Selma Lagerlof · 1906 · road
Selma Lagerlof's 1906 classic, written as a geography reader for Swedish schoolchildren and the first novel by a woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Nils Holgersson, a cruel and idle farm boy, is shrunk by an offended elf and flies the length of Sweden on the back of a white gander, from the fields of Skane to the mountains of Lapland and home again. Province by province he sees his whole country from the air, and slowly becomes good. A beloved blend of folklore, natural history and moral fable.
- 1Vemmenhog
A farm in the flattest corner of Skane, and a boy of fourteen who torments animals and will not learn his catechism - until he catches an elf in a butterfly net and is shrunk to the size of a thumb for it.
- 2Vombsjon
Akka from Kebnekaise, the old grey leader, brings her wild geese down to the lake to rest - and the white farm gander lifts off after them with Nils clinging to his neck, which is the last anyone at home sees of either.
- 3Glimminge Castle
The great stone keep on the Skane plain, where the storks nest and the grey rats are massing to take the place from the black rats - and Nils saves it with a borrowed pipe, which is the first useful thing he has ever done.
- 4Kullaberg
The headland where the great crane dance is held every spring, and every creature comes to watch - a chapter Lagerlof wrote to teach children what their own country contains, which is the whole purpose of the book.
- 5Ronneby River
Blekinge, and the stairway with three steps that the province makes down to the sea - Lagerlof explaining geology to eight-year-olds by having a goose describe it, which is why this was a school reader for fifty years.
- 6Karlskrona
The naval city, and the bronze statue of King Karl that steps down from its plinth to chase Nils through the streets all night for mocking it - the most frightening scene in a book that is mostly gentle.
- 7Oland's Southern Point
The long limestone island, its southern tip a bare alvar where migrating birds gather in thousands - and the big butterfly of the legend, which is what the island is said to be, dropped in the sea and turned to stone.
- 8Little Karl's Island
Bla Jungfrun in the Kalmar Sound, a bare granite dome the seals haul out on - and where Nils watches a fight between the eider and the gulls, and starts to understand that he is on the animals' side now.
- 9Visby
Gotland, and the two cities: the drowned Vineta that rises once a century, and the walled Hansa town of Visby which is what Vineta might have been - the book's most haunting chapter, and its clearest lesson about pride.
- 10Sunnerbo
Smaland, the stony province God made last out of what was left over - and the crows who steal Nils and carry him off, and the crock of stolen coins he has to get back from them.
- 11Taberg
The iron mountain rising out of the Smaland forest, and the view from the top over the whole province - a chapter that is simply a geography lesson delivered from a great height, and none the worse for it.
- 12Huskvarna
Down the mountain to the factory town on Lake Vattern, where a boy Nils's own size shows him the machines - industry set beside forest and lake, which is how Lagerlof taught the shape of the country.
- 13Takern
The big bird lake in Ostergotland, the richest waterfowl marsh in Sweden and under threat of being drained - and Nils and the geese fight the draining, which is one of the earliest conservation arguments in children's fiction.
- 14Ulvasa
The manor of the Ulvasa-lady, who prophesied Sweden's future - and who tells Nils what will become of the country, which lets Lagerlof put six hundred years of history into one conversation.
- 15Kolmarden
The great forest between Ostergotland and Sodermanland, and the story of Karr the dog and Grayskin the elk - the longest and best of the inset tales, and the one about what it costs to be tamed.
- 16Bergslagen
The mining country of Dalarna, and Thumbietot among the bears in their winter den - where Nils is very nearly eaten and talks his way out by promising to show them how men make dynamite.
- 17Lake Malaren
The breaking up of the ice, and the flood - the lake heaving its winter cover apart while Nils watches from the air, which is the book at its most purely descriptive and its most beautiful.
- 18Stockholm
The capital, and Nils riding on the shoulder of a bronze statue through the Skansen park at night, listening to an old man tell the city's story - Lagerlof showing a farm boy the centre of his own country.
- 19Gastrikland
North now, over the ironworks and the forests, and Gorgo the eagle carrying Nils where the geese cannot climb - the journey turning from a tour into an expedition.
- 20Halsingland
A day in the flax country, and the long valleys running down to the Gulf of Bothnia - the provinces getting emptier, the farms further apart, and the boy noticing it.
- 21Medelpad
Timber country, and the log drives coming down the rivers to the coast - Sweden's industry seen from above, which is what the school board had commissioned Lagerlof to describe.
- 22Angermanland
A morning over the high coast, where the land is still rising out of the sea after the ice - the steepest shoreline in the country, and one of the few places Lagerlof simply admires without a lesson.
- 23Westbottom
The last farmed province before the mountains, and Osa the goose girl and little Mats walking north on the road below - the human story that has been running under the whole book, on foot the entire way.
- 24Lapland
Kebnekaise, where Akka was hatched, and the summer with the Laplanders - the far end of the journey, the top of Sweden, and a boy who set out cruel sitting quietly among reindeer.
- 25Harjedalen
Homeward bound down the spine of the country, through the legends of Harjedalen - the geese heading south again with the autumn, and Nils dreading the end of it for the first time.
- 26Vermland
The Klaralven and the Fryken lakes, Lagerlof's own country and the setting of Gosta Berling - the author putting her home province in near the end, and the treasure on the island.
- 27Vemmenhog
Back to the farm at Michaelmas, and the choice: Nils can be a boy again only if the gander is killed. He refuses, and is restored anyway - because refusing is the proof that the journey worked.