In the Brothers Grimm tale “The Juniper Tree,” the stepmother uses an apple to lure the boy to the chest.
The boy is sent to the storeroom, where the stepmother tells him to take an apple from a chest. When he bends inside, she drops the heavy lid, killing him. She then attempts to conceal the crime by dismembering the body and cooking it as food for the boy’s father.
The boy’s sister, Marlinchen, is distressed because she believes she helped cause his death by accepting the apple. The father unknowingly eats the stew, while Marlinchen saves the bones and buries them beneath the juniper tree. The boy later returns in bird form and exposes the crime through a series of gifts.
The apple is a plot device rather than a simple reference to “Snow White.” The two tales share an apple motif in some cultural memory, but the roles and events are different. “The Juniper Tree” is one of the Grimms’ darker household tales.