A Bird for a Brother

In The Juniper Tree, the transformation of brother-into-bird is significantly different from the other "brothers as birds" stories that we've read. In this story, the brother transforms only after he is killed. In the other stories, the brothers transform either as a result of a curse, a wish, or a threat. This makes the brother in The Juniper Tree more animal than any of the other brothers. While he does eventually come back to life as a human, he also must first end life as a human before he transforms. His song is another factor that separates him from the bird/brothers of the other stories: the majority of transformed birds cannot speak in their bird from. The brother of The Juniper Tree needs to be able to tell his story to regain his human form by killing his stepmother, so his being able to speak is a necessity. This implies that although he is a bird, he also retains some of his innate humanity.

This transformation, then, is a puzzle: he appears to both be less and more human than the birds of the other stories. I believe that he is in fact more human than the other transformed brothers. Despite his death, he retains all of his memory and intelligence while he is a bird. He also retains the ability to communicate with other humans and to get his point across. Because of this communication he is able to ultimately succeed in rewarding his faithful stepsister and father. That he comes back from the dead in the fairy tale does not surprise me, it is just as magical as how he was transformed into a bird in the first place. What I do find interesting is the choice not to bring him back in the movie version of The Juniper Tree. This makes for an altogether more depressing ending where the witch ultimately triumphs.