The Swine Herd

The Swine Herd by Edna Worthley Underwood

The story opens with an unnamed narrator riding in a cart through the black, rain-soaked Balkan mountains at evening, seated beside the cart's grey, raw-boned owner, whom the narrator addresses as "Prince." The two ride in silence for hours until the horse suddenly balks on the highway: a road black with thousands of hogs blocks their way, gathered around a swine herd who sits upon a milestone, drawing two notes from a one-string violin and addressing his herd with the dignity of a bard, "Beloved swine, my brethren." At the narrator's request, the driver agrees to stop and let the swine herd's tale unfold. The swine herd tells his hogs of Pan Strahinja, a hero now at the zenith of his sixth decade, his hair bleached by time but his falcon eyes still burning. One sultry summer night, Pan Strahinja had feasted a Turk in his richly hung tent, fulfilling an obligation of hospitality to his guest. Afterward he slept upon his couch beside a naked, golden-haired slave-woman who wore a great sea-colored gem on a silver chain about her neck — a woman given to him by the Patriarch of Stamboul. The woman watched the swinging bronze lamp and glanced repeatedly toward the tent door before vanishing while Pan Strahinja slept. Waking to find her gone, Pan Strahinja roared with rage loud enough to bring his guard running with spears, but he dismissed them, claiming he had merely dreamed of receiving the crown of the Serbs. He then summoned his black slave, mounted his stallion, buckled on his sword, and rode out under the stars with his greyhound, Karaman, at his side, certain the Turk had stolen the woman. Reaching the Turk's tent, Pan Strahinja entered without ceremony and found the Turk and the woman together, her golden hair spilling from a divan to the rug-covered floor. Rather than striking in anger, he regarded the scene with the cool detachment of a judge, remarking that he might have killed the Turk on the spot but for his reluctance to let the Turk's blood spill onto the woman. He told the Turk plainly that he could have slain him then and there, and the Turk must now gird on his sword. The two men, along with the stallion, the woman (hastily wrapped in a purple mantle), and the leaping greyhound, processed out onto the star-lit hills like a formal cortege. There, sword in hand, Pan Strahinja formally declared his lineage — son of Pan Soundso, grandson of another Pan Soundso who died in the battle by the White Water — and stated his claim: the woman had been given to him by the Patriarch of Stamboul, and the Turk had taken her. The Turk answered in kind, and the two heroes fought a fierce duel, "strength against cunning," swords sweeping through the air. The Turk wounded Pan Strahinja's leg; the greyhound leapt for the Turk's throat until whistled away; the woman tried to seize Pan Strahinja's mantle but was struck off by the stallion's hoofs; ravens wheeled overhead. The combatants rolled together down the hillside into a rocky cavern beyond the reach of daylight, where Pan Strahinja strangled the Turk to death with his bare hand, then cut off his head with a golden dagger. He carried the head back up to the high ground, fastened it to his saddle, lifted the woman onto his horse, and rode calmly back to his tent. Some months later, as Pan Strahinja was preparing to journey to Rome, the Patriarch of Stamboul visited him and noticed a skull hanging in the corner of the tent. When he asked whose it was, Pan Strahinja answered that it belonged to the Turk who had wanted the woman the Patriarch himself had once given him. The Patriarch asked whether Pan Strahinja had killed the woman too, and Pan Strahinja replied with a question of his own: if the Patriarch's great ruby were stolen and he recovered both the thief and the ruby, what would he do with the thief? The Patriarch answered that he would kill the thief. Pan Strahinja pressed further — would he then throw the ruby away? The Patriarch swore he would not. Pan Strahinja begins to answer, "therefore — I —," and the text breaks off at this point, ending the swine herd's tale before its final words are given.

By Edna Worthley Underwood · First published 1919 · Genre: Epic/Heroic Literature, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction · 2,679 words

First lines

A TALE OF THE BALKAN MOUNTAINS. WALTHER NETTO

Approach of evening in a land of black mountains. Fine, cold rain like a winding sheet. A highway crawling along the narrow valley, about half way up the height, like a man bent over a stone, or a goat; from afar it looks like a woolen thread stretched across a cliff. [12]

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rural · pastoral · folk narrative · Eastern European · humble protagonist · animal husbandry · music · violin · poverty · dignity · nobility of character · nature

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The Swine Herd is listed on Textopian as a short story by Edna Worthley Underwood, dated 1919 CE.

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