The minute I say Nils, some will realize that this cartoon series has had a deep impact on me in general and on Bird in particular. We’re going to see how much our little friend has been flying over my book.

As regards television, I was lucky enough to be a little girl in Spain in the 80s. There were not cartoons all day long on tv, it was only at certain hours in one of the two existing channels. In general, I think the quality of the series was higher than nowadays. Actually, the script of Nils Holgersson was an adaptation of the book written by Selma Lagerlöf. And who’s this lady? Well, she was no less than the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature!

She spent three years watching the behaviour of migratory geese, taking notes and gathering material about the folklore and features of the different Swedish provinces. The result was far beyond an engaging Geography textbook. And also far beyond something teaching values and moral standards. Oscar Wilde had said ironically that “a woman is not able to write this way.”

The way I see it, Selma protrayed herself in her book through Akka (from Kebnekaise, the highest mountain in Sweden). The author was much loved by her pupils. It seems that she was exactly as Akka: Strong, fair, determined, intelligent… The perfect leader; the former for girls, the latter for geese. I still remember how I cried when Nils gets back to normal size and they cannot understand each other any more.
The anime version for tv of Nils Holgersson was very similar to the original story. Well, except for the little hamster: The typical magical pet in manga comics, the protagonist’s inseparable companion.

Crumb is as he should be: chubby, adorable and brave, helping in the most difficult moments. So, there’s a rat popping out in Bird who doesn’t want to stay in the ship. It doesn’t want to miss any adventure either, and tries to help its bird friend to get out of a cage.

Nils is a bit in the friends of the comparatives section: They make a smaller bird feel bad and then… It seems as if the same tomte appears to them, the same one that appeared to Nils. They also learn the lesson.

And what about the goose who was such a bad singer? Suirii. Well, somehow she’s one of the two birds on the pronunciation cover page. Hey, we love this guy anyway, just the same as we loved Suirii, even if she could be a pain in the neck sometimes.

Selma Lagerlöff, Akka from Kebnekaise, we are deeply grateful for such a beautiful work.