The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pictures of Sweden, by Hans Christian Andersen

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Title: Pictures of Sweden

Author: Hans Christian Andersen

Release Date: May 10, 2004 [EBook #12313]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICTURES OF SWEDEN ***

Produced by Asad Razzaki and PG Distributed Proofreaders. Produced
from page images provided by the Internet Archive Children's Library.

PICTURES OF SWEDEN

By

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

Author of
"The Improvisatore," &c.

LONDON:

RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

1851.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION

TROLLHAeTTA

THE BIRD PHOENIX

KINNAKULLA

GRANDMOTHER

THE PRISON-CELLS

BEGGAR-BOYS

VADSTENE

THE PUPPET-SHOWMAN

THE "SKJAeRGAARDS"

STOCKHOLM

DIURGAERDEN

A STORY

UPSALA

SALA

THE MUTE BOOK

THE ZAeTHER DALE

THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL IN LACKSAND

FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE

IN THE FOREST

FAHLUN

WHAT THE STRAWS SAID

THE POET'S SYMBOL

THE DAL-ELV

DANEMORA

THE SWINE

POETRY'S CALIFORNIA

* * * * *

INTRODUCTION.

We Travel.

* * * * *

It is a delightful spring: the birds warble, but you do not understand
their song? Well, hear it in a free translation.

"Get on my back," says the stork, our green island's sacred bird, "and
I will carry thee over the Sound. Sweden also has fresh and fragrant
beech woods, green meadows and corn-fields. In Scania, with the
flowering apple-trees behind the peasant's house, you will think that
you are still in Denmark."

"Fly with me," says the swallow; "I fly over Holland's mountain ridge,
where the beech-trees cease to grow; I fly further towards the north
than the stork. You shall see the vegetable mould pass over into rocky
ground; see snug, neat towns, old churches and mansions, where all is
good and comfortable, where the family stand in a circle around the
table and say grace at meals, where the least of the children says a
prayer, and, morning and evening, sings a psalm. I have heard it, I
have seen it, when little, from my nest under the eaves."

"Come with me!