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Fairy Tales From Korea
| Article
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17679 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1990 |
4,836 Words |
| Author
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Jan Knappert
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Like all Far Eastern countries, Korea has a wealth of folk tales suitable for children of all ages. Some tales are cheerful - ending in happiness ever after - but others are frightening or even weird. After all, children worldwide love scary and terrifying tales, and Korean children are no exception.
The following selection of stories represents only a tiny fraction of the innumerable stories that Koreans tell each other. They can call on such a vast store of folk tales because of the unique conditions of their cultural history. The Koreans have occupied their homeland for well over three thousand years and today can claim to have one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world. This remarkable cultural integrity gives the Korean people a profound respect for the power of tradition (as conveyed in folklore) and an awareness of the way the wisdom of their ancestors permeates their language, the rituals of life, and mundane everyday objects with symbolic value and meaning.
Of course, Korean culture has not existed in a vacuum, and its evolution has been marked by a process of syncretic integration with other cultural elements. During the centuries, the Koreans have been influenced from four sides: by the Chinese from the west; the Japanese from the east; the peoples of Manchuria and eastern Siberia from the north; and the Pacific peoples from the south, whom the fishermen and sailors met on their voyages past the numerous islands.
Korean stories are quite a novelty for Western readers, since the well-known motifs of European and Arabian folktales are absent. Furthermore, it is not easy to render tales from far countries in such a way that they are immediately understandable to an English reading public. The translator has to be an interpreter of cultural concepts, at the same time making explicit and explaining through the text many ideas that are taken for granted by the people themselves. Consequently, I will present these tales without analysis, so as not to prejudice the reader's response to them. The tales included but are retold in a form that renders them new and original.
In a later publication I hope to discuss the wonderful national legends of Korea, tales of the famous king Grandfather Tangun, who was the son of the god of heaven and a she bear, or so the tradition narrates; and of the ancestor of Shang, who was born from a swallow's egg.
The Goddess
Many years ago there lived a young scholar who had read books about the marvelous beauty of Gwan Eum Bosal, the goddess of mercy. He longed for nothing more than to see her once in her real form. So he spent many days in meditation, concentrating his spirit entirely on the expectation of the goddess. At last, after chanting many prayers, he had a dream in which an old man told him: "Go and find the village of Mol Golong. There you will meet a man called Hai Myung Bang. Ask him where you may find the holy goddess."
Elated, the young man woke up and immediately set off on his quest. After walking for many days he finally found the village in Gang Wun Providence and met Hai Myung Bang. Mr. Hai told him that in a certain valley in the Yang Goo Mountains he would find a cottage, and there he would see the beauty he was looking
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