Prevod

Once upon a time, there was a land where people bitterly lamented a wild boar that rooted up the farmers’ fields, killed their cattle, and tore people open with its tusks. The king promised a great reward to anyone who would rid the land of this scourge; but the beast was so large and strong that no one dared go near the forest where it lived. At last the king proclaimed that whoever captured or killed the wild boar should have his only daughter for a wife.

Now there lived two brothers in that land, the sons of a poor man, who came forward and offered to undertake the venture. The elder, who was cunning and clever, did so out of pride; the younger, who was innocent and simple, out of the goodness of his heart. The king said, “So that you may be all the more certain of finding the beast, you must enter the forest from opposite sides.” So the elder went in from the west, and the younger from the east. When the younger had walked a little way, a little man came 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 face the wild boar, and it will do you no harm.” He thanked the little man, shouldered the spear, and went on without fear. Before long he caught sight of the beast, which charged straight at him. But he held out the spear, and in its blind fury the boar rushed upon it with such force that its heart was cut in two. Then he hoisted the monster onto his shoulder and set off homeward, meaning to bring it to the king.

When he emerged on the other side of the forest, he found a house at its edge where people were making merry with dancing and wine. His elder brother had gone inside, thinking that the boar would not run away from him, and that first he would drink himself some courage. Now, when he saw his younger brother coming out of the forest laden with his prey, his envious, wicked heart would give him no peace. He called to him, “Come inside, dear brother, rest a while and refresh yourself with a cup of wine.” The younger, suspecting no evil, went in and told him about the good little man who had given him the spear with which he had killed the boar.

The elder kept him there until evening, and then they set off together. But when they came in the darkness to the bridge over a brook, the elder let the younger go ahead, and when he was halfway across the water, struck him from behind so that he fell down dead. He buried him beneath the bridge, then took the boar and brought it to the king, claiming that he had killed it; whereupon he received the king’s daughter as his wife. When the younger brother failed to return, he said, “The boar must have torn him open,” and everyone believed it.

But since nothing remains hidden from God, this dark deed, too, was to come to light. Many years later, a shepherd was driving his flock across the bridge when he saw a little snow-white bone lying in the sand below, and thought it would make a good mouthpiece. So he climbed down, picked it up, and carved it into a mouthpiece for his horn. The first time he blew through it, the little bone, to the shepherd’s great astonishment, began to sing of its own accord:

“Ah, dear shepherd, hear my moan, you are blowing on my little bone. My brother struck me dead one day, beneath the bridge my body lay, all for the wild boar he would claim, to win the king’s fair daughter’s hand.”

“What a wondrous little horn,” said the shepherd, “to sing all by itself! I must take it to my lord the king.” When he came before the king with it, the little horn began to sing its song again. The king understood it well and had the earth beneath the bridge dug up, and the murdered brother’s entire skeleton came to light. The wicked brother could not deny his deed, and was sewn into a sack and drowned alive; but the murdered man’s bones were laid to rest in a beautiful grave in the churchyard.