by the Brothers Grimm
This story is very old, as old as two thousand years. It’s the story of a rich man and his pious, beautiful wife. They loved each other very much. And more than anything they wanted to have children. The wife prayed for a child day and night, but nothing changed.
In the yard out in front of their house was a juniper tree. And on a winter day the wife stood under the tree peeling an apple. As she was peeling she cut her finger and blood dripped on the snow. “Oh! If only I had a child as red as blood and as white as snow!” Then her deep sadness changed. She felt a hope stirring that something might come of this sign, and she went indoors. After a month the snow vanished. After two months the land turned green. After three months tiny flowers bloomed out of the ground. After four months the woodland trees grew sturdy and their branches intertwined. Birdsong resounded through the whole forest as blossoms blew from the branches. In the fifth month when the wife stood under the juniper tree, at the sweet smell of it her heart leapt in her. She was so overcome by joy that she fell to her knees. In the sixth month the juniper berries became large and firm, and she grew quite still. In the seventh month she picked those juniper berries, dusty blue with resin, and she ate so many that she felt sad and sick. In the eighth month she called to her husband. She looked at him in tears. “If I die bury me under the juniper tree.” Afterward she was content, and in the ninth month she gave birth to a baby boy as red as blood and as white as snow. When she saw her baby she was so delighted that she died. Her husband buried her under the juniper tree, and he could not stop his tears for a very long time. Even after many months he still wept now and then. But eventually he did stop, and after more time he took another wife. With his second wife he had a daughter. Whenever this woman looked at her daughter she felt great love for her, but when she looked at the little boy, her heart was cut to the quick. She could not forget that he would always stand in her way to keep her daughter from inheriting all of the family’s wealth, which was what the woman had in mind. This greed gripped her feelings for the boy until she turned cruel to him. She pushed him, slapped him and cuffed him at every chance, and so the poor boy lived in constant fear. When he came home from school he knew no peace. One day the woman went to a corner where she kept apples in a chest that had a large heavy lid. Her little daughter followed. “Mother, give me an apple.” “Yes, Marlene.” She opened the lid and gave her an apple. The lid had a sharp iron lock. “Mother,” said the girl, “shouldn’t brother get an apple too?” This irritated the woman. “Yes, when he comes home from school.” Just then out the window she saw him coming. She snatched back her daughter’s apple. “You won’t get one before your brother. Now run off.” She threw the apple into the chest and shut the lid. When the little boy came in she called, “Would you like an apple, my son?” He saw her face. “Yes, Mother, but how ferocious you look! Yes, give me an apple.” “Come over here,” she said and lifted the lid. “Pick out an apple.” The little boy leaned over the chest. Crash! The woman slammed the lid and his head was cut off. It fell among the apples. But now she was struck with fear. “How will I get out of this?” She went up to her room and took out of her dresser drawer a white kerchief. Then she went back down and set the boy’s body in a chair beside the door. With the kerchief she tied his head on his neck so that nothing could be seen. Last of all, she put the apple in his hand. Some time later little Marlene came into the kitchen up to her mother who was stirring and stirring a pot of hot water on the fire. “Mother, brother is sitting by the door and looks very pale. He’s got an apple, and I asked him to give me the apple, but he didn’t answer, and then I go scared.” The mother said, “Go back and if he doesn’t answer give him a slap.” Little Marlene went back to him. “Brother, give me the apple.” But he said nothing. So she slapped him, and his head flew off. The little girl began to cry and howl. Then she ran to the kitchen. “Oh, Mother, I knocked my brother’s head off!” And she wept and wept and could not be comforted. “Marlene! What have you done?” Her mother took hold of her. “You’re not to open your mouth about this. We don’t want anyone to know, and besides, there’s nothing we can do about it now. So we’ll just make him into a stew. The mother chopped up the little boy, put the pieces into the pot and let them stew. But Marlene stood weeping so many tears into the pot that it did not need any salt. When the father came home he sat down at the table and asked, “Where’s my boy?” The mother served him a huge bowl of the stewed meat, and Marlene wept and could not stop. “Where’s my son?” the father asked. “Oh, he’s gone off to visit his mother’s great uncle in the country. He is planning to stay awhile.” “What is he going to do out there? He didn’t even say goodbye to me.” “He really wanted to go,” said the woman, “and he asked me if he could stay six weeks. They’ll take good care of him.” “Oh, that makes me sad. It’s not right. He should have said goodbye to me.” Then the man began eating. “Marlene, why are you weeping? Your brother will soon be home.” And without a pause he said, “Wife, this food tastes great! Give me more!” The more he ate, the more he wanted. “Give me more! I’m not going to share this with anyone. Somehow I feel that it’s all mine.” As he ate he threw the bones under the table. But Marlene went to her dresser and took her best silk neckerchief out of the bottom drawer. She gathered all of the bones from below the table into her silk neckerchief and carried them outside. There she laid the bones under the juniper tree weeping bitter tears. But then a relief came over her. The juniper tree began to move. Its branches opened and closed as if they were clapping. Smoke billowed up from the tree, and in the smoke there was a burning flame. Out of this fire flew a small bird, beautiful, singing—filling the air with song. He soared high and vanished. Then the juniper tree went quiet again. Yet the silk neckerchief was gone. Marlene felt happy, as if her brother were still alive. She went into the house and sat down at the table and ate. But the bird did not disappear. He landed on a goldsmith’s housetop and began to sing: My mother she killed me. My father he ate me. My sister, Marlene, gathered my bones and laid them under the juniper tree. Tra-la! Twee-tweet! I cry. What a beautiful bird am I.The goldsmith was sitting in his workshop making a gold chain. Hearing such birdsong on his roof, he stood up and walked out his door, but he lost a slipper on the threshold. Still he kept going, right into the middle of the street. He stood there in one sock and one slipper, wearing his work apron and holding the gold chain he had made in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other. The sun was bright, and he turned to get a good look at the bird.
“How beautifully you sing, bird. Sing me that song again.” “I never sing twice for nothing,” said the bird. “But if you give me your gold chain I’ll sing it again.” “All right,” said the goldsmith. “Here it is.” The bird swooped down, took the gold chain in his right claw, flew up to the roof and sang: My mother she killed me. My father he ate me. My sister, Marlene, gathered my bones and laid them under the juniper tree. Tra-la! Twee-tweet! I cry. What a beautiful bird am I.Then the bird flew away to the roof of the shoemaker and sang:
My mother she killed me. My father he ate me. My sister, Marlene, gathered my bones and laid them under the juniper tree. Tra-la! Twee-tweet! I cry. What a beautiful bird am I.When the shoemaker hear this he ran out the door in his shirt sleeves and looked up at the roof, keeping his hand over his eyes to shade them from the sunlight.
“Bird, how beautifully you sing!” Then he called into the house, “Wife, come outside. See! See how beautifully he sings!” He called his daughter and her children, and the journeyman and apprentices from the shop, and the maid from the kitchen. They all came into the street and saw this bird with red and green feathers. His feet glistened with gold and his eyes sparkled like stars. The shoemaker said, “Bird, sing me that song again.” “I never sing twice for nothing. But for a gift I will sing.” “Wife, get that pair of red shoes from the top shelf in the shop.” She brought out the new red shoes. So the bird swooped down, took up the red shoes in his left claw, and with the gold chain in his right claw he flew back to the roof and sang: My mother she killed me. My father he ate me. My sister, Marlene, gathered my bones and laid them under the juniper tree. Tra-la! Twee-tweet! I cry. What a beautiful bird am I.Then he flew away, far away to the mill. The miller and his men were working and making plenty of noise. Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack! There were twenty of them hewing a stone for the mill. Their chisels went click-clack, and the mill kept going clickety-clack, clickety-clack, clickety-clack. The bird flew down and perched on a linden tree outside. And with all that noise he sang out:
My mother she killed me. Then one of the men stopped working. My father he ate me. Then two more stopped and listened. My sister, Marlene, gathered my bones. Then four more stopped. And laid them under the juniper tree. Now only eight men were chiseling. Tra-la! Twee-tweet! I cry. And now only one. What a beautiful bird am I.The miller himself finally looked up. “Bird, how beautifully you sing! Let me hear that again.”
“I never sing twice for nothing. Give me the millstone and I’ll sing.” But the miller said, “This millstone isn’t mine alone. It is for all of us.” The others called out, “If he sings for us again he can have it.” The bird swooped out of the linden tree and all twenty of the men took beams and lifted the stone. “Heave-ho! Heave-ho!” The bird put the huge stone on like a collar, flew back into the tree and sang: My mother she killed me. My father he ate me. My sister, Marlene, gathered my bones and laid them under the juniper tree. Tra-la! Twee-tweet! I cry. What a beautiful bird am I.Then he spread his wings and, with a gold chain in his right claw, a pair of red shoes in his left claw, and around his neck the millstone, he flew in the sunlit air back to his father’s house.
His father, mother and Marlene were sitting at the table, and the father said, “I feel so happy. I feel wonderful!” “Not me,” said the mother. “I feel as if a storm is about to erupt.” Marlene just sat there and began to weep. The bird flew into the yard and landed on the roof. The father said, “Oh, look at that sunshine! I’m in such good spirits. I feel like I’m about to meet an old friend.” “Not me,” said his wife. “I’m so frightened I feel a fire running through my veins.” She tore open her bodice. But Marlene sat in the corner and wept and wept. Her handkerchief was completely soaked with tears. Outside, the bird swooped down to a branch of the juniper tree and began to sing: My mother she killed me. The mother stopped her ears, shut her eyes, and yet there was still a roaring of a great storm inside her. Although shut, her eyes burned and flashed with lightning. My father he ate me. “Oh, Mother,” said the man, “listen to the beautiful birdsong. The sun is so warm the air smells like cinnamon.” My sister, Marlene, gathered my bones. Marlene put her head on her knees and wept and wept. But the father said, “I’m going out to see that bird close up.” His wife cried, “No, don’t! Can’t you feel it? The whole house is shaking. It’s just about ready to go up in flames!” Yet her husband went outside and looked at the bird. And laid them under the juniper tree. Tra-la! Twee-tweet! I cry. What a beautiful bird am I.Just as he finished, the bird dropped the gold chain, and it fell around the man’s neck. It fit him perfectly. He went inside. “Just look what that lovely bird gave me. He’s such a beautiful creature!”
But the wife was petrified and fell to the floor. Her cap slipped off her head, and so the bird sang out again. My mother she killed me. “Oh, I wish I were a thousand feet down in the earth so I wouldn’t have to hear that.” My father he ate me. Then the woman fainted dead away. My sister, Marlene, gathered my bones. Then Marlene got up. “Oh, I want to go outside too. Maybe the bird has something for me.” And she went into the yard. And laid them under the juniper tree. Just then the bird dropped the shoes down beside her. Tra-la! Twee-tweet! I cry. What a beautiful bird am I.Marlene put on the new pair of red shoes and danced and skipped back into the house. “I was sad when I went out, but now I feel happy. Look what that beautiful bird gave me.”
Suddenly her mother jumped up with her hair flaring out like flames. “I feel as if the world is coming to an end. Maybe I’ll feel better if I go outside.” Out the door she went. Crash! The bird threw the millstone down, and she was crushed to death. The father and Marlene ran outside. Smoke and fire were rising from the spot, and after the smoke drifted away, the little brother was standing there. He took his father and Marlene each by the hand, and all three of them were very happy. They went into the house together, sat down at the table and ate..