The Juniper Tree (part one)

-Anonymous, from Grimm's Fairy Tales (1912)

It is now long ago, perhaps two thousand years, there was a rich man who had a beautiful and pious wife; and they were very fond of one another, but had no children. Still they wished for some very much, and the wife prayed for them day and night; still they had none.

Before their house was a yard; in it stood a juniper tree, under which the woman stood once in the winter peeling an apple; and as she peeled the apple she cut her finger, and the blood dropped on the snow. "Ah!" said the woman, with a deep sigh, and she looked at the blood before her, and was very sad, "had I but a child as red as blood and as white as snow ;" and as she said that she felt quite lively; and it seemed quite as if something would come of it. Then she went into the house; and a month passed, the snow disappeared; and two months, then all was green; and three months, then came the flowers out of the ground; and four months, then all the trees in the wood squeezed up against one another, and the green boughs all grew twisted together, and the little birds sang, so that the whole wood resounded, and the blossoms fell from the trees; then the fifth month had gone, and she stood under the juniper tree, it smelt so sweet, than her heart leaped for joy, and she couldn't help falling down on her knees; and when the sixth month had passed, the fruits were large, and she was quite pleased; and the seventh month, then she snatched the berries and ate them so greedily that she was dreadfully ill; then went the eight month, and she called her husband and cried, and said, "If I die bury me under the juniper tree;" then she was quite easy, and was glad, till the next month was gone: then she had a child as white as snow and as red as blood; and when she saw it she was so delighted that she died.

Then her husband buried her under the juniper tree, and began to cry most violently; a little time, and he was easier; and when he had cried a bit more, he left off; and a little time longer, and he took another wife.