Fairy Tales 2010

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Juniper Tree interpretation

In the Juniper Tree, a brother is killed by his wicked stepmother, and when his remains are placed at a sacred site where his mother was buried, he resurrects as a bird. In my view, it was not the brother's physical transformation that took place in this story, but rather his soul's taking of a new form in order to correct and justify a fallen and imperfect situation in the world. When the brother returns as a bird, he ceased to be human altogether and took on the role fully of bird but with that of his human spirit and soul's memory. Thus, he had the knowledge he needed to make the transformation of the world back to perfection.

His song takes on a different form than one would expect as well. Rather than the bird literally somehow singing the words as one might think, the bird's message is somehow carried in normal bird chirps but takes on magical qualities that human's understand. It's similar to how the mother 'sensed' the boy's spirit when she felt "a big storm were on its way." Nature, in this case being bird chirps, somehow transmitted sensations into humans without having to take on human form.

In my view, the boy doesn't necessarily literally come back from the dead, rather the ending is a symbol of a return to spiritual realignment and perfection. The mother, being a wicked character, is excluded from the final scene, but the boy's reappearance shows how the perfect family would have been, with just brother, sister, and father. This transformation is different from others we read in that there was a need for magical properties "smoke, flames, and fire" to appear before the transformation to take place rather than it just happening out of nowhere, such as in "Sweetheart Roland." Also, it is clearly magic taking place here as opposed to human involvement in the transformation such as in Hans the Hedgehog where he is shaved and oiled. Again, I don't think the transformation is so much important as the symbol of a return to order and good spirits.

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