin began telling the wild geese about her home out in the archipelago, to persuade them to make the journey.

  13. It was a rocky islet.

  14. Seen from a distance, one might think there was nothing there but bare rock, but once you arrived, you discovered the finest grazing in the clefts and hollows.

  15. And better nesting places than those found there in the crevices of the rock or among the willow bushes, one would have to search hard to find.

  16. But best of all was the old fisherman who lived out there.

  17. Dunfin had heard that in his young days he was said to have been a great marksman, forever out along the outer skerries hunting birds.

  18. But now in his old age, since his wife had died and the children had moved away from home, so that he was alone in the nest, he had taken to caring for the birds out on his skerry.

  19. He never fired a shot at them, nor did he allow anyone else to do so.

  20. He went about among the birds' nests, and when the hens lay on their eggs, he gathered food for them.

  21. No one was afraid of him.

  22. Dunfin had many times been inside his hut and been fed breadcrumbs.

  23. But because the fisherman was so good to the birds, they had moved out to the skerry in such numbers that space had begun to grow scarce.

  24. If one arrived there too late in the spring, it could happen that every nesting place was already taken.

  25. That was the very reason Dunfin's parents and siblings had been forced to fly off and leave her behind.

  26. 5

    Dunfin pleaded so long that she got her way, even though the wild geese sensed that they were behind schedule and ought rather to have flown straight north.

  27. But such a little trip out into the archipelago surely need not delay the journey by more than a single day.

  28. 6

    They set off one morning, once they had fortified themselves with a good meal, and flew eastward over Lake Mälaren.

  29. The boy did not know quite where they were now bound, but he noticed that the farther they traveled east, the livelier the water became, and the more thickly settled the shores grew.

  30. 7

    Fully laden barges and sloops, boats and fish-wells were making their way east, met or passed by a great many handsome white steamboats.

  31. Along the shores ran highways and railways, all heading toward the same goal.

  32. There was some place over there in the east that everyone wanted to reach this morning.

  33. 8

    On one of the islands he saw a great white castle, and a little way east of it the shores began to dress themselves in villas.

  34. At first these stood with long gaps between them,

  35. 9

    then closer and closer together, and soon villa stood by villa the whole length of the shore.

  36. They were of every kind.

  37. Here stood a manor, and there stood a cottage.

  38. There rose a long, low manor house, and there a villa with many little turrets.

  39. Some stood in gardens, but most were set in the leafy woods that fringed the shore, with no further planting at all.

  40. But different as they were, one thing was alike in all of them: they were not grave and plain like other buildings, but painted gaily and brightly in green and blue and white and red, like playhouses.

  41. 10

    The boy sat looking down at the amusing shore villas, when Dunfin gave a cry.

  42. “Now I truly know where I am.

  43. Over there lies the city that swims upon the water.”

  44. 11

    Then the boy looked ahead and at first noticed nothing but a few pale mists and fogs rolling forward over the water.

  45. But then he glimpsed tall spires and here and there a house with many rows of windows.

  46. They emerged and hid themselves again, just as the mists drifted this way and that.

  47. But he saw no strip of shore at all.

  48. Everything over there seemed to rest upon the water.

  49. 12

    As the boy drew near the city, he no longer saw cheerful playhouse cottages along the shores.

  50. Instead these were covered with dark factory buildings.

  51. Great stacks of coal and lumber stretched behind high fences, and before black, grimy wharves lay clumsy cargo steamers.

  52. But the shimmering, translucent mists spread out over it all, and they made everything look so vast and mighty and strange that it almost became beautiful.

  53. 13

    The wild geese flew past factories and cargo steamers and drew near the mist-wrapped spires.

  54. Then suddenly all the fogs sank down toward the water, except a few thin, light ones that hovered above their heads, gaily tinted in pink and pale blue.

  55. The others lay rolling over water and land.

  56. They hid the foundations and lower storeys of the houses entirely, but the upper floors, roofs, towers, gables, and pediments remained visible.

  57. In this way some houses grew so tall that they were veritable towers of Babel.

  58. The boy could

  59. 14

    well imagine that they stood on hills and heights, but these he did not see, only the houses hovering up out of the mists.

  60. These floated about a clear white, while the houses themselves lay dark and black, for the sun stood in the east and could not reach to shine on them.

  61. 15

    The boy understood that he was passing over a great city, for he saw roofs and spires rising up out of the fog on every side.

  62. Now and then an opening appeared in the swirling mists, and he looked down into a running, roaring current, but land he could make out nowhere.

  63. It was beautiful to see all this, but he felt almost oppressed, as one does on encountering what one cannot understand.

  64. 16

    As soon as he had flown past the city, he found the ground no longer hidden by mist, and shores, water, and islands were plainly visible again.

  65. He then turned around to try to see the city better, but he did not manage it.

  66. Now it looked even more enchanted.

  67. The mists had taken on the color of the sunshine and drifted along in the palest red, blue, or gold.

  68. The houses were white, as though built of light itself, but windows and spires gleamed like fire.

  69. And everything floated upon the water just as before.

  70. 17

    The wild geese traveled straight toward the east.

  71. At first it looked almost as it had at Mälaren.

  72. They first passed over factories and workshops.

  73. Then villas began to line the shores.

  74. Steamboats and sloops swarmed, but now they came from the east and went westward toward the city.

  75. 18

    They flew on, and in place of the narrow bays of Mälaren and the small islands, broader waters and larger islands now spread out beneath them.

  76. The mainland fell away to the side and was soon no longer to be seen.

  77. The vegetation grew scantier, the deciduous trees became rare, and the pines took over.

  78. The villas ceased, and farm cottages and fishermen's huts took their place.

  79. 19

    They flew still farther out, and now they no longer found the large, inhabited islands; only small skerries lay scattered over the water in countless numbers.

  80. The bays were no longer crowded in by land.

  81. The sea lay before them, vast and unbounded.

  82. 20

    Out here the wild geese landed on a rocky islet, and once they stood on the ground, the boy turned to Dunfin.

  83. “What was that great city we flew over?” he said.

  84. 21

    “I don't know what it's called among humans,” said Dunfin.

  85. “We gray geese call it the City that Swims on the Water.”

  86. 22

    THE SISTERS.

  87. 23

    Dunfin had two sisters: Vingsköna and Guldöga.

  88. They were strong and clever birds, but they had neither so soft and glossy a plumage as Dunfin, nor so mild and sweet a disposition.

  89. Ever since they were small yellow goslings, their parents and relatives, indeed even the old fisherman, had let them plainly feel that they liked Dunfin better than they liked them, and so the sisters had always hated her.

  90. 24

    When the wild geese landed on the skerry, Vingsköna and Guldöga were grazing on a small green patch a little way from the shore, and at once caught sight of the strangers.

  91. 25

    “Look, sister Guldöga, what stately wild geese, landing on our island!” said Vingsköna.

  92. “I have seldom seen birds with such a splendid bearing.

  93. And do you see, they have a white gander among them?

  94. Have you ever seen a handsomer bird?

  95. One could almost take him for a swan.”

  96. 26

    Guldöga agreed with her sister that these were most certainly very distinguished strangers who had come to the island.

  97. But suddenly she broke off and cried: “Sister Vingsköna, sister Vingsköna!

  98. Don't you see who it is they're bringing with them?”

  99. 27

    At that same moment Vingsköna too caught sight of Dunfin and was so astonished that for a long while she stood with her beak open, only hissing.

  100. “It can surely never be possible that it's her?

  101. How has she come to be among such company?

  102. We left her, after all, to starve to death on Öland.”

  103. 28

    “The worst of it is that she'll go tattling to father and mother, telling them it was we who flew so hard into her that her wing was put out of joint,” said Guldöga.

  104. “You'll see, it will end with us being driven off the skerry.”

  105. 29

    “We have nothing but vexation to look forward to, now that the spoiled brat has come back,” said Vingsköna.

  106. “But for now I think it wisest that we show ourselves as glad as we possibly can that she has come back.

  107. She's so foolish that she may not even have noticed we bumped into her on purpose.”

  108. 30

    While Vingsköna and Guldöga were talking in this manner, the wild geese had been standing on the shore, smoothing their feathers back into place after the flight.

  109. Now they marched in a long line up the rocky shore to the cleft where Dunfin knew her parents were in the habit of staying.

  110. 31

    Dunfin's parents were excellent people.

  111. They had lived on the island longer than anyone else, and they were in the habit of advising and helping all newcomers.

  112. They too had seen the wild geese arrive, but they had not recognized Dunfin in the flock.

  113. “It's remarkable to see wild geese land here on the skerry,” said the gander-farmer.

  114. “It's a splendid flock.

  115. You can tell as much just from their flight.

  116. But it won't be easy to find grazing ground for so many.”

  117. “—We're surely not so overcrowded yet that we can't take in those who come,” said his wife.

  118. She was mild and gentle of temper, she too, like Dunfin.

  119. 32

    When Akka came marching up, Dunfin's parents went to meet her and were just about to welcome her to the island, when Dunfin flew up from her place at the back of the line and landed right between her parents.

  120. “Father, Mother, here I am!

  121. Don't you recognize Dunfin?” she cried.

  122. At first the old ones could not quite make sense of what they saw, but then they recognized their daughter and were, of course, unreasonably overjoyed.

  123. 33

    In the very midst of the wild geese and Mårten Gander and Dunfin herself all cackling away as eagerly as they could to tell how Dunfin had been saved, Vingsköna and Guldöga came running up.

  124. They called out their welcome while still far off, and showed themselves so glad that Dunfin was home that she was quite touched.

  125. 34

    The wild geese found themselves well off on the skerry, and it was decided that they would not travel on until the next morning.

  126. After a while the sisters asked Dunfin whether she would like to come with them to see where they meant to lay their nests.

  127. She went with them at once and saw that they had chosen well-hidden and sheltered nesting spots.

  128. “And where will you settle, Dunfin?” they asked.

  129. “—Me?” said Dunfin.

  130. “I don't intend to stay here on the skerry.

  131. I'm going with the wild geese up to Lapland.”

  132. “—It's a pity you're to leave us,” said the sisters.

  133. “—I would gladly have stayed on with you and our parents,” said Dunfin.

  134. “But I have already promised the great white one…

  135. “—What?” cried Vingsköna.

  136. “Are you to have the handsome gander?

  137. Well, that is…

  138. But here Guldöga gave her a sharp nudge, and she broke off.

  139. 35

    The two spiteful sisters had a great deal to talk about the whole morning.

  140. They were quite beside themselves that Dunfin had won such a suitor as the white gander.

  141. They had suitors of their own, but they were only ordinary gray geese, and now that they had seen Mårten Gander, they found their own so ugly and shabby that they no longer wanted to look at them.

  142. “This will grieve me to death,” said Guldöga.

  143. “If only it had been you, sister Vingsköna, who had gotten him!”

  144. “—I would rather he were dead than that I should have to go about all summer thinking that Dunfin has gotten herself a white gander,” said Vingsköna.

  145. 36

    The sisters, however, went on being very friendly toward Dunfin, and in the afternoon Guldöga took Dunfin along so that she might see the one Guldöga meant to marry.

  146. “He isn't as fine as the one you're to have,” said Guldöga.

  147. “But in return, one can at least be certain that he is what he seems.”

  148. “—What do you mean, Guldöga?” said Dunfin.

  149. Guldöga at first refused to explain what she had meant, but then it came out that she and Vingsköna had wondered whether everything was quite right with the white one.

  150. “We've never seen a white goose travel with the wild geese,” said her sister, “and we wonder whether he might be under some spell.”

  151. “—You're being very silly!

  152. He's simply a tame goose,” said Dunfin, offended.

  153. “—He travels with one who is under a spell,” said Guldöga, “so he himself may well be under one too.

  154. Aren't you afraid he might be a black cormorant?”

  155. 37

    She chose her words very carefully and thoroughly frightened poor Dunfin.

  156. “You don't mean what you're saying,” said the little gray goose.

  157. “You just want to frighten me.”

  158. “—I mean the best for you, Dunfin,” said Guldöga.

  159. “I can't think of anything worse than seeing you fly off with a black cormorant.

  160. But now I'll tell you something.

  161. Try to get him to eat a couple of the roots I've gathered here!

  162. If he's under a spell, it will show itself at once.

  163. If he isn't, he'll stay just as he is.”

  164. 38

    The boy sat among the geese, listening to Akka and the old gander-farmer talking together, when Dunfin came flying up.

  165. “Thumbietot!

  166. Thumbietot!” she cried.

  167. “Mårten Gander is dying!

  168. I've killed him!”

  169. “—Let me climb up on your back, Dunfin, and take me to him!” cried the boy.

  170. They set off, and Akka and the wild geese went along too.

  171. When they reached the gander, he lay on the ground.

  172. He could say nothing; he only gasped for breath.

  173. “Tickle him under the throat, and thump him on the back!” said Akka.

  174. The boy did so, and at once the big white one coughed up a large root that had gotten stuck in his throat.

  175. “Is it these you've been eating?” said Akka, pointing to some roots lying on the ground.

  176. “—Yes,” said the gander.

  177. “—Then it was a good thing they stuck in your throat,” said Akka.

  178. “They're poisonous.

  179. If you had swallowed them down, you would certainly have died.”

  180. “—It was Dunfin who asked me to eat some of them,” said the gander.

  181. “—I'd gotten them from my sister,” said Dunfin, and told the whole story.

  182. “—You must be on your guard against your sisters, Dunfin,” said Akka, “for they surely don't wish you well.”

  183. 39

    But Dunfin had such a nature that she could not think ill of anyone, and when Vingsköna came a while later wanting to show her her own suitor, Dunfin went along at once.

  184. “Yes, he isn't as fine as the one you're getting,” said her sister, “but he's ever so much braver and bolder.”

  185. “—How can you know that?” said Dunfin.

  186. “—Well, there's been great misery among the gulls and ducks here on the skerry lately, for every morning at daybreak a strange bird of prey comes and carries one of them off.”

  187. “—What kind of bird is it?” said Dunfin.

  188. “—We don't know,” answered her sister.

  189. “One like him has never before been seen here on the skerry, and the strange thing is that he never attacks any of us geese.

  190. But now my suitor has set his mind on fighting him tomorrow morning and driving him off.”

  191. “—I only hope it goes well!” said Dunfin.

  192. “—No, I hardly think it will,” said her sister.

  193. “If my gander were as big and strong as yours, then I might have some hope.”

  194. “—Would you like me to ask Mårten Gander to go up against the strange bird?” said Dunfin.

  195. “—Yes, indeed I would,” said Vingsköna.

  196. “You couldn't do me a greater service.”

  197. 40

    The next morning the gander was awake before the sun, took his stand on the highest point of the skerry, and scanned every direction.

  198. Soon he saw a large, dark bird coming from the west.

  199. The wings were immensely long, and it was easy to tell that this was an eagle.

  200. The gander had not expected a more dangerous opponent than an owl, and now he understood he would not escape this alive.

  201. But it never once occurred to him that he ought to avoid a fight with a bird many times stronger than himself.

  202. 41

    The eagle swooped down on a gull and dug its talons into it.

  203. Before it had managed to take off, Mårten Gander rushed forward.

  204. “Let go of that one!” he shouted.

  205. “And never come back here again, or you'll have me to reckon with!”

  206. “—What kind of madman are you?” said the eagle.

  207. “It's lucky for you that I never make a habit of fighting geese.

  208. Otherwise it would soon be over for you.”

  209. 42

    Mårten Gander thought the eagle considered itself too grand to fight him, and hurled himself at it in a rage, biting it in the throat and beating it with his wings.

  210. This the eagle could not, of course, tolerate, and it began to fight back, though still not with its full strength.

  211. 43

    The boy lay sleeping in the same spot as Akka and the wild geese, when he heard Dunfin cry: “Thumbietot!

  212. Thumbietot!

  213. Mårten Gander is being torn to death by an eagle!”

  214. “—Let me climb up on your back, Dunfin, and take me to him!” said the boy.

  215. 44

    When he arrived, Mårten Gander was bloody and badly torn, but he was still fighting.

  216. The boy could not fight the eagle himself, and there was nothing for it but to fetch better help.

  217. “Quick, Dunfin!

  218. Call Akka and the wild geese here!” he shouted.

  219. The very moment he said this, the eagle stopped fighting.

  220. “Who is it that speaks of Akka?” it asked.

  221. And when it now saw Thumbietot and heard the wild geese cackling, it lifted its wings.

  222. “Tell Akka that I never expected to meet her or any of her company out here on the sea!” it said, and soared away in a beautiful, swift flight.

  223. “—That was the same eagle that once carried me back to the wild geese,” said the boy, gazing after it in astonishment.

  224. 45

    The wild geese meant to leave the skerry in good time, but first they still wanted to graze a while.

  225. While they were feeding, a scaup duck came up to Dunfin.

  226. “I was to give you greetings from your sisters,” she said.

  227. “They don't dare show themselves among the wild geese, but they asked me to remind you that you shouldn't leave the skerry before you've paid a visit to the old fisherman.”

  228. “—That's really true,” said Dunfin.

  229. But she had by now become so frightened that she did not want to go alone, and asked the gander and Thumbietot to come along up to the hut.

  230. 46

    There the door stood open.

  231. Dunfin went in, but the other two stayed outside.

  232. The very next moment they heard Akka give the signal to leave, and they called for Dunfin.

  233. The gray goose came out of the cottage and flew off with the wild geese from the skerry.

  234. 47

    They had traveled a fairly long way into the archipelago when the boy began to marvel at the gray goose following them.

  235. Dunfin usually flew quietly and lightly.

  236. This one labored along with heavy, rushing wingbeats.

  237. “Akka, turn back!

  238. Akka, turn back!” he cried out suddenly.

  239. “We're in the wrong company!

  240. It's Vingsköna following us!”

  241. 48

    Scarcely had this been said when the gray goose let out such an ugly, angry shriek that everyone understood who she was.

  242. Akka and the others turned toward her, but the gray goose did not flee at once.

  243. Instead she flung herself at the big white one, seized Thumbietot, and flew off with him now in her beak.

  244. 49

    A sharp chase now began out over the archipelago sea.

  245. Vingsköna fled swiftly, but the wild geese were right upon her, and there was no hope at all of her getting away.

  246. 50

    Suddenly they saw a little puff of white smoke rise up from below over the sea, and the crack of a shot was heard.

  247. In their eagerness they had not noticed that they had come directly above a boat where a lone fisherman sat.

  248. 51

    No one, however, was hit by the shot, but just then, right over the boat, Vingsköna opened her beak and let Thumbietot fall down to the sea.

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