“The Juniper Tree” was published by the Brothers Grimm in Low German. The tale appeared in the first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812 and is listed as KHM 47.
Its plot is among the Grimms’ darkest: a boy is murdered by his stepmother, his remains are cooked into a meal and he later returns in the form of a bird. The story combines family violence, death, food imagery and supernatural restoration, which is why many modern children’s editions shorten or soften it.
The language description refers to the tradition and source form associated with the tale, not to the modern standard-language category “German” alone. The Grimms collected stories from several regional and literary sources, and “The Juniper Tree” is connected with Low German material. The text is also known by the title “The Almond Tree” in related forms.
A nearby fact readers often confuse is the tale’s classification: it is ATU 720, “The Juniper Tree,” whereas KHM 47 is its place in the Grimm collection. The Grimms credited Philipp Otto Runge’s version as an important source for their text.