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Title: Grimm's Fairy Tales: The Juniper Tree
Date of first publication: 1930
Author: Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Author: Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
Illustrator: Noel Pocock (1880-1955)
Date first posted: November 4 2012
Date last updated: November 4 2012
Faded Page eBook #20121107

This eBook was produced by: David Edwards, Donna M. Ritchey
& the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

(This file was produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)



The Juniper Tree


A long while ago, perhaps as much as two thousand years, there was a
rich man who had a wife of whom he was very fond; but they had no
children. Now in the garden before the house where they lived, there
stood a juniper tree; and one winter's day as the lady was standing
under the juniper tree, paring an apple, she cut her finger, and the
drops of blood trickled down upon the snow. "Ah!" said she, sighing
deeply and looking down upon the blood, "how happy should I be if I had
a little child as white as snow and as red as blood!" And as she was
saying this, she grew quite cheerful, and was sure her wish would be
fulfilled. And after a little time the snow went away, and soon
afterwards the fields began to look green. Next the spring came, and the
meadows were dressed with flowers; the trees put forth their green
leaves; the young branches shed their blossoms upon the ground; and the
little birds sang through the groves. And then came summer, and the
sweet-smelling flowers of the juniper tree began to unfold; and the
lady's heart leaped within her, and she fell on her knees for joy. But
when autumn drew near, the fruit was thick upon the trees. Then the lady
plucked the red berries from the juniper tree, and looked sad and
sorrowful; and she called her husband to her, and said, "If I die, bury
me under the juniper tree." Not long after this a pretty little child
was born; it was, as the lady wished, as red as blood, and as white as
snow; and as soon as she had looked upon it, her joy overcame her, and
she fainted away and died.

Then her husband buried her under the juniper tree, and wept and mourned
over her; but after a little while he grew better, and at length dried
up his tears, and married another wife.

Time passed on, and he had a daughter born; but the child of his first
wife, that was as red as blood, and as white as snow, was a little boy.
The mother loved her daughter very much, but hated the little boy, and
bethought herself how she might get all her husband's money for her own
child; so she used the poor fellow very harshly, and was always pushing
him about from one corner of the house to another, and thumping him one
while and pinching him another, so that he was for ever in fear of her,
and when he came home from school, could never find a place in the house
to play in.

Now it happened that once when the mother was going into her store-room,
the little girl came up to her, and said, "Mother, may I have an apple?"
"Yes, my dear," said she, and gave her a nice rosy apple out of the
chest. Now you must know that this chest had a very thick heavy lid,
with a great sharp iron lock upon it. "Mother," said the little girl,
"pray give me one for my little brother too." Her mother did not much
like this; however, she said, "Yes, my child; when he comes from school,
he shall have one too." As she was speaking, she looked out of the
window and saw the little boy coming; so she took the apple from her
daughter, and threw it back into the chest and shut the lid, telling her
that she should have it again when her brother came home. When the
little boy came to the door, this wicked woman said to him with a kind
voice, "Come in, my dear, and I will give you an apple." "How kind you
are, mother!" said the little boy; "I should like to have an apple very
much." "Well, come with me then," said she. So she took him into the
store-room and lifted up the cover of the chest, and said, "There, take
one out for yourself"; and then, as the little boy stooped down to reach
one of the apples out of the chest, bang! she let the lid fall, so hard
that his head fell off amongst the apples. When she found what she had
done, she was very much frightened, and did not know how she should get
the blame off her shoulders. However, she went into her bedroom, and
took a white handkerchief out of a drawer, and then fitted the little
boy's head upon his neck, and tied the handkerchief round it, so that no
one could see what had happened, and seated him on a stool before the
door with the apple in his hand.

Soon afterwards Margery came into the kitchen to her mother, who was
standing by the fire, and stirring about some hot water in a pot.
"Mother," said Margery, "my brother is sitting before the door with an
apple in his hand; I asked him to give it me, but he did not say a word,
and looked so pale that I was quite frightened." "Nonsense!" said her
mother; "go back again, and if he won't answer you, give him a good box
on the ear." Margery went back, and said, "Brother, give me that apple."
But he answered not a word; so she gave him a box on the ear; and
immediately his head fell off. At this, you may be sure she was sadly
frightened, and ran screaming out to her mother, that she had knocked
off her brother's head, and cried as if her heart would break. "O
Margery!" said her mother, "what have you been doing? However, what is
done cannot be undone; so we had better put him out of the way, and say
nothing to any one about it."

When the father came home to dinner, he said, "Where is my little boy?"
And his wife said nothing, but put a large dish of black soup upon the
table; and Margery wept bitterly all the time, and could not hold up her
head. And the father asked after his little boy again. "Oh!" said his
wife, "I should think he is gone to his uncle's." "What business could
he have to go away without bidding me good-bye?" said his father. "I
know he wished very much to go," said the woman; "and begged me to let
him stay there some time; he will be well taken care of there." "Ah!"
said the father, "I don't like that; he ought not to have gone away
without wishing me good-bye." And with that he began to eat; but he
seemed still sorrowful about his son, and said, "Margery, what do you
cry so for? your brother will come back again, I hope." But Margery by
and by slipped out of the room and went to her drawers and took her best
silk handkerchief out of them, and tying it round her little brother's
bones, carried them out of the house weeping bitterly all the while, and
laid them under the juniper tree; and as soon as she had done this, her
heart felt lighter, and she left off crying. Then the juniper tree began
to move itself backwards and forwards, and to stretch its branches out,
one from another, and then bring them together again, just like a person
clapping hands for joy; and after this, a kind of cloud came from the
tree, and in the middle of the cloud was a burning fire, and out of the
fire came a pretty bird, that flew away into the air, singing merrily.
And as soon as the bird was gone, the handkerchief and the little boy
were gone too, and the tree looked just as it had done before; but
Margery felt quite happy and joyful within herself, just as if she had
known that her brother had been alive again, and went into the house and
ate her dinner.

But the bird flew away, and perched upon the roof of a goldsmith's
house, and sang:

    "My mother slew her little son;
     My father thought me lost and gone:
     But pretty Margery pitied me,
     And laid me under the juniper tree;
     And now I rove so merrily,
     As over the hills and dales I fly:
       Oh, what a fine bird am I!"

The goldsmith was sitting in his shop finishing a gold chain; and when
he heard the bird singing on the house-top, he started up so suddenly
that one of his shoes slipped off; however, without stopping to put it
on again, he ran out into the street with his apron on, holding his
pincers in one hand, and the gold chain in the other. And when he saw
the bird sitting on the roof with the sun shining on its bright
feathers, he said, "How sweetly you sing, my pretty bird! pray sing that
song again." "No," said the bird, "I can't sing twice for nothing; if
you will give me that gold chain, I'll try what I can do." "There," said
the goldsmith, "take the chain, only pray sing that song again." So the
bird flew down, and taking the chain in its right claw, perched a little
nearer to the goldsmith, and sang:

    "My mother slew her little son;
     My father thought me lost and gone:
     But pretty Margery pitied me,
     And laid me under the juniper tree;
     And now I rove so merrily,
     As over the hills and dales I fly:
       Oh, what a fine bird am I!"

After that the bird flew away to a shoemaker's, and sitting upon the
roof of the house, sang the same song as it had done before.

When the shoemaker heard the song, he ran to the door without his coat,
and looked up to the top of the house; but he was obliged to hold his
hand before his eyes, because the sun shone so brightly. "Bird," said
he, "how sweetly you sing!" Then he called into the house, "Wife! wife!
come out here, and see what a pretty bird is singing on the top of our
house!" And he called out his children and workmen; and they all ran out
and stood gazing at the bird, with its beautiful red and green feathers,
and the bright golden ring about its neck, and eyes which glittered like
the stars. "O bird!" said the shoemaker, "pray sing that song again."
"No," said the bird, "I cannot sing twice for nothing; you must give me
something if I do." "Wife," said the shoemaker, "run upstairs into the
workshop, and bring me down the best pair of new red shoes you can
find." So his wife ran and fetched them. "Here, my pretty bird," said
the shoemaker, "take these shoes; but pray sing that song again." The
bird came down, and taking the shoes in his left claw, flew up again to
the house-top, and sang:

    "My mother slew her little son;
     My father thought me lost and gone:
     But pretty Margery pitied me,
     And laid me under the juniper tree;
     And now I rove so merrily,
     As over the hills and dales I fly:
       Oh, what a fine bird am I!"

And when he had done singing, he flew away, holding the shoes in one
claw and the chain in the other. And he flew a long, long way off, till
at last he came to a mill. The mill was going clipper! clapper! clipper!
clapper! and in the mill were twenty millers, who were all hard at work
hewing a millstone; and the millers hewed, hick! hack! hick! hack! and
the mill went on, clipper! clapper! clipper! clapper!

So the bird perched upon a linden tree close by the mill, and began its
song:

    "My mother slew her little son;
     My father thought me lost and gone:"

here two of the millers left off their work and listened:

    "But pretty Margery pitied me,
     And laid me under the juniper tree;"

now all the millers but one looked up and left their work;

    "And now I rove so merrily,
     As over the hills and dales I fly:
       Oh, what a fine bird am I!"

Just as the song was ended, the last miller heard it, and started up,
and said, "O bird! how sweetly you sing! do let me hear the whole of
that song; pray, sing it again!" "No," said the bird, "I cannot sing
twice for nothing; give me that millstone, and I'll sing again." "Why,"
said the man, "the millstone does not belong to me; if it was all mine,
you should have it and welcome." "Come," said the other millers, "if he
will only sing that song again, he shall have the millstone." Then the
bird came down from the tree: and the twenty millers fetched long poles
and worked and worked, heave, ho! heave, ho! till at last they raised
the millstone on its side; and then the bird put its head through the
hole in the middle of it, and flew away to the linden tree, and sang the
same song at it had done before.

And when he had done, he spread his wings, and, with the chain in one
claw, and the shoes in the other, and the millstone about his neck, he
flew away to his father's house.

Now it happened that his father and mother and Margery were sitting
together at dinner. His father was saying, "How light and cheerful I
am!" But his mother said, "Oh, I am so heavy and so sad, I feel just as
if a great storm was coming on." And Margery said nothing, but sat and
cried. Just then the bird came flying along, and perched upon the top of
the house; "Bless me!" said the father, "how cheerful I am; I feel as if
I was about to see an old friend again." "Alas!" said the mother, "I am
so sad, and my teeth chatter so, and yet it seems as if my blood was all
on fire in my veins!" and she tore open her gown to cool herself. And
Margery sat by herself in a corner, with her plate on her lap before
her, and wept so bitterly that she cried her plate quite full of tears.

And the bird flew to the top of the juniper tree and sang:

    "My mother slew her little son;--"

Then the mother held her ears with her hands, and shut her eyes close,
that she might neither see nor hear; but there was a sound in her ears
like a frightful storm, and her eyes burned and glared like lightning.

    "My father thought me lost and gone:--"

"O wife!" said the father, "what a beautiful bird that is, and how
finely he sings; and his feathers glitter in the sun like so many
spangles!"

    "But pretty Margery pitied me,
     And laid me under the juniper tree;--"

At this Margery lifted up her head and sobbed sadly, and her father
said, "I must go out, and look at that bird a little nearer." "Oh! don't
leave me alone," said his wife; "I feel just as if the house was
burning." However, he would go out to look at the bird; and it went on
singing:

    "But now I rove so merrily,
     As over the hills and dales I fly:
       Oh, what a fine bird am I!"

As soon as the bird had done singing, he let fall the gold chain upon
his father's neck, and it fitted so nicely that he went back into the
house and said, "Look here, what a beautiful chain the bird has given
me; only see how grand it is!" But his wife was so frightened that she
fell all along on the floor, so that her cap flew off, and she lay as if
she were dead. And when the bird began singing again, Margery said, "I
must go out and see whether the bird has not something to give me." And
just as she was going out of the door, the bird let fall the red shoes
before her; and when she had put on the shoes, she all at once became
quite light and happy, and jumped into the house and said, "I was so
heavy and sad when I went out, and now I'm so happy! see what fine shoes
the bird has given me!" Then the mother said, "Well, if the world should
fall to pieces, I must go out and try whether I shall not be better in
the air." And as she was going out, the bird let fall the millstone upon
her head and crushed her to pieces.

The father and Margery hearing the noise ran out, and saw nothing but
smoke and fire and flame rising up from the place; and when this was
passed and gone, there stood the little boy beside them; and he took his
father and Margery by the hand, and they went into the house, and ate
their dinner together very happily.


[The end of _Grimm's Fairy Tales: The Juniper Tree_ by the Brothers
Grimm]