AI-generated narrative interpretation of the two grown human brothers after their lake crossings. Their golden appearance follows the selected tale; faces, clothing and landscape are artistic choices without national or ethnographic authentication.
Historical collected narrative through Jukih/Erben/Wratislaw; no ethnic costume or geographic place authenticated.
Overview
A traveller shares food with a stranger because he has found no prosperity at home: his wife has no children, his hound no puppies and his mare no foal. The stranger gives him an apple and tells him how to divide it among the household and plant its two pips on the house. Afterwards two sons, two puppies and two foals are born, and two apple trees grow. When the parents have died and the companions have grown, each brother takes a horse and hound. They make spears from the trees and set out together before choosing different roads.
The brother taking the lower road reaches a lake after three years. A warning promises regret whether he enters or stays out; he swims across, and he, his horse and his hound emerge gilded with gold. A king entertains him, and the king’s daughter asks to marry him. After their wedding he goes hunting alone. His hound raises a stag with gilded horns, which leads him to a tower. A woman there offers a game of draughts with the stag and hound as stakes.
The hunter is about to win when singing women distract him and his opponent moves the pieces. Repeated cheating costs him his hound, then his horse and finally his freedom; she binds and imprisons him. His brother subsequently crosses the same lake and also becomes golden with his animals. At the royal home everyone mistakes him for the married brother. He keeps away from the wife’s embraces, infers the mistaken identity and goes searching. Recognising the paired animals at the tower confirms that his brother has been trapped there.
The second brother refuses the singing distraction and wins the draughts games, recovering the hound and horse and finally taking the player herself as the stake. The account includes his striking her during the contest; this is not presented here as a model of fair or acceptable conduct. He frees his brother, who briefly suspects him of intimacy with his wife and draws a sword. Her reproaches about the visitor’s coldness reveal his restraint. The brothers reconcile: one remains with his wife and kingdom, the other takes the draught-player and hers. Their likeness enables the mistaken identity, not a shared body or instant movement.
Origins & earliest records
J. F. Jukih’s Bosnian Friend, volume i, through Erben’s 1865 anthology and A. H. Wratislaw’s 1889 English translation. The inspected section is headed Serbian Stories from Bosnia. This historical editorial label is retained as a source association, without assigning every narrator or figure to a present nationality, religion or ethnic community. No individual narrator or exact field locality is established.
Records & interpretation
Complete XLVI, printed pp.246–252; full preface and Bosnian section introduction. Contents credits Bratya to J. F. Jukih, Bosnian Friend i.171.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Sixty Folk-Tales from Exclusively Slavonic Sources
London, Elliot Stock. Selected complete XLV and XLVI, original preface, regional framing and contents source credits inspected.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical translated collected narrative with printed source attributionWratislaw1889 — complete XLVI The Two Brothers; preface, source credits and Bosnian framingResearch access: 2026-10-23
Image credits
AI-generated narrative illustrationAI-generated narrative interpretation of the two grown human brothers after their lake crossings. Their golden appearance follows the selected tale; faces, clothing and landscape are artistic choices without national or ethnographic authentication.
Historical collected narrative through Jukih/Erben/Wratislaw; no ethnic costume or geographic place authenticated.
