Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Nepal

Korean Folklores & Myths (Part-1)

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By Bipna Sunar

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Hello and Welcome Back to Korea Supporter Nepal’s Blogspot. Today I’ll be talking about a few of the Customs and beliefs passed down from generation to generation in Korea. The Folklores & Myths I’ll be illustrating are:

   1. Ungnyeo
   2. The legend of Dangun
   3. Arang the Virgin Ghost
   4. The legend of Manpasikjeok

1. Ungnyeo

  Ungnyeo translates to “Bear-Woman”.It is a story about will and patience. Hwanin who is the heavenly king or also known as the highest of the deities had a son named Hwanung. Hwanin was asked to send his son for ruling the human world. Hwanung was then sent to the Human World.

  One day, a Bear and a Tiger pleaded Hwanung to make them Humans. Hwanung then proposed 2 conditions, the first one was to stay in the cave locked for 100days without seeing any rays of the sun and the second one was to live eating only Mugwort and Garlic. The Tiger was impatient and left the cave after a few days however, the Bear stayed patient and ate only Garlic and Mugwort. The Bear’s wish of fulfilling himself into a human was accepted and the Bear turned into a beautiful woman. After the transformation the Bear was name Ungnyeo which meant Bear-Woman.

2. The legend of Dangun

  The legend of Dangun is a story continued from the story of Ungnyeo. Ungnyeo was very happy to be transformed into Human however, as days passed, she started feeling lonely by herself. She prayed to the Sandalwood tree for a child. Hwanung happened to hear her and married her. The two then gave birth to a son and name him Dangun. Dangun was the first king of the Gojoseon Kingdom.

  Chamseongdan Alter is located in Incheon City, and is believed to be erected by Dangun to pay tribute to the gods in heaven.

  This story unlike the others shows no conflict between the Gods and Humans.

3. Arang the Virgin Ghost

  This is the story of the maiden named Arang. She was the daughter of a magistrate of Miryang. It is believed that Arang’s mother passed away when she was young and as a result she was raised by a nanny. One day the nanny lured Arang to go out during night for watching the full moon. The nanny schemed to have a servant (nanny’s secret love) Baekga to grasp her at night and rape her. Arang was stabbed by the servant when countering the act. Arang’s father was filled with the thought that her daughter had run away with a stranger and resigned from his position with feelings of shame. A new magistrate then was appointed. Arang’s corpse appeared on the first night the magistrate was appointed and the magistrate died. From then on whoever was appointed as a magistrate died on the first night, this created a fear in people’s mind and they feared the position.

  Despite the fear people had, a young man proposed on being the magistrate. On his first night after being the magistrate, Arang’s spirit appeared. The young man thought to himself that the fear of this had led the former magistrates to die. The magistrate calmly talked to her spirit and Arang’s spirit told him her story. The magistrate then promised her to avenge her death. Later on, Baekga was seized and executed. From then on Arang’s spirit stopped troubling the village. To date Arang Shrine is present in the bamboo grove in Pavilion yeongnamnu, Miryang.

4. The legend of Manpasikjeok
  The 30th ruler of the Silla Dynasty, King Munmu unified 3kingdoms in the 7th century with the help of general Kim YuShin in the Korean Peninsula. He had a son named Shinmun.
  As King Munmu was dying, he requests King Shinmun to bury him in the East Sea so that he becomes a dragon and can protect the kingdom even after his death. As per his father’s wish, King Shinmu built a tomb on the East Coast with a temple overlooking the sea-grave as a respect towards his father’s will.

  One day the officials aware the King, that an island was floating on the sea towards the temple. The king asked the fortune teller to interpret the situation. The fortune teller the replied. “The late king has become the Sea Dragon and YuShin has become the heavenly god. They want you to receive the valuable present, they want to give you which will help you in defending the country”. The king then went and looked at the island. From afar it looked like a turtle having bamboo forest in it’s back. Mysteriously the bamboo was divided into two pieces during the day and became one at night. After the 7days heavy storm the King road a boat to the island. As soon as he reached the island a dragon appeared telling him “My lord, I have a treasure for you from your father and General Kim”. Make a musical instrument with the bamboo tree and playing it shall bring the entire world to peace. The King ordered his servants to cut down the tree. The floating island disappeared as the King returned to the lands. A flute was made out of the bamboo by the King.  The flute had immense or incredible powers to cure the disease, stop rain in case of flood and bring rainfall in drought, enemy forces would retreat when the flute was played. The flute was name “Manpasikjeok” which means calming down ten thousand waves (All sorts of storms of life) and is considered a national treasure.

I hope you all enjoyed reading the article.

See you next time. 안녕히가세요!!!