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Old Tales From Korea
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12939 |
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Section : |
Culture
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5 / 1987 |
6,735 Words |
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Edited with an introduction by Kim Yol-Gyu
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After supper on summer evenings, my family gathered around on a mat in our front yard, near a smoky fire to discourage mosquitoes. After lighting her long pipe, Grandmother began telling her old tales. Tales of ghosts, of tigers, of the disguised fox, and of fools comprised her repertoire; tales of sons and daughters-in-law of great filial piety were also popular, and of course everyone enjoyed the stories of brave ancestors. The clear night sky poured a starry galaxy into the childrens' dark and limpid eyes. Children pillowed their heads on adult knees and dropped off to sleep. Until recently, the childhood memories of most Koreans were filled with such romantic scenes.
The Korean word most akin to folk tale is yennal yaegi--an old tale. Korean children frequently badger their grandparents: "Tell us an old tale!" Often they drop the word old and request just a tale: yaegi, the second part of the phrase yennal yaegi. The word yaegi is itself a contraction of the more standard word iyagi. In some dialects the word used is ibagoo. Iyagi signifies far more than merely the best-loved nursery tales. It also includes fables with animal heroes, myths, and what we call folk history or unofficial history. It even includes ancient anecdotes. Thus in different contexts, iyagi might be translated variously as narrative, story, or tale.
Storytelling was a living folk tradition until the early part of this century. Though in contemporary Korean society children still have many opportunities to hear iyagi from their grandparents, the phenomenon has generally decreased since the turn of the century. Until recent times, each home where grandparents or aged people lived was a recitation site, and the aged people were the storytellers.
Nursery tales were generally told in the living room of the home. This might be called the recitation site for grandmothers and their grandchildren. In the servants' quarters, aged domestics entertained one another with humorous tales, while in the detached guest room, gentle old men gathered to recite folk histories.
Yet the home was not the only recitation site. The private schools where teachers recounted moral tales for their young charges, the arbors where men gathered to retell indecorous or even occasionally risqué stories, the wells and water mills where women enjoyed the ancient anecdotes--all these were sites for recitation of the old tales.
Although studies in this area have yet to be sufficiently carried out, the various recitation sites mentioned above are related to the differing genres and attributes of the Korean yennal yaegi. Recitation sites also included the places where cloth was woven at home, where exorcisms were performed, and where people gathered to celebrate feasts. Exorcists' myths are typical of Korean tales that can be heard only at the site of the exorcism.
Among the various recitation sites, places were reserved not only for special events but also for places closely associated with the events of everyday life. The latter are more numerous than the former, because some occasions in daily life naturally lend themselves to the telling of tales: wherever people relaxed, wherever the necessities of daily life were carried out, wherever family members gathered after supper to enjoy some leisurely tales before going to
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