After breakfast, they went into town to buy Christmas presents at the big department store. In the toy department on the first floor, Joachim started to think about Elisabet from the magic Advent calendar.
Could it have been from this store that she began running after the little lamb? There was an old escalator here. But wasn’t it a very long time since Elisabet had chased the lamb?
“This shop must be forty years old,” he said to his mother.
She looked at him oddly. “I should think it’s even older than that” was all she said.
So he knew. Elisabet and the little lamb had run from this shop. He understood completely, because Joachim didn’t like shopping in large stores, either. He got really angry at the nagging sound of the cash registers.
That Saturday was extra-long because he was thinking about what would happen when Elisabet and the angel Ephiriel got to Denmark. It was even worse at bedtime. He had to lie right under the magic calendar, which was still full to bursting with secrets.
To sleep so close to all those secrets was almost like living in a chocolate shop without being allowed to taste one single tiny chocolate.
6
DECEMBER 6
… a camel can move from place to place as well, a little like the castles on a chessboard …
WHEN Joachim woke up on Sunday morning, it felt as if he had just fallen asleep, for he hadn’t woken once during the whole of that long night. Then he realized that he had dreamed, and as soon as he remembered the dream, it seemed to him that the night had been a long one, after all.
He had dreamed that the magic Advent calendar was filled with small chocolate figures that turned into real animals as soon as he opened the doors and let them out. To stop them from running away, he had to lock them up in his secret box, and he only let them out on Christmas Eve. Then all 24 chocolate animals crept out through the window and set off through the countryside. They were going to Bethlehem, to Bethlehem—because that’s where the Christ Child was born. Joachim knew that Jesus had loved all of mankind, but in his dream he had liked chocolate as well.
Joachim sat up and laughed. He was ready to open the sixth door in the Advent calendar. Today there was a picture of a round tower. But he would look more closely at the picture afterwards. First he had to read what was on the piece of paper.
CASPAR
When the boat with Elisabet, the angel Ephiriel, Joshua the shepherd, and the three sheep touched land on the Danish side of Øresund, they were welcomed politely by a well-dressed man.
Elisabet spotted him first. The angel, who was rowing, sat with his back to the shore, and Joshua was busy keeping the sheep quiet.
“There’s a man over there,” she said.
The angel glanced over his shoulder and said, “Then he’s one of us.”
The man was black and was wearing a dark cloak with gold buttons, red knit pants, and sheepskin shoes. He came toward them and pulled the boat up on land. The sheep were the first to jump out, and soon the pilgrims were all standing on the beach.
The man wearing the fine clothes bent down and took Elisabet’s hand. “Greetings to you, my child, and welcome to Sjaelland. My name is King Caspar of Nubia.”
“Elisabet,” said Elisabet, curtsying politely.
She wasn’t quite sure how to behave. Perhaps she should have said that her name was Elisabet Hansen and that she came from Norway, but that wouldn’t have been very interesting after he had told her that he was the King of Nubia.
“He’s one of the Three Wise Men from the East,” whispered Ephiriel solemnly.
“Or one of the Three Kings of the Orient,” said Joshua, nodding.
None of this information made the situation any easier for Elisabet. If she was going to say anything, it would have to be that she was the Princess of Toten or something like that. Then maybe the King would have believed that Toten was a mighty kingdom.
The black king bowed again and said, “The pleasure is on my side of Øresund. You should know that I’ve been standing here waiting for you for so long that in the end I had to play hopscotch between 1701 and 1699.”
This was so puzzling that Elisabet had to rub her eyes to see if she was awake. It was difficult enough to play hopscotch between squares on the pavement. How could the Wise Man play hopscotch between two different years?
He explained, “When I arrived on this shore in the Year of Our Lord 1701, some fishermen appeared, and they were so dismayed when they saw one of the Three Wise Men that I had to take a step back. That’s how I got to the year 1700. I sat down and looked out over Øresund, but after a while a couple of soldiers on horseback came from the fortress in Copenhagen. They, too, were dismayed when they set eyes on a black king. You see, at the moment I am the only black man in the whole of Denmark, at least the only one who is a King of the Orient besides. That sort of thing attracts attention, my friends. People find it hard to become used to something completely different. So I hurried back to the year 1699, and since then I have been waiting here. I have seen neither man nor beast, and I have had no need to hide from sun and moon, or from the stars in heaven, either, for the stars in heaven are so close to God that they would never permit themselves to gossip about the life of humans on earth.”
Elisabet didn’t know whether she understood everything he said, but she did see that she was talking to a real wise man. He was so wise that she didn’t know where to look.
So it was a great relief to her when at last the shepherd thumped his crook on the ground. “To Bethlehem! To Bethlehem!”
The little procession moved off again—the three sheep first, Joshua and Caspar the black king next, Elisabet and Ephiriel last.
They leapt along broad cobbled streets in a big city. Ephiriel explained that it was Copenhagen, the King’s city. It was so early in the morning that the streets were almost deserted.
Elisabet thought it was nice to see such a big city without any cars. But you had to put up with the horse droppings that were fertilizing the streets. Elisabet was used to seeing that only when she visited her cousins at Toten.
“The time is 1648,” announced the angel Ephiriel. “It’s the last year of Christian IV’s reign. He became King of Denmark and Norway when he was still a child, and that was many years ago.”
“Of Norway, too?” asked Elisabet.
“Of Norway, too, yes. Because Norway is part of Denmark at this time. It was Christian IV who founded Kristiansand and Kongsberg. And he gave Oslo the name Christiania, too. He’s very fond of Norway and has visited the country often.”
They soon arrived at the very center of the Danish capital. They stopped in front of a church with a round tower at one end.
“That’s the Round Tower which King Christian has just built onto the new Trinity Church,” said Ephiriel. “Even though church towers look imposing, he thought they could be made better use of. So the Round Tower has been built both as a church tower and as a watchtower where astronomers can work in peace and quiet, studying the movements of the planets and the position of the stars in the sky. For these are the days when the first telescopes are being invented.”
“That’s a strange mixture,” said Elisabet.
She felt that she, too, had to say something clever every now and again. But she had no luck this time, for the Wise Man shook his head. “The stars are created by God, too,” he said. “So studying the stars in the sky can be like a whole church service. But here they have neither deserts nor camels.”
Elisabet stared at him, and the Wise Man continued. “The best way to study the stars, in the opinion of all Wise Men, is to sit on the back of a camel in the desert. It’s almost like sitting in a tower, but a camel can move from place to place as well, a little like the castles on a chessboard. The only thing that’s a little difficult for a camel is to go through the eye of a needle.”
Elisabet looked at the Wise Man in astonishment. She was not at all sure if she agreed that the back of a camel could be compared with a church tower. N
or was she so sure that a desert could be compared with a chessboard.
Caspar cleared his throat. “The drawback of a watchtower is that it usually stands stock-still. I have myself seen a tower that has stood in the same spot for more than a thousand years. The old walls must get bored with the view. On the other hand, they experience how people come and go, and perhaps that gives them insight.”
Elisabet nodded, and with a gesture Caspar made sure that none of the others spoke. Then he eagerly continued.
“There are exactly two ways of becoming wise. One way is to travel out into the world and to see as much as possible of God’s creation. The other is to put down roots in one spot and study everything that happens there in as much detail as you can. The problem is that it’s totally impossible to do both at the same time.”
Elisabet was again struck with wonder at the Wise Man’s words. To be on the safe side, she clapped her hands, and the angel and the shepherd did the same. Caspar was infected by their enthusiasm and began clapping too, because he was so pleased with all that had been said.
Elisabet thought it must be fun to keep thinking thoughts that were so clever that people wanted to clap their hands.
It was as if the Wise Man had read her thoughts. He said, “Thinking clever thoughts is almost like being at a circus. And I don’t mean a circus with clowns or elephants, but a real thinking circus. Let it be said once and for all, however: I am grateful to all clowns and elephants for their attention.”
Joshua thumped his crook on the cobblestones. “To Bethlehem!” he said. “To Bethlehem!”
The procession began to move along the streets again: the sheep first, the shepherd, the Wise Man, the angel, and Elisabet following. Through the city and out to the country they went, between swaying wheat fields and cool, leafy woods. Elisabet thought Denmark was a very flat country. It seemed to be extra-flat, because she could see no tall buildings. The only things that pointed up occasionally were the churches they passed. All of them had been built in honor of a little child who once upon a time was born in Bethlehem.
They saw the sea in the distance and came down to a small town called Korsor which lay beside the Great Belt, the broad sound between Sjaelland and Fyn.
The people in the small town almost fell over when they glimpsed the astonishing procession. But their terror lasted only a short time, for the next moment the procession had moved one or two weeks back in the history of the town. Then there were other people who glimpsed the pilgrimage for a second or two. That’s why there was continual talk of angels at that time.
Joshua pointed to a large rowboat at the water’s edge. “We have to borrow that,” he said. “Hurry up, now. It’s nearly 1600 years after Jesus’ birth.”
And he chased his sheep on board.
Elisabet felt she had to ask the angel whether this wasn’t stealing, but Ephiriel reminded her that Jesus had to borrow an ass when he rode into Jerusalem.
A little later, they were out on the Great Belt. The angel rowed with one oar, King Caspar with the other. The Wise Man had to work hard to row as strongly as Ephiriel.
* * *
WHEN Mama came in to look at the Advent calendar, Joachim forgot that he wasn’t supposed to talk about what he had read.
She peered at the picture. “That must be the Tower of Babel.”
Joachim shook his head. “Oh, no. That’s the Round Tower in Copenhagen.”
Mama looked at him in astonishment. “Who told you about that?”
“No idea,” replied Joachim, because that’s what Mama usually said when he asked her a question she couldn’t answer. “Besides, it’s impossible to play chess with a tower like that, because it stands stock-still. And if you sit in it you quickly get bored with the view. But, on the other hand, you may get some insight.”
Mama clasped her hands. Joachim thought she did it because he had said something clever. But all she said was, “Oh, Joachim, where do you get all this from?”
7
DECEMBER 7
… in heaven we’ve always considered this to be a slight exaggeration …
ALL that afternoon, Joachim thought about Caspar, the black king who had been waiting in Denmark for Elisabet, the angel Ephiriel, and Joshua the shepherd to come across Øresund.
How did he know they were coming? Did Ephiriel and the King of Nubia have an old agreement to meet precisely there in the year 1699? There was nothing to suggest that their meeting was accidental, after all. “Then he’s one of us,” the angel had said as soon as he saw Caspar.
It had all begun with the little lamb. Perhaps Elisabet hadn’t been meant to follow it, but the angel in the woods must have known that the lamb would be coming that way?
All of a sudden, Joachim thought about the bookseller. He had said that the Advent calendar looked homemade, and Joachim agreed. It looked as if it had been cut out and glued at home in the kitchen.
If John had made the magic Advent calendar, he had probably named the girl in the story after Elisabet in the photograph. But why had he done that? Why had he made the Advent calendar and left it in a bookshop without knowing what would become of it?
In the evening, when Joachim was going to bed, he tried to push all the open doors shut so that he could look at the large picture. Before he put out the light, he glanced at the Advent calendar one more time, and thought how strange it must be to be in Bethlehem exactly at the time when Jesus was born.
Elisabet was on her way there, and, in a way, he was able to come along.
When he woke up the next morning, he opened the seventh door and saw a picture of a sheep eating grass in front of some high walls.
THE FOURTH SHEEP
The angel Ephiriel and King Caspar had rowed Elisabet, Joshua the shepherd, and the three sheep over the Great Belt.
“We’re going ashore again,” said Ephiriel. “This island is called Fyn, and it’s exactly 1599 years since Jesus was born in Bethlehem.”
From the sea they ran toward a large castle on a mound between ramparts and moats. “That’s Nyborg Castle,” the angel told them. “We’re standing in front of the oldest royal fortress in Scandinavia.”
Elisabet pointed up at the ramparts. “There’s a sheep.”
The angel nodded. “Then it’s one of us.”
With that, they all leaped up onto the ramparts, the three sheep first, Joshua and King Caspar after them, Elisabet and Ephiriel last.
A soldier rushed out from between the buildings of the castle. He raised a spear and shouted, “Sheep thieves!”
The next moment, three or four soldiers came storming up. All of them had spears, and one of them had a kind of gun as well. The angel Ephiriel stepped forward. The soldiers threw themselves down on the ground and hid their heads in their hands.
“Fear not!” said the angel in a gentle voice. “For I bring you tidings of great joy. This sheep will come with us to the Holy Land where the Christ Child is to be born.”
Only one of the soldiers dared to look up. He was the one who had called them sheep thieves. “Be merciful unto us and take the sheep with you,” he cried.
The sheep had already joined the others as if it belonged to the little flock. Joshua struck his crook against the rampart and said, “To Bethlehem! To Bethlehem!”
Off they went across the green island, the four sheep first, Joshua, Caspar, Ephiriel, and Elisabet following them.
On the bank of a small river they passed a town with narrow streets and one-story dwellings. On the outskirts stood an ancient stone church with a square tower.
“That’s the great cathedral of Odense,” said Ephiriel. “It’s named after Saint Canute, who was killed here in the year 1086.”
Elisabet pointed at Ephiriel’s arm. The gold and mother-of-pearl was glittering.
“What time is it on your angel watch?”
“It’s 1537 years after Christ. From now on, the Bible will be printed in all the languages of the world, so everyone can read about Jesus, for in these days the a
rt of printing will be invented. Before this, books have had to be written by hand, and only the priests were able to read the Bible. But not many people have learned to read. Now it is decided that all the nation must go to school.”
“Some years before this time.” Caspar said, “a Polish astronomer called Copernicus appeared. He insisted that the earth was as round as a ball and moves in orbit round the sun. This wasn’t news to wise men, but to most people it was a strange and exciting idea. Sailors could now travel around the world, and that’s how Christopher Columbus reached America in the year 1492. Then the Spanish sailors attacked the Indians cruelly. In the opinion of the Kings of the Orient, it would have been better if they had kept to the ships of the desert. For there is no more peaceful animal than a camel in the desert, and peace is the message of Christmas.”
Elisabet understood about half of what the Wise Man said when Joshua struck the ground with his crook. “To Bethlehem! To Bethlehem!”
They went on their way along a ridge that gave them a good view over Fyn. Now and then, they looked down on a horse drawing a plow or an ox harnessed to a cart.
“It’s not so flat here,” said Elisabet as she ran. “But we’re still in Denmark, aren’t we?”
The angel nodded. “Yes indeed, and the Danes are very proud of ridges like this. But we’re no more than a hundred meters above sea level. They have called the hillsides we can see down there on the left the Fyn Alps. Another ridge is called Himmel, Heavenly, Mountain. In heaven we’ve always considered this to be a slight exaggeration.”
The procession had paused, and Caspar joined in the conversation again. “But it’s important to be happy with what you have. However little it is, it’s infinitely more than nothing.”
Elisabet stood still and thought seriously before she said, “If the world was as smooth as a ball, there wouldn’t be a single mountain on the whole earth. But then even a rocky slope would be just as exciting as the highest mountain in Norway, as long as it was the only rocky slope.”