The Juniper Tree (fairy tale)
Encyclopedia
The Juniper Tree is a German fairy tale
collected
by the Brothers Grimm
. In some editions the story is called, The Almond Tree. The Text in the Grimm collection is in Low German
.
It is tale number 47 and Aarne-Thompson type 720: "my mother slew me, my father ate me". Another such tale is the English The Rose-Tree
, although it reverses the sexes from The Juniper Tree; The Juniper Tree follows the more common pattern of having the dead child be the boy.
The father eats the stew, suspecting nothing, and declares it delicious. Marjory, however, keeps the bones left over from the meal and buries them beneath the Juniper tree. A beautiful bird flies out of the tree. It goes and sings a song to a goldsmith about its cruel death at the hands of its mother and how caring his sister is. The goldsmith gives the bird a golden chain because the song is so beautiful. The bird also sings the same song to a shoemaker, who gives it a pair of red shoes, and to millers, who give it a millstone. It then flies back home and sings its song. The father goes out to see what is singing such a beautiful song and the golden chain falls about his neck. The father tells everyone that a beautiful bird gave him a chain. It sings again and Marjory goes out to see if this is true, and the red shoes fall to her. She comes in giggling happily and tells everyone how happy she is with what the bird has given her. All this time the stepmother is complaining of heat, claiming she has a horrid fire burning in her veins. It sings a third time, the stepmother goes out,hoping for relief, and the bird drops the millstone on her, crushing and killing her. The father and Marjory go out to see what caused the loud crash, but find nothing but a swirl of smoke and a stone. The brother is standing there, looking happy, and they all go inside for dinner.
The millstone
in the story would have had Biblical connotations for the readers of the Grimms' days, especially as the verse Luke 17:2 says that anyone who causes a child to sin would be better off being thrown into the sea with a millstone about his neck; both refer to a millstone as a punishment for those who harm the young and innocent.
In his essay "On Fairy-Stories
", J.R.R. Tolkien cited The Juniper Tree as an example of the evils of censorship for children; many versions in his day omitted the stew, and Tolkien thought children should not be spared it, unless they were spared the whole fairy tale.
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
collected
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Children's and Household Tales is a collection of German origin fairy tales first published in 1812 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Brothers Grimm. The collection is commonly known today as Grimms' Fairy Tales .-Composition:...
by the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
. In some editions the story is called, The Almond Tree. The Text in the Grimm collection is in Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
.
It is tale number 47 and Aarne-Thompson type 720: "my mother slew me, my father ate me". Another such tale is the English The Rose-Tree
The Rose-Tree
The Rose-Tree is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales.Also included within A Book Of British Fairytales by Alan Garner.It is Aarne-Thompson type 720, my mother slew me; my father ate me...
, although it reverses the sexes from The Juniper Tree; The Juniper Tree follows the more common pattern of having the dead child be the boy.
Synopsis
A woman wishes for a child as red as blood and as white as snow. She knows she is about to die, so she requests that she be buried under a juniper tree that her family has outside, as that is where she wished for the child. After a few months she gives birth to a son and dies a few days later. She is buried underneath the Juniper tree. Her husband grieves for a long time, and gets married again. His second wife gives birth to a daughter, Marjory, but hates the son because he would be the one to inherit all the family's money, and she wishes it to be her daughter. One day, she offers Marjory an apple and she graciously accepts it. Then she has an evil thought and cruelly offers the boy one. As he reaches in a box to get it, she slams the box's heavy lid on him, beheading him. She then takes a bandage and ties his head back to his body, and tells Marjory to ask him for the apple, and if he doesn't give it, to give him a good box on the ear. Marjory kindly asks for the apple, and then boxes him on the ear, resulting in the boy's head falling off. Marjory goes to her mother and tells her in sobs that she killed her brother. Her mother reassures Marjory and they both agree not to tell the father. Marjory cannot stop weeping. When the father returns the boy has 'gone to stay with his uncle'. The father is upset that the boy did not say goodbye and tells Marjory that he will be home soon. The stepmother then turns the boy's body into a stew without anyone knowing apart from her and Marjory.The father eats the stew, suspecting nothing, and declares it delicious. Marjory, however, keeps the bones left over from the meal and buries them beneath the Juniper tree. A beautiful bird flies out of the tree. It goes and sings a song to a goldsmith about its cruel death at the hands of its mother and how caring his sister is. The goldsmith gives the bird a golden chain because the song is so beautiful. The bird also sings the same song to a shoemaker, who gives it a pair of red shoes, and to millers, who give it a millstone. It then flies back home and sings its song. The father goes out to see what is singing such a beautiful song and the golden chain falls about his neck. The father tells everyone that a beautiful bird gave him a chain. It sings again and Marjory goes out to see if this is true, and the red shoes fall to her. She comes in giggling happily and tells everyone how happy she is with what the bird has given her. All this time the stepmother is complaining of heat, claiming she has a horrid fire burning in her veins. It sings a third time, the stepmother goes out,hoping for relief, and the bird drops the millstone on her, crushing and killing her. The father and Marjory go out to see what caused the loud crash, but find nothing but a swirl of smoke and a stone. The brother is standing there, looking happy, and they all go inside for dinner.
Commentary
Many folklorists interpret evil stepmothers as stemming from actual competition between a woman and her stepchildren for resources. In this tale, the motive is made explicit: the stepmother wants her daughter to inherit everything.The millstone
Millstone
Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...
in the story would have had Biblical connotations for the readers of the Grimms' days, especially as the verse Luke 17:2 says that anyone who causes a child to sin would be better off being thrown into the sea with a millstone about his neck; both refer to a millstone as a punishment for those who harm the young and innocent.
In his essay "On Fairy-Stories
On Fairy-Stories
"On Fairy-Stories" is an essay by J. R. R. Tolkien which discusses the fairy-story as a literary form. It was initially written for presentation by Tolkien as the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, in 1939. It first appeared in print, with some enhancement, in 1947, in...
", J.R.R. Tolkien cited The Juniper Tree as an example of the evils of censorship for children; many versions in his day omitted the stew, and Tolkien thought children should not be spared it, unless they were spared the whole fairy tale.
Adaptions
- The story was adapted for the comic book Grimm Fairy Tales as issue 16. The story goes that a woman kills her stepson in order to prevent him from eloping with her daughter, then buries his body underneath the juniper tree in their yard. The next day, a bird on the branch of the tree tells the daughter the truth, and out of grief, she hangs herself from the tree. The story is told to a woman named Patricia, who was contemplating having her drug-addict stepson Bryan killed because of the horrible example he set for her daughter, Carolyn. But, in a sense of twisted irony, her daughter dies anyway from a drug overdose.
- The story was also adapted by Barbara Comyns CarrBarbara Comyns Carr- Early life :Barbara Irene Veronica Bayley was born in the Warwickshire village of Bidford-on-Avon in 1907. She was one of six children and the family home was Bell Court on the banks of the River Avon...
in her novel The Juniper TreeThe Juniper TreeThe Juniper Tree is a 1990 Icelandic film with a small cast of five actors, Björk, Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir, Guðrún S. Gísladóttir, Valdimar Örn Flygenring and introducing Geirlaug Sunna Þormar...
which was published by Methuen in 1985. In Comyns Carr's adaptation the step mother is a sympathetic character and the son's death an accident. Whereas in Grimm's fairy tale it is Marlene (the daughter) who buries the bones of the son, Comyns Carr makes Marlene ignorant of the death and has the stepmother, desperate to prevent her husband finding out and in the throes of a nervous breakdown, bury the little boy under the juniper tree. At the end of the adaptation the step mother does not die but is treated and begins a new life. The Juniper TreeThe Juniper TreeThe Juniper Tree is a 1990 Icelandic film with a small cast of five actors, Björk, Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir, Guðrún S. Gísladóttir, Valdimar Örn Flygenring and introducing Geirlaug Sunna Þormar...
was Barbara Comyns Carr's first novel after an 18 year hiatus in her work and was described in The Financial Times at the time of publication as "delicate, tough, quick-moving .... haunting". - "The Juniper Tree" an opera in two acts by Philip GlassPhilip GlassPhilip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
& Robert MoranRobert MoranRobert Moran is an American composer of operas and ballets as well as numerous orchestral, vocal, chamber and dance works.-Life:...
, (1985). Libretto by Arthur YorinksArthur YorinksArthur Yorinks has written and directed for opera, theater, dance, film, and radio and is the author of over thirty-five acclaimed and award-winning books, including "Hey, Al," a children's book which earned the Caldecott Medal in 1987....
. - The 1990 Icelandic film The Juniper TreeThe Juniper TreeThe Juniper Tree is a 1990 Icelandic film with a small cast of five actors, Björk, Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir, Guðrún S. Gísladóttir, Valdimar Örn Flygenring and introducing Geirlaug Sunna Þormar...
, based on the Grimm Brothers' tale, stars Bjork as a visionary young girl whose mother has been put to death as a witch.