The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (orig. Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige) is a famous work of fiction by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf.
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. Nils captures a tomte in a net while his family is at church and have left him home to memorize chapters from the Bible. 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. While this is happening, wild geese are flying over the farm on one of their migrations, and a white farm goose attempts to join the wild ones. In an attempt to salvage something before his family returns, Nils holds on to the birds neck as it successfully takes off and joins the wild birds.
The wild geese, who are not pleased at all to be joined by a boy and a domestic goose, eventually 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: the domestic goose needs to prove his ability to fly like the experienced wild geese, and Nils needs to prove to the geese that he would be a useful companion, despite their initial misgivings. During the trip, 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.
《尼尔斯骑鹅旅行记》讲一个不爱学习、喜欢恶作剧的顽皮孩子尼尔斯,因为一次捉弄小妖精,而被小妖精用魔法变成了一个小人。他骑在他家的大白鹅背上,跟着一群大雁出发作长途旅行。通过这次奇异的旅行,尼尔斯增长了很多见识,结识了许多朋友,也碰到过好几个凶恶阴险的敌人。他在种种困难和危险中受到了锻炼,最后尼尔斯回到了家中,恢复原形,变成了一个好孩子。
作者塞尔玛·拉格洛芙是瑞典的优秀女作家,1909年获得了诺贝尔文学奖。《尼尔斯骑鹅旅行记》是她唯一为儿童而写的长篇童话,它是根据瑞典教育部的要求,作为一部学校地理教育读物而写的,不料它在以后竟成为了世界文学艺术的珍品。因为拉格洛芙的巨大成就,1914年她被选为瑞典皇家学会会员。在瑞典,现在有一项最重要的儿童文学奖,就是用尼尔斯这名字命名的。由于其文学贡献,从1991年开始,她的肖像出现在瑞典货币20克朗钞票上。