“The Juniper Tree” is assigned KHM 47. KHM stands for Kinder- und Hausmärchen, the German title of the Brothers Grimm’s collection of children’s and household tales.
The Grimms published the story in the first edition of their collection in 1812. It is one of their darkest tales: a stepmother murders a boy, the father unknowingly eats him in a stew, and the child returns in bird form before the family’s wrongs are punished.
The story is also known as “The Almond Tree” and belongs to folktale type ATU 720, “The Juniper Tree.” Its imagery combines family violence, death, food, nature, and resurrection. The juniper tree is connected to the boy’s birth, burial, and miraculous return.
KHM 47 is sometimes confused with the tale type number. KHM 47 identifies the story’s place in the Grimms’ collection, while ATU 720 identifies its broader international narrative pattern.