Once upon a time, there was a poor farmer who lived with his wife and twelve children, one son and eleven daughters. Every day, he works hard to raise them and provide them with food and supplies.
When his thirteenth child and second son were born, the baby came out sickly and Death arrived to take him away. The farmer pleaded with him not to take his last child away but Death kept refusing his attempts and told him that the child was destined to die. That is until the farmer made a deal with him. If he leaves the child alone, he can make Death the child's godfather. Death accepts the deal and he officially becomes the child's godfather. The parents named their thirteenth child, Dearil.
Years later, Dearil grew up into an odd, quiet young man with a love for music, nature and the macabre.
Many people in the village found him quite strange. When he was a child, he would listen to the scariest stories as if they were harmless, fun fairy tales. He adopted creepy crawlies like spiders as his pets. He slept with his arms crossed over his chest. He even knitted scarves and socks out of spiderwebs! But the strangest thing about him is how he spent the night…
Every night when his family were sleeping, he stripped all his clothes and rubbed coals over his body to hide better in the dark. Then he would sneak out into the cemetery for an adventure. Some villagers would spot him hanging in the cemetery. He played and danced with the bugs, birds and cats that hung in the cemetery. He climbed the tallest gravestones. And he sang melodies to the moon. After that, he would sneak back home, bathe himself up quickly and jump into bed before his family woke up.
Despite being considered an outcast and weirdo in the village, he had a beautiful singing voice and a taste for music. His songs are dark and spooky but add a strangely enchanting charm to it. Other than singing, he is skilled at playing guitar, flute, violin and piano.
The first son and second oldest child, Adalgar, is the opposite. He was the village's beloved hero who is known for successfully hunting 100 wild animals in one day, including bears and wolves. Not only is he the strongest hunter in his village, he was also the most handsome of the boys and many women dream of marrying him as their husband. Most of the villagers believed he would become a knight or lord one day.
But Adalgar grew jealous of his younger brother when his parents praised his musical talent. He doesn't get why his parents loved Dearil. In his eyes, Dearil is a total nutcase and he was neither attractive nor strong like him. This caused Adalgar to become prideful and arrogant.
One day, news about a fearsome wild boar that was terrorizing the kingdom. The boar destroyed the peasants' fields, killing the cattle, and ripping people apart with its tusks. The king promised a large reward to anyone who could free the land from this plague, but the beast was so large and strong that no one dared to go near the woods where it lived. Finally, the king proclaimed that whoever could capture or kill the wild boar should have his only daughter in marriage.
Dearil and Adalgar heard about the news. They decided to go on a quest to kill a boar but for different reasons. Adalgar only wants to kill the boar just so he can be rewarded by being a legendary famed hero, marry a beautiful princess and get all the riches. Dearil, on the other hand, had no interest in marrying a princess, getting famous or having riches but he had a kindhearted desire to save people from the monster.
They then planned to go hunting the boar tomorrow.
At night, Dearil calls for his godfather and Death arrives. After listening to his godson about the boar attacking the kingdom, Death handed his scythe to him and said,
"I am letting borrow my scythe because you are my godson. With it, you can confidently attack the wild boar. But remember, do not give this scythe to everyone except me or dark fate awaits you."
He thanked his godfather and Death disappeared before his eyes.
In the early morning, He woke up to find his brother had already left. He put the scythe on his shoulder, left the village and walked to the woods.
Before long he saw the beast. It attacked him, but he held the scythe toward it, and in its blind fury, it tried to run into him with such force that Dearil swung his scythe and chopped off the boar's head.
Then he put the monster on his back and went on his journey to see the king.
Emerging from the woods, Dearil came to a tavern where people were laughing, drinking and dancing. His older brother was there too. Adalgar foolishly believed that the boar would not run away from him any time soon, he had decided to drink himself some real courage. When he saw his younger brother coming out of the woods with his booty, his envy gave him no peace.
He called out to him, "Come in, dear brother. Rest and refresh yourself with some wine."
At first, Dearil is hesitant about drinking but then changes his mind and decides to celebrate his victory by killing the boar.
After a lot of drinking, Dearil drunkenly told him about how his godfather had lent him his scythe so he could kill the boar.
Adalgar kept him there until evening, and then they set forth together. Before they left the tavern, Adalgar asked his younger brother to lend him his scythe. Dearil was so drunk that he had forgotten his promise with Death and he ended up giving the scythe to his treacherous older brother.
The brothers left the tavern and Dearil began singing while drunk off his rocker.
The brothers then came to a bridge over a brook and Adalgar let Dearil go first. When Dearil reached the middle above the water, Adalgar used the scythe to slash his younger brother's head off, murdering him in a fit of betrayal. Dearil's disembodied head dropped deep into the river.
Adalgar buried his headless corpse beneath the bridge, took the boar, and proudly delivered it to the king, lying that he had killed it. With this, he received the king's daughter in marriage.
When Dearil did not return to his village, Adalgar said, "The boar must have ripped him apart," and everyone, including his family, believed it.
While everyone is celebrating Adalgar defeating the boar, Death has seen it all. His godson kills the boar, gets drunk at the tavern and spills everything to his older brother, breaking his promise by giving the scythe to him and lastly, getting murdered by him.
Death emerged from the shadows and saw the ghost of his godson sadly looking at the bridge where he was killed. Dearil saw his godfather and fell to his knees out of shame and guilt for his mistake.
"Oh, what a fool am I for accepting a drink from my brother! Please, Godfather, forgive me for my mistakes, I will fix it for you by getting your scythe back"
Death shook his head in disappointment.
"My Godson, it is true that your gullibility and naivete had cost your life and my scythe but I will at least give you a second chance to fix your mistake."
Death then turns to see the moon.
"For nothing remains hidden from Death and your brother's black deed will come to a light"
13 years later
A little girl named Hope was walking across the bridge and saw something floating up in the river beneath, a snow-white skull. Out of curiosity, She built a fishing rope and used it to catch the skull. But when Hope picked it up for the first time, to her great astonishment, the skull began to sing:
"Ah, Child, thank you for dragging me out of the river!
Long before my head fell into the water;
My traitorous brother killed me for the boar,
And took for his wife the King's young daughter."
Hope was bewildered and amazed by the singing skull but hearing him about how he was murdered made her shudder in fear. She decided to take the skull to the kingdom.
There was a party in the kingdom. Everyone is celebrating the 13th anniversary of King Adalgar slaying the boar. The princess, who is now the queen, had already given birth to Adalgar's newborn child and was under the care of the nanny. The princess's father, the King, is invited to see his daughter, son-in-law and grandchild. The scythe was now remade into a beautiful staff for King Adalgar.
A lot of people were busy chatting, laughing, cheering, singing, eating, drinking and dancing until King Adalgar made an announcement with sad news. He needed a new bard to play the song about him slaying the boar after the previous one had retired due to old age.
"Is anyone willing to play the song?"
A cheerful little girl's voice shouted.
"I do!"
Everyone turned to see Hope raising her hand in the air and holding a box.
"I got the bard you needed!"
To the crowd's astonishment, She opened the box and a skull jumped out of the box and sang the same song he sang to the little girl. After singing, The skull glared at his petrified brother with fury in his empty eye sockets.
"You may have killed me for my foolishness but I will not rest until your true colors are revealed and return back the scythe. You must pay the price"
Now that the dark truth is revealed, Adalgar cowardly tries to escape out of the castle but the skull leaps at him, snatching the scythe and slashing his head off, ending Adalgar's life.
Everyone follows the skull to the bridge he was killed on. The king ordered his guards to dig up Dearil's corpse from the ground below the bridge. Dearil's skeleton was now laid to rest in a beautiful tomb in the churchyard.
At night, Death showed up. The ghost of Dearil gave him back his scythe and Death forgave him for his mistakes.
Dearil peacefully walked to the afterlife with his godfather at his side along the way.
On some night, the skeleton in the tomb still sings in a beautiful haunting voice for the people around…