WARNING: As in Grimm’s, the following fairy tale may contain violence; proceed at your own risk.

Graphic design also by Harlow Berny

Retold by Harlow Berny

Centuries ago, in a long forgotten kingdom, there was a horrendous monster that took the shape of a wild boar. It terrorized the fields and livestock of the kingdom before it moved on to tear the humans apart with its blood-stained tusks. The royal family had offered a small reward for any word of the beast, but as it destroyed more and more, and fewer and fewer bounty hunters returned from their attempts to kill it, they raised the reward to entice the people willing to risk the encounter. From the words of the few people who returned, the savage boar had bloody bone where a face would be, and sounds of the countless people it had killed could be heard screaming when it opened its maw, and the stench of brimstone was present whenever it was near. After the rumors spread of the beast’s nature, after the recent passing of the king of the lands, the queen had to raise the reward. She offered her only son to the person–be they man or woman–who presented the boar’s carcass to her.

In this forgotten kingdom, there were two brothers who had decided to try to kill the boar and marry the prince. The older was crafty, shrewd, and full of pride, and only wanted to kill to show his power and to marry the prince to have that power and the wealth that comes with it. The younger was innocent, simple, and pure hearted. He wanted to kill the boar to stop its violence, to avenge those it killed, and to marry the prince so his family might live in comfy quarters. When the brothers declared to the queen that they would be attempting to rid the lands of the foul beast, she gave them this advice:

If you wish to kill the beast, I believe you should take advantage of your partnership and enter the forest from opposite sides to infix the boar between you.

The brothers took the queen’s advice, and the elder entered from the west while the younger took the east. When the younger had walked a short distance into the forest, he was met by a small man, not unlike a troll, who held a black spear in his hands. He told the boy that since his heart was pure and good, he could wield the spear against the boar without risking his life, for the spear would protect his soul from the demon inside the boar’s skin. The brother thanked the troll and went bravely into the depths of the forest, knowing he would survive his encounter with the boar.

Not long after, the younger brother could smell the brimstone and heard the boar breathing like a furnace to his left. Instantly, the brother turned and pointed the spear toward the beast. When the boar ran toward him screaming like thousands of men, it ran straight into the spear and impaled itself on the black point. The boy took the boar on his back and headed west to meet with his older brother.

When the younger brother came out the other side of the forest, he saw a small house filled with the sounds of laughter, dancing, and the smells of alcohol. When he walked in, he could not immediately see his brother, but his brother could see him, along with the boar on his back. The older brother called the younger over and gave him wine while listening to the story of how the boar was slain with the black spear. When the brothers left in the evening, the elder had the younger walk in front of him, and once they were over a bridge of a dry riverbed, the elder grabbed the spear and struck the younger through the heart and pushed him over the railing. The elder’s hand was burned by the spear because of his tainted heart, but all he needed was the boar. He sloppily buried the younger brother under the bridge along with the spear, then took the boar on his back. Once he returned to the queen and convinced her that he slew the beast after it slew his brother, he was married to the prince.

It was only five years later that a shepherd was moving his herd across the old bridge and saw a little bone sticking out of the dirt. He needed a new mouthpiece for his horn, so he whittled it down and put it in. When he blew through the horn, however, he was amazed that it sang of its own accord.

Ah, friend thou blowest upon my bone.

A heart of love was what to be won.

In the ground my brother made me sown,

and took for his husband the queen’s young son.

What a wonderful horn! Thought the shepherd, It sings all on its own! Surely the queen would want to see it. He hurried to her castle and again blew it for her, and she understood it well. She had the grounds dug where the bone was found. A skeleton with a large, black spear was found; and when she confronted her son-in-law, he could not deny his heinous crime. The wicked brother was sewn in a bag and thrown in a lake to drown, while his brother’s skeleton was laid in a large tomb. The red-haired queen placed the spear on top of the tomb with her pure, cleansed, metal hands.

Editor: Shelby Armor