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Reading Notes Part A "The Singing Bone"


There once was a wild boar that terrorized an entire country. This beast was so massive and awful that it would kill entire flocks of animals, and dig up farmland with its tusks. Everyone in the kingdom was so terrified of the beast to the point that nobody would do anything about it. Then the king of the land made an announcement saying "Whoever shall kill the beast will have my daughter's hand in marriage."

 There was a pair of brothers in the land, and when they heard this message they decided to take the challenge and kill the boar. The brothers were different from one another in many different ways. One brother was driven by pride and glory, the other brother was driven by his good heart. 

They went to the king for the challenge and he instructed them to start at opposite sides of the forest where the beast lives so he could not evade them. The brothers went off to the forest to kill the boar. The good-hearted brother went to the far side of the forest to start his journey and soon after he entered the forest he encountered an elf. The elf presented himself and said, "I can see that you have a good heart, and because of that I will give you this spear to slay the beast." Sure enough, when the brother used the spear it killed the boar and the brother came out unscathed. He collected his bounty and started to head home.

He came upon a house with a party happening inside, little did he know he would find his cruel brother waiting inside. The cruel brother saw the good brother headed his way with the boar and he became mad with envy. Once they met the envious brother welcomed him and encouraged him to celebrate his bounty. The next day on their trip home the envious brother struck the good brother dead and buried him underneath the bridge they were on. He then took the bounty home and said he had killed the boar.

He married the king's daughter and everyone assumed that the good brother was killed by the boar.

Many many years later one farmer was walking across a bridge when he saw a bone sticking out of the ground. He picked it from its spot and thought it would be a great piece to carve a mouthpiece from. So the farmer carved the bone into a mouthpiece and stuck it in his horn. To his surprise when he blew the mouthpiece sang a tune.

Oh, my dear shepherd,
You are blowing on my little bone.
My brother killed me,
And buried me beneath the bridge
To get the wild boar
For the daughter of the king.

The farmer played this tune for the king. They then went back to the place where the bone was found and recovered an entire skeleton. At once the king killed the evil brother and gave a proper burial to the good brother's skeleton.

Bibliography: This story is part of the Brothers Grimm unit. Story source: The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman (1998-2013).
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