| The Juniper Tree | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Louis-rhead-the-juniper-tree-grimms-fairy-tales-1917.jpg) Marlinchen mourning the loss over her stepbrother whilst a bird emerges from the juniper tree | |
| Folk tale | |
| Name | The Juniper Tree |
| Aarne–Thompson grouping | ATU 720 (The Juniper Tree; formerly My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me) |
| Region | Germany |
| Published in | Kinder- und Hausmärchen, by the Brothers Grimm |
"The Juniper Tree" (also The Almond Tree; Low German: Von dem Machandelboom) is a German fairy tale published in Low German by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1812 (KHM 47).[1] The story contains themes of child abuse, murder, cannibalism and biblical symbolism and is one of the Brothers Grimm's darker and more mature fairy tales.
The tale is of Aarne–Thompson type 720 ("The Juniper Tree").[2] 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 a boy.[3]
- ^ Ashliman, D. L. (2007). "The Juniper Tree". University of Pittsburgh.
- ^ Uther, Hans-Jorg. The Types of International Folktales. 2004.
- ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 209 W.W. Norton & Co., London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4