She fell upon her knees, but could not speak. The fifth month passed, and she stood under the Juniper-tree, and it smelt so beautiful, and her heart leaped for joy. Then she went into the house and a month passed, and the snow melted and two months, and the ground was green and three months, and the flowers came up out of the earth and four months, and all the trees in the wood burst forth, and the green twigs all grew thickly together the little birds sang so that the whole wood rang, and the blossoms fell from the trees. While she spoke, she became quite happy it seemed to her as if her wish would surely come to pass. “Oh,” said she, sighing deeply and looking sorrowfully at the blood, “if I only had a child as red as blood, and as white as snow!” In front of their house was a yard, where stood a Juniper-tree, and under it the wife stood once in winter, and peeled an apple, and as she peeled the apple she cut her finger, and the blood fell on the snow. They wished and prayed for some night and day, but still they had none. ONE or two thousand years ago, there was a rich man who had a beautiful and pious wife they loved one another dearly, but they had no children. The Juniper Tree is a particularly gruesome tale with themes of cannibalism and murder. The reviewers had a point the early editions of the tales are famously gory. The first edition of their collection had critical reviews stating that the stories were unsuitable for children. The Juniper Tree is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Children’s and Household Tales.
THE JUNIPER TREE FULL
What follows is a tale full of deceit, murder and revenge. The man later remarries and has a second child, a daughter, but the new wife is extremely jealous of the son’s beauty and becomes possessed by evil. She is buried under the Juniper Tree according to her wishes. When the couple eventually do have a child the mother is so happy that she dies. The Juniper Tree begins with a happy couple who want for a child. The horrid tale of a mother possessed by evil, a dinner of death, and a beautiful singing bird. In Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales, Fortnightly Fairy Tales, News, Story Time, Tree Stories Origins of Fairy Tales from Around the World.