The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

En morgon i Ångermanland

A Morning in Ångermanland

179 sentences · 46 notes

Tap a sentence to open its words.

  1. 1

    When the eagle had flown a stretch up into Ångermanland the next morning, he said that today it was his turn to be hungry and have to get himself food.

    Närwhennär · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of farit
    örneneagleörn · noun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of farit
    hadehadha · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, activeauxiliary of farit
    faritflownfari · verb, active, supineadverbial clause on sade
    ettaen · determiner, neuter, singulardeterminer of stycke
    styckepiecestycke · noun, nominative, neuter, singulardirect object of farit
    uppåtupwarduppåt · adverbmodifies farit
    ÅngermanlandÅngermanlandÅngermanland · proper noun, nominativedirect object of uppåt

    Swedish province name.

    nästanextnästa · adjective, nominativemodifies morgon
    morgonmorningmorgon · noun, nominative, common gender, singularoblique complement of uppåt
    sadesaidsäga · verb, past, indicative, activemain verb of the sentence
    hanhehan · pronoun, nominative, common gender, singularsubject of sade
    attthatatt · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of var
    itodayi · prepositionmodifies var
    dagdaydag · noun, nominative, common gender, singularpart of the phrase i
    varwasvara · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, activeclausal complement of sade
    detitden · pronoun, neuter, singularexpletive with var
    hanhehan · pronoun, nominative, common gender, singulardepends on var
    somthatsom · pronounsubject of hungrig

    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.

    varwasvara · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, activecopula linking to hungrig
    hungrighungryhungrig · adjective, nominative, common gender, singularrelative clause on han
    ochandoch · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    måstemustmåste · auxiliary verb, present, indicative, activeauxiliary of skaffa
    skaffato getskaffa · verb, active, infinitivecoordinated with hungrig
    sighimselfsig · pronoun, accusativeindirect object of skaffa
    matfoodmat · noun, nominative, common gender, singulardirect object of skaffa

  2. He set the boy down in an enormous pine that stood on a high mountain ridge, and then flew on his way.

  3. 2

    The boy found a good seat in a fork of branches and sat there looking out over Ångermanland.

  4. It was a beautiful morning; the sunshine gilded the treetops, a gentle wind played through the needles, the loveliest scent rose up from the forest, a magnificent landscape lay spread out before him, and he himself felt carefree and glad.

  5. He thought that no one could have it better.

  6. 3

    He had a clear view in every direction.

  7. The land to the west of him was filled with ridges and mountain peaks, which grew higher and wilder the farther off they stood.

  8. To the east of him there were also a great many ridges, but they sank and grew lower, until the land lay quite flat down by the sea.

  9. Everywhere gleamed streams and rivers that had a difficult journey with rapids and falls as long as they ran between the mountains, but spread out bright and broad as they neared the coast.

  10. He saw the Gulf of Bothnia too.

  11. Close to the shore it was speckled with islands and jagged with headlands, but farther out it lay clear and even-blue like a summer sky.

  12. 4

    "This land is like a sandy slope, when it has just rained and a host of little rivulets stream down it and dig out furrows that wind and bend and run together," thought the boy.

  13. "And it's very beautiful to look at.

  14. I remember that the old Lapp at Skansen used to say that Sweden, in an unlucky hour, had been turned upside down.

  15. The others laughed at him, but he maintained that if they had only seen how splendid it was up in the north, they would understand that it could never have been intended, from the very beginning, that such a land should lie so far out of the world.

  16. And I almost think he was right about that."

  17. 5

    When the boy had gazed his fill at the landscape, he loosened the knapsack from his back, took out a piece of white, fine bread, and began to eat.

  18. "I don't think I've ever tasted such good bread," he thought.

  19. "And I have so much left besides!

  20. It will last me a couple of days more.

  21. I never thought yesterday, at this hour, that I would become the owner of such riches."

  22. 6

    While he munched and ate, he thought about how he had gotten the bread.

  23. "It's surely because I got it in such a beautiful way that I like eating it so much," he said.

  24. 7

    The golden eagle had left Medelpad the evening before, and no sooner had he flown across the border into Ångermanland than the boy caught sight of a river valley and a river so magnificent that they outshone everything he had seen of the kind before.

  25. 8

    The valley had lain so broad between the ridges that the boy wondered whether it had not once, in ages past, been carved out by another river, one that had been much larger and broader than the one now running there.

  26. After the valley had been finished, it must somehow have been filled with sand and earth—not entirely, but for a good stretch up toward the mountains.

  27. And through this loose fill the river now running through the valley, which was very broad and full of water, had likewise dug itself a deep channel.

  28. It had cut itself splendidly shaped banks: here it was soft slopes that bloomed so magnificently that it glowed red, blue, and yellow all the way up to the boy; there parts of the bank wall, which had been so hard that the water had not been able to wear them away, shot up from the riverside like steep walls and towers.

  29. 9

    Where the boy had traveled up in the heights, it seemed to him that he could see, all at once, down into three different kinds of worlds.

  30. Farthest down in the depths of the valley, where the river ran, was one world.

  31. There timber was rafted, there steamboats steered from landing to landing, there sawmills clattered, there great freight ships were loaded, there salmon were caught, there people rowed, there people sailed, there flew a host of swallows that had their nests in the riverbank.

  32. 10

    But one story higher up in the valley, so to speak, on the flat ground that spread out all the way to the edge of the mountains, there was another world.

  33. There lay farms, villages, and churches; there farmers sowed their strips of field; there cattle grazed; there meadows grew green; there women worked in their small kitchen gardens; there country roads wound; there railway trains rumbled.

  34. 11

    And then, beyond all this, up on the forest-grown ridges, he saw the third world.

  35. There capercaillie hens sat on eggs, there elk stood hidden in the dense thickets, there lynx lay in wait, there squirrels gnawed, there the pine needles gave off their scent, there the blueberry brush stood in bloom, there thrushes sang.

  36. 12

    When the boy had gotten a good look at the rich river valley, he had begun to lament that he felt hungry.

  37. He had not had a bite to eat in two whole days, he said, and now he was utterly famished.

  38. 13

    Gorgo certainly did not want it said that the boy fared worse when traveling with him than when he traveled with the wild geese, and he had at once slackened his speed.

  39. "Why haven't you spoken of this before?" he had said.

  40. "You shall have as much food as you want.

  41. You needn't go hungry when you have an eagle for a travel companion."

  42. 14

    Just after that the eagle had caught sight of a farmer who had gone out and sown a field close by the riverbank.

  43. The man carried the grain in a basket that he had hanging in front of his chest, and every time it was empty, he fetched new seed from a sack that stood at the edge of the field.

  44. The eagle had reckoned

  45. 15

    that that very sack stood filled with the best food the boy could wish for, and he had swooped down toward it.

  46. 16

    But before the eagle had yet reached the ground, a terrible clamor had arisen around them.

  47. It was crows, and it was sparrows, and it was swallows, that had rushed up shrieking fiercely, thinking that the eagle intended to strike down some bird.

  48. "Away, away, robber!

  49. Away, away, bird-killer!" they had cried.

  50. They had made such a commotion that the farmer had taken notice of it and come running.

  51. Then the eagle had been forced to flee.

  52. The boy had not gotten a single grain.

  53. 17

    It had been downright remarkable, the way of the small birds.

  54. They had not only forced the eagle to flee, but they had also pursued him a long stretch up the valley, and everywhere the people had heard their cries.

  55. The women had come out into the farmyards and clapped their hands until it crackled like gunfire volleys, and the men had rushed out with rifles in hand.

  56. 18

    It had gone the same way every time the eagle swooped down toward the ground.

  57. The boy had given up hope that the eagle would be able to get him any food.

  58. He had never before thought that Gorgo was so hated and despised.

  59. He had almost felt sorry for him.

  60. 19

    After a while they had come flying over a large farm, where the farmwife must have been baking that day.

  61. She had now set out a tray of freshly baked buns on the farmyard to cool, and stood beside them keeping watch, so that neither the cat nor the dog should steal them.

  62. 20

    The eagle had swooped down over the farm, but he had not dared strike right before the eyes of the farmwife.

  63. He had flown back and forth quite at a loss.

  64. A couple of times he had been down as low as the chimney, but then he had risen again.

  65. 21

    But now the farmwife had noticed the eagle.

  66. She had lifted her head and followed him with her eyes.

  67. "How oddly that one is behaving!" she had said.

  68. "I believe he wants one of my wheat buns."

  69. 22

    She had been such a beautiful woman, tall and fair, with a glad, open face.

  70. She had laughed quite heartily, taken a bun from the tray, and held it up over her head.

  71. "If you want it, then come and take it!" she had said.

  72. 23

    The eagle had probably not understood her words, but he had all the same grasped at once that she meant to give him the bun.

  73. In swift flight he had shot down toward the bread, seized it, and fled toward the heights.

  74. 24

    When the boy had seen the eagle snatch up the bread, he had gotten tears in his eyes.

  75. He had not wept for joy, because he would be spared going hungry for a couple of days, but because he had been moved that the farmwife had given away her bread to the wild bird of prey.

  76. 25

    And as he now sat in the pine top, he could, whenever he wished, picture before him the tall, fair woman, just as she had stood on the farmyard and reached up the bread.

  77. 26

    She had probably known that the great bird was a golden eagle, a robber that people usually greeted with sharp shots, and she had likely also seen the strange little creature it carried on its back, but she had not thought about who they were; rather, as soon as she had understood that they were hungry, she had shared her good bread with them.

  78. 27

    "If I ever become human again," thought the boy, "I shall go and seek out the beautiful woman by the great river and thank her for being so good to us."

  79. 28

    THE FOREST FIRE.

  80. 29

    While the boy was still busy with his breakfast, he noticed a faint smoke from the north.

  81. He turned at once toward that direction and saw that a thin column of smoke, as white as a mist, rose up from a forest ridge—not from the one nearest, but from the next one in order, counted from him.

  82. It looked strange, smoke in the middle of the wild forest, but it might well be that there was a mountain dairy farm over there, and that the girls were busy boiling their morning coffee.

  83. 30

    It was remarkable how that smoke increased and spread out.

  84. It could not be coming from a mountain dairy, but perhaps there were charcoal burners in the forest?

  85. At Skansen he had seen a charcoal burner's hut and a charcoal pit, and he had heard that such things were to be found in these forests.

  86. But it was mostly in autumn and winter, surely, that the charcoal burners worked at their pits.

  87. 31

    The smoke increased with every moment.

  88. Now it rolled out over the whole mountain ridge.

  89. It surely was not possible that so much smoke could come from a charcoal pit.

  90. It must be some kind of conflagration, for a great many birds flew up and moved over to the nearest ridge.

  91. Both hawks and capercaillies and others, so small that it was not possible to recognize them from so far off, fled before the fire.

  92. 32

    The little white column of smoke had grown into a heavy, white cloud that rolled out over the edge of the ridge and sank down toward the valley.

  93. And sparks and flakes of soot shot up out of the cloud, and now and then it was possible to see a red flame within the smoke.

  94. It surely was a mighty conflagration that had broken out over there.

  95. But what in the world was it that was burning?

  96. Could there not be a large farm hidden away in the forest too?

  97. 33

    It would take more than a single farm to give rise to such a fire.

  98. Now smoke came not only from the ridge; from the valley below it too, which he could not see because it lay hidden by the nearest height, there rose masses of smoke.

  99. It was not possible otherwise than that the forest itself was burning.

  100. 34

    He found it hard to take in that the fresh, green forest could burn, but so it surely was all the same.

  101. And if it really was the forest that was burning, then perhaps the fire could reach all the way to him?

  102. It did not seem very likely, but he wished that the eagle would soon come back.

  103. It would be best of all to be away from this.

  104. The smell of smoke alone, which he had to breathe in with every breath, was a torment.

  105. 35

    There was a dreadful crackling and rattling now, all at once.

  106. It came from the ridge nearest him.

  107. There, at the very top, stood a tall pine, the very match of the one he himself sat in.

  108. It was so tall that it shot up above the other trees.

  109. A moment ago it had stood splendidly red in the morning light; now all its needles gleamed at once, and it caught fire.

  110. It had surely never been so splendid before, but this was also the last time it would show its beauty.

  111. The pine was the first tree on the ridge to catch fire, and it was impossible to understand how the blaze had reached it.

  112. Had it flown there on red wings, or had it run along the ground like a snake?

  113. Yes, that was hard to say, but there it was all the same.

  114. The whole pine blazed like a bonfire of brushwood.

  115. 36

    There, now!

  116. Now smoke rose up in many places on the ridge.

  117. The forest fire was surely both bird and serpent.

  118. It could both hurl itself forward through the air over long stretches and creep along the ground.

  119. It set the whole ridge ablaze at once.

  120. 37

    There was a hurried flight for the birds.

  121. They fluttered up out of the smoke like great flakes of soot, flew across the valley, and came to the ridge where the boy sat.

  122. He found himself with an eagle owl beside him in the pine, and directly above him a goshawk perched on a branch.

  123. They had all been dangerous neighbors on another day, but now they did not even look at him.

  124. They only stared at the fire; they could hardly understand what had come over the forest.

  125. A marten scurried up into the pine crown too, took its stand at the very tip of a branch, and gazed over at the burning forest ridge with its shining eyes.

  126. Close beside the marten sat a squirrel, but they did not seem to notice one another.

  127. 38

    Now the fire rushed down the slope of the valley.

  128. It hissed and roared like a raging storm.

  129. It could be seen through the smoke how the flames flew from tree to tree.

  130. Before a spruce caught fire, it was first wrapped in a thin veil of smoke, then all its needles turned red at once, and then it began to crackle and burn.

  131. 39

    Down in the valley below him ran a little brook, bordered by alders and small birches.

  132. There it looked as though the fire would stop.

  133. The deciduous trees were not as quick to catch fire as the conifers.

  134. The forest fire stood as if before a wall and could not come any farther.

  135. It glowed and crackled, tried to swing itself across to the pine forest on the other side of the brook, but did not reach it.

  136. 40

    For a while the fire was held back, but then a long flame flung itself forward to the great dry pine that stood a stretch up the slope, and at once it burst into bright flame.

  137. And with that the fire was across the brook.

  138. The heat had been so strong that every single tree up the whole slope was ready to catch fire.

  139. And with a roaring and thundering like the mightiest storm and the wildest waterfall, the forest fire flew up toward the ridge.

  140. 41

    Then the hawk and the eagle owl took flight, and the marten hurried down out of the tree.

  141. It would surely not be many moments before the fire was in the pine crown.

  142. The boy had to get away too, he as well.

  143. It was not easy to come down the pine's tall, straight trunk.

  144. He held on to it as best he could, slid long stretches between the knots of branches, and finally tumbled headlong to the ground.

  145. But he had no time to feel whether he had hurt himself.

  146. It was only a matter of hurrying away.

  147. The fire struck down into the pine like a hissing storm; the ground beneath him was warm and had begun to smoke.

  148. On one side of him ran a lynx, on the other slid a long adder, and right beside the snake a black grouse hen clucked, hurrying forward with her small, down-clad chicks.

  149. 42

    When the fleeing creatures had come down the slope and into the depths of the valley, they met people who had gone out to put out the fire.

  150. They had surely been there a long while, but the boy had stared so intently toward the other side, whence the fire came, that he had not noticed them before.

  151. There was a brook and a broad band of deciduous trees down in this hollow too, and behind them the people were working.

  152. They felled the conifers standing nearest the alders, fetched water from the brook and poured it out over the ground, and cleared away heather and marsh tea, so that the fire could not creep forward through the undergrowth.

  153. 43

    They too thought only of the forest fire, now bearing down upon them.

  154. The fleeing animals ran between their feet, without their paying them any heed.

  155. They did not strike at the adder, they did not try to catch the black grouse hen as she darted back and forth along the brook with her small piping chicks, they did not even take notice of Thumbietot.

  156. They stood with great pine boughs, which they had dipped in the brook, and with these as weapons they seemed to mean to go against the fire.

  157. They were not especially many.

  158. It was remarkable to see them standing there ready to fight, when everything else fled.

  159. 44

    When the fire came down the slope with roaring and crackling and unbearable heat and choking smoke, ready to fling itself across the brook and the wall of deciduous trees and reach the other bank without even having to stop, the people gave way at first, as though they could not endure it.

  160. But it was no long retreat, for they turned back.

  161. 45

    The forest fire went storming on with terrifying force.

  162. The sparks flung themselves like a rain of fire over the deciduous trees; the long flames flew hissing out of the smoke, as though the forest on the other side were drawing them to itself.

  163. 46

    But the deciduous trees held back the fire, and behind them the people worked.

  164. Where the ground began to smoke, they fetched water in their buckets and cooled it.

  165. When a tree was wrapped in smoke, they attacked it with quick axe-blows, felled it, and put out the flames.

  166. Where the fire crept in the heather, they beat it down with the wet pine boughs and smothered it.

  167. 47

    The smoke grew so thick that it hid everything from view.

  168. One could not see how the battle was going, but it was easy enough to understand that it was fierce, and that several times it came close to the fire breaking through further.

  169. 48

    But imagine—after a while the fire's mighty roar lessened, and the smoke dispersed!

  170. Then the deciduous trees had lost every leaf, the ground beneath them was scorched black, the people were black with smoke and dripping with sweat, but the forest fire was beaten back.

  171. It had ceased to blaze.

  172. The smoke crept white and soft over the ground, and out of it rose a mass of black poles.

  173. That was all that remained of the splendid forest.

  174. 49

    The boy had climbed up onto a rock and stood there watching how the fire was put out.

  175. But now, when the forest was saved, the danger began for him.

  176. The owl and the hawk turned their eyes toward him all at once.

  177. 50

    Then he heard a familiar voice call to him.

  178. Gorgo, the golden eagle, came rushing down through the forest.

  179. And soon the boy swung high up among the clouds, saved from every danger.

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.