In a certain country there
was once great lamentation over a wild boar that laid waste
the farmer's fields, killed the cattle, and ripped up
people's bodies with his tusks. The king promised a large
reward to anyone who would free the land from this plague,
but the beast was so big and strong that no one dared to go
near the forest in which it lived. At last the king gave
notice that whosoever should capture or kill the wild boar
should have his only daughter to wife.
Now there lived in the country two brothers, sons of a
poor man, who declared themselves willing to undertake the
hazardous enterprise, the elder, who was crafty and shrewd,
out of pride, the younger, who was innocent and simple, from
a kind heart. The king said, in order that you may be the
more sure of finding the beast, you must go into the forest
from opposite sides. So the elder went in on the west side,
and the younger on the east. When the younger had gone a
short way, a little man stepped up to him. He held in his
hand a black spear and said, I give you this spear because
your heart is pure and good, with this you can boldly attack
the wild boar, and it will do you no harm. He thanked the
little man, shouldered the spear, and went on fearlessly.
Before long he saw the beast, which rushed at him, but he
held the spear towards it, and in its blind fury it ran so
swiftly against it that its heart was cloven in twain. Then
he took the monster on his back and went homewards with it
to the king. As he came out at the other side of the wood,
there stood at the entrance a house where people were making
merry with wine and dancing. His elder brother had gone in
here, and, thinking that after all the boar would not run
away from him, was going to drink until he felt brave. But
when he saw his young brother coming out of the wood laden
with his booty, his envious, evil heart gave him no peace.
He called out to him, come in, dear brother, rest and
refresh yourself with a cup of wine.
The youth, who suspected no evil, went in and told him
about the good little man who had given him the spear
wherewith he had slain the boar.
The elder brother kept him there until the evening, and
then they went away together, and when in the darkness they
came to a bridge over a brook, the elder brother let the
other go first, and when he was half-way across he gave him
such a blow from behind that he fell down dead. He buried
him beneath the bridge, took the boar, and carried it to the
king, pretending that he had killed it, whereupon he
obtained the king's daughter in marriage. And when his
younger brother did not come back he said, the boar must
have ripped up his body, and every one believed it. But as
nothing remains hidden from God, so this black deed also was
to come to light.
Years afterwards a shepherd was driving his herd across
the bridge, and saw lying in the sand beneath, a snow-white
little bone. He thought that it would make a good
mouth-piece, so he clambered down, picked it up, and cut out
of it a mouth-piece for his horn, but when he blew through
it for the first time, to his great astonishment, the bone
began of its own accord to sing--
ah, friend thou blowest upon my bone.
Long have I lain beside the water,
my brother slew me for the boar,
and took for his wife the king's young daughter.
What a wonderful horn, said the shepherd, it sings by
itself, I must take it to my lord the king. And when he came
with it to the king the horn again began to sing its little
song. The king understood it all, and caused the ground
below the bridge to be dug up, and then the whole skeleton
of the murdered man came to light. The wicked brother could
not deny the deed, and was sewn up in a sack and drowned.
But the bones of the murdered man were laid to rest in a
beautiful tomb in the churchyard.
