The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige) is a famous and high-quality work of fiction by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf, published in two parts 1906 and 1907. The background for publication was a commission from the National Teachers' Association in 1902 to write a geography reader for the public schools.
"She 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 She has sought out hitherto unpublished folklore and legends of the different provinces. These she has ingeniously woven into her story." (From translator Velma Swanston Howard's introduction.)
The book is about a young lad, 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. A run-in with a tomte (elf/gnome) sees him shrunken and able to talk with animals.
Wild geese take him on an adventurous trip across all the historical provinces of Sweden observing in passing their natural characteristics and economic resources. At the same time the characters and situations he encounters make him a man.
An anime adaptation (from Japan) consisting of fifty-two 25-minute episodes was broadcast on NHK from January 8, 1980—March 17, 1981. The anime was also broadcast in Sweden, but was cut to allow for commercials. The anime was produced by Studio Pierrot. The anime was mostly fairly true to the original, apart from the appearance of the squirrel, and the great role allowed to the fox Smirre.
About Selma Lagerlöf
Selma Ottiliana Lovisa Lagerlöf was born in Mårbacka, Sweden, in Nov. 20, 1858. She had been writing poetry ever since she was a child, but she did not publish anything until 1890, when a Swedish newspaper gave her the first prize in a literary competition and published excerpts from her first novel, Gösta Berlings Saga (published in 1891) ), a chronicle of life in her native Värmland.
During her travelling to Italy she also wrote The Miracles of Antichrist (1897), a novel set in Sicily. After several minor works she published Jerusalem (translated in English as The Holy City) but it was with The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, a geography reader for children in fantasy form, that she became worldwide recognized. In 1909 she became the first woman and the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
