The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Gorgo, örnen

Gorgo, the Eagle

223 sentences · 17 notes

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  1. 1

    Far up among the mountains of Lapland lay an old eagle's nest on a ledge that jutted out from a steep cliff face.

    LångtfarLångt · adverbmodifies uppe
    uppeup highuppe · adverbmodifies fjäll
    blandamongbland · prepositionpreposition marking fjäll
    LapplandsLapland'sLappland · proper noun, genitivepossessor of fjäll
    fjällmountainfjäll · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of låg
    låglayligga · verb, past, indicative, activemain verb of the sentence
    ettaen · determiner, neuter, singulardeterminer of örnnäste
    gammaltoldgammal · adjective, nominative, neuter, singularmodifies örnnäste
    örnnästeeagle's nestörnnäste · noun, nominative, neuter, singularsubject of låg
    påonpå · prepositionpreposition marking avsats
    enaen · determiner, common gender, singulardeterminer of avsats
    avsatsa ledgeavsats · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of låg
    somthatsom · pronounsubject of sköt

    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.

    skötjuttedsköt · verb, past, indicative, activerelative clause on avsats
    utoutut · adverbdepends on sköt
    frånfromfrån · prepositionpreposition marking bergvägg
    enaen · determiner, common gender, singulardeterminer of bergvägg
    brantsteepbrant · adjective, nominative, neuter, singularmodifies bergvägg
    bergväggrock wallbergvägg · noun, nominative, neuter, singularoblique complement of sköt

  2. It was built of pine branches, laid layer upon layer over one another.

  3. Over many years it had been added to and reinforced, and now lay on the rock shelf a couple of meters wide and nearly as tall as a Lapp hut.

  4. 2

    The rock face where the eagle's nest lay rose above a rather large valley that in summer was inhabited by a flock of wild geese.

  5. This valley was an excellent refuge for them.

  6. It was so hidden away among the mountains that hardly anyone knew of it, not even among the Lapps.

  7. In the middle of the valley lay a small round lake, where there was plenty of food for the little goslings, and on the tussocky lakeshores, which were covered with willow bushes and small stunted birches, there were the best nesting places the geese could ever wish for.

  8. 3

    In all times there had lived eagles up on the cliff and wild geese down in the valley.

  9. Every year the eagles carried off a few of them, but took care never to take so many that the wild geese would not dare stay on in the valley.

  10. The wild geese, for their part, had no small benefit from the eagles.

  11. Robbers they were, but they kept other robbers at a distance.

  12. 4

    A couple of years before Nils Holgersson went roaming about with the wild geese, old Akka the leader-goose from Kebnekaise stood one morning at the bottom of the mountain valley and looked up at the eagle's nest.

  13. The eagles used to go out hunting a while after sunrise, and through all the summers Akka had lived in the valley, she had every morning waited in this way for their departure, to see whether they would stay in the valley and hunt there, or fly off to other hunting grounds.

  14. 5

    She did not need to wait long before the two stately birds left the rock shelf.

  15. Beautiful, but fearsome, they floated out into the air.

  16. They set their course down toward the lowlands, and Akka let out a sigh of relief.

  17. 6

    The old leader-goose had stopped laying eggs and raising young, and during the summers she used to pass the time going from one goose-nest to another, giving advice on brooding and the care of the young.

  18. Besides that she kept watch, not only for the eagles, but also for arctic foxes, owls, and all the other enemies that might threaten the wild geese and their young.

  19. 7

    At midday Akka again began to watch for the eagles.

  20. She had done the same thing every day through all the summers she had lived in the valley.

  21. She could tell at once from their flight whether they had had a good hunt, and she then felt safe for those that belonged to her.

  22. But this day she did not see the eagles come back.

  23. »I must have grown old and dull-witted,» she thought, when she had waited for them a while.

  24. »By now the eagles must surely be home long since.»

  25. 8

    She looked up at the cliff face in the afternoon and expected to see the eagles on the sharp outcrop where they used to sit and take their midday rest, and she tried to catch sight of them toward evening, when they were to bathe in the mountain lake, but again she failed to find them.

  26. Again she lamented that she had grown old.

  27. She was so used to the eagles keeping to the mountain above her that she could not imagine the possibility that they had not come back there.

  28. 9

    The next morning Akka was awake in good time to watch for the eagles.

  29. But this time too she did not see them.

  30. Instead, in the morning stillness, she heard a cry that sounded both angry and pitiful and seemed to come from the eagle's nest.

  31. »Can something really be wrong up there with the eagles?» she thought.

  32. She rose swiftly and climbed so high that she could see down into the eagle's nest.

  33. 10

    Up there she saw neither the hen eagle nor the cock eagle.

  34. In the whole nest there was no one but a half-naked chick, lying there screaming for food.

  35. 11

    Akka lowered herself slowly and hesitantly toward the eagle's nest.

  36. It was a gruesome place to arrive at.

  37. One could tell what sort of band of robbers made their home there.

  38. In the nest and on the rock shelf lay bleached bones, bloody feathers and strips of skin, hares' heads, birds' beaks, and feathered grouse-feet.

  39. The eaglet too, lying in the midst of all this, was repulsive to look at, with its great gaping beak, its clumsy down-covered body, and its unfinished wings, where the coming quill-feathers stuck out like spikes.

  40. 12

    At last Akka overcame her reluctance and came down onto the edge of the nest, but at the same time she looked anxiously about in every direction, for she expected at every moment that the old eagles would come back home.

  41. 13

    »Well, it's about time someone finally came,» cried the eaglet.

  42. »Get me some food this instant!»

  43. 14

    »Now, now, don't be in such a hurry!» said Akka.

  44. »First tell me where your father and mother are keeping themselves!»

  45. 15

    »If only I knew that myself!

  46. They went off yesterday morning and left me a mountain lemming to live on while they were gone.

  47. You can well imagine that it's long since gone.

  48. It's shameful of mother to let me starve like this.»

  49. 16

    Akka now began to think that the old eagles really had been shot, and she thought that if she let the eaglet starve to death, she might perhaps be rid of the whole band of robbers for all time.

  50. But at the same time it went very much against her to refuse aid to an abandoned young one, so far as it lay in her power.

  51. 17

    »What are you sitting there staring for?» said the eaglet.

  52. »Didn't you hear that I want food?»

  53. 18

    Akka spread her wings and dropped down to the little lake at the bottom of the valley.

  54. A while later she came back up to the eagle's nest with a trout in her beak.

  55. 19

    The eaglet fell into a violent rage when she laid the fish down in front of him.

  56. »Do you think I can eat such stuff?» said he, pushed the fish aside, and tried to strike at Akka with his beak.

  57. »Get me a ptarmigan or a lemming, do you hear!»

  58. 20

    Now Akka stretched out her head and gave the eaglet a good nip on the scruff of his neck.

  59. »I'll tell you,» said the old one, »that if I am to get you food, you'll have to be content with what I can give you.

  60. Your father and mother are dead, so you can get no help from them, but if you'd rather lie here and starve to death while you wait for ptarmigans and lemmings, I won't stop you.»

  61. 21

    When Akka had said this, she flew hastily off and did not show herself in the eagle's nest until a good while afterward, the eaglet had eaten up the fish, and when she laid down another one in front of him, he swallowed it at once, although it clearly seemed to him very repulsive.

  62. 22

    Akka now had a hard task before her.

  63. The old eagles never showed themselves again, and she alone had to provide the eaglet with all the food he needed.

  64. She gave him fish and frogs, and he did not seem to fare badly on this diet, but grew big and strong.

  65. He soon forgot his parents, the eagles, and believed that Akka was his real mother.

  66. Akka, for her part, loved him as though he had been her own child.

  67. She tried to give him a good upbringing and to wean him off his wildness and arrogance.

  68. 23

    When a couple of weeks had passed, Akka began to notice that the time was drawing near when she would molt her feathers and be unable to fly.

  69. For a whole month's turning she would not be able to carry food to the eaglet, and he would be forced to starve to death.

  70. 24

    »Now, Gorgo,» said Akka to him one day, »I can no longer come to you with fish.

  71. It's up to you now whether you dare come down to the valley floor, so that I can go on getting you food.

  72. You have to choose between starving to death up here or throwing yourself down into the valley, but that too could cost you your life.»

  73. 25

    Without a moment's hesitation the eaglet stepped up onto the edge of the nest, hardly troubling to measure the distance down to the valley with his eyes, spread out his little wings, and set off.

  74. He rolled around in the air a couple of times, but still made enough use of his wings that he reached the ground fairly unhurt.

  75. 26

    Down here Gorgo came to spend his summer in the company of the little goslings and became a good comrade to them.

  76. Since he considered himself a gosling, he tried to live the same way they did, and when they swam out on the lake, he followed, until he was nearly drowned.

  77. It caused him much humiliation that he could not learn to swim, and he went to Akka and complained.

  78. »Why can't I swim, like the others?» said he.

  79. — »You got claws too crooked and toes too big while you lay up there on the rock shelf,» said Akka.

  80. »But don't be sad about it!

  81. You'll turn out to be a fine bird all the same.»

  82. 27

    The eaglet's wings soon grew so large that they could bear him, but not until autumn, when the goslings were learning to fly, did it occur to him that he could use them for flight too.

  83. A proud time now began for him, for in this sport he was at once the foremost.

  84. His comrades never lingered longer up in the air than they had to, but he stayed up there almost the whole day and practiced the art of flying.

  85. He still had not realized that he was of a different race than the geese, but he could not help noticing a great many things that puzzled him, and he asked Akka endless questions.

  86. »Why do ptarmigans and lemmings run and hide when my shadow falls across the mountain?» he asked.

  87. »They don't show such terror of the other young geese.»

  88. — »Your wings grew too large while you lay on the rock shelf,» said Akka.

  89. »That is what frightens the little creatures.

  90. But don't be sad about it!

  91. You'll turn out to be a fine bird all the same.»

  92. 28

    Once the eagle could fly well, he taught himself to fish and to catch frogs, but soon he began to brood over this too.

  93. »How does it come about that I live on fish and frogs?» said he.

  94. »The other young geese don't.»

  95. — »It comes of the fact that I had no other food to give you when you lay up on the rock shelf,» said Akka,

  96. »But don't be sad about it!

  97. You'll turn out to be a fine bird all the same.»

  98. 29

    When the wild geese set out on their autumn migration, Gorgo flew along in their flock.

  99. He still thought of himself as one of them.

  100. But the air was full of birds journeying south, and there was great commotion among them when Akka showed herself with an eagle in her company.

  101. The wild geese's formation was constantly circled by swarms of the curious, who loudly voiced their astonishment.

  102. Akka bade them be silent, but it was impossible to bind so many wagging tongues.

  103. »Why do they call me an eagle?» Gorgo asked over and over, growing more and more irritated.

  104. »Don't they see that I'm a wild goose?

  105. I'm no bird of prey that devours my own kind.

  106. How dare they give me such an ugly name?»

  107. 30

    One day they flew over a farm where many hens were walking about the rubbish heap, pecking.

  108. »An eagle! An eagle!» cried the hens and began to run to find shelter.

  109. But Gorgo, who had always heard eagles spoken of as wild evildoers, could not control his rage.

  110. He folded his wings together, shot down to the ground, and struck his claws into one of the hens.

  111. »I'll teach you, I will, that I am no eagle,» he cried in fury, and struck at her with his beak.

  112. 31

    At that same moment he heard Akka calling to him from up in the air, and he rose obediently.

  113. The wild goose flew at him and began to discipline him.

  114. »What do you think you're doing?» she cried, and struck at him with her beak.

  115. »Was it perhaps your intention to tear the poor hen to death?

  116. You ought to be ashamed!»

  117. But when the eagle, without offering resistance, took the wild goose's correction, a storm of mockery and jeering words rose up from the great flocks of birds surrounding them.

  118. The eagle heard this and turned toward Akka with angry looks, as though he had wanted to attack her.

  119. But he quickly changed his mind, threw himself up into the air with powerful wingbeats, rose so high that no cry could reach him, and sailed about up there for as long as the wild geese could see him.

  120. 32

    Three days later he showed himself again among the wild-goose flock.

  121. 33

    »I know now who I am,» he said to Akka.

  122. »Since I am an eagle, I must live as befits an eagle, but I think we can still be friends all the same.

  123. You, or any of yours, I will never attack.»

  124. 34

    But Akka had set her pride on succeeding in raising an eagle into a gentle and harmless bird, and she could not bear that he wanted to live according to his own liking.

  125. »Do you think I want to be friends with a bird of prey?» said she.

  126. »Live as I have taught you to live, and you shall be allowed to follow along in my formation as before!»

  127. 35

    They were both proud and unbending, and neither of them would give way.

  128. It ended with Akka forbidding the eagle to show himself in her presence, and her anger against him was so strong that no one dared speak his name in her hearing.

  129. 36

    From that time on Gorgo roamed the land, alone and shunned like all great robbers.

  130. He was often in gloomy spirits, and no doubt he longed many a time to go back to the days when he had believed himself a wild goose and played with the happy goslings.

  131. Among the animals he had a great reputation for boldness.

  132. They used to say that he feared no one but his foster mother, Akka.

  133. They could also tell of him that he had never once laid hands on a wild goose.

  134. 37

    IN CAPTIVITY.

  135. 38

    Gorgo was only three years old and had not yet thought of getting himself a wife and settling down, when one day he was caught by a hunter and sold to Skansen.

  136. There a pair of eagles were already kept.

  137. They were held captive in a cage built of iron bars and steel wire.

  138. It stood out in the open and was so large that one could have moved a couple of trees into it and set up a good-sized rock cairn inside, so that the eagles would feel at home.

  139. But despite all this the birds did not thrive.

  140. They sat nearly the whole day motionless in one and the same spot.

  141. Their beautiful, dark plumage grew ragged and dull, and their eyes stared out into the air in hopeless longing.

  142. 39

    The first week that Gorgo found himself in captivity, he was still awake and lively, but afterward a heavy drowsiness began to creep over him.

  143. He sat still in one place like the other eagles, staring straight ahead without seeing anything, and no longer knew how the days went by.

  144. 40

    One morning, as Gorgo sat in his usual stupor, he heard someone calling to him from down on the ground.

  145. He was so drowsy that he could hardly bring himself to lower his eyes.

  146. »Who is it that's calling me?» he asked.

  147. — »Why, Gorgo, don't you know me?

  148. It's Thumbietot, who used to fly about with the wild geese.»

  149. — »Is Akka a captive too?» asked Gorgo, in a tone as though he were trying to gather his thoughts after a long sleep.

  150. — »No, Akka and the white gander and the whole flock are surely safe and sound up in Lapland by now,» said the boy.

  151. »It's only I who am a captive here.»

  152. 41

    While the boy was speaking, he saw Gorgo turn his eyes away and begin to stare straight out into the air just as before.

  153. »Golden eagle!» cried the boy.

  154. »I haven't forgotten that you once carried me back to the wild geese, and that you spared the white gander's life.

  155. Tell me if there's any way I can help you!»

  156. Gorgo barely raised his head.

  157. »Don't disturb me, Thumbietot!» said he.

  158. »I'm sitting here dreaming that I'm soaring free high up in the air.

  159. I don't want to be awake.»

  160. — »You must move about and pay attention to what's happening around you,» the boy urged.

  161. »Otherwise you'll soon look as miserable as the other eagles.»

  162. — »I wish I were like them.

  163. They're so lost in their dreams that nothing more can disturb them,» said the eagle.

  164. 42

    When night came and all the eagles were asleep, a light scraping sound was heard in the steel-wire netting that covered the roof of their cage.

  165. The two old and dulled captives did not let themselves be disturbed by the noise, but Gorgo woke.

  166. »Who's there?

  167. Who is it moving about up on the roof?» he asked.

  168. 43

    »It's Thumbietot, Gorgo,» answered the boy.

  169. »I'm sitting here filing through the steel wire, so that you'll be able to fly away.»

  170. 44

    The eagle raised his head and saw, in the bright night, how the boy sat filing at the steel-wire netting stretched over the cage.

  171. He felt a moment's hope, but then despondency took over.

  172. »I'm a big bird, Thumbietot,» said he.

  173. »How will you manage to file through so many wires that I can get out?

  174. It's better that you give this up and leave me in peace.»

  175. — »Sleep on, and don't worry about me!» answered the boy.

  176. »I won't be finished tonight, nor tomorrow night either, but I'm going to try to free you all the same, for here you'll be utterly ruined.»

  177. 45

    Gorgo sank into sleep, but when he woke the next morning, he saw at once that a great many wires had been filed through.

  178. That day he felt not nearly so drowsy as the days before.

  179. He beat his wings and hopped about on the tree branches to work the stiffness out of his joints.

  180. 46

    One early morning, just as the first streak of dawn was lighting the sky, Thumbietot woke the eagle.

  181. »Try it now, Gorgo!» said he.

  182. 47

    The eagle looked up.

  183. The boy had indeed filed through so many wires that there was now a great hole in the steel-wire netting.

  184. Gorgo moved his wings and threw himself up toward it.

  185. A couple of times he failed and fell back down into the cage, but at last he came safely out into the open.

  186. 48

    He rose with a proud flight up to the skies.

  187. Little Thumbietot sat watching him go with a wistful look, and wished that someone might come and give him, too, his freedom.

  188. 49

    The boy was by now quite at home on Skansen.

  189. He had become acquainted with all the animals to be found there, and had made many friends among them.

  190. And he had to admit that there was so much to see and to learn there that he had had no trouble passing the time.

  191. But every day his thoughts turned with great longing to Morten Goosey-Gander and his other traveling companions.

  192. »If only I weren't bound by my promise,» he thought, »I would surely find some bird to carry me to them.»

  193. 50

    It may seem strange that Klement Larsson had not given the boy back his freedom, but one must remember how giddy in the head the little fiddler had been when he left Skansen.

  194. On the morning he was to travel, he had indeed thought of setting out the little fellow's food in a blue bowl, but to his misfortune he had not been able to find one.

  195. Then all the Skansen folk, Lapps, Dala girls, construction workers, and gardeners, had come to bid him farewell, and he had not had time to get the blue bowl.

  196. The departure was drawing near, and at last he had seen no other way out than to ask the old Lapp for help.

  197. »It's like this, that one of the little folk lives here at Skansen,» said Klement, »and I usually give him a bit of food every morning.

  198. Would you do me the favor of taking these coins, buying a blue bowl with them, and setting it out tomorrow with a little porridge and milk under the steps of the Bollnäs cottage?»

  199. The old Lapp looked surprised, but there was no time for Klement to explain the matter further, for he had to be off to the station.

  200. 51

    The Lapp had indeed gone down to Djurgårdsstaden to buy the bowl, but when he saw no blue one that he found suitable, he bought a white one.

  201. And in the white one he conscientiously set out food every morning.

  202. 52

    In this way the boy had not been released from his promise.

  203. He knew that Klement was gone, but he himself had not been given leave to travel.

  204. 53

    That night the boy longed more than usual for freedom, and this was because it had now truly become spring and summer.

  205. He had had a hard time with cold and foul weather many times during the journey, and when he first came to Skansen, he had thought that it was perhaps just as well that he had had to break off the journey, for he would surely have frozen to death if he had come up to Lapland in the month of May.

  206. But now it had grown warm, the ground stood green, birches and poplars were clothed in silken leaves, the cherry trees, yes, every kind of fruit tree stood full of blossoms, the berry bushes already had small unripe berries on their twigs, the oaks were unfolding their leaves with great caution, peas, cabbage, and beans were growing green in Skansen's kitchen beds.

  207. »It must surely be warm and lovely up in Lapland too now,» thought the boy.

  208. »I would so like to sit on Morten Goosey-Gander's back on a beautiful morning like this.

  209. It would be delightful to ride about in the warm, still air and look down at the ground, decked and adorned as it now lies with green grass and fair flowers.»

  210. 54

    He sat there thinking this, when the eagle suddenly shot straight down out of the air and came and settled beside him on the roof of the cage.

  211. »I wanted to try out my wings, to see if they're still good for anything,» said Gorgo.

  212. »You didn't think, did you, that I meant to leave you behind in captivity?

  213. Climb up on my back now, and I'll carry you back to your traveling companions!»

  214. 55

    »No, that's impossible,» said the boy,

  215. »I've given my word to stay here until I'm set free.»

  216. 56

    »What nonsense are you talking?» said Gorgo.

  217. »First they brought you here against your will, and then they forced you to promise to stay here!

  218. You can surely see that such a promise as that one doesn't have to keep.»

  219. — »Yes, I'm bound to it all the same,» said the boy.

  220. »You have my thanks for your good intentions, but you can't help me.»

  221. 57

    »Can't I?» said Gorgo.

  222. »You'll soon see.»

  223. And with that he seized hold of Nils Holgersson with his great foot, rose with him up into the sky of heaven, and vanished off toward the north.

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.