The Seven Wishes

Many of Alfred Smedberg's (1850-1925) fairy talesfrequently tell about gnomes and trolls, witches and elves - stories the Swede was told as a child. His writings are often characterized by a profound love for his home town, humor and a warm religiosity, where also sobriety, justice and honesty are emphasized values.

The Seven Wishes might emerge as a strange tale; Olle is quite the anti-hero, and is described in a rather harsh and unflattering manner. He is ugly, lazy and dumb, fighting shy of his chores, ticking of his neighbours. So one day, when a little fairy grants him seven wishes, what do you think happens? At one point, I must admit, I found myself giving up on Olle, sympathizing with the villagers and others. In the end however, Master Smedberg, shows a heartwarming concern for Olle, giving the poor boy a helping hand. The ending is beautiful, and ultimately makes sense.

If you have seen Olle Niklasson standing at his knapsack in the woods, tearing himself in his fiery red bristly hair, then you would probably have laughed your socks off.

For fact of the matter was, that Olle Niklasson was not like other boys. His hair looked like a sundried juniper bush, almost like a potato masher, his cheeks like a pair of swollen fly amanitas.

It might have been okay if Olle was nothing but ugly. But at the same time, the boy was so lazy that he barely bothered to get up when he fell, and so stupid that he couldn't separate a crow from a squirrel. When he scrambled about in the forest, the mouth gaping, his arms hanging straight down, one might mistake for an ape rather than a human. Poor Olle was so ugly and so dumb, that even the magpies laughed at him.

Now he stood there with his knapsack in the forest, scratching his head. The sack was no bigger than a seven-year-old boy might be able to run with it, yet Olle, who was thirteen and strong as a bear, stood there for an hour, wondering if he would be able to lift it up.

As he was now standing there rather distressed, he saw a viper lying prostrate on the ground quite close to him. The serpent kept a steady watch on a small object, laying a bit ahead of him. When Olle looked closer, he saw that it was a small frog, slowly creeping straight toward the open mouth of the viper. Had Olle not been as stupid as he was, he would have understood that the snake with its sharp gaze insnared the frog; she could not tear herself out of the spell but kept crawling forward, until the snake caught her in his gap.

- Oh dear! Olle exclaimed, staring at the two animals. But he was too lazy to find a stick and kill the snake. The frog crept closer and closer to the toxic gap. And even as stupid as Olle was, it finally dawned on him that the frog was running scared. She trembled all over her body and sometimes let out a low moaning cry. Olle widened his eyes and took a step closer.

- Listen, you little idiot! he said grinning. You're pretty stupid, not running away. Don't you see that that the serpent wants to eat you?

It was the longest speech Olle had kept throughout his life, and it also made him struggle to the point that he had to take off his cap, and wipe the sweat off his forehead. Meanwhile, the frog kept crawling forward, and finally she was only a step away from the snake, whom kept his eyes steadily directed at her, and the poor frog shook with horror and fear.

Then Olle got angry and picked up a stick from the ground. - You halfwit! he said. Do I really have to help you?

And then he poked the frog with the stick, so that she tumbled to the side. The frog quickly jumped away and up at Olle's knapsack. There she sat down to watch Olle with such wide, beautiful eyes, as if she wanted to thank her rescuer.

– Do I have to carry you too! said Olle displeased. Don't you think the knapsack is heavy enough as it is.

But the frog remained on top of the sack, gazing at Olle. Her eyes were so gentle and warm, that Olle felt almost enchanted. There he was, lazy and dumb and could not bring himself to push her away. Meanwhile the snake straightened out and slithered away through the grass.

Suddenly, the frog let out a silvery laugh and jumped down from the knapsack. And at that moment she was transformed into a beautiful little fairy with rosy cheeks, sky-blue eyes and golden, wavy hair. Olle was so surprised that he couldn't say more than: - Oh-oh!

Illustration by John Bauer, 
for Alfred Smedberg's The seven wishes in Julbocken, 1907

- Thank you, my friend, for saving my life! said the elf with a voice so sonorous and soft as a harp.

- Oh-oh-oh! said Olle over again.

- You do not know what a great deed you have done, 'said the elf. I'm not a frog you see. I am a river queen. My little crystal castle is located in the brook, which flows through over the forest meadow.

- Oh-oh-oh! said Olle, just gaping at the beautiful little creature.

- You are probably wondering, 'continued the fairy, why I just was a frog. Yesterday at noon I committed a great sin. I made fun of a little frog, whom was crawling towards the gap of a serpent. I did not understand that the frog was bewitched by the snake, so that she could not get away from him, and so I laughed at her, because she did not run away. But that was wrong of me, and so I was punished to myself be a frog for twenty-four hours. There were still ten minutes left of the sentence, when the snake came and enchanted me with his gaze. Had you not come in between and saved me, then I had been swallowed and killed. Do you now understand what great deed you have done?

- Ah-ah-ah! said Olle, gaping even more.

- And now I want to reward you for your goodness, said the elf. You will have seven wishes, and whatever you want you shall receive. But beware only to wish for anything foolish, because you will regret it afterwards. Farewell!

And when the fairy said this, she soared away on the path that led down to the brook.

- Ho-ho-ho! said Olle, rubbing his elbow. That was refreshing. But what should I want now? Well, now I know. I wish the knapsack to run home by itself and me riding on it.

Immediately after Olle uttered these words, he tumbled over the knapsack on his belly. It promptly set off through the woods, so sticks and moss and pebbles whirled in the air. Petrified, Olle clang his hands to the sack. Between hills and groves it plunged, uphill and straight down, galloping over logs and rocks. Olle was thrown like a mitten back and forth, dropped his cap and his clogs, whipped in the face of shrubs and branches he started bulging like a bull.

Within a few minutes, the knapsack was back home at the little cottage where Olle lived. With fierce speed it flew through the gate into the yard. There she stopped so briskly, by the threshold, that Olle was thrown through the air, heading for the main staircase, hitting himself so hard he got a good bump in his forehead.

- Oh, oh, oh! said Olle and crawled up on his knees.

The mother, who thought that is was the pig whom had barged into the cabin, came rushing out of the kitchen with the broom. Olle couldn't say anything but oh-oh! and ha-ha! He had gotten such a knock in his head that he forgot the whole story of the frog and the snake. The mother felt pity for the boy and therefore ran and bought him a handful of caramel-covered almonds. But when Olle was given something tasty, he could never have enough of it. He sat down on the cabin threshold and devoured them in a snap.

- That was yummy, yummy, he said, licking his mouth. I wish I had a whole bowl full of these, so I could eat till I could eat no more. At the moment a bowl came in his lap, full tasty caramels.

- Oh! said Olle delightedly, and planted his huge fist in of the bowl. He ate so much, that it would have made your jaw drop if you saw it, gaping and chewing and swallowing. Within a quarter the bowl was empty, and Olle was as fat and full as a sausage.

Now you may know that almonds contain a form of poison, and that you get sick if you eat too much.

Olle also experienced this. After a while he lay on the couch and curled up like a caterpillar, held his hands to his stomach, yelling loader than a pig stuck in a fence. The kind mother sent for the doctor. He urged Olle to drink a whole bottle of bitter water, which in one hour cleared the poison out of the body and made Olle as slender as a hunting dog. When Olle finally came to himself, starting telling of what he had done, the good doctor prescribed a proper round of strokes of a stick.

A few weeks later, the mother sent Olle out to clean carrots in the small garden-patch. Olle trudged out and lay down by carrots to rest for a while before he started. Now, the garden there happened to be a splendid cherry tree, filled with the largest and reddish cherries. But these hung so high that you could not get hold of them without climbing the tree.

A quick and wise boy would immediately find a ladder, and make his to up to the juicy berries. But Olle was both too stupid and too lazy to think of such a thing. Lying there, he became annoyed that the crows and magpies swarmed between the branches, eating one berry after another.

- Ha-ha! Olle said, smacking his lips. I wish I was sitting up there at the top. Just as a whirlwind had pulled him from the ground, he flew up at the top in a second, where he was hanging on one of the top branches. - Oh, Oh! cried Olle delighted and started picking and munching.

Had he just not been too lazy to close the gate when he went into the garden, then maybe everything had gone well. But now that the gate was open, the pig came into the garden and began to rub himself against the cherry tree. How this will end, you have probably figured out by now. Olle was thrown back and forth like a magpie in a birch-tree during a severe thunderstorm. At last, he lost his grip and fell down, braking off twigs and branches, somersaulting over the pig’s back. It is difficult to say which wretch who yelled the worst, the poor pig or Olle. Fact remain however, that the pig never dared to rub against a cherry tree when a boy was sitting at the top, and during the next eight days, Olle suffered a broken hand, a swollen nose and red scratches on his cheeks.

Now one would think that Olle never dared to wish for anything stupid ever again. But was no different than any other loutish boy. He did not remember an accident longer than his scratches. It therefore took no more than a couple of weeks before Olle encountered a new adventure.

One day he had gone all the way down to the village. It was rare for Olle to go that far, but now he was there anyway, his eyes fixed on a cyclist on the road ahead.

- Ha-ha! said Olle. I wish I could to sit on one of those and travel all over the parish. At that very moment, Olle found himself on a two-wheeler, propelling away at full speed. From where it had come and how he ended up on it, he could not really understand. But now he was sitting on the two-wheeler in any case, trampling away as his life depended on it. Olle had never cycled before, and started shouting his throat sore, scaring both people and cattle alike. If the two-wheeler had only been rational enough to stay on ordinary roads, then would have ended well. But that rascal needed to run around the whole parish as Olle had wished for, and therefore could not travel within the safer paths.

The horrified cyclist tried to keep his feet still, but it was impossible. He had to pedal, whether he wanted to or not. Over bumps and meadows, down heavy slopes, across corn fields, potato fields, fences, ditches and stone walls. Everywhere people ran out of their houses, staring at the frenetic cyclist, and Olle screamed and trampled, trampled and screamed.

- Oh-hope! Oh oh oh! 0-ho-ho! he moaned. Help me, grab me!

The townspeople watched with annoyance that Olle destroyed crops and cattle, cabbages and flower beds, running over piglets and frightening horses. The sheep jumped over the fences, and the hens flew cackling up on the barn roof. Now came the villagers with sticks and rods to confront Olle. Farmers and laborers rushed forward in a long line with all the parish magistrates in the lead. But Ole's two-wheeler rushed against them like an angry bull, beating the hat of the warden, scratching the legs of the sexton, and punching the richest farmer his stomach that he tumbled to the ground.

Olle was so frightened that he almost fainted. He could not really understand what marvel he was riding. - I wish that this wretch to be broken into a hundred pieces, he said.

Immediately, the two-wheeler smashed against a stone wall, breaking into pieces. Olle made a somersault over the wall into a pile of nettles. The people immediately rushed to give Olle in for the damage he had done. Not only had he badly devastated fields and gardens, he had run over and killed three pigs and four hens. But when the peasants saw how frightened and tired Olle was, they lowered their rods and let him go in peace.

- I feel sorry for the poor thing, they said. He's so stupid, so he doesn't know what he's doing. And it's no wonder when he didn't bother to learn to read.

Olle limped off back home, aching all over his body. But he started thinking about what the people had said. - Am I stupid because I can't read? he thought. That was weird. Maybe that's why I always get into trouble. I wish I could read. Olle should have said that first time he wished for something. He would have acted wisely and spared many aggravations.

The thing was, with the gift the little elf had given Olle was, that if he wished for something idiotic, he got it right away, but if he wished for something sensible, then he received it gradually. Therefore, he did not learn the whole art of reading at one time. But he had such a burning desire to learn, so he worked at it continuously, morning and evening.

It wasn't long before Olle could read in every book he came across. And the more he read, the better he understood how dumb he had been, not wanting to work for anything, knowing that half his live had been lounged away. Therefore, he also began to become diligent and help his mother with all kinds of work.

When one day he was walking through the woods, he met the little river queen. He immediately recognized her and now also came in mind the tale of the frog and the serpent, for since he learned to read and work, he had also gained better memory.

- Good day, dear Olle, said the elf mildly. You have now wished for something six times, but only your last wish was wise. Now you have to wish for something again, but think well, for this is the last time, and then I have no power to help you anymore.

Olle stood for a long time, thinking. He had now gained better understanding through reading and work, and therefore he was afraid to want something stupid. Finally, he said:

- I wish I became a useful and good person.

"It was the best you could wish for," said the little elf. And therefore, you should also get what you requested, but only through your own work, for what you get in other ways is not very worthwhile. Farewell!

The little elf kept his word. Through reading and hard work, Olle eventually became both sensible, helpful and good, so that all people liked him. And when he became good, he also became beautiful, because only the slothful and spiteful are ugly.