Cosimah2o
Active Member
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.
The book is about a young boy, Nils Holgersson, whose "chief delight was to eat and sleep, and after that he liked best to make mischief". He takes great delight in hurting the animals in his family farm ( Nils pulls the tails of cats, throws rocks at geese etc.) Then he finds a *Tomte ( a Gnome ) and teases him as well and besides, captures him in a net.
The Tomte proposes to Nils that if Nils frees him, the tomte will give him a huge gold coin. Nils rejects the offer and the tomte turns Nils into a tomte, which leaves him shrunken and able to talk with animals, who are thrilled to see the boy reduced to their size and are angry and hungry for revenge. Nils is too ashamed to show his new appearance to his family, he travels with the wild geese on their annual migration to Lapland, Nils holds on to neck's of a white farm goose and together joins the wild birds.
The flock of geese is a matriarchy led by the experienced and assertive Akka. In his travels, Nils learns helplessness and helping others and has many adventures involving magic flutes, a castle with rats and an underwater city. He also learns respect and admiration for the animals and the natural world. (( All this while also teaching the geography of Sweden.))
Nils learns that if he proves he has changed for the better, the Tomte might be disposed to change him back to his normal size.
Note: (( Selma Langerlöf devoted three years to Nature study and to familiarizing herself with animal and bird life. She has sought out hitherto unpublished folklore and legends of the different provinces of Sweden. *Tomte is a mythical creature of Scandinavian folklore originating from Norse paganism. Tomte or Nisse were believed to take care of a farmer's home and children and protect them from misfortune, in particular at night, when the housefolk were asleep. The Finnish name is Tonttu or Haltija. Nisse is the conmon name in Nowegian, Danish and the Scanian dialect .))
This is an amazing book, is a fun way to learn about Swedish culture and geopraphy, from the south up to the north ( although this book had a small controversy with regard to the province Halland because the goose and boy don't make any stop there). Anyway, for me is a great book!
The book is about a young boy, Nils Holgersson, whose "chief delight was to eat and sleep, and after that he liked best to make mischief". He takes great delight in hurting the animals in his family farm ( Nils pulls the tails of cats, throws rocks at geese etc.) Then he finds a *Tomte ( a Gnome ) and teases him as well and besides, captures him in a net.
The Tomte proposes to Nils that if Nils frees him, the tomte will give him a huge gold coin. Nils rejects the offer and the tomte turns Nils into a tomte, which leaves him shrunken and able to talk with animals, who are thrilled to see the boy reduced to their size and are angry and hungry for revenge. Nils is too ashamed to show his new appearance to his family, he travels with the wild geese on their annual migration to Lapland, Nils holds on to neck's of a white farm goose and together joins the wild birds.
The flock of geese is a matriarchy led by the experienced and assertive Akka. In his travels, Nils learns helplessness and helping others and has many adventures involving magic flutes, a castle with rats and an underwater city. He also learns respect and admiration for the animals and the natural world. (( All this while also teaching the geography of Sweden.))
Nils learns that if he proves he has changed for the better, the Tomte might be disposed to change him back to his normal size.
Note: (( Selma Langerlöf devoted three years to Nature study and to familiarizing herself with animal and bird life. She has sought out hitherto unpublished folklore and legends of the different provinces of Sweden. *Tomte is a mythical creature of Scandinavian folklore originating from Norse paganism. Tomte or Nisse were believed to take care of a farmer's home and children and protect them from misfortune, in particular at night, when the housefolk were asleep. The Finnish name is Tonttu or Haltija. Nisse is the conmon name in Nowegian, Danish and the Scanian dialect .))
This is an amazing book, is a fun way to learn about Swedish culture and geopraphy, from the south up to the north ( although this book had a small controversy with regard to the province Halland because the goose and boy don't make any stop there). Anyway, for me is a great book!