Talk:The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Finnish numbers

I almost thought the bit about the geese being named after Finnish numbers was vandalism, but I had to be sure about it, so I downloaded a free e-book copy of the book and checked it. Sure enough, they are named after the numbers, although Lagerlöf misspelled two names: Iksi should be Yksi and Kolmi should be Kolme. I feel ashamed to say this, but as large a part of the Nordic cultural heritage this book is, and how greatly I enjoyed the comic and TV adaptation of it in my childhood, I have never read the original book in its entirety. JIP | Talk 19:55, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

The book is wonderful – but was Lagerlöf somehow embarrassed about its fame? I have heard once that when she grow steadily more famous and an edition was being prepaired of her Collected Works, then she decided not to include the Nils Holgersson story? Perhaps she saw it as primarily an "educational story" written for school children, as opposed to "real literature"? It would be of interest to have a clear reference to this. Slavatrudu 08:52, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

About the number-names - it is for sure Finnish. As for Iksi - for example in the Russian translation all this names are translated closely to numbers - Yuksi, not Iksi. Sura, 83.69.244.7 (talk) 11:50, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't speak Russian, but according to the above, it's unfortunately still wrong... "yksi" is pronounced with a /y/ sound, like 'ü' in German or 'u' in French (I don't think native English speakers can manage to utter this sound). It's definitely not a "you" sound. JIP | Talk 21:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC) ettrr

The first German translation (1907/08) has both Names spelled Yksi and Kolme, so it was probably a printing error replicated in the ebook. (some of them, mainly the free versions of Project Gutenberg etc. have obviously been just ocr'd without proofreading). 176.5.6.149 (talk) 20:47, 14 April 2024 (UTC)

Music by Karel Svoboda

Here should be mention of the wonderful enchanting soundtrack composed I think for the Japanese Anime version by the Czech composer Karel Svoboda. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Svoboda This song is nouw known by billions of whom many know possibly little or none of the story itself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:16B8:421A:6C00:A08B:C6BA:3593:3B8 (talk) 08:11, 16 December 2017 (UTC)

Iconic Bengali translation

The translation by Bengali nationalist painter and author Abanindranath Tagore Abanindranath Tagoretitled Buro Angla (thumb-sized) is considered an all-time children's fiction classic in Bangladesh and the Bengali-speaking regions of India.

Tagore was so successful in transposing the Swedish classic into the rural milieu of early 20th century Bengal that Buro Angla is widely believed to be an original work rather than a translation. Ghoshwhowalks (talk) 10:49, 19 February 2023 (UTC)