The Singing Bone

The Singing Bone is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 28. [Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, "Household Tales", [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/28singingbone.html SurLaLune Fairy Tale site "The Singing Bone"] ]

It is Aarne-Thompson type 780. [D. L. Ashliman, [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0780.html "The Singing Bone and other tales of Aarne-Thompson type 780"] ]

This tale is also found in ballad form, in "The Twa Sisters", where the siblings are sisters instead of brothers. [Stith Thompson, "The Folktale", p 136, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977]

ynopsis

A boar lay waste to a country, and two brothers set out to kill it. The younger met a little man who gave him a spear, and with it, he killed the boar. Carrying the body off, he met his brother, who had stayed to drink until he felt brave. The brother lured him in, gave him drink, and asked how he succeeded, and the innocent younger brother told him. They set out to deliver the body to the king, and the older killed the younger on a bridge, and buried his body under it. He took the boar himself to the king, and married the king's daughter.

One day a shepherd saw a bone under the bridge and made a mouthpiece for a horn, but then the horn began to sing on its own. The shepherd took this marvel to the king. On hearing the song the horn sang, the king had the younger brother's skeleton dug up. The older brother could not deny murdering him and was executed.

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