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 The
first part of the Swedish elementary school´s
new reader and geography book The Wonderful Adventures of
Nils by Selma
Lagerlöf was published in 1906. The second part, which
completed the work, came out in 1907.
In The Wonderful
Adventures of Nils in Sweden we
follow a young boy from Skåne,
Nils Holgersson,
who is turned by a goblin into a 'pyssling'
(manikin). He has the adventures of his life in the
company of the tame goose Martin, who carries
Nils on his back when he flies away with the wild goose
Akka and her flock.
Nils
Holgersson sees the whole of Sweden from
above as he flies away on Martin´s back
and visits the provinces of Sweden. His journey starts in
Västra Vemmenhög in
Skåne and continues northwards towards
the wild geese´s final destination,
Lapland. The route is along the east coast of Sweden, and
Nils gets to visit the islands of
Öland and Gotland,
Uppland and
Gästrikeland and the other provinces along the east coast.
 After
visiting Lapland, the geese fly across western Sweden, visiting
Selma Lagerlöf´s childhood home,
Mårbacka, in
Värmland and other places, before Nils
Holgersson finally returns to
Skåne, landing at his
mother´s and
father´s house in Västra
Vemmenhög, where he becomes a human
child again.
The book was commissioned in
1901 by the Swedish Elementary Schoolteachers´ Association as part
of a scheme to modernise the school textbooks of that time. It was
intended to tempt pupils to learn about the geography of Sweden at
the same time as it was a good reader. It was also written with the
ongoing emigration of Swedes to the United States and the
dissolution of the union with Norway (1905) in mind.
Read more about the background to the commission.
The thought-provoking poem by the Swedish writer Carl Snoilsky
"Sveriges
karta" (“The Map of Sweden”)
by the Swedish writer
Carl Snoilsky introduces the book.
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The National Atlas of Sweden
− which
in many ways is an extension of the classical school atlas – has
often used Nils
Holgersson as its `mascot´ because of his connection with
geography. The National Atlas´s aim to
describe the geography of Sweden is the same, but with an emphasis
on a scientific and comprehensive description and with maps as the
main illustrations.
The picture of Sweden - When The Wonderful Adventures of Nils was written, it was unusual for Swedish schoolchildren to travel outside their own home district. Nowadays, most of them have been abroad even before they go to high school. The increasing mobility of the population was closely connected with the growth of the railway network at the beginning of the last century. Suddenly, it was possible to visit different parts of the country oneself and “see” the country.
By looking at SNA´s maps in the
Web Atlas
you can get an idea of the extent of the
railway network in, for example, the years 1876 -
1906 -
1936
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Why not visit
Mårbacka
Manor in Värmland?
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