The Singing Bone

Once upon a time great complaints were made in a certain country of a Wild Boar, which laid waste the fields of the peasants, killed the cattle, and often tore to pieces the inhabitants. The King promised a great reward to whoever should free the land of this plague; but the beast was so big and strong that no one durst venture in the neighbourhood of the forest where it raged. At last the King allowed it to be proclaimed that whoever should take or kill the Wild Boar, should have his only daughter in marriage.

Now, there lived in this country two brothers, the sons of a poor man, and they each wished to undertake the adventure: the elder, who was bold and brave, out of pride; the younger, who was innocent and ignorant, from a good heart. They agreed, that they might the sooner find the boar, that they should enter the forest on opposite sides; so the elder departed in the evening, and the other on the following morning. When the younger had gone a short way, a little Dwarf stepped up to him, holding a black spear in his hand, and said, “I give you this spear, because your heart is innocent and good; with it you may boldly attack the Boar, who can do you no harm.”

He thanked the Dwarf, and, taking the spear, went forth bravely. In a little while he perceived the Wild Boar, which ran straight at him; but he held the spear in front of his body, so that, in its blind fury, it rushed on so rashly that its heart was pierced quite through. Then he took the beast upon his shoulder, and went homewards to show it to the King.

However, just as he came out on the other side of the forest, there stood on the outskirts a house, where the people were making merry, dancing and drinking. His elder brother was amongst them, exciting his courage by wine, and never thinking at all that the Boar might be killed by any other than himself. As soon, therefore, as he saw his younger brother coming out of the forest laden with his booty, his envious and ill-natured heart had no rest. Still he called to him, “Come in here, my dear brother, and rest, and strengthen yourself with a cup of wine.” The younger brother, suspecting no evil, went in and related his story of the good little dwarf, who had given him the spear wherewith he had killed the boar. The elder brother detained him till evening, and then they went away together. But when they came in the darkness to a bridge over a stream, the elder, letting his brother pass on before till he came to the middle of the bridge, gave him a blow which felled him dead. Then he buried him in the sand below the bridge, and taking the Boar, brought it to the King, representing that he had killed it, and so received in marriage the Princess. He declared, moreover, that the Boar had torn in pieces the body of his younger brother, and, as he did not come back, every one believed the tale to be true.

But, because nothing is hid from God’s sight, so also this black deed at last came to light. Many years after, as a peasant was driving his herd across the brook, he saw lying in the sand below a snow-white bone, which he thought would make a good mouth-piece. So he stepped down, took it up, and fashioned it into a mouth-piece for his horn. But as soon as he blew through it for the first time, to the great astonishment of the herdsman, the bone began to sing of itself—

“My brother slew me, and buried my bones

Under the sand and under the stones:

I killed the boar as he came from his lair,

But he won the prize of the lady fair.”

“What a wonderful little bone!” exclaimed the herdsman; “it sings of itself! I must take it to the King.”

As soon as he came before the King, it began again to repeat its song, and the King understood it perfectly. So he caused the earth below the bridge to be dug up, and there all the bones of the younger brother came to light. The wicked brother could not deny the deed, and, for his punishment, he was sewed up in a sack and drowned.

And the bones of the other brother were placed in a splendid tomb in the churchyard.