All this takes place long, long ago, most likely some two thousand years ago.
There was once a rich man who had a beautiful and kind wife, and they loved each other very much.
Though they didn't have any children of their own, they longed to have some. Day and night the wife prayed for a child, but still none came, and everything remained much the same.
Now, it's very important to know that in front of the house there was a garden, and in that garden stood a tall juniper tree.
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One day during winter the wife was under the tree peeling an apple, and as she was peeling it, she cut her finger and her blood dropped onto the snow.
" oh," said the wife, and she heaved a great sigh.
while she looked at the blood slowly sinking into the snow infront of her, she became quite sad.
" if only I had a child as red as blood and as white as snow!"
upon saying that, her mood changed, and she became very cheerful, for she felt something might come of it.
Then she went home.
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After a month the snow vanished.
After two months everything turned green.
After three months the flowers sprouted from the ground.
After four months all the trees in the woods grew more solid and the green branches became entwined.
the birds began to sing, and their songs resounded throughout the forrest as the blossoms fell from the trees.
Soon the fifth month passed, and when the wife stood under the juniper tree, it smelled so sweetly that her heart leapt for joy. Indeed, she was so overcome by joy that she fell to her knees.
When the sixth month had passed, all the fruits were large and firm, and she was quite still.
In the seventh month she picked the juniper berries and ate them so avidly that she became sad and sick.
After the eighth month passed, she called her husband to her and wept.
" if I die," she said,
" burry me under the juniper tree."
After that she was quite content and relieved until the ninth month had passed. Then she had a child as white as snow and as red as blood.
When she saw the baby, she was so delighted that she died.
Her husband buried her under the juniper tree, and he began weeping a great deal.
After some time he felt much better, but he still wept every now and then.
Eventualy, he stopped, and after more time had passed, he took another wife.
With the second wife he had a daughter, while the child from his first wife was a little boy, who was as white as snow and as red as blood.
Whenever the woman looked at her daughter, she felt great love for her, but whenever she looked at the little boy, her heart was cut to the quick.
She couldn't forget that he would always stand in her way and prevent her daughter from inheriting everything, which is what the woman had in mind.
Gradually, the devil took hold of her and influenced her feelings toward the boy until she became quite cruel to him:
she pushed him from one place to the next, slapped him here and cuffed him there, so that the poor child lived in constant fear.
When he came home from school he found no peace at all.
One day the woman went up to her room, and the little girl followed her and said,
" mother, give me an apple."
" yes, my child," said the woman, and she gave her a beautiful apple from the chest that had a large and heavy lid with a big, sharp lock.
" mother," said the little daughter,
" shouldn't brother get one too?"
The woman was irritated by the remark, but she said, " yes, when he comes back home from school."
And, when she looked out the window and saw him coming, the devil took possession of her, and she snatched the apple away from her daughter.
" You shan't have one before your brother." she said and threw the apple into the chest and shut it.
Meanwhile the little boy came in through the door, and the devil compelled her to be friendly to him and say, " Would you like to have an apple my son?" yet, she gave him a fierce look.
" Mother," said the little boy, " how ferocious you look! yes, give me an apple."
Then she felt compelled to coax him.
" come over here," she said as she lifted the lid. "take out an apple for yourself."
And as the little boy leaned over the chest, the devil prompted her, and BANGGG!!!!!
She slammed the lid so hard that his head flew off and fell among the apples.
Then she was struck by fear and thought,
" how am I going to try to get out of this?"
She went up to her room and straight to her dresser, where she took out a white kerchief from a drawer.
She put the boy's head back on his neck and tied the neckerchief around it so nothing could be seen. Then she set him on a chair in front of the door and put the apple in his hand.
Some time later little Marlene came into the kitchen and went up to her mother, who was standing by the fire in front of a pot of hot water which she was constantly stirring.
" mother," said Marlene,
" brother's sitting by rhe door and looks very pale. He's got an apple in his hand, and I asked him to give me the apple, but he didn't answer, and I became very scared."
" go back to him," said the mother, " and if he doesn't answer you give him a box on the ear."
Little Marlene returned to him and said, " brother, give me an apple."
But he didn't respond.
So she gave him a box on the ear, and his head fell off. The little girl was so frightened that she began to cry and howl.
Them she ran to her mother and said, " Oh, mother, I've knocked my brothers head off!" And she wept and wept and couldn't be comforted.
" Marlene," said the mother. " What have you done! You're not to open your mouth about this, we don't want anyone to know, and besides there's nothing we can do about it now. So we'll make a stew out of him."
The mother took the little boy and chopped him into pieces. Next she put them in the pot and let them stew.
But Marlene stood nearby and wept until all her tears fell into the pot, so it didn't need any salt.
When the father came home, he sat down at the table and asked, " Where is my son?"
The mother served a huge portion of the stewed meat, and Marlene wept and couldn't stop.
" Where's my son?" the father asked again.
" Oh," said the mother, " he's gone off into the country to visit his mother's great uncle. He intends to stay there a while."
" What's he going to do there? He didn't even say goodbye to me."
" Well, he wanted to go very badly and he asked me if he could stay there six weeks. They'll take good care of him."
" Oh, that makes me sad," sad the man. " it's not right. He should have said goodbye to me."
Then he began to eat and said, " Marlene, what are you crying for? Your brother will come back soon."
Without pausing, he said, " Oh, wife, the food tastes great! Give me some more!"
The more he ate, the more he wanted.
" Give me some more," he said.
" I'm not going to share this with you. Somehow I feel as if it were all mine."