The Juniper Tree

� The Juniper Tree is a Fairy Tale collected by the Brother's Grimm

Plot
A woman gives birth to a son and dies. She is burried under a Juniper Tree they have outside. The father remarries and he has a daughter with the second wife. The Boy's stepmother hated the boy because he would take away her daughter's inheritance. So, she gets a plan to kill him, where she asks him to stick his head in a chest to get an apple. When he does this, she closes the chest, decapitating him. Not wanting to get caught, she ties the head back to the body, put an apple in his hand, and sets him on the chair. She told her daughter, "Go back to him, and if he will not answer thee, give him a box on the ear". The daughter went up to him, and since he was dead, he didn't respond. She boxed him on the ear and his head fell off again. The daughter is scared and the stepmother tells the daughter that they can cover up the crime if they turn the boy into food. The tear the boy apart and turn him into stew which they feed to the father.

The Daughter burries the bones under the Juniper Tree. A bird shows up and goes to a goldsmith, a shoemaker, and a miller and sings

"My mother she killed me,

My father he ate me,

My sister, little Marlinchen,

Gathered together all my bones,

Tied them in a silken handkerchief,

Laid them beneath the juniper-tree,

Kywitt, kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!"

They give him a gold chain, a pair of red shoes, and a milllstone, respectively. He goes to his house and sings the song. The father goes outside, and gets the golden chain. The sister goes outside and gets the pair of red shoes. The stepmother, wanting something, goes outside and the bird drops the millstone, killing her. The boy comes back to life and he goes inside the house for dinner.