What Does The Juniper Tree Mean

The Juniper Tree One of the grimmest of all of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s fairy tales is “The Juniper Tree”. The story’s dark themes and murky past make “The Juniper Tree” an anomaly among fairytales. Set in the distant past (2,000 years ago), the story begins with a young woman longing for a child “as white as snow and as red as blood,” and, when she finally gets her wish, she dies. The child is a young boy who greatly suffers at the hand of his father’s next wife. The stepmother abuses the boy—to the point where he never felt safe when he was at home. Motivated by jealousy, the stepmother wants her daughter to have the entire inheritance for herself, and in a fit of rage tempts the young boy into a trap using an apple as the bait. The boy is beheaded, dismembered, and cooked into a stew. The stew is fed to the boy’s father and the boy’s bones are placed under the juniper tree where a great beautiful bird (much like the phoenix) emerges from mist and fire to enact its revenge on the wicked stepmother. This is the story of “The Juniper Tree”. It is a tale that has intrigued folklorist since Grimm’s first edition of 1812. The depression of the mom and the tragedy of her death, the cruelty of the stepmother, the hacking up of a child’s body, the stew: every element of the story epitomizes the inherent darkness of Grimm. But how can such a story peacefully

It might have been the remnants of an ancient ritual that points to the pre-Christian past of Europe, or it might just be a good old fashion horror story used to scare its listeners. Whatever its origins, “The Juniper Tree” is dark and bleak to the point that many who read it for the first time cannot believe it is included in a collection of stories meant for children, but when placed under closer scrutiny, it becomes quite clear that many of those stories, including “The Juniper Tree” were not told with a particular children’s audience in