Der Wacholderbaum

Long ago, there lived a wealthy and devout couple.

For many years, they had no children,
and every day they prayed beneath the juniper tree standing before their house,
asking God to grant them a child.

One winter day,
the wife sat beneath that tree, peeling an apple.

As she did, she cut her finger.

Bright red blood
dripped onto the snow below.

She gazed at it for a long moment,
then said quietly,

“If only I could have a child
as white as snow… and as red as blood…”

A few months later, she conceived.

But her body grew weaker and weaker,
and after eating the berries of the juniper tree,
her illness worsened.

On the day she felt death drawing near,
she said to her husband:

“If I should die…
bury me beneath the juniper tree.”

A month later,
she gave birth to a son.

The child was as white as snow,
and as red as blood.

And in that very moment,
the mother breathed her last.

As she had asked,
her husband buried her beneath the juniper tree.

Time passed.

The man married again.

His new wife had a daughter,
and she loved that child—Marlinchen—above all else.

But the son from his first marriage
was a thorn in her side.

If only the boy were gone,
everything would belong to her daughter.

One day,
the stepmother called the boy into