The Juniper Tree and Other Tales

The Brothers Grimm, Brothers Grimm, Anthea Bell

• Publisher: Pushkin Press
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN:
  9781906548964
• Print ISBN:
  9781906548681
• Subtopic: Classics

The folk tales collected by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were first published in 1812–15, and in many more editions up to the deaths of the brothers around 1860. While no one knows where the tales first came from; features of many are found in myths from all over the world. They were passed on for centuries in the oral tradition, until at last collectors began recording them in print for the world of today, where we still respond to them.
This volume contains a small but representative selection from the Grimms' Children's and Household Tales, the most famous and influential of all the great nineteenth-century folklore collections.

THE JUNIPER TREE

THE JUNIPER TREE

LONG, LONG AGO, perhaps as much as two thousand years before this day, there was a rich man who had a good and beautiful wife, and they loved each other dearly, but they had no children. They wanted children very much, and the woman prayed for a child day and night, but still no children came. There was a yard outside their house where a juniper tree grew, and one day in winter the woman stood under the tree peeling herself an apple. As she was peeling the apple she cut her finger, and the blood fell on the snow.

“Oh,” said the woman, sighing as she looked at the blood and feeling very sad at heart, “oh, if only I had a child as red as blood and as white as snow.”

As she spoke her spirits lifted, and she felt as if some good would come of her wish. Then she went indoors, and a month passed by, and the snow melted. After two months, everything was green and growing. After three months, the flowers came out of the ground, and after four months all the trees in the woods were putting out leaves, with their green branches twining together. The little birds sang so loud that the whole forest echoed to the sound, and blossom fell from the trees. When the fifth month was over the woman stood under the juniper tree again. It smelled so sweet that her heart leapt for joy, and she fell on her knees, hardly able to contain her gladness. After the sixth month had passed the fruit of the tree was growing large and thick, and the woman became very quiet. In the seventh month she picked the juniper berries and ate them greedily. Then she felt sad and sick, and when the eighth month had passed she called for her husband and wept, saying, “If I should die, bury me under the juniper tree.”

After that she felt comforted, and she was happy until the ninth month was over. Then she had a child as white as snow and as red as blood, and when she saw it, she was so glad that she died of joy.

Her husband buried her under the juniper tree, and he began to weep bitterly. He wept for a while, and after that his tears didn’t flow as freely, and when he had wept a little more they dried up entirely, and he married another wife.

He and his second wife had a daughter, while the first wife’s child had been a little boy, a son as red as blood and as white as snow. When the second wife looked at her daughter she loved her dearly, but when she saw the little boy the sight cut her to the heart, and she felt as if he were always in her way. She kept wondering how she could make sure that the little girl inherited all her husband’s property. The Evil One put it into her heart to ill-treat the boy, and she was always pushing him about, punching him and pinching him, so that the poor child went in fear of her. She gave him not a moment’s peace when he came home from school.

One day the woman had gone into the storeroom, and her little daughter followed her. “Mother, give me an apple,” she said.

“Yes, my dear,” said the woman, and she gave her a beautiful apple out of the chest where they were stored. This chest had a large, heavy lid, with a great sharp iron lock on it.

“Mother,” said the little girl, “can my brother have an apple too?”

The woman didn’t like that idea, but she said, “Yes, when he comes home from school.”

And when she looked out of the window and saw the boy on his way, it was as if the Evil One came into her. She put out her hand and took the apple away from her daughter again, saying, “Wait until your brother has one as well.” Then she laid the apple back in the chest, and closed the lid.

Soon the little boy came through the door, and the Evil One put it into her mind to speak kindly to him, saying, “Would you like an apple, my dear?” But she looked at him with hatred in her eyes.

“Oh, Mother, how fierce you look!” said the little boy. “But yes, do give me an apple!”

Then she thought she ought to speak kindly to him. “Come along with me,” she said, opening the lid of the chest. “There now, choose an apple!” And when the little boy bent down the Evil One told her what to do next. Crash! She slammed the lid down so hard that the lock cut off the child’s head, and it flew through the air and fell among the red apples.

Then the woman was terrified, and wondered how she could avoid being blamed. She went into her own room, took a white scarf from the top drawer of her dressing table, propped the boy’s head back on his neck and tied it in place with the scarf, so that no one could see anything wrong. Then she sat the boy on a chair outside the door and put the apple in his hand.

Soon the little girl, whose name was Marlene, went into the kitchen where her mother was standing by the fire with a pan of hot water in front of her, stirring away. “Mother,” said Marlene, “my brother’s sitting there outside the door. He looks so pale, and he has an apple in his hand. I asked him to give me the apple, but he wouldn’t answer. It made me feel very strange.”

“Go back to him,” said her mother, “and if he still won’t answer then tap him on the cheek.”

So little Marlene went back and said, “Give me the apple, please, brother!” But still he said nothing, so she tapped him on the cheek, and his head fell off. The little girl was terrified, and began to cry and scream. She ran to her mother and said, “Oh, Mother, I’ve knocked my brother’s head off!” And she wept and wept and wouldn’t be comforted.

“Oh, Marlene,” said her mother, “whatever have you done? But just keep quiet about it, so that no one knows what’s happened. It can’t be helped now. We’d better cook him in a stew.”

Then the mother took the little boy, chopped him up, put the pieces in the pan and cooked them in a stew. Poor little Marlene stood there weeping bitterly. All her tears fell in the pan, and there was no need to add any salt.

Soon the children’s father came home, sat down at the table and said, “Where’s my son?”

“Oh,” said the mother, “he’s gone into the country to visit his mother’s great-uncle. He wanted to stay there for a while.”

“Why would he do a thing like that, without even saying goodbye to me?”

“Oh, he wanted to go so much, and he asked me if he could stay there for six weeks or so. They’ll look after him well there in the country.”

“Dear me,” said the man, “I feel so heavy-hearted. It’s not right; he could have said goodbye.” Then he began eating, and asked, “Why are you crying, Marlene? Your brother will soon be back.” After a while, he said, “This is a very good dinner, wife! I’ll have another helping.” And the more he ate the more he wanted, saying, “Let me have another plateful. I don’t ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD
• THE BOY WHO SET OUT TO LEARN WHAT FEAR IS
• THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN LITTLE KIDS
• LITTLE BROTHER AND LITTLE SISTER
• THE THREE LITTLE MEN IN THE FOREST
• THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE
• ASHYPATTLE
• MOTHER HOLLE
• THE SEVEN RAVENS
• LITTLE RED CAPE
• THE TAILOR AND HIS THREE SONS
• THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM
• THE JUNIPER TREE
• KING THROSTLEBEARD
• THE COAT OF MANY FURS
• THE SINGING SPRINGING LARK
• THE GOOSEGIRL
• BEARSKIN
• THE POOR MILLER’S BOY AND THE LITTLE CAT
• THE BLUE LAMP
• ONE-EYES, TWO-EYES AND THREE-EYES
• SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED
• Advertisement
• Copyright