The forest maiden, the guardian and queen of the forest, not only lives among the trees, but she can take the form of a tree, live in a tree, be a tree. She can transform, transform. Her tree is the juniper, or the juniper bush if you will.
The forest robber animates and personifies the juniper. Sometimes the juniper bush has been seen as a weed that man wanted to remove. But if you try to remove the juniper by burning it, you may hear sounds. The forest robbers lived in the juniper and they made a terrible noise when the bush was burned. This is according to records in our Swedish folk memory archives.
According to a folktale from Värmland, she transformed into a juniper bush when a man chased her in the forest. This brings to mind myths from ancient times where female mythological creatures were chased by male gods. The women escaped and gained their freedom by transforming themselves into trees.
It is not only the queen of the forest who lives in the juniper. In older Swedish folk tradition, the juniper has been seen as a magical spirit tree. Indeed, there are stories about individual, older junipers in which spirits were believed to live. In particular, according to one record, the spirit is said to have loudly objected when the juniper was to be cut down.
The conversation between the spirit and a man who wanted to cut down a juniper tree is still talked about among the common people in the 19th century, according to folk memory collector Richard Dybeck. In the archives of the Nordic Museum there are many records of conversations between humans and various trees, conversations that took place when humans intended to cut down the tree.
According to plant writer Johannes Henriksson, even fairies are said to have lived inside the tree. Our Nordic nature is, in the world of folklore, truly enchanting. It carries layers beyond the obvious.
Text: Sara Bonadea George
Image: Theodor Kittelsen
