THE JUNIPERS TREE

A DARK TALE OF WITCHCRAFT MYSTICISM THE JUNIPERS TREE WRITTEN BY THE BROTHERS GRIMM TRANSLATED BY LORE SEGAL WITH FOUR TALES TRANSLATED BY RANDALL JARRELL PICTURES BY MAURICE SENDAK



THE BROTHERS GRIMM THE JUNIPERS TREE

2 A long time ago now, perhaps 2,000 years, there was a rich man who had a fair and godly wife, and they loved each other very much. But they had no children and they greatly wished for some. The wife prayed for a child day and night, but they did not get one. In front of their house there was a yard where a juniper tree grew, and one day in winter the wife was standing beneath it peeling an apple, and as she was peeling the apple she cut her finger and the blood fell on to the snow. \"Oh,\" said the wife, sighing deeply as she saw the blood before her on the snow, and she grew so downcast, \"if only I had a child as red as blood and as white as snow.\" And as she said this her heart was filled with happiness, for she felt as if it was to be. Then she went indoors. After a month had passed the snow melted; in two months the earth grew green; in three months the flowers sprang from the earth; in four months all the trees put out their shoots and the green branches grew into one another. Then the birds sang so that the whole wood resounded and the blossoms fell from the trees; then the fifth month had passed, and she stood beneath the juniper tree, which smelled so sweet that her heart leapt for joy, and she fell upon her knees and could not restrain herself; and when the sixth month had passed, the fruits were plump and firm, and she grew very still; and in the seventh month she

3 reached for the juniper berries and ate them so greedily that she grew sad and sick. Then the eighth month passed and she called her husband, and wept, and said: \"If I die, bury me beneath the juniper tree. \" Then she was quite comforted and glad until the next month passed, when she had a child as white as snow and as red as blood, and when she saw that, she was so full of joy that she died. Then her husband buried her beneath the juniper tree, and began to weep greatly. After a while his weeping grew a bit quieter, and after he had wept a bit more he arose, and after a while longer he took another wife. With the second wife he had a daughter, but the child of his first wife was a little son, who was as red as blood and as white as snow. When the wife looked on her daughter she loved her greatly, but then she would look at the little boy and it pierced her heart for she imagined he stood in her way wherever she turned, and she was always thinking how she might divert all the wealth towards her daughter. And the Evil One put it in her mind to turn very cruel towards the little boy, pushing him from one corner to another, cuffing him here and buffeting him there, so that the poor child went in constant fear. As soon as he came out of school there was no place where he could be at peace.



5 One day the wife went up to the storeroom, and her little daughter came up too, and said: \"Mother, give me an apple.\" \"Yes, my child,\" said the woman, and gave her a beautiful apple from the chest. But the chest had a great heavy lid with a great sharp iron lock. \"Mother,\" said the little daughter, \"shan't my brother have one too?\" This annoyed the woman, but she said: \"Yes, when he comes from school.\" And when she saw from the window that he was coming, it was just as if the Evil One came upon her, and she snatched the apple and took it away from her daughter and said: \"You shan't have one before your brother.\" Then she flung the apple back into the chest and closed it. When the little boy came in at the door, the Evil One put it into her head to say to him, all friendly: \"My son, would you like an apple?\" but she looked at him harshly. \"Mother,\" said the little boy, \"how cruelly you are looking at me! Yes, give me an apple.\" Then it was as if she was compelled to speak to him: \"Come with me,\" she said, and lifted the lid, \"fetch your own apple.\" And as the little boy stooped inside, the Evil One told her what to do. Crash! She slammed the lid shut, so that his head flew off and fell in among the red apples. Then she was overcome by fear, and thought: if only I can shift the blame from myself! So she went upstairs to her room, and

6 from the topmost drawer of her closet she took a white cloth and fastened his head back on to his neck, and she bound the neckerchief round so that nothing could be seen and sat him on a chair outside the door and put the apple into his hand. Then Marleenken came into the kitchen to her mother, who was standing by the fire holding a pan of hot water in front of her, all the time stirring it. \"Mother,\" said Marleenken, \"my brother is sitting outside the door looking all white with an apple in his hand. I asked him to give me the apple, but he didn't answer me. I was very frightened.\" \"Go back to him,\" said her mother, \"and if he doesn't want to answer you, give him one over the ear.\" So Marleenken went and said: \"Brother, give me the apple.\" But he remained silent, so she gave him one over the ear. His head fell off then, which made her so frightened that she began to cry and howl, and she ran to her mother and said: \"Oh, mother, I've knocked my brother's head off,\" and she cried and she cried and was not to be consoled.



8 \"Marleenken,\" said her mother, \"what have you done! But just keep quiet, so that no one notices, for there's nothing to be done about it; we'll make him into a stew.\" So the mother took the little boy and hacked him in pieces, put him in the pan, and made him into a stew. But Marleenken stood nearby and cried and cried, and her tears all fell into the pan, and they had no need of any salt at all. Then the father came home and sat down at table and said: \"Where's my son, then?\" At that the mother served up a big, big dish of stew, and Marleenken cried and couldn't stop. Then the father said again: \"Where's my son?\" \"Oh,\" said the mother, \"he's gone to the country, to his mother's great-uncle. He'll stay there a while.\" \"What's he doing there? And he didn't even say goodbye!\" \"Oh, he wanted to go. And he asked me if he could stay six weeks. He'll be well looked after.\" \"Oh,\" said the man, \"I'm very sad; it's not right; he really should have said goodbye.\" With that he began to eat, and said: \"Marleenken, why are you crying? Your brother will come back, for sure.\" \"Well, wife,\" he said, \"what is it makes my meal taste so good? Give me some more!\" And the more he ate, the more he wanted, and he said: \"Give me some more; you shall have none of it; it's as if it all belonged to me.\" And he ate and he ate, and he threw all the bones under the table until he had eaten it all up. But Marleenken went to her trunk and from the bottom-most drawer she took her best silk kerchief and gathered up all the little bones from under the table, and tied them in the silk kerchief and carried them outside the door and wept her tears of blood.



10 There she lay down in the green grass beneath the juniper tree, and after she had lain there, all at once she felt light of heart and she wept no longer. Then the juniper tree began to stir, and the branches parted and then closed again, just as if someone were clapping their hands for joy. At the same time there rose a kind of mist from the tree, and deep in the mist there burned a fire, and out of the fire there flew such a beautiful bird which sang so splendidly and flew high up into the air, and after it had gone the juniper tree was as it had been before, and the kerchief with the bones was gone. But Marleenken was as light of heart and glad as if her brother were still alive. Then she went back into the house and ate her dinner. But the bird flew away and settled on a goldsmith's house and began to sing: \"It was my mother who butchered me, It was my father who ate me, My sister, little Marleen, Found all my little bones, Bound them in a silken cloth, And laid them under the juniper tree. Peewit, peewit, what a beautiful bird am I!\"



12 The goldsmith was sitting in his workshop making a golden chain when he heard the bird sitting and singing up on his roof, and sounding so beautiful to his ears. He got up, but as he was crossing the threshold he lost a slipper. But he went right on up the street all the same, in one slipper and one sock; he was weaving his leather apron; in one hand he was holding the gold chain and in the other his tweezers; and the sun shone bright on the street. Then he went and stood still and spoke to the bird: \"Bird,\" he said, \"how beautifully you can sing. Sing me that song again.\" \"No,\" said the bird, \"I shan't sing it twice for nothing. Give me the gold chain, and I'll sing it again.\" \"Right,\" said the goldsmith, \"here's the gold chain for you. Now sing it again.\" So the bird came and took the gold chain in his right claw and went and perched in front of the goldsmith and sang: \"It was my mother who butchered me, It was my father who ate me, My sister, little Marleen, Found all my little bones, Bound them in a silken cloth, And laid them under the juniper tree. Peewit, peewit, what a beautiful bird am I!\"

13 Then the bird flew to a shoemaker's, and settled on his roof and sang: \"It was my mother who butchered me, It was my father who ate me, My sister, little Marleen, Found all my little bones, Bound them in a silken cloth, And laid them under the juniper tree. Peewit, peewit, what a beautiful bird am I!\" The shoemaker heard this, and ran outside his door in his shirt-sleeves. He looked up at his roof and had to hold his hand before his eyes, so that the sun shouldn't blind him. \"Bird,\" he said, \"can't you sing beautifully!\" Then he called indoors: \"Wife, come outside, there's a bird here. Look at him; he can sing beautifully, that's for sure.\" Then he called his daughter and her children and his apprentices, maids, and lads, and they all came up the street to see how beautiful the bird was; and he had bright red and green feathers, and round his neck they were like sheer gold, and his eyes glistened in his head like stars. \"Bird,\" said the shoemaker, \"sing me that song again.\" \"No,\" said the bird, \"I shan't sing it twice for nothing; you must give me something as a gift.\" \"Wife,\" said the man, \"go up to the loft: on the topmost shelf there's a pair of red shoes; bring them down.\" So his wife went up and fetched the shoes. \"Right, bird,\" said the man, \"now sing it again.\"



15 So the bird came and took the shoes in his left claw and flew back up on to the roof and sang: \"It was my mother who butchered me, It was my father who ate me, My sister, little Marleen, Found all my little bones, Bound them in a silken cloth, And laid them under the juniper tree. Peewit, peewit, what a beautiful bird am I!\" And when he had finished singing he flew away, the chain in his right claw and the shoes in his left, and he flew far away towards a mill, and the mill went clip clap, clip clap, clip clap. And inside the mill were 20 miller's lads who were hewing a millstone, and they hacked, hick hack, hick hack, hick hack, and the mill went clip clap, clip clap, clip clap. Then the bird went and settled on a linden tree which stood in front of the mill, and he sang: \"It was my mother who butchered me,\" then one of them stopped working, \"It was my father who ate me,\"

16 then two more stopped working and listened, \"My sister, little Marleen,\" then four more stopped, \"Found all my little bones, Bound them in a silken cloth,\" then only eight were still hacking, \"And laid them under\" then only five, \"the juniper tree.\" now only one, \"Peewit, peewit, what a beautiful bird am I!\" Then the last one stopped working, and he had heard only the last of the bird's song. \"Bird,\" he said, \"how beautifully you sing! Let me hear your song too; sing it to me again.\" \"No,\" said the bird, \"I shan't sing it twice for nothing; give me the millstone and I'll sing it again.\" \"Yes,\" he said, \"if it belonged to me alone you should have it.\" \"Yes,\" said the others, \"if he'll sing it again, he shall have it.\" \"Then the bird came down, and the millers, all 20 of them, set to with a beam and raised the stone, hu-u-up, hu-u-up, hu-u-up! Then the bird stuck his neck through the hole and wore it like a collar, and flew up on to the tree again and sang:

17 \"It was my mother who butchered me, It was my father who ate me, My sister, little Marleen, Found all my little bones, Bound them in a silken cloth, And laid them under the juniper tree. Peewit, peewit, what a beautiful bird am I!\" And when he had finished singing he spread his wings, and in his right claw he had the chain, and in his left claw the shoes, and around his neck he had the millstone. And he flew far away to his father's house. In the parlour the father, the mother, and Marleenken were sitting at table, and the father said: \"Oh, how glad, how light of heart I feel.\" \"No,\" said the mother, \"I feel very frightened, just as if a great storm were coming.\" For her part Marleenken sat and cried and cried, then the bird came flying up, and as he settled on the roof the father said: \"I feel so happy, and the sun is shining outside so brightly, I feel as if I'm about to see an old friend.\" \"No,\" said the wife, \"I feel so frightened, my teeth are chattering, and it burns like fire in my veins.\" And she tore at her corsets and the rest, but Marleenken sat in a corner and cried, and she had her plate in front of her eyes and cried her plate quite wet. Then the bird settled high on the juniper tree and sang:

18 \"It was my mother who butchered me,\" At that the mother covered her ears and shut her eyes and would neither see nor hear, but there was a roaring in her ears like the fiercest storm, and her eyes burned and darted like lightning. \"It was my father who ate me,\" \"Oh mother,\" said the man, \"there's a beautiful bird. It is singing so splendidly, the sun is shining so warm, and there's a smell just like cinnamon.\" \"My sister, little Marleen,\" Then Marleenken laid her head upon her knees and wept her eyes out, but the man said: \"I'm going outside. I must look at the bird from nearby.\" \"Oh, don't go,\" said the wife, \"I feel as if the whole house were tottering and on fire.\" But the man went outside and looked at the bird. \"Found all my little bones, Bound them in a silken cloth, And laid them under the juniper tree. Peewit, peewit, what a beautiful bird am I!\" With this the bird dropped the gold chain, and it fell right round the man's neck so neatly that it fitted exactly. Then he went inside and said: \"Look what a beautiful bird that is; he's given me this fine gold chain and he looks so beautiful.\" But the woman was frightened and she fell, measuring her length in the parlour, and her cap fell off her head. Then the bird sang once again:



20 \"It was my mother who butchered me,\" \"Oh, if only I were a thousand feet below ground, and might not hear it!\" \"It was my father who ate me,\" Then the woman fell down as if she were dead. \"My sister, little Marleen,\" \"Oh,\" said Marleenken, \"I'll go outside too and see if the bird will give me a present.\" So she went outside. \"Found all my little bones, Bound them in a silken cloth,\" Then he dropped the shoes down to her. \"And laid them under the juniper tree. Peewit, peewit, what a beautiful bird am I!\" Then she was so light-hearted and glad. And she wore her new red shoes and danced and tripped back inside. \"Oh,\" she said, \"I was so sad when I went outside, and now I'm so happy. He's a splendid bird for sure, giving me a pair of red shoes.\" \"No,\" said the wife, jumping up, with her hair standing on end like flames of fire, \"I feel as if the world is coming to an end; I'll go outside too, to see if my heart will be lighter.\" And as she came out of the door, crash! The bird dropped the millstone on to her head, so that she was squashed to a pulp. The father and Marleenken heard it and went outside.

21 Then smoke and flames and fire rose from the spot, and when that was over there stood her little brother. And he took his father and Marleenken by the hand and they were all three so happy, and they went into the house and sat down at table and ate their dinner. . . . THE END . . .



THE JUNIPERS TREE THIS TALE IS NOT A TRUE FOLK TALE, BUT FROM A TEXT GIVEN TO THE GRIMMS BY PHILIPP OTTO RUNGE, WHICH IS WHY IT IS A BIT MORE REALISTIC THAN SOME FAIRY TALES. THE MOTHER HAS MANY EMOTIONS, FROM ANNOYANCE WITH HER STEPSON, AND WHEN SHE KILLS HER STEPSON IT ISN'T NECESSARILY THE NATURAL RESULT OF HER HATE BUT THE RESULT OF A MOMENT OF TEMPORARY INSANITY; AFTERWARDS SHE IS PLAGUED BY FEAR AND GUILT AND TRIES TO COVER UP WHAT SHE'S DONE, UNUSUAL FOR EVIL STEPMOTHER CHARACTERS.