The Wonderful Adventures of Nils: Across Sweden

Nils holds on to Martin's neck as the white goose takes off and joins the wild birds, and the flock sets down on a meadow in eastern Skåne, not far from Vittskövle manor. The book tells how the old castle went up about three hundred and fifty years earlier, in unsafe times, with a deep water-filled trench around it. The geese begin a trip across all the historical provinces of Sweden from here.

In south-eastern Skåne, not far from the sea, the book places an old castle called Glimminge. The real Glimmingehus was built between 1499 and 1506 and is the best preserved medieval stronghold in Scandinavia, with moats, drawbridges and death traps meant to surprise trespassers. It is a stout stone house you can see from far across the plain, as the book says.

A crane sends word that tomorrow is the day of the great crane dance on Kullaberg, and the geese go to see it. The book calls Kullaberg low and rather long, nothing imposing on top, but its shore has majestic cliff-arches over the water. The first written account of the real peninsula dates from about 1740.

Location precision: Kullaberg is a whole peninsula and the book names no single spot for the dance; the pin marks the peninsula.

On a moonlight evening in Karlskrona, Nils meets the wooden figure Rosenbom, who comes alive, his arm going up with a creak of old wood. The real figure has stood in front of the Karlskrona church since the mid 18th century. It is a poor box: lift its hat and you can put in a coin. The original is now kept inside the church, and a copy stands outside.

Visitor guidance: Look for the figure at the church; lift his hat to drop a coin.

On the most southerly part of Öland lies the royal demesne of Ottenby, a large estate stretching from shore to shore that the book calls a haunt for large bird companies. A long wall runs across it and separates it from the rest of the island. Just south stands Långe Jan, Sweden's tallest lighthouse.

Location precision: The book describes the Ottenby estate in general; the pin marks the village of Ottenby, not a specific scene.

The Stockholm chapter opens at Skansen, the great park just outside the city, where a little old man named Clement Larsson from Hälsingland came with his fiddle to play folk dances. Skansen was founded by Artur Hazelius, who bought around 150 houses from all over the country and rebuilt them there. You can still walk among them on Djurgården.

Visitor guidance: Skansen is an open-air museum on Djurgården, Stockholm.