# The Wonderful Adventures of Nils — Character guide

> Key figures in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf.

- [Nils Holgersson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/nils_holgersson.md): Nils begins as the despair of his hardworking parents — a fourteen-year-old who would rather fire his father's gun than read the Sunday service, and whose chief talents are eating, sleeping, and tormenting the farm anima
- [Akka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/akka.md): Akka commands the wild geese with a discipline that borders on severity — she shakes Thumbietot like a rag when he first joins the flock, then strokes him with her bill once he has earned it. Her authority rests on exper
- [Morten Goosey-Gander](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/morten_goosey_gander.md): Morten is a domestic goose who answers a call the wild birds never expected him to hear, trading the barnyard for the long migration and proving himself a competent flier and a stubbornly loyal companion. His courtship o
- [Smirre Fox](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/smirre_fox.md): Smirre is the novel's recurring predator, a plunderer feared throughout the district who is not above raiding farmyards for chickens and geese. His first encounter with Nils — being mistaken for a dog, then teased and dr
- [Karr](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/karr.md): Karr moves between human households and the deep forest, trusted by the elk Grayskin yet bound to the people whose underbrush-cutting has destroyed the small animals' hiding places. He is the reluctant messenger in a bit
- [Jarro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/jarro.md): Jarro belongs to the teeming bird life of the lakes and marshes, a world with its own rules about who may nest where and who must be feared. His friendship with Nils gives the boy a guide who is neither as stern as Akka 
- [Gorgo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/gorgo.md): Gorgo belongs to two worlds and is fully at home in neither: the eagle's cliff where he was hatched and the goose flock that Akka raised him among. His pride is genuine and his grievance real, since the other birds never
- [Clement Larsson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/clement_larsson.md): Clement lives quietly among the old buildings and caged animals of Skansen, a man whose childhood superstitions never fully wore off. When the fisherman Ashbjörn brings him a captured tomte, Clement's old fear of the lit
- [Osa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/osa.md): Osa and Mats are among the poorest travelers on the road, children whose only inheritance is each other and a story about a father they barely remember. Osa carries the plan and the hope; Mats carries the fear, and her p
- [Dunfin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/dunfin.md): Dunfin arrives among the wild geese as someone who has lost her family and must earn her place in a flock that owes her nothing. Where Morten is vain and loud, she is watchful and steady, and her calm is what makes his b
- [Father Bear](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/father_bear.md): A powerful bear who confronts Nils in the forest.
- [Caesar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/caesar.md): A watchdog at a farm who interacts with Nils.
- [Little Mats](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/little_mats.md): Mats is the younger half of a pair of wandering children, and he leans on Osa for direction, comfort, and the next meal. Hunger and fear make him clingy and sometimes tearful, and Osa's sharpness with him is the flip sid
- [Ola Bosson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/ola_bosson.md): A farmer who shelters Osa and Mats.
- [Drumle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/drumle.md): A clumsy young goose in the flock.
- [Saint Peter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/saint_peter.md): A legendary figure in a story told to Nils.
- [Wind-Rush](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/wind_rush.md): A swift bird who races with the geese.
- [Herr Ermenrich](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/herr_ermenrich.md): A stork who visits the geese at Glimminge Castle.
- [Bataki](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/bataki.md): A wise raven who gives advice to Nils.
- [Goldeye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/goldeye.md): A duck who helps Nils at the bird lake.
- [Clawina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/clawina.md): A hen at the farm who scolds Nils.
- [Crawlie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/crawlie.md): A small bird who accompanies the geese.
- [Prettywing](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/prettywing.md): A beautiful duck at the bird lake.
- [Mother Bear](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/mother_bear.md): The protective mother bear in the forest.
- [Kaksi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/kaksi.md): One of the five scout birds sent by Akka.
- [Agar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/agar.md): A female dog who helps Nils.
- [Old Helpless](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/old_helpless.md): An old water snake who aids Nils.
- [Garm Whitefeather](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/garm_whitefeather.md): A dog who guards a farm.
- [Jon Esserson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/jon_esserson.md): A farmer who shelters the children.
- [Iksi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/iksi.md): One of the five scout birds.
- [Crooked-Back](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/crooked_back.md): A deformed bird at the bird lake.
- [Antler-Crown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters/antler_crown.md): A deer in a story told to Nils.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wonderful_adventures_of_nils_se/characters