What happens
The tomte has turned Nils into a tiny tomte himself. He goes out to look for the tomte in the cowshed and finds that even his clogs have shrunk. A sparrow spots him and shouts to the whole yard. The cockerel and the hens cry that it serves him right, the geese wonder who did it, and Nils realises he can understand every word. When he throws a stone at the hens, they turn on him, because he is no longer big enough to frighten them.
Later in the first chapter, shortly before the wild geese fly over the farm and Nils is carried off on the back of the gander Mårten.
The 20 hardest words
- med ens
- suddenly, all at once
- småfolket
- the little people (elves, tomtar)
- kostall
- cowshed
- på glänt
- ajar
- förstuga
- porch, entrance hall
- träsko
- clog
- strumpsockor
- stockinged feet
- klumpig
- clumsy
- omtänksam
- thoughtful, considerate
- ängslig
- anxious
- bedrövelse
- misery, distress
- gråsparv
- house sparrow
- gåsapåg
- goose boy (Skåne dialect)
- gala (gol)
- to crow (crowed)
- klunga
- huddle, cluster
- märkvärdig
- remarkable, strange
- fåglalåt
- the language of birds
- odräglig
- unbearable
- tig!
- be quiet! (from tiga)
- pack
- rabble, riff-raff
Questions
Answer in Swedish, out loud or on paper, then open the suggested answer.
1.Var trodde pojken att han kunde hitta tomten?
2.Hur kom han ut ur stugan?
3.Vad hade hänt med hans träskor, och hur kände han sig då?
4.Vad ropade gråsparven?
5.Vad var det märkvärdigaste för pojken?
6.Varför var hönsen inte rädda för honom längre?
About the language
Lagerlöf wrote Nils Holgersson as a school reader in the new spelling of 1906, so the words look modern. The grammar is of its time: verbs still have plural forms (de voro = de var, de gingo = de gick, de höllo = de höll), sade is used for sa, and a few words like eljest (annars) and månne (kanske) have gone out of use. We have not modernised anything.
Source and copyright
Lagerlöf's text (first published by Albert Bonniers förlag, 1906–07) as transcribed for Project Runeberg by Joakim Ragnvaldsson. Selma Lagerlöf died in 1940, so her work has been in the public domain since 1 January 2011. Text from Project Runeberg. Obvious typing errors in the e-text are corrected: trapsteget → trappsteget. Nothing else is changed. The summary, glossary and questions are written by Lingolib.
Level B1: You can follow everyday Swedish. Short sentences, a story you can guess, a few old word forms. Levels are our own estimate, based on vocabulary and style.