|| A Grimm’s fairytale – Retold ||
Long long ago, a huge wild boar was wreaking havoc throughout the country.
No one dared to venture into the forest where it ran about. With its tusks, it ripped to pieces anyone who was bold enough to pursue it.
The worried king proclaimed that anyone who could kill the boar would receive a reward and his daughter for a wife.
There were three brothers in the kingdom. The oldest was sly and clever; the second was of ordinary intelligence; but the third and youngest was innocent and a simpleton.
They wanted to win the princess, so they set forth to seek out the wild boar and kill it.
The two oldest ones went together, wanting nothing to do with the youngest one.
The simpleton, although innocent, was a brave man. He set out by himself.
He walked for hours in the woods and came upon an old man struggling to carry firewood.
The old man asked the simpleton, “Son, please help my frail hands. I want to be warm tonight”.
The simpleton carried the firewood for the old man till his hut.
The old man thanked him for his help and gave him a black whip, “Take this whip and fearlessly attack the boar with it, and you will kill it.”
The third brother said, “But it looks pretty ordinary”. The old man said, ” It takes strength from your bravery. Trust me.”
And that is what happened. The simpleton chanced upon the fierce boar and struck it with the whip without being afraid, and it fell dead to the earth.
Then he lifted it onto his shoulder, and cheerfully set off toward home.
On the way he came to a house where his brothers were making merry and drinking wine.
When they saw him with the boar on his back, they called to him, “Come in and have a drink with us. You must be tired.”
The innocent simpleton, not anticipating any danger, went inside and told them how he had killed the boar with the black whip, and rejoiced in his good fortune.
That evening they returned home together. The two oldest ones plotted to kill their brother.
They let him walk ahead of them, and when they came to a bridge just outside the city, they attacked him with the whip, striking him dead.
They buried him beneath the bridge.
The oldest one took the boar, carried it to the king, claimed that he had killed it, and received the princess for a wife.
The second one took the whip for himself, but as soon as he reached his home, the whip melted into sludge.
Few years passed, but it was not to remain hidden.
One day a shepherd was crossing the bridge when he saw a little bone beneath him in the sand.
It was so pure and snow-white that he wanted it to make a mouthpiece from, so he climbed down and picked it up.
Afterward he made a mouthpiece from it for his horn, and when he put it to his lips to play, the little bone began to sing by itself
“Oh, dear shepherd
You are blowing on my bone.
My brothers struck me dead,
And buried me beneath the bridge to lie alone,
It was I that killed the wild boar
Oh, listen to me sing
but my brothers wanted more
the treasure and the daughter of the king.”
The shepherd took the horn to the king, and once again it sang the same words.
After hearing this, the king had his people dig under the bridge, and they soon uncovered the skeleton.
The two wicked brothers confessed their crime and were punished.
The murdered brother’s bones were laid to rest in a beautiful grave in the churchyard.
Justice was served.
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