Narrative

Posting up the agreed narrative that our game will be structured around in relation to our title "The Juniper Tree".

The story of the juniper tree involves a woman wishing for a child near death, she gives birth to a boy and passes away, she is then buried where she requested beneeth the juniper tree in her garden. Her husband eventually re-marries and they have a girl together. The mother hates the son because he'll get any inheritence so she kills the son (by offering him an apple and closing the box containing them on him = beheading him) she then re-attaches his head to his body and tells her daughter to offer him an apple and if he says nothing to then "box" him on the ear. She does this and believes to have killed her brother. The two keep it secret from the father and tell him the son has merely gone to his uncles, the mother then makes a stew from the sons body and feeds it to the father.

Our game would begin after she takes his remains and burys them under the juniper tree. Where you would play as the spirit of the boy decending through the levels of the tree in search of his remains so that he can reclaim his body and seek revenge upon his step-mother.

The ending of the story:
Marjory, however, keeps the bones left over from the meal and buries them beneath the Juniper tree. A beautiful bird flies out of the tree. It goes and sings a song to a goldsmith about its cruel death at the hands of its mother and how caring his sister is. The goldsmith gives the bird a golden chain because the song is so beautiful. The bird also sings the same song to a shoemaker, who gives it a pair of red shoes, and to millers, who give it a millstone. It then flies back home and sings its song. The father goes out to see what is singing such a beautiful song and the golden chain falls about his neck. The father tells everyone that a beautiful bird gave him a chain. It sings again and Marjory goes out to see if this is true, and the red shoes fall to her. She comes in giggling happily and tells everyone how happy she is with what the bird has given her. All this time the stepmother is complaining of heat, claiming she has a horrid fire burning in her veins. It sings a third time, the stepmother goes out,hoping for relief, and the bird drops the millstone on her, crushing and killing her. The father and Marjory go out to see what caused the loud crash, but find nothing but a swirl of smoke and a stone. The brother is standing there, looking happy, and they all go inside for dinner.

The millstone in the story would have had Biblical connotations for the readers of the Grimms' days, especially as the verse Luke 17:2 says that anyone who causes a child to sin would be better off being thrown into the sea with a millstone about his neck; both refer to a millstone as a punishment for those who harm the young and innocent.

Whether or not we would have used the ending/references is still undecided at the moment but it's an interesting thing to consider.