Knjigice
Fairy tale · Classic fairy tales
Nils Holgersson
The story of a boy who flew across Sweden with the wild geese
Also in: Nils Holgersson (Slovenian) · Nils Holgersson (Slovak)
On a small farm in Sweden lived a boy called Nils. He was lazy and unkind. He threw stones at the hens, pulled the cat's tail and jeered at the cows in the byre. One Sunday morning his parents went to church. "Read your sermon!" they told him. But Nils put the book down and fell asleep on the bench by the window.
1
A rustling woke him. On the edge of the chest sat a tiny little man in a grey coat and a pointed red cap — the house elf. Quick as anything, Nils threw a net over him and roared with laughter: "Now you're mine!" The elf begged to be let go. Nils only mocked him. Then the elf said quietly: "Very well. Let it be as you deserve."
2
In an instant everything around him grew huge. The bench was as tall as a hill, a fly as big as a sparrow. Nils stood on the floor no bigger than a thumb — red knitted cap, green jacket, yellow leather breeches. He ran into the yard, and a second wonder happened: he understood what the animals were saying. "Look at him!" laughed the hens. "Now he's smaller than us!"
3
High in the sky a flock of wild geese called down: "Come with us, come north!" Morten, the big white farm gander, opened his wings. "I can fly too!" he cried, and lifted into the air. Afraid his mother would lose him, Nils grabbed the gander by the neck. And already they were over the barn, over the trees, over the whole farm.
4
That evening the flock landed on a frozen lake. Akka of Kebnekaise, the old grey leader, looked at Nils with stern amber eyes. "A human among geese? People have never brought us anything good. In the morning you fly home." Nils said nothing. But Morten stepped in front of him. "If he goes, I go too."
5
In the night Smirre the fox came creeping over the ice. His yellow eyes glowed like two sparks. The geese were asleep and heard nothing — but Nils was awake. He jumped up, caught the fox by the tail and shouted with all his might. The flock rose into the dark. Smirre was left alone on the empty ice, wet and furious. "I'll remember you!" he hissed.
6
In the morning Akka said: "Stay with us, Thumbkin." And so began the finest journey in the world. Below them slid forests and lakes, church towers and white fields slowly turning green. Nils lay along Morten's neck with the wind in his face, and for the first time in his life he was in no hurry at all.
7
One morning the flock flew up to a great grey mountain. Animals had gathered there from every direction, and the cranes danced their dance — slowly and solemnly, with light little leaps and wings held wide, as if they were saying goodbye to winter. Nils watched open-mouthed and hardly dared to breathe. "Nobody at home would believe this," he thought.
8
In a beech wood he heard crying. People had felled a tree with a squirrel's nest and shut the young ones in a basket. Nils crept inside, carried them out one by one and took them along the branches to their mother. That night, asleep in Morten's feathers, something warm glowed in his chest. He did not know it was called kindness.
9
By the great river hunters were hiding in the reeds. Nils saw the bright barrels of their guns and shouted: "Not down! Not down!" At the last moment the flock swung high over the water and the shots thundered into nothing. Akka flew a long way beside him. "I once told you people bring nothing good," she said. "I was wrong."
10
Summer went by. As the geese turned south, Nils learned how the spell would end: he would be big again if the white gander came home safe and unharmed. He thought about that. Home, to the farm, where geese are killed for the feast days? All the way across the sea he was silent, watching the waves shine below.
11
At home his mother already had Morten by the neck. "What a fine gander! He'll do nicely for the feast." Nils knew: if he kept quiet now, he would be a boy again. But he did not. He leapt from Morten's feathers into the yard and shouted: "No! That gander is my friend!" And that moment he felt himself growing — his cap fell off and the yard turned small.
12
He stood in the middle of the yard, as big as before, and his parents stared as at a miracle. But Nils turned first to the white gander, hugged him round the neck and said quietly: "Thank you." Morten honked and opened his wings. Over the farm the wild geese called once more — and Nils raised his hand and waved them goodbye.
13The End
